The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Tuesday claimed that the flow of global orders started decreasing again due to an economic slowdown in the importing countries.
Many global buyers are placing orders in small quantities, some are putting their work orders on hold and some are putting shipments on hold as retailers sit on stockpiles of apparel items in their stores due to high inflation, BGMEA president Faruque Hassan said at a meet the press event held at the trade body’s headquarters in the capital Dhaka.
He said that a full capacity remained unutilised in most of the factories due to lack of orders and in some cases many factories were forced to keep production suspended for two-three days in a week.
The sales of apparel products declined on the global market due to high inflation caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and at the same time price hike of gas and electricity in the country put a negative impact on the Bangladesh readymade garment sector, the BGMEA president said.
Faruque also said that the theft of apparel items from export bound apparel products on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway was growing and such incidences were disappointing global buyers.
He demanded that the government take stern action against the miscreants involved in the theft of export-bound RMG products from cargoes.
The BGMEA president said that despite decreasing orders in volume, Bangladesh’s apparel exports maintained a positive growth in the past few months due to the appreciation of the dollar against the taka and increasing exports of value-added products.
‘But we are going to face a fresh challenge as the flow of export orders has started decreasing from our major markets, including the United States and Germany,’ Faruque said.
The competitiveness of the industry has been decreasing gradually as the price of electricity increased by more than 10 per cent in two phases in January and the gas tariff increased by two and a half folds in the same month, he said.
The BGMEA president said that the industry had no ability to bear the cost of increased energy prices.
‘The prices of gas and fuel oil have decreased on the global market. We will request the government to consider the decreased international prices in raising gas prices in the country,’ Faruque said.
He said that theft of export goods from containers was becoming a growing concern for the RMG sector and recently a buyer from Brazil had informed its Bangladeshi suppliers that they received products 35 per cent less than the orders.
If necessary, the law should be amended to punish the people who looted export goods from cargoes as the incidents were tarnishing the image of the country, Faruque said.
He demanded completing the ongoing process for setting up CCTV on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway by March.
BGMEA senior vice-president SM Mannan Kochi and vice-president Md Shahidullah Azim, among others, were present in the event.
