Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam reported a year-on-year surgeof 23.5 percent in exports of textile and garment to earn 18.7 billion USD inthe first five months of this year in the midst of lingering marketuncertainties coupled with rising prices of inputs.

A majority of textile-garment companies have orders tofulfill by the end of September, many are in the negotiation process to gainmore for the rest of the year.

Nam Dinh Textile Garment JSC (Natexco), a major producerlocated in the northern province of Nam Dinh, has generated over 1.02 trillionVND (44 million USD) in revenue as of the end of May, up 23 percent from the same period lastyear, according to trade union president Doan Van Dung.

It shows the corporation’s great efforts to address adverseimpacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Natexco had suffered severe labourshortage throughout February and March since there were times when up to halfof its workers had to take sick leaves because of COVID-19 infection.

Viet Thang Corporation has been struggling to keepproduction going during the first quarter of the year, given that theRussia-Ukraine crisis has caused supply chain disruptions and a spike in inputand fuel prices and logistics costs, according to Deputy Director-General DauPhi Quyet.

Those expenditures have climbed three- tofour-fold, so all units were having hard time figuring out possible ways to get out ofthe situation, Quyet said.

Though the company has managed to find stable supplies ofinputs, it is having a shortage of imported replacements for equipmentcomponents to deal with. It took six to eight weeks to receive deliveries of thereplacements, which normally came from the Europe. Now the shipmentsmay take up to 12 weeks to arrive.

To cut costs from logistics services, the corporation is prioritisingmajor orders instead of the small ones.

Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), one of the leading textile-garmentmanufacturers in the country, had impressive business performance since thestart of this year with a 50-percent surge in revenue. But similar challengescould potentially put the brake on its growth over the remaining months.

Record inflation in decades are ravaging major economies,including the US, the EU and the UK, triggering rising inventories and decliningpurchasing power. This may have substantial effects on Vinatex’s performance, CEOCao Huu Hieu said.

To weather the crisis, Hieu has advised domesticmanufacturers to prepare themselves with more flexible plans in order topromptly address any market changes.

He attributed the company’s Q1 positive business results toits ability to secure stable and sufficient supplies of inputs. Vinatex hasinvested on several yarn production projects using modern technology between2015 and 2020, two of which were put into operation last year./.