If the various fallouts of COVID-19 pandemic that the garment makers in Bangladesh have been dealing with lately were not enough, they are now faced with a new challenge – that of spiralling raw materials’ prices. As per reports, prices of raw materials (fabrics, yarns, cotton and packaging materials) have gone up by 5 to 10 per cent on average in the last few months. Speaking to the media, the Secretary of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), Monsoor Ahmed reportedly maintained the price of cotton in last 3 months has increased by 8-10 cent per pound thereby pushing up yarn prices. According to industry people, T-shirts, sweaters, trousers, jackets and shirts together constitute lion’s share of Bangladesh’s apparel shipments, and cotton is the basic raw material for all these five items. So, consequent to increase in cotton prices, production cost has gone up significantly, which has posed a new challenge for the exporters who are already forced to deal with issues like work orders cancellations, price cuts by global buyers and fewer work orders than production capacity. In China, which is the global manufacturing hub for raw materials, the production capacity is now reportedly lower than the pre-coronavirus period and importers are ordering more raw materials ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays (in February), which has added another dimension to the raw material price hike, say garment makers in Bangladesh. The prices of raw materials going up has left us with one too many survival challenges, reportedly said owner of Fatullah Apparels, Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, speaking to the media.
