Orders increase again, many textile and garment enterprises prosper

Actively welcome new orders

In the first days of the year, the production atmosphere at Vinatex Hoang Mai Garment Joint Stock Company was very bustling. After the Tet holiday, to kick off the first orders of the year, the company accelerated progress, the production lines operated at full capacity, ensuring the supply of goods to partners.

2023 will be a year of many general difficulties for the textile and garment industry, but the Company will be given priority in orders by Vinatex Group (the Group has 18 garment enterprises and 5 textile enterprises), so production will be steady and will not have to stop like some other enterprises. In 2024, the Company will have 2 shipments exported to European and American markets.

Mr. Tran Van Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Trade Union of Vinatex Hoang Mai Garment Joint Stock Company said: After the Tet holiday, 800/850 workers have returned to work, the production situation of the Company is basically stable. Currently, orders are increasing, raw materials for production are coming in a lot. However, what we are worried about is that if a labor shortage occurs, it will affect the production plan.
In Yen Thanh district, An Hung Garment Factory is also bustling during the shift. On each production line, workers pay attention to each stitch, carefully checking each product and shipment. An Hung Garment Factory has an investment of over 600 billion VND, started construction in January 2020, and will be operational in early 2021, with the largest scale in Yen Thanh district.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Hoang - Deputy Director of Human Resources of An Hung Garment Factory said: Before the Lunar New Year, due to the impact of the global economic recession, the factory encountered many difficulties, at times having to cut down on labor. Faced with these difficulties, the Company's leaders proactively sought new sources of goods to maintain production. Currently, when the garment industry shows signs of recovery, customers and partners have come to the company and signed many contracts, and workers are overwhelmed with work. Currently, more than 1,300 workers are focusing on production for orders to the American and European markets.

Sharing about the reasons for the favorable start of the textile and garment industry in the beginning of the year, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Sinh - Director of Minh Anh Garment Joint Stock Company - Nghe An region said: Many partners previously placed orders in Bangladesh due to cheap labor, but for a number of reasons, including poor quality, this year they have switched to Vietnam.

Regarding the forecast for the coming time, Mr. Sinh said that the world economy is still gloomy, while the cost of electricity, water, transportation fees, minimum wages and new regulations will affect the activities of the textile industry. In addition, after a period of no orders, workers quit their jobs, now that orders have returned, textile enterprises are having difficulty finding staff. For example, at Minh Anh Garment Corporation, last year about 3,000 workers quit their jobs. Currently, the company is continuing to recruit workers again.

Improve competitiveness

According to data from the Department of Industry and Trade, in the first two months of the year, the production index of the fiber and textile industry grew positively, with fiber output reaching 1,000 tons, adult shirts reaching over 803,000, uniform suits reaching 14,277,000, and scarves of all kinds reaching over 587,000... Most businesses have had production and export orders, and the rate of workers returning to work is over 90%.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hiep - Head of Industrial Management Department, Department of Industry and Trade said: Textile and garment has had positive signals, recorded at some enterprises (Minh Anh Kim Lien, Hi-Tex, Sangwoo, Woin Vina,...) showing that enterprises are making efforts to promote orders.

About 25% of businesses forecast that the number of export orders in the first quarter of 2024 will be better than in the fourth quarter of 2023, 46% will remain the same and about 29% of businesses forecast a decrease. The output of all kinds of clothing in the first two months of 2024 reached over 15.08 million products, an increase of 8.3% over the same period in 2023. However, for fiber products, the main export markets are Egypt and the Middle East region, which are being greatly affected by the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the Red Sea conflict, so they will continue to decline compared to the same period.

In 2024, economic experts predict that there will be many bright spots for the textile and garment industry to recover, especially in traditional export markets. Vietnam is considered a safe destination, the domestic macro economy continues to be stable, and growth is forecast to be higher than in 2023... which is a new driving force for orders to potentially return to Vietnam in greater numbers.

However, because most textile and garment enterprises in the province still operate in the form of processing, have no brand and the added value is limited, they have not taken advantage of the opportunities and space brought by FTAs. Meanwhile, the world market is still very unpredictable, there are still many difficulties, so we should not be subjective, but need to continue to have solutions to improve resilience and increase competitiveness in the market.

Experts recommend that the market is currently warming up, many retail groups in FTA member blocs such as Canada, Europe... have come to Vietnam to look for supply chains with competitive prices. Therefore, businesses need to take full advantage of opportunities from free trade agreements (FTAs), participate in supply chains to be able to provide complete textile and garment products. Along with that, take full advantage of opportunities from FTAs ​​in labor use, use of input materials, meeting sustainable development when exporting; Proactively prepare equipment conditions, management capacity, production with the highest productivity and quality to welcome the "wave" of new orders. Further, businesses need to improve competitiveness, move towards building their own brands, meeting standards of sustainable development.

Up to now, Nghe An has more than 40 projects and production facilities, of which 30 factories are in operation and 10 projects have been granted investment policies and are under construction. Among these, there are 17 foreign investment projects with registered capital of 90.94 million USD. Garment factories have contributed to creating many jobs for workers in rural areas, with a total workforce of about 26,000 - 27,000 people.