TÜV SÜD Bangladesh (Pvt) Limited, a concern of Germany based TÜV SÜD, a major international service group, has launched its operation in Bangladesh on Tuesday.

The company is 140 years old and now it operates over 41 countries of Europe, America, Africa and Asia, with more than 13,000 employees and over 600 locations.  German Ambassador in Dhaka Frank Meyke inaugurated its operation formally in the capital.

He hoped that the company would be able to improve quality and efficiency of local products and production units.  TÜV SÜD is a very well known group in Germany and its presence in Bangladesh would certainly help the local service providers and manufacturing units, said the German envoy.  Exports from Bangladesh to Germany are increasing and it is expected to increase further in near future, said Meyke.

Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said local garment factories have recently progressed to a great extent in terms of quality and compliance issues.He, however, pointed to the dearth of skilled manpower the local companies are now facing.  “There has been a 25 per cent shortage of skilled manpower in the sector,” said the BGMEA chief.

He expressed his happiness that the country had witnessed a huge export growth in RMG sector in the first five months of the current fiscal year despite the on-going global recession.  Welcoming Tuv Sud to Bangladesh, Parvez hoped that the company would be able to help the local RMG units.  According to TÜV SÜD officials, the services of the company in Bangladesh will include quality management certifications, social compliance audits, testing and inspection services for textiles, food and others and training services.

source: apparel.com.bd

Recently, news had emanated of the Bangladesh garment industry overtaking India, in exports of apparels to the biggest market in the world; USA. More and more worldwide clothing buyers are heading towards the shores of Bangladesh, since it is able to manufacture apparels, competitive in pricing, than most other countries in Asia.

From August 2008 onwards, the exports from the RMG sector from Bangladesh have grown by a remarkable 10 percent, while that of India fell by 3 percent. The biggest advantage Bangladesh clothing manufacturers have vis-à-vis Indian manufacturers are the disparity in wages given to workers, due to which the sector in Bangladesh holds an edge.

In a recent exclusive interview given to fibre2fashion, Mr Surinder Anand, Executive Secretary of Garment Exporter’s Association, listing out the advantages the Bangladesh exporters have over India, had said, “First and foremost is the lower manufacturing cost due to cheap labour and simplified labour laws”.

“Going further, economies of scale because of bigger and larger manufacturing units; availability of fabric at competitive rates, simplified procedures, labour laws are more flexible and conducive and last but not the least full support and blessings of their Government, while Indian conditions are discouraging to entrepreneurs”, he added by saying.

Even in these recessionary periods, most of the garment companies had been humming with winter clothing orders and except for may be a slight dip in orders; the Bangladeshi clothing manufacturers are comfortably placed versus their Asian counterparts and could be among the few countries that could be looking at a flat or marginal negative growth rate in 2009.

According to the statistics released by the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau, most of the sub-sectors like woven and knitted garment have crossed their targeted figures in the period July- December 2009. Knitted and woven garments grew by 2.16 and 2.45 percent respectively, textile fabrics by 8.16 percent and terry towels by 10.96 percent.

Bangladesh has already turned into a lucrative destination for the buyers for its cheaper clothes.

The exporters said the flow of orders indicates that exports of readymade garments (RMG) would pick up from the next few months although the prices offered are low.

Some recent Indian newspaper reports also supported such indication, saying the major competitors are losing markets to Bangladesh for its cheaper production costs.

The reports said Indian garment manufacturers have already been adversely affected by a steep fall in demand from the US and European countries, and Indian garment exporters may lose out to low-cost competitors.

Garment exports from India showed no sign of pickup this autumn-winter season following a gradual shift of international buyers to low-cost neighbouring countries, the reports said.

Bookings for Indian garments dropped sharply although exporters slashed prices by 11-12 percent.

“Major global buyers like Wal-Mart, JC Penney, Li & Fung, GAP and Target have indicated plans to cut offtake from India by 12-15 percent this year, while they are increasing their offtake in neighbouring countries,” Rahul Mehta, president of the clothing manufacturing association of India, was quoted as saying in a report.

Garment exports from India would be lower than Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, the reports said.

India is expected to end up exporting garments worth $9 billion this fiscal year, down by almost 10 percent compared to a year back, while Bangladesh is poised to export worth $12 billion garments, the reports said.

Currently bookings for Indian garments are 20-25 percent lower than the same season last year and sentiments are weak because of a gloomy outlook of its textile industry.

“Our export target for the current fiscal year was $9 billion. But due to the present market condition, we will be able to close the year with exports of only $8-$8.5 billion,” Confederation of Indian Apparel Exporters President Amit Goyal said.

Meanwhile, top local RMG makers are optimistic about meeting the export target in the current fiscal year although exports of some other products from Bangladesh declined in July-December period.

Executive Director of Ananta Garment Ltd Badius-Salam said the flow of orders is still high compared to those of other competing countries.

“I hope to meet our targeted 15 percent sales growth this year. Last year the company exported products worth $26 million and this year it will increase,” Salam said.

“But the offered prices are too low,” he added.

A senior official of Opex Group, one of the leading apparel makers, said they have no problem with the flow of orders until now.

“But the problem is low price. The buyers are not offering higher prices for the recession. Now we are trying to make profit by increasing the volume for delivery,” the official said requesting anonymity.

Monir Ahmed, managing director of Abedin Group of Industries, also said orders are satisfactory now although he experienced a relatively low volume of orders in the last three months.

He also vented frustration over the low prices offered by the buyers.

Woven garment surpassed the export target by 2.45 percent, knitwear 2.16 percent, terry towel 10.96 percent and textile fabrics by 8.16 percent during the July-December period of the current fiscal year, according to Export Promotion Bureau.

Bangladesh exported woven garment worth $2.805 billion against the target of $2.738 billion, knitwear $3.240 billion against $3.172 billion, terry towel $66.39 million against $59.83 million and textile fabrics $41.63 million against the target of $38.49 million in the period.

The export trend shows that the target of exporting woven and knitwear worth $12.267 billion for the current fiscal year is quite achievable, exporters said.

Bangladesh is still a bright place for new textile and readymade garment factories, despite a barrage of gloomy reports of the giant economies hurtling into a deeper financial crisis. Industry insiders say so.

High-profile textile and RMG machinery makers feel that Bangladesh will do better in future, even in times of global recession. This is supported by the twin facts that the country mainly produces basic apparel items and labour costs are still competitive.

According to statistics from the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), the primary textile producers imported textile machinery worth Tk 1,930.59 crore in the July-December period of the current fiscal year.

Of the total machinery imported, 80 percent was intended for spinning mills, the BTMA data reveals. The woven and knitwear manufacturers also imported a significant quantity in the same period.

Mindful of the prospect for expansion in apparel business, many textile, RMG and accessory machinery makers from around the world have been pouring into Bangladesh to take part in different exhibitions.

The participation of foreign companies in the ongoing four-day sixth Dhaka International Textile and Garment (DTG) Show clearly indicates the country’s strength in the textile and RMG sector.

“Bangladesh is a prospective country for us,” says Yasuhiro Miura, assistant manager of Toyota Tsusho Corporation.

Miura is now in Dhaka, attending the textile machinery fair organised by BTMA and the ES Event Management Company of Malaysia at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.

An optimistic Miura says businessmen always study the GDP growth of a country before they pen business deals with that country.

Since Bangladesh has been maintaining a commendable rate of growth over the last few years, foreign companies are confident of extending their hands to strike deals.

“Bangladesh is a country of cheap labour. A large workforce is an asset to the nation. This is why the country will soon do better,” Miura tells The Daily Star.

Citing good business relationships between Bangladesh and Japan, Miura says there is enough room for further expansion of bilateral trade between the two countries.

He says 76 percent of foreign currency earned is courtesy of the RMG sector, a signpost to the potential of textile and RMG machine manufacturers.

Miura claims Toyota Tsusho has a 50 percent market share in the market for brand new textile and RMG machinery in Bangladesh. He expects a good number of orders from the local textile and RMG entrepreneurs at the exhibition, as they started receiving responses from the buyers.

The textile and RMG sector has a bright future in Bangladesh, he adds. Hundreds of textile and RMG machinery manufacturers participated in the DTG, which is billed as the world’s second largest machinery expo, after the International Exhibition of Textile Machinery (ITMA).

ITMA, the world’s largest international textile machinery, is recognised as the ‘Olympics’ of the textile machinery industry.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Oliver Schermuly, managing director of SETEX, a German textile machinery company that participated in the DTG, also acknowledges that Bangladesh is a prospective country for further expansion of the textile and RMG.

SETEX exports textile and RMG machinery to Bangladesh.

“I see Bangladesh as a promising country even in the age of global financial recession,” Schermuly says.

Echoing Schermuly, Waqar A Choudhury, director of Nascom Pvt Limited, the local agent for some foreign textile machinery companies in Dhaka, says he receives good responses from buyers.

More than 600 companies from over 30 countries are showcasing their machinery and other textile accessories at more than 800 booths. World-renowned textile and RMG machine manufacturers from Japan, China, Germany, Turkey and Korea have come up with the latest textile and RMG products.

The government reduced the duty on import of capital machinery from 5 percent to 3 percent in its budget for fiscal 2008-09. At the same time, the government had introduced a 1 percent procedural fee on imports, instead of the previous indemnity bond system.

The rising import of textile machinery proves the strength of the country’s backward linkage industries. At present, the knitwear sub-sector can obtain 90 percent of their required raw materials from the local market, while the woven sub-sector can get 40 percent, industry people say.

In the July-December period of 2008, Bangladesh exported woven garments worth $2.805 billion against a target of $2.738 billion, knitwear exports were $3.240 billion against the $3.172 billion target, terry towel exports were $66.39 million against the $59.83 million target and textile fabrics exports were $41.63 million against the target of $38.49 million.

source: thedailystar.net

Talking to media persons on Wednesday, Mr Anwar-ul-Alam Parvez, President of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), countered World Bank prediction and said, “The World Bank prediction is whimsical and unrealistic. The ongoing global economic recession will rather create opportunities for Bangladesh RMG sector and the export will not decline as the bank predicted.”

At a press briefing, a day before, organized at the Dhaka office, World Bank forecasted a decline in exports by 4.3 percentage points for the current financial year.

“The recession indicates both risks and opportunities for the RMG industry. Bangladesh’s lower-end basic garments have been forecast to be less affected than the high value items,” said Mr Parvez.

According the BGMEA President, available data shows that inspite of the fact that world is going through recession, the graph of Bangladesh RMG exports will continue to move upward.

source: apparel.com.bd

Nearly 5,000 apparel makers here initially sought government help when some top US and European buyers postponed and cut orders in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression. But clothing makers say that a massive diversion of orders from China, the world’s largest producer of apparel, has more than compensated.

In the first quarter to September, garment shipments grew by a record 45 per cent to $3.4 billion, government data this week showed, with more than 90 per cent of the exports going to the US and Europe. “It’s a huge change in fortune for us,” said Golam Faruq, owner of the country’s largest sweater manufacturer and a key supplier to British up-market retailer Marks and Spencer. “This month I got an unexpected $12 million order to make sweaters for a Swedish manufacturer. They told me in the past they used to give the order to Chinese manufacturers. But this year we offered a far better price,” he said.

Faruq said his SQ Sweaters had also received dozens of small orders diverted from China as Bangladesh has became the top choice for producing low-priced basic items like T-shirts, denim pants, sweater and shirts. Now the government’s Export Promotion Bureau, which monitors shipment trends, is urging the industry to prepare for a “flood of orders” as the global recession boosts sales of the low-cost items it produces.

“We held several expositions in Europe and North America in the past month and top buyers told us to be prepared for a massive increase in orders in the months and years ahead,” said Export Promotion Bureau head Shahab Ullah. “They said people in the West have cut purchase of luxury goods and are switching to cheaper items. And it’s our manufacturers, not the Chinese, who can supply the items at a price they now want.”

Bangladesh’s garment sector specialises in low-end clothing and is the impoverished country’s main industry, pumping $11 billion a year into the economy. It accounts for about 80 per cent of exports and employs more than 40 per cent of its industrial workforce.

Bangladesh logged 6.2 per cent economic growth last year, bolstered by a 17 per cent increase in garment sales. This year, the government projected growth of 6.5 per cent, banking on garment exports remaining strong. Knitted items, led by T-shirts which last year made up a quarter of garment exports, were the main drivers of the growth, manufacturers said.

“This year thousands of Chinese factories have shut as they are no longer competitive because of higher wages and currency appreciation,” said Fazlul Haque, head of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association. “The buyers have no choice but to switch orders to another country. It has emerged as a new pattern in global sourcing. And so far it looks like Bangladesh is the main beneficiary,” said Haque. Haque said his group, which includes 1,500 factories, had enough orders to the end of the year, although it was still a bit worried over the long term impact of the global financial turmoil.

The Export Promotion Bureau’s Ullah said Bangladesh, now the world’s second largest producer of apparel according to the International Monetary Fund, would continue to dominate in the basic apparel sector if it scales up investment in new factories. “Data shows we’re cashing in on the new trend,” he said. “But we can do more, provided our factories increase capacity and set up backward linkages such as yarn manufacturing, dyeing and washing facilities as early as possible.”

source: apparel.com.bd

In the first quarter ending September, Bangladesh garment shipments, thus, grew by a record 45 per cent to US$ 3.4 billion, the recent data, published in a section of the media, showed. The bulk of the export consignments are going to the US and Europe.

“It’s a huge change in fortune for us,” said Golam Faruq, owner of the country’s largest sweater manufacturer and a key supplier to the British upmarket retailer Marks and Spencer. ” This month I got an unexpected 12-million-dollar order to make sweaters for a Swedish manufacturer. They told me in the past they used to give the order to Chinese manufacturers. But this year we offered a far better price,” he said.

Faruq said his company had also received dozens of small orders diverted from China, as Bangladesh has become the top choice for producing low-priced basic items like T-shirts, denim trousers, sweaters and shirts. Now the government’s Export Promotion Bureau, which monitors shipment trends, is urging the industry to prepare for a “flood of orders” as the global recession boosts sales of the low-cost items.

“We held several expositions in Europe and North America in the past month and top buyers there told us to be prepared for a massive increase in orders in the months and years ahead,” said Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) head Shahab Ullah. “They said people in the West have cut purchase of luxury goods and are switching to cheaper items. And it’s our manufacturers, not the Chinese, who can supply the items at a price they now want.”

Bangladesh’s garment sector, specialising in low-end clothings, remains the country’s main industry, pumping $11 billion a year into the economy.

It accounts for about 80 per cent of exports and employs more than 40 per cent of Bangladesh’s industrial workforce. Bangladesh logged 6.2 per cent economic growth last year, bolstered by a 17 per cent increase in garment sales. This year, the government projects a growth of 6.5 per cent, banking on demand for garments remaining strong.

Knitted items, led by T-shirts which last year made up a quarter of garment exports, were the main drivers of the growth, manufacturers said. “This year thousands of Chinese factories have shut as they are no longer competitive because of higher wages and currency appreciation,” said Fazlul Haque, head of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

“The buyers have no choice but to switch orders to another country. It has emerged as a new pattern in global sourcing. And so far, it looks like, Bangladesh is the main beneficiary,” said Haque.

Haque said his group, which includes 1,500 factories, had enough orders to the end of the year, although it was still a bit worried over the long term impact of the global financial turmoil.

The Export Promotion Bureau’s Ullah said Bangladesh — now the world’s second largest producer of apparels, according to the International Monetary Fund, would continue to dominate the basic apparel sector, if it scales up investment in new factories. “Data shows we’re cashing in on the new trend,” he said. “But we can do more, provided our factories increase capacity and set up backward linkages such as yarn manufacturing, dyeing and washing facilities as early as possible.”

Even then, the question remains whether the current situation will remain sustainable; if the recession in the developed economies turns into a depression. The price factors, lifting of export consignments at the port of entry, post-X-mas sales situation, the mood of the consumers in the rich countries etc., are matters of close observation in the days to come.

source: appareldotcomdotbd

“The government will cooperate with the garment manufacturers and exporters to take the country to the top among the readymade garments exporting countries,” he said at the launch of Chittagong Apparel Fabric and Accessories Exposition.

Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is organising the fair at the Engineers Institution in the port city.

The government, being business-friendly, is committed to clearing all barriers to let RMG export flourish, the minister said.

“The pre-condition to improving the quality of life is economic development. All steps will be taken to make the economy stronger. It is our government’s pre-electoral pledge.”

The government would soon take realistic initiatives to cut charges at the Chittagong port and set up a garment village in the city to spur business and economic growth, Faruq said.

The government will amend laws in the parliament to facilitate business, he added.

He further said he believed people would get results of the initiatives to develop gas, power and ports for the industries.

Annisul Huq, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries, sought the assistance from the government to elevate garment export to $25 billion from $10 billion.

He underlined the need to have a four-lane highway linking the capital Dhaka to Chittagong, the commercial capital.

Huq demanded Sunday, instead of Friday, as the weekly holiday.

Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin stressed the need for establishing a bonded warehouse by the side of Chittagong port to facilitate businesses.

BGMEA president Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez presided over the launching ceremony of the fair that will run through to Jan. 25.

Garment manufacturing equipment and apparels are being displayed at 42 stalls of 31 institutions from home and abroad.

source: bdnews24.com