Textile enterprises rely on exporting cloth masks

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Vietnamese textile enterprises have enough capacity to produce export cloth masks

Large production capacity

With about 70% of export orders to the United States and the EU being temporarily interrupted, nearly 2,500 workers of Corporation 28 (X28) are now moving to produce cloth masks with a capacity of about 500,000 pieces/day. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Chairman of the 28 Corporation, the majority of textile enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City have turned to making cloth masks.

On average, a worker produces 200-250 masks per day. Thus, an enterprise with 10,000 workers on average will produce 2 million masks a day. Therefore, enterprises are forced to export to find out the output because in about a month, the domestic market will be saturated.

According to Pham Van Viet, Chairman of Viet Thang Jean Company, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Textile and Embroidery Association, in the context of the Covid-19 outbreak in Europe and the US, many customers from these countries have offered businesses to delay delivery, and even cancel the contract. Therefore, many businesses have to switch to producing cloth masks to retain workers and reduce damage. Currently Viet Thang Jean has also been involved in the production of cloth masks with the current production capacity of 500,000 pieces per day and the upcoming output also depends on exports.

According to statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, currently there are 20 textile and apparel enterprises producing antibacterial cloth masks, as of the end of March 2020, the number of masks supplied to the market reached nearly 60 million units. Meanwhile calculations by the Ministry of Health show that by the end of March, Vietnam needs about 30 million masks. Thus, with the current production capacity, the textile and garment industry can fully meet the needs of domestic mask production. Many businesses have proposed plans to be supported by the government to find export orders for masks.

Regarding the supply of raw materials, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, each month, the textile and garment industry can produce between 150-200 million masks, while raw materials for producing masks do not face difficulties in supply. With antibacterial cloth masks, domestic enterprises only have to import antibacterial materials from Japan and South Korea, but the import has faced no problems.

Information from the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group said that there are currently five enterprises of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group who are manufacturing antibacterial fabrics and supplying to other garment enterprises in the Group to make masks. In addition, some businesses importing fabrics to make sportswear, clothes used in hospitals have converted that fabric into sewing masks.

On fabric production, Mr. Tran Trung Quy, Director of Trung Quy Textile and Garment Co., Ltd said that Trung Quy can supply 15-20 tons of antibacterial and UV-resistant fabrics to international standards and global values. At present, Trung Quy's fabric supply capacity is quite abundant and fully capable of meeting the needs of enterprises in exporting antibacterial masks.

New export directions for textile enterprises

According to enterprises, the export of cloth masks may also be a new export direction, especially for small and medium enterprises. Therefore, if this activity can be promoted, it will help businesses to cope with the difficulties caused by the disease outbreak.

There have been many foreign partners questioning on importing cloth masks, but the requirements of the partners are quite high. The 28 Corporation has made a number of offers to the US, Australia, Japan and the EU, which is negotiating with an Australian partner an order of 5,000 units. Information from Viet Thang Jean also said that the company has sent samples to a number of partners in the US, Italy and the Netherlands. “However, each country requires a different medical standard for this product, so the enterprises exporting masks to go abroad are also facing some difficulties. Therefore, it is recommended that Ambassadors and Commercial Counselors from other countries support the Association to carry out export procedures and advise enterprises on solutions to enable them to export more quickly into markets,” said Mr. Pham Van Viet.

Regarding the current situation, according to Mr. Pham Van Viet, Viet Thang Jean still produces online orders for export, but these orders account for only 10-15% of the enterprise's production capacity. Meanwhile, domestic fashion stores have been temporarily closed, according to the plan to April 15, but it is expected to last until the end of May. For the export of fashion products, if the Covid-19 pandemic lasts until the middle of the year, at the end of the year the domestic market can recover and the export market will be slower, at least until the beginning of 2021. Therefore, the export of cloth masks will be temporary for Viet Thang Jean as well as most textile enterprises in the current situation.

Similarly, X28's fashion stores are currently closed to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, X28 still has a number of labor protection and medical orders but these orders account for only 30% of the enterprise's production capacity. Currently, most of the major countries in Europe have completely closed, the US market accounting for 50% of the market share of the textile and apparel industry also suspended receiving goods. In the immediate future, enterprises only have hope for the recovery of Japanese and Korean markets when these countries can control the epidemic. “At present, X28 still has enough balance to work until the end of April, but in May, workers will have to consider rotating off work or reduce working time. With the current situation, the production activities of textile enterprises are almost entirely dependent on the world stamping rate,” Mr. Hung said.