After grappling with large-scale order cancellations, Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry now has a new problem to deal with – declining volume of new work orders, which in the March-May period shrank drastically by around 62 per cent!
As per data collated by the country’s apex garment makers’ body, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), compared to 454 orders received in the March-May period of last year, this time around, in the corresponding period, it was a mere 172.
The breakdown of the fresh work orders in this period shows that BGMEA member factories in March this year received 87 work orders as against that of 138 received in March last year while in April this year, new orders were just 8 compared to 136 received in April last year.
In the month of May, the BGMEA member units received just 77 work orders compared to what was 180 in May last year.
What’s even more worrying, garment exporters are not expecting any significant turnaround in the coming days as well, thanks to weak demands for apparel items in the export destinations.
As per the Managing Director of Ananta Denim Technology Ltd., Sharif Zahir, new work orders from global buyers would not improve much in the days to come as most of the export destinations were still grappling with health issues following the outbreak of COVID-19 in those countries and showing little signs of stabilising anytime soon.