Portugal footwear industry positive after Q1 results

22 Jun '10

2 min read

This year's first quarter results depict that, Portugal's footwear industry seems to have gained positive results in ten years with respect to manufacturing, orders and employment.

But, drastic increase in the raw materials cost and the intended strict measures have pushed the industry in a state of ponder.

Portuguese Footwear Association, APICCAPS's quarterly analyses depict that, about fifty percent of the sector's businesses have claimed stable production of footwear, while remaining 28 percent have declared that business has increased.

Portugal's shoe industry comprises of approximately 1,300 firms and APICCAPS has just recently carried out surveys on atleast 10 percent of these firms.

More so, as of now, for almost two-thirds of the companies, manufacturing is at the regular level.

The improvement in business has also positively affected the employment section, as a slight increment has been observed in the number of people working for the industry.

Also, there are more number of firms who have said that the business is good than those who say that the business is bad. Three out of four firms believe that business is sufficient.

While 43 percent of the firms claim that number of orders has become constant, 27 percent said that the orders have gone up and 29 percent think that orders have reduced. More so, firms that contribute sufficient amount of their own concepts in collectibles, are the ones who witness good business.

However, even with the overall increase in the industry, APICCAPS shows its concern for stock supplies and the sudden increase in the raw material prices, which has risen by over 30 percent.

The raw material prices are of more concern as according to industry experts, they seem to be on the higher side, when compared to fifty percent of the total cost of shoe production.

In all, 40 percent of production is shipped to France, Holland receives about 30 percent and 10 percent is sent to Germany.

Remaining of the footwear production is distributed among USA, China UK, Sweden, Australia, Spain and Portugal, wherein Ferreira Avelar and Irmão's shoes are the only footwear range available in high-end Sacoor, Dielmar and Agostini stores.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

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