Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) forecast that in 2019, textile export turnover will reach 39 billion USD. Meanwhile, earlier this year, VITAS set an annual export target of US $ 40 billion.

According to Trade Map and Vietnam General Department of Customs, in 2019, Vietnam ranked third in the top textile and garment exporting countries in the world, behind China and Bangladesh. 

Export turnover of the top 5 exporting countries in the world in the period of 2017 - 2019 (unit: Million USD). (Data: Trade Map and Vietnam General Department of Customs. Graphic: Alex)

In this group, China recorded a 2.3% decrease in exports while Bangladesh and Vietnam recorded growth of 2.4% and 7.2%, respectively.

According to Le Tien Truong, General Director of Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group, Vice Chairman of VITAS, "Despite leading the countries in competition for growth, it is clear that Vietnam's export turnover has been slowed down. , failing to sustain growth more than double digits as in previous years. "

Explaining this, VITAS said that the US-China trade war has weakened the total demand for textile and apparel imports in the world in 2019, only increasing by 3.4% compared to 2018, estimated at 780.8 billion USD, while the growth rate for 2018-2017 has increased by 7.33%. 

In previous years, aggregate demand increased on average from 4.5 to 5.5%.

However, when compared with competitors, Vietnam maintained the best export growth in 2019, up 9.13% compared to 2018, estimated turnover reached 39.69 billion USD.

Meanwhile, China's textile and apparel exports dropped by 2.3%, Pakistan by 4.6%, and Bangladesh and India slightly increased by 2%. 

According to Mr. Truong's analysis, the quantity of each order is smaller, customers do not order for 3-6 months as before and the situation becomes more unpredictable than the seasonality. The price level in 2019 is lower than last year, thus leading to a decrease in profit margin.

According to the third quarter financial report of Viet Tien Garment Joint Stock Corporation, the first 9 months' profit margin reached 5.4%, while the same period last year was 5.7%.

Similarly, Thanh Cong Textile Garment - Investment - Trading Joint Stock Company also recorded a slight decrease in profit margin when only 6.8%, down 0.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year. 

However, some companies still had an increase in profit margin in the first 9 months of this year compared to the same period in 2018 such as Song Hong Garment Joint Stock Company (up 1.4 percentage points), Investment Joint Stock Company and TNG commerce (up 0.5 percentage points), May 10 Corporation (up 0.1 percentage points) ...

Profit margin of the first 9 months of 5 large textile enterprises. (Graphic: Alex)

According to Truong, the textile industry will face increasing competition in the price of fabrics from abroad, especially China, in 2019. Accordingly, due to the US-China trade war, China's large inventory of fabrics has led the country to boost exports to other markets.

Yarn selling price of Vietnamese enterprises plummeted in just a few months. Typically, at the beginning of the year, the fiber price dropped from US $ 3.09 / kg in August 2018 to US $ 2.68 / kg in January 2019 while the cotton price was about US $ 1.95 / kg.

"Every kilogram of fiber businesses losses from 15-25 UScent and makes the inventory ratio equivalent to a month of production," Mr. Truong said.

According to Mr. Vu Duc Giang, Chairman of VITAS, the biggest challenge is to develop the industry because the industry is facing the import of more than 50% of raw materials from abroad. Meanwhile, free trade agreements such as EVFTA, CPTPP require to ensure rules of origin. 

According to VITAS data, imported raw materials in 2019 increased 2.3% to 22.3 billion USD. In particular, Vietnam imports up to 80% of its fabric for export. 

Import of textile and garment raw materials of Vietnam over the years 2013 - 2019. Unit: million USD (Data: Textile Association. Alex's graphics)

Currently, more than half of fabrics are imported from China while this country is not in the group of EVFTA or CPTPP countries, so enterprises do not meet the rules of origin. 

Trao đổi với báo chí bên lề sự kiện tổng kết ngành dệt may 2019, ông Nguyễn Văn Hùng, Chủ tịch Tổng Công ty 28 cho biết mặc dù sản phẩm chính của công ty là Veston xuất khẩu nhiều sang EU (chiếm 40%) nhưng chúng tôi không được hưởng lợi từ EVFTA do vẫn đang phải nhập khẩu len từ Trung Quốc để sản xuất.

Ông Hùng cho rằng năm 2020 sẽ còn khó khăn, đặc biệt trong quí I: "Bình thường tháng 12 các doanh nghiệp đủ đơn hàng trong quí I, nhưng năm nay chỉ đạt 60 - 70% chỉ tiêu về đơn hàng, chủ yếu do cạnh tranh về giá gay gắt".

Ông Nguyễn Văn Hùng, Chủ tịch Tổng Công ty 28. Ảnh: ĐQ

Riêng đối với Tổng Công ty 28, ông Hùng nói số lượng đơn hàng mới đủ đến tháng 2 và tháng 3 vẫn đang thương lượng với khách hàng. 

"Trước đây tổng công ty chúng tôi có đơn vị cam kết bao tiêu nhưng hiện nay họ chỉ đặt hàng mà không bao tiêu như trước. Đây là tín hiệu khó khăn của doanh nghiệp tôi trong năm tới". 

Năm 2020, VITAS đặt mục tiêu kim ngạch xuất khẩu đạt 42 tỉ USD, tăng 3 tỉ USD so với năm 2019. 

Để đạt được mục tiêu này VITAS đã đề xuất Chính phủ phê duyệt chiến lược, chỉ đạo địa phương có hạ tầng phù hợp xây dựng một số khu công nghiệp dệt may lớn có xử lý nước thải tập trung, thu hút các nhà đầu tư vào các khâu dệt, nhuộm.

In addition, the Association also promote increased cooperation and joint ventures, links between enterprises of textile in the country and between enterprises in domestic and foreign investment, between enterprises producing raw materials, auxiliary materials and sewing, forming a chain of links in each region and domain.

According to Mr. Hung, enterprises that want to develop enterprises must follow the trend of the industry and build a brand. In the next 5 years, production will be less but will focus on building more domestic brands then exporting to foreign countries.

Source: vietnambiz.vn