Hong Kong Media: Textile Orders Return To China From India

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post on October 17, the original title: want to buy underwear? As garment and textile orders transfer from India, Chinese production lines are taking over production In Zhaoqing, China's manufacturing hub, an executive at an underwear factory that supplies a well-known overseas brand said it had laid off staff because there were no orders in April and may this year. But in August and September, as the epidemic continued to spread in other countries in Asia, foreign orders began to flow back. "Next month, we will receive an order to produce 800000 sets of underwear for the EU market," the executive said. "Next month we will be very busy and we are recruiting workers to complete the order. This brand hasn't placed an order for some time. "

India has more than 7.3 million new coronavirus infections, second only to the United States. The textile and clothing industry is one of the pillars of India's economy and the largest source of foreign exchange income, accounting for about 15% of its export revenue and 2% of GDP.

Hong Kong Fashion purchasing professional Sharma said India's epidemic blockade has seriously affected the delivery of Christmas season orders. Normally, these orders need to reach the buyer in November for sale in December. "So, customers transfer these orders to countries like China, where fabrics are available and ready-made garments can be produced quickly."

Order backflow is good news for Chinese manufacturers, but most people think the trend is only a short-term adjustment. Ms. Cai, a clothing export maker, said orders that had been transferred to countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and India in recent months did come back, but most were short-term orders for the coming Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays. Referring to the impact of the epidemic on Southeast Asia's production capacity, she said: "as long as the epidemic slows down, factories there can resume production, and orders will still leave China. After all, Chinese enterprises no longer have a cost advantage in the middle and low-end clothing manufacturing industry, let alone tariff preferences. "