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denim jeans and cotton trousers to US market due to less
competitiveness, said industry insiders. According to statistics of
the US Department of Commerce, the country was the number one
supplier of denim jeans and cotton trousers to the US in 2008.
Experts also said China outpaced Bangladesh in such exports as the
safeguard measures imposed against China in US market was lifted at
the end of December 2008. The US government set a safeguard measure
against China when the multi-fibre arrangement (MFA) or quota regime
was eliminated from January 1 , 2005. Bangladeshi exporters shipped
24.9 million dozens, while the Chinese exported 23.9 million
dozens to the US market last year, the US Department of Commerce data
said. But, by August 2009 , China outpaced Bangladesh as the number
one jeans and cotton trousers supplier to the US, the largest single
market in the world. In eight months of the current year, shipments
of Bangladesh have grown only 7 percent to 1.9 million dozens, while
China saw a growth of 94 percent to 2.99 million dozens, the data
showed. Denim jeans is the number one product in Bangladesh's
apparel export basket. Local manufacturers and exporters said China
outpaced Bangladesh in denim jeans and cotton trousers export as the
country came back to low- end apparel production and was offering
financial supports to entrepreneurs during recession. Talking to The
Daily Star, Showkat Aziz Russell, managing director of Partex Denim,
the country' s largest denim factory, said China started producing
low-cost denim and trousers again, for which Bangladesh is losing
competitiveness to that country. Moreover, the Bangladesh government
did not give any stimulus to the manufacturers during the recession,
but the Chinese government offered several incentives to its
entrepreneurs to offset the recession impacts. "Import of cotton at
higher prices, frequent outages, inadequate supply of gas to the
factories, failure in timely delivery of goods and weak
infrastructure are also responsible for losing our position," Russell
said. AK Azad, managing director of Ha-Meem Group, which also has
denim production unit, said: " When China was strengthening its
foothold in US market, we were just running our factories for
survival. We were in order crisis due to the recession." But, during
that time the Chinese government offered several types of incentives
to the manufacturers and so they became competitive and captured the
US market, Azad said. He said Bangladesh's denim export to the US
market may peak in November and onwards as the orders from the buyers
are increasing now. Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Bangladesh
Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said not only China,
but some other competitive countries like India, Pakistan, Vietnam
and Indonesia are also coming vigorously to compete with Bangladesh
in US market in this category. According to statistics of Bangladesh
Textile Mills Association (BTMA), there are 17 denim factories in
the country now with their churn-out capacity of 300 million metres
of denim a year. The growth rate of this industry is 20 percent a
year and the total investment in this sub-sector is Tk 2 ,000 crore.
At present the local denim factories can supply 20 million metres of
fabric per month against the domestic demand for 50 million metres a
month. The demand for the remaining 30 million metres is met through
imports from China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia, according to the
BTMA. The industry people said the country fetches $45 million per
month from exports of denim. Global denim consumption is estimated at
about 5.5 billion metres per year and it is growing at 3- 4 percent
per annum, the industry insiders said.
