Enterprises are promoting signing of orders for the fourth quarter of 2024
Sharing at a press conference on afternoon of June 20, Mr. Cao Huu Hieu - General Director of Vietnam Textile and Garment Group said that in the first 5 months of 2024, Vietnam's textile and garment exports reached nearly 16 billion USD, up 5% over the same period last year.
In particular, bright spot in exports to the US market is when Vietnam's textile and garment industry rose to top of the garment export market share, surpassing China and leading in growth rate among the 3 largest textile and garment exporting countries in the world. Specifically, in the first 5 months of 2024, China's textile and garment exports decreased by 2%, reaching 66 billion USD; Bangladesh's increased by only 3.9%, reaching 21.7 billion USD (Bangladesh in May 2024 decreased sharply by 16%).
However, it is necessary to recognize that improvement in Vietnam's textile and garment exports in the first 5 months of the year did not come from improved world demand for textile and garment products but rather from a certain shift in orders from other countries to Vietnam, combined with the exchange rate advantage when the Vietnamese Dong (VND) depreciated by 5% against the USD since the beginning of the year, while currencies of competing countries remained almost unchanged against the USD.
Mr. Hieu also said that in context of a volatile market, businesses in the Group's system have made many improvements in production and business activities, most garment enterprises have had enough production orders until the end of the third quarter of 2024 and continue to negotiate and sign contracts for the fourth quarter of 2024 - the peak production season for Christmas and New Year orders.
For the yarn industry, export orders to major markets such as China, Turkey, Korea, etc. have approached the break-even point, if production costs can be reduced, profits can be achieved. In face of fierce competition in the market, many yarn enterprises have had to flexibly switch to blended yarns and recycled yarns, which are not their strengths, to find new directions in niche markets besides traditional cotton yarns.
"In March 2024, Group and Coats Group (UK) signed a memorandum of understanding on production of fire-resistant fabric garments with exclusive technology from Coats Group. Goal in the first year is to bring to market fire-resistant fabric products with a value of 5 million USD," Mr. Hieu informed.
In July 2024, the first orders to Indonesia with 5,000 meters of fabric will be exported, followed by orders of 50,000 meters of fabric for the Middle East market and continue to be offered to other markets. "It can be said that this is a new opportunity for Group and its member units when the market is increasingly fierce and unpredictable," Mr. Hieu said.
It is difficult to predict market in the second half of the year
Sharing about textile market situation in the second half of 2024, Mr. Hieu emphasized that it is very difficult to predict. Because, in terms of price, due to textile market being too difficult in 2022 and 2023, a new price level has been formed and has decreased deeply by 20%, even some product codes have decreased by 50% compared to the previous period.
However, enterprises are forced to accept, on the basis of price, to innovate management to increase productivity, save costs for the most effective production and business.
Negotiation orders for the fourth quarter of 2024 are mainly businesses wanting to increase prices. From July 1, the minimum wage increased, logistics costs from the end of the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first 6 months of 2024 continuously increased, also causing enterprises' input costs to increase, forcing them to find ways to increase output prices for products.
“Based on existing signals, especially situation of many orders in the third and fourth quarters, combined with a 5% growth rate in the first half of the year, it is forecasted that export turnover of Vietnamese textile and garment industry in 2024 will increase by 8-10% compared to 2023. For the Group, there are more positive signals from the market, especially fiber industry and production and business results in the last 6 months of the year will be better than expected,” Mr. Hieu commented.
Providing more information about the long-term orientation of the flame retardant and flame-retardant fabric segment, leader of Vietnam Textile and Garment Group said that in cooperation program between the Group and Coach Group, in phase 1, all fabric products will be exported to the US, the Middle East, Indonesia and Turkey.
After this phase, the Group focuses on mastering technology, which is currently copyright of the partner and transferred. Combined with cooperation program with Kova Group, also in the field of fire-resistant technical fabrics, the Group expects to strongly develop this type of technical fabric with very high demand.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn