Vietnam:

Inward shipments of yarn fall amid growing cotton imports

Irrespective of all the hardships faced by the Vietnamese textile and garment industry, the sector is progressing by leaps and bounds. The industry is facing problems on several fronts like rising raw material prices, labour strikes, electricity shortages and many more which would have put any other industry under severe strain and stress. But, the industry has managed to over come all the obstacles in its progress, whether on production or on the export front and emerged a clear winner from among the textile hubs across the globe. According to the latest statistics released by the government for the first half of the current year, imports of cotton have jumped by a stupendous 63.52 percent in value and 33.79 percent in volume, yarn has soared by 14.07 percent in value and 1.03 percent by volume, fabric has leaped by 16.74 percent in value and import of other textile products and materials has increased by 15.63 percent. In the first six months of 2008 the sector imported cotton worth US $222.9 million and 147,636 tons by volume. Corresponding figures for yarn are $397.81 million and 205,894 tons. The value of fabric imported was $2.22 billion and that of other textile products and materials amounted to $1.22 billion. Corresponding figures for June 2008 reveal that cotton shipped in to the country amounted to 22,711 tons and $35.98 million in value to post a growth of 4.03 percent in volume and 7.55 percent in value compared to May08. In comparison to June07, it grew by an impressive 27.7 and 61.02 percent in volume and value respectively. Imports of yarn, fabrics and other textile materials in June 2008 on the other hand posted negative growth rates compared to May08 but except of yarn, witnessed positive growth when compared with June07. Shipments of yarn in to the country reached 28,810 tons and amounted to $58.52 million to post a de-growth of 15.24 and 12.99 percent by volume and value respectively in comparison to May08 and again a negative growth of 16.1 percent by volume and 6.09 percent by value in contrast to June07. Imports of fabric on other hand reached $412.0 million to record a fall of 13.36 and 17.62 percent against comparative figures of May08 and June07 respectively. Imports of ancillaries and other textile related products touched $234.20 million in the period under preview to register a loss of 2.26 percent compared to May08 and a gain of 26.78 percent corresponding to June07. High cotton and low yarn imports is a pointer to the fact that the industry has made very good progress in backward integration, along the lines of Bangladesh textile and garment industry which has received massive investments in yarn and fabric processing and in turn has made the RMG sector less dependent on imports of raw materials. This also ensures massive savings of precious foreign exchange for the country.

Honduras:

Garment exports show marginal growth

The Honduran garment industry has been going through rough times in recent years. The exports figures are none too impressive, since growth has more or less stagnated in the last few years. Garment export from the country which was US $2,622.30 million in 2005, dropped to $2,440.20 million in 2006 and rose marginally in 2007 to close the year with $2,510.90 million. In comparison to 2005, negative growth rates were registered in both of the following years. Recently released figures for the first four months of 2008 are also not so notable. Honduras exported goods worth $148.71 million in January, $207.59 million in February, $202.37 million in March and finally $213.50 million in April to sum up a total of $772.17 million. Corresponding figures for the first four months of 2005, 2006 and 2007 amount to $832.30 million, $705 million and $746.50 million respectively. When the figures of 2008 are evaluated against figures of 2005, there is a noticeable negative growth rate of 7.22 percent despite the passage of a good three years. However, in contrast to the first four months of 2007, exports have grown by a marginal 3.44 percent in the same period of 2008. Majority of Honduran garment export is dependent on the US for its existence. Within the nations, signatory to CAFTA, Honduras has emerged as the biggest exporter to the US with a share of 30.48 percent in the first quarter of the current year.