Bangladesh garment industry short on cotton as floods worsen protest backlog
Factories under pressure after recent protest shutdowns
Floods disrupt cotton supply via key Chittagong port
Imports could be diverted to India, Vietnam
Energy shortages continue to hamper factory operations
By Anmol Choubey and Ruma Paul
Aug 30 (Reuters) -Garment factories in Bangladesh, one of the world's biggest clothing production hubs, are struggling to complete orders on time as flooding disrupts their cotton supplies - exacerbating a backlog caused by recent political turmoil.
Bangladesh is a leading global cotton importer due to the size of its textile and garment industry, but the devastating floods mean few trucks and trains have been able to bring supplies to factories from Chittagong port over the last week, industry officials and analysts said.
The disruption, on top of the unrest and protests that led to factory closures earlier this month, have caused garment production to fall by 50%, said Mohammad Hatem, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
"The industry is now under immense pressure to meet deadlines, and without a swift resolution, the supply chain could deteriorate even further," Hatem said.
Bangladesh was ranked as the third-largest exporter of clothing in the world last year, after China and the European Union, according to the World Trade Organization, exporting $38.4 billion worth of clothes in 2023.
At the clothing factory she runs in the capital, Dhaka, Rubana Huq is counting the cost of lost production.
"Even for a moderate-sized company like ours, which makes 50,000 shirts a day and if the price of one single shirt is $5, there was $250,000 of production loss," said Huq, a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
She said some garment plants were slowing resuming production, but estimated that complete recovery "would be at least six months away", warning that Bangladeshi manufacturers could lose 10%-15% of business to other countries.
Bangladesh's readymade garments industry, which supplies many of the world's best-known fashion brands, accounts for more than 80% of the country's total export earnings.
Buyers are adopting a cautious approach and could potentially delay new orders, said Shahidullah Azim, a director of the BGMEA industry group.
"The longer this uncertainty persists, the more challenging it becomes for us to maintain the momentum we have built," he told Reuters.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said flood conditions could persist if the monsoon rains continued, as water levels were receding very slowly.
Some cotton shipments could get diverted to India, Pakistan and Vietnam, commodity analysts said.
"We are already hearing and seeing some cotton for prompt delivery wanted by Pakistan and Vietnam," said Louis Barbera, partner and analyst at VLM Commodities based in New Jersey.
New orders shifted from Bangladesh could also be accommodated in southern India, said Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India.
Even before the floods and political unrest, the Bangladeshi garment industry was grappling with power shortages that remain a problem, said Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, vice president at the country's knitwear manufacturers and exporters association.
"Energy shortages continue to hamper our operations," he said.
Leading cotton importing countries https://reut.rs/3XmwLeJ
Top Exporters of Clothing https://reut.rs/3AKnJPN
Bangladesh's exports of manufactured products https://reut.rs/3X4Lrhg
Reporting by Anmol Choubey and Swati Verma in Bengaluru, Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Krishn Kaushik in New Delhi;
Editing by Naveen Thukral and Helen Popper
면책조항: XM Group 회사는 체결 전용 서비스와 온라인 거래 플랫폼에 대한 접근을 제공하여, 개인이 웹사이트에서 또는 웹사이트를 통해 이용 가능한 콘텐츠를 보거나 사용할 수 있도록 허용합니다. 이에 대해 변경하거나 확장할 의도는 없습니다. 이러한 접근 및 사용에는 다음 사항이 항상 적용됩니다: (i) 이용 약관, (ii) 위험 경고, (iii) 완전 면책조항. 따라서, 이러한 콘텐츠는 일반적인 정보에 불과합니다. 특히, 온라인 거래 플랫폼의 콘텐츠는 금융 시장에서의 거래에 대한 권유나 제안이 아닙니다. 금융 시장에서의 거래는 자본에 상당한 위험을 수반합니다.
온라인 거래 플랫폼에 공개된 모든 자료는 교육/정보 목적으로만 제공되며, 금융, 투자세 또는 거래 조언 및 권고, 거래 가격 기록, 금융 상품 또는 원치 않는 금융 프로모션의 거래 제안 또는 권유를 포함하지 않으며, 포함해서도 안됩니다.
이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.