The recovering Southeast Asian textile industry

by Zhao Xinhua

After many transfers of the global textile industry center， Southeast Asia has become the most potential global textile and garment production base. A sudden pandemic comes， which pushed the suspend button for Southeast Asian textile industry. Up to now， the pandemic still has negative effects on the global economy， and textile insiders face varied changes and challenges such as imports drops， orders decrease， cut production and some have to stop their business forever. Especially， the sharp decline of orders from Europe and America has dealt a great blow to the future development of southeast Asias garment industry. However， prepared enterprises always know how to seek the way out and optimize its industrial structure. The chance always hides in the most obscure corner.

Indonesian Textile industry sales surge due to outbreak

Under the influence of the global pandemic， since Indonesia has not yet deeply integrated into the global supply chain， the global health emergency triggered by the coronavirus may not have a serious impact on the Indonesian economy.

As factories look for alternative materials from outside of China， Indonesian textile and apparel companies have received new domestic and international orders this year， which has increased by about 10%. According to Indonesian company personnel， while the Asian textile and clothing industry is facing bankruptcy and layoffs， Indonesian textile and clothing companies have made huge fortunes due to delays in shipments caused by the outbreak and spread of the pandemic.

Sutanto， deputy chief executive officer of PT PanBrothers， headquartered in Tangerang， said the growth rate of the company in the second and third quarters was 20% higher than expected. The textile-to-apparel company initially predicted that sales this year would increase by 15%. Iwan Lukminto， CEO of PT Sri Rejeki Isman， one of Southeast Asias largest textile and apparel manufacturers， said the companys orders have also seen an additional 15% increase.

These orders are all orders placed by local garment factories that produce garments for global brands. With the approval of the Indonesia-Australia Free Trade Agreement this year， sales of textiles and clothing are expected to rise. According to the “Indonesia-Australia Free Trade Agreement，” Australia will cut 5% import tariffs on textiles and clothing products.