According to a report by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, in 2017, Vietnam’s textile and garment export turnover reached 31 billion USD, up 10.23% compared to 2016.

In which, exports to the US reached 12.53 billion USD, up 9.4% compared to 2016; EU market is estimated at 3.7 billion USD, up 5.4%; the Japanese market reached 3.05 billion USD, up 5.2%; the Korean market reached 2.59 billion, up 13.2%; the Chinese market reached 1.04 billion USD, up 26%; ASEAN market is forecasted to reach 900 million USD, up 9.1%.

In 2017, “Vietnam’s textile and garment” had 8 key export products estimated to reach a turnover of 1 billion USD or more, which are T-shirts, jackets, pants, children’s clothing, skirts, underwear, fabrics. .

In the domestic market, with a population of nearly 95 million people and improved living standards and income, Vietnam is a very potential market for the textile and garment industry. Under the impact of the  industrial revolution 4.0, the major textile and garment importing countries in the world tend to bring textiles and garments back to their home countries, instead of outsourcing exports to countries with low labor costs. This puts pressure on Vietnamese textile and garment manufacturers to pay attention to gradually dominate the domestic market, ensuring a balanced development between export and domestic markets.

With the potentials and advantages of development, the Association said that it has built specific goals for the period 2018-2025, which focuses on investment in restructuring the industry, catching up with the opportunities of the 4.0 technology revolution. , applying advanced technology for investment, gradually balancing from yarn, weaving, dyeing to garment and improving productivity, quality and product class; to attract polluting textile dyeing projects to concentrated industrial parks with wastewater treatment systems, and garment projects to rural areas with a large number of workers; strengthen cooperation, joint ventures and linkages between domestic  enterprises textiles, domestic  enterprisesand foreign investment.

Focus on exploiting traditional markets, step by step penetrating the Vietnamese market that has just signed an FTA to exploit the advantages of tariffs, and promote the exploitation of the EU market; focus on building and affirming the fashion brand of Vietnam’s textile and garment; planning to promote to the world market; focus on developing human resources, linking with training institutions to improve workers’ skills. Especially researching and applying advanced and modern technology to production; grasp the trend and development speed of the 4.0 industrial revolution to adapt to the progress of the world…

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Cao Quoc Hung, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade highly appreciated the achievements of the textile and garment industry. Overcoming the challenges of 2017, in 2018, Vietnam’s textile and garment industry will have many favorable factors. It is expected that in the near future, many trade agreements will be signed, which will be an important lever in trade promotion activities, creating favorable conditions for market expansion for the textile industry.

According to recent statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam is providing only 0.3% of the demand for cotton, 40% of the demand for fiber. In particular, although weaving produces nearly 2.8 billion meters of fabric per year (accounting for 30% of demand), it still has to import 6.1 billion meters of fabric from countries such as China, Korea, and Taiwan.

According to a report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2016, the export turnover of Vietnam’s textile and garment reached US$28.1 billion, up 3.3% compared to 2015, accounting for 16% of the country’s export turnover.

Great competitive pressure

From 2010 to now, the proportion of export turnover of FDI enterprises has always remained at a high level. In 2016, FDI enterprises exported 16.6 billion USD, accounting for 57.7% of export turnover of the country. At the same time, according to statistics of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, 30% of FDI enterprises are accounting for 70% of sales, while 70% of Vietnamese enterprises account for only 30% (about 7 billion USD).

The world market is increasingly volatile, 2016 is considered the most difficult year since 2008 for the export of Vietnam’s textile and garment industry.

The change in China’s policy from subsidizing cotton producers to reserve national cotton to selling national reserve cotton at low prices close to market prices made Chinese enterprises reduce their imports of Vietnamese yarn and buy cotton. domestic yarn production.

“It proves that other textile and garment producing countries are coming up with positive policies to reduce input costs for businesses, thereby improving competitiveness and attracting orders from Vietnam,” the Ministry of Industry and Trade said. determined.

Besides, countries have also begun to increase the use of trade remedies with Vietnam. According to statistics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, from 2007 up to now, Vietnam’s export fiber products have been sued 7 cases, including 5 anti-dumping lawsuits, one anti-subsidy lawsuit and one application case. safeguard measures from Turkey, the EU, India and Brazil.

Currently, Vietnam is being imposed anti-dumping duty by Türkiye on polyester elastic fibers and synthetic man-made fibers; was investigated by India for anti-dumping on spandex yarn since January 2016.

Assessing the capacity of the textile industry, Ms. Do Kim Chi, Trade Research Institute, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that Vietnam’s textile and garment market share, especially textiles, is still much smaller than China’s. – Vietnam’s main competitor in exporting textiles to other countries.

China accounts for 36.59% of the total textile exports and 38.63% of the world’s total apparel exports while the respective share of Vietnam is 1.59% and 4.49%. The main reason is due to the low competitiveness of Vietnamese textiles and garments compared to China in the world market.

Specifically, Ms. Chi analyzed, in terms of percentage of the world market, China ranked first while Vietnam ranked 14th. In terms of product diversity index (number of similar products), China ranked 5th while Vietnam ranked 38th. “Thus, the world’s largest textile and garment exporter has a much higher competitiveness than Vietnam”, commented Ms. Chi.

Passive on raw materials

In the context of increasing competitive pressure, the Vietnamese textile and garment industry has not yet escaped dependence on imported raw materials and accessories. The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that for cotton: Vietnam depends on 99% of imported cotton; in 2016 cotton imports reached 1.03 million tons, worth about 1.7 billion USD, up 2% in volume and 2.5% in value compared to 2015.

Regarding fiber, textile and garment imports reached 861,000 tons, worth 1.6 billion USD, up 8.8% in volume and 5.9% in value compared to 2015. Fabric imports in 2016 reached 10.5 billion USD, up 3.2% compared to 2015 and accounting for nearly 40% of Vietnam’s garment export value.

This shows that the supply chain of Vietnam’s textile and garment industry still has many shortcomings, along with the weakness in the production of raw materials and input materials, which has affected the development ability of Vietnam’s textile and garment industry. especially in the face of opportunities from free trade agreements.

Currently, Vietnam can only supply 0.3% of the demand for cotton, 40% of the demand for fiber, the rest must be imported from the United States, China and Taiwan. Yarn output reaches 1.4 million tons/year but more than 70% is for export; while importing nearly 0.1 million tons of high-index yarn from China, Korea, and Taiwan.

Weaving creates nearly 2.8 billion meters of fabric per year (accounting for 30% of demand), still has to import 6.1 billion meters of fabric from China, Korea, and Taiwan, countries not participating in the Agreements major free trade such as TPP, EVFTA, VJEPA (accounting for more than 70%).

Regarding  garment accessories,  there are now domestic production facilities for a number of main types of accessories such as: sewing thread, cotton sheets, sticky mex, plastic buttons, zippers, elastic bands, labels, packaging…  but also can only meet part of the needs of the domestic market, the rest must still be imported.

Previously, according to a report by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, Vietnam’s textile and garment industry is in the value-added segment.

Sewing accessories is a very important factor in the garment industry. The trend of choosing sewing accessories also changes according to the requirements of the market. So what are those trends? What are the benefits of catching these trends for businesses?

The market fluctuates a lot, going through different stages there are different changes. The same goes for the production and trading of textile and garment materials. Through research, it can be seen that the selection of garment accessories  has the following trends:

1. Choose domestic supply instead of foreign

Garment manufacturing enterprises tend to choose “garment accessories” from domestic enterprises. This is due to the development of both the level as well as the technology of producing garment accessories of domestic enterprises. If in the 2007-2008 period, Vietnam’s fabric products only met 40% of domestic demand, but now this number has increased a lot.

2.  Choose the right accessories for the fashion trend of the market

The selection of raw materials for the textile industry also changes according to the fashion trend of the market. For example, modern, stylized outfits are accompanied by buttons, or “fancy” fabrics, the selection of accessories is also geared to meet these factors.

3.  There is a link between businesses

Previously, the linkage between domestic enterprises in the textile and garment industry was not really high. But now, meeting the needs of quality, design, and price brings a common voice among businesses, helping them cooperate and link more closely together.

4.  The meaning of these trends

It shows that the production capacity of  garment accessories  of domestic enterprises has increased. The fact that garment manufacturers choose domestic enterprises to supply sewing accessories shows that the quality of their products has met the demand. This is a good sign that the development ability of domestic enterprises in the production of garment accessories  has increased significantly.

Domestic enterprises have had a common voice, and cooperated to develop garment production further, increasing competitiveness with the outside.

Above are some trends in the selection of raw materials for the textile and garment industry, through which we can see the development prospects of the domestic garment accessories manufacturing industry.