South Asian manufacturers prepare for a return to work, but most are not sure whether there will be orders to work on.
Global retail lockdowns led to massive order cancelations and uncertainty about when retail would reopen – and the level of consumer demand in the post-pandemic economy.
“Right now the situation is very tight here. For the next 6 months the situation will probably remain the same. We hope after that some orders will be released business will get started again. For now, the orders originally for May-June have been shifted to August September, so nothing new is being placed right now No new orders are being booked,” said an export sales manager at one of India’s bigger garment makers, requesting that we don’t mention his name.
“There are some pending orders for Spring-Summer which already under production in March-April. These order will ship in May-June. Fall-Winter booking and designs are under process,” he added.
“The situation will not be possible for the next 9 months. The buyer is taking the present products but won’t pay for 150 days. So it will take at least 9 months for things to recover – maybe even a full year,” said garment manufacturer based in Bangladesh, who also preferred to speak off the record.
For most manufacturers, they are saddled with orders planned or placed when the outlook was more optimistic – when the biggest problem was the raw materials shortage due to China’s shut down, and when no one thought that western markets would face a pandemic.
