Vietnam's Textile and Garment Exports Face Challenges as Market Demand Falls

Update time : 2023-04-20 10:29:55

Vietnam's Textile and Garment Exports Face Challenges as Market Demand Falls

According to Vietnam Customs, Vietnam's textile and apparel exports reached $43.4 billion in 2022, up 11% year-on-year. Although the figures show growth, both orders and value of Vietnam's textile and apparel exports have fallen sharply since the fourth quarter of 2022 due to weakening demand in key export markets, including the US and EU.

In addition, Vietnamese textile and apparel producers continue to be subject to other challenges in production and export, including the continued rise in raw material and logistics costs (Russia-Ukraine conflict and epidemic), significant fluctuations in international cotton prices, tightening of Vietnam's monetary policy to control inflation, and increased labor costs.

According to a report by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, Vietnam's textile export orders fell by 25-27% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. In response to the decline in orders, many Vietnamese textile and garment companies have reduced their start-up rates, resulting in a large number of workers losing their jobs. The industry expects this downward trend to continue at least until the third quarter of 2023. Nevertheless, the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association has set its export target for 2023 at $46 billion, provided that the economy and consumption in major export markets recover.

In 2022, Vietnam's textile industry added about 100,000 spindles, with the total number of textile mills at about 110, half of which are located in the south, 40% in the north and 10% in the center. According to Vietnam Customs, Vietnam's yarn exports in 2022 will be 1.6 million tons, down nearly 19 percent year-on-year, and exports will be $4.7 billion, down 16 percent year-on-year. A small increase in exports to Bangladesh failed to offset a significant decline in exports to China and South Korea.

Cotton yarn exports accounted for 56% of all yarn exports from Vietnam in 2022, but the volume of cotton yarn exports was only 866,000 tons, down 24% year-on-year, and the value of exports was $2.9 billion, down 16% year-on-year. The increase in cotton yarn exports in the first five months of 2022 failed to offset the decrease in the remaining period. The decline in global demand for textiles and apparel has led to a decrease in demand for raw materials such as cotton and cotton yarn in Vietnam. According to Vietnamese industry sources, the combined impact of reduced orders and lower cotton yarn prices has reduced the opening rate of most Vietnamese spinning mills to 50-70%, a trend expected to continue until the first quarter of 2023, with the rebound dependent on the recovery of the global economy.

Data show that Vietnam exported 788,000 tons of cotton yarn to China in 2021/22, down 20% year-on-year, and 280,000 tons of cotton yarn to China in the first half of 2022/23, down 35% year-on-year. Vietnam's cotton consumption is expected to decline in 2022/23 due to reduced import demand for cotton yarn in China. 2023/24, under the premise of economic and consumption recovery, Vietnam's cotton consumption is expected to increase slightly by 3% to 6.5 million bales.

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Vietnam's Textile and Garment Exports Face Challenges as Market Demand Falls