“In the first four months of the year, garment export turnover reached nearly $2.6 billion, an increase of two percent over the same period of 2008…Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vinatas) Nguyen Son said that garments exported to markets close to home like China and countries in Southeast Asia flourished due to their competitiveness. ..However, Duong said, prophetically, that the increased export turnover in the four months reflected the market situation of previous months, as orders were placed earlier…Duong added that people should not be too optimistic about the figure. He said that though enterprises had more orders, no one could say for sure that the situation would continue to improve, because no one knew if the global economy had hit the bottom yet…Garment export turnover in May 2009 decreased by 11 percent compared to May 2008 due to the continued decline of orders from the US and EU markets. Total garment export turnover in the first five months reached $3.24 billion only, a decrease of 2 percent over the same period of last year…But the larger worries now for garment companies are the increases of input material prices and the lack of labourers. ..General Director of MSA-Hapro joint venture said that the company has enough orders to maintain production until the end of August 2009. However, Lieu said that the company has been trying to maintain production just to create jobs for labourers, while it does not hope to make profit in these circumstances…“The electricity price increases have led to the price increases of water and packing. Meanwhile, the outsourcing unit price has dropped by 30 percent in order to compete with other businesses,” she said…Nguyen Van Do, General Director of DHA, which specialises in fulfilling orders from US retailers, said that his company also has enough orders for production until the end of the third quarter…Do said that the biggest problem his company is facing is a labour shortage. Labourers now earn 1.5 million a month only, while the consumer price index has been increasing sharply. He said that 10 percent of the company’s labourers have shifted to other jobs..
Date:6/7/2009
Source:Look at Vietnam