Thailand'S Textile And Clothing Exports Rely Heavily On The Asian Market.

Affected by the euro zone economic crisis, the textile and clothing export situation in Thailand in the first half of 2012 was not very clear, and the competitiveness of such products also declined.

But the Thailand Kai Tai Research Center expects to benefit from the export promotion of the second half of this year.

The contraction of export value is expected to narrow.

In the second half of the year, the peak sales period is usually the largest, and some Thailand products, such as synthetic fiber, clothing and underwear, can still maintain the market share of ASEAN exports. Home textiles can still maintain export growth to the Japanese market.

Thailand Kai Tai Research Center predicts that the total value of Thailand textile and clothing exports will fall to 7 billion 300 million ~76 billion in 2012, which will shrink 8.0%~12.0% compared with the same period last year. There is still a risk that Europe and the US market will continue to shrink substantially.

However, due to the positive growth trend of exports from Asian markets such as ASEAN and Japan, especially after ASEAN became the largest export market of textiles and clothing in Thailand last year, it is also expected to become the world's major production base. These factors will become the driving force to promote Thailand's export of such products.

Therefore, operators in the industry should step up the export of these countries to ease the impact of the weak market economy, and at the same time be ready for the ASEAN economic community to build a unified market and production base in 2015.

Insiders pointed out that for the export trend of textiles and clothing in Thailand in the second half of 2012, two factors must be paid attention to. First, foreign factors, including the impact of the economic crisis in the euro area on consumers, as well as the overseas target market, which paid more attention to the rapid response to the needs of consumers, led importers and distributors to pfer their source of imports to production bases with pport and speed advantages or lower labor costs.

The two is domestic factors, including the increase of production costs and the shortage of labor force in manufacturing industry due to the rise of minimum wage standards.

Kai Tai Research Center believes that the textile and garment industry may be deprived of more market share in the future, so manufacturers should enhance their business capabilities.

For original equipment manufacturers (OEM), we can increase competitiveness through finding cheaper production bases. The target countries include Kampuchea, Laos, Burma and Vietnam (CLMV) and other neighboring countries.

For private label manufacturers (OBM), we can produce products that can better satisfy the needs of consumers by investigating the market situation and consumption behavior of target countries.

However, in the long run, Thailand manufacturers should avoid price competition, introduce technology to increase production capacity and reduce labor costs, raise supply chain management level, and establish joint ventures that can respond quickly to market demand. Through research and innovation, commercial marketing will be carried out to develop value-added markets, such as industrial textiles and organic textiles, to support the growth of industries such as the automotive industry, medical industry and agriculture, thereby bringing more benefits to enterprises.