Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex)forecasts the country’s textile and garment exports will continue to decline by14-18 percent each month for the rest of 2020 over the same period lastyear.

The group also said the total textile and garment export value for this wholeyear is estimated to hit about 32.75 billion USD, a year-on-year decrease of 16percent.

Vinatex general director Le Tien Truong said the textile and garment will facegreater difficulties in the final half of the year than the first half.

“At present, there are almost no orders for member companies producing in thefourth quarter. That is a huge challenge for the group's business plan. Maskorders have reduced to low quantity while the price of this product has alsodecreased to the level that is the same rate with production cost," Truongtold the Voice of Vietnam (VOV).

According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), the secondquarter was the most difficult quarter for the textile and garment industrybecause customers in major export markets such as the US and EU cancelled 30-70percent of orders because the markets were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Strong reductions in orders have caused higher inventories and increasedpressure to pay workers, bringing more and more difficulties to textileand garment companies.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade also said as of July, many textile andgarment enterprises had few orders for the last two quarters of this year,especially high-value products. Meanwhile, face masks and personal protectiveequipment, which are considered major products for many garment enterprises,have sharply decreased due to global oversupply.

The ministry said nobody knows when the pandemic will end so by thisyear-end, textile and garment enterprises need to pay attention to demand onthe domestic market due to lower export orders. At the same time, they shouldmanage production costs and maintain product quality to minimise the decline inrevenue.

In addition, the businesses need to provide jobs and income for workers whohave accompanied the enterprises during a difficult period.

At present, 80 percent of enterprises in the textile and garment industry havecut their labour force while most businesses have slashed operation capacity by50 percent, the association said.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam’s export value oftextiles and garments in July was estimated at 3.43 billion USD, up 14.4 percentcompared to June but down 11.8 percent year-on-year.

In the first seven months of this year, the textile and garment export valuewas at 19.21 billion USD, down 13.8 percent year-on-year.

Of which, fibre exports in the first seven months reached 876,000 tonnes,earning 1.89 billion USD. Exports plunged by 7.9 percent in volume and 20.9 percentin value over the same period of last year.

Garment export value during the first seven months was estimated at 16.18billion USD, down 12.1 percent year-on-year, accounting for 84.22 percent of Vietnam’stotal textile and garment export value. In July, export value rose by 15.3 percentmonth-on-month to 3 billion USD though it dropped by 8.9 percent year-on-year.

The ministry forecasts Vietnam’s textile and garment export value this yearwould fall by 10-15 percent to 33.6-36 billion USD compared to last year. Thisvalue is higher than the Vinatex forecast./.