Bangladesh garment manufacturers says fashion retailers have cancelled or put on hold more than $3 billion in orders due to the coronavirus outbreak, though a handful have agreed to pay anyway. The data from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association reflected that both orders already made or in the works and planned orders from the country, which is the world’s second largest exporter of clothing after China.
The cancelled orders, according to reports to the BGMEA from manufacturers, included tens of millions in purchases from many big buyers, including European Buyers C&A and Inditex, Primark of Ireland, Britain’s Marks & Spencer and Tesco and U.S. retailers like Walmart and Target.
A survey of factory owners in Bangladesh released Friday showed millions of Bangladesh factory workers being sent home without the wages or severance pay they are owed. The BGMEA reported that $1.8 billion in orders have been put on hold and another $1.4 billion have been cancelled. Cancellations of planned orders, for April-December, amounted to nearly $1.7 billion, it said. The figures are conservative because they exclude orders that would go to multiple buyers.
At the moment the cotton trade is badly affected by coronavirus internationally. Local textile mills and ginners are in distress. Textile mills were shut down after the building up of inventory as a result of suspension of export orders from abroad.
The international importers especially the big American and European importers of textile had hinted of canceling the orders and stopping of shipments due to which textile mills were in distress. Textile mills were facing double losses on one hand extraordinary delay in shipments and canceling of orders. On the other hand, due to the extraordinary increase in the rate of dollar the price of imported cotton was also very high however importers can revise and renegotiate canceled contracts due to the increase in the prices of dollar.
On the other hand Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association in an especially written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan requested him that government should ask banks to waiver off the interest of the ginners from March 1st to July 31 so that they can buy Phutti from the farmers.
In China businesses are coming back to normal but still there is uncertainty prevails in cotton market. In India, too, the coronavirus is hampering business operations however the rate of cotton is issued on daily basis.
After the lockdown due to coronavirus the European Union and America had started canceling the orders of textile products from abroad. In this situation the organizations in India and Bangladesh associated with manufacturing of textile products had started appealing to importers that they should not cancel the orders. It is very sad that our textile minister had not appealed to the importers that they should not cancel the orders but they could have delayed their payments
