MERRY XMAS, GLOOMY 2022 FOR TEXTILE WORKERS

MANZINI – Thousands of textile workers received their bonuses, leave pay and Christmas gifts, but they will have to spend the festive holidays praying for a miracle to happen.

This is because according to projections, about 12 000 textile and apparel sector workers are not guaranteed that they will retain their jobs when the sector reopens in the first week of January 2022. Currently, the sector provides job opportunities to about 22 000 emaSwati, who range from illiterate to literate.
According to some of the employers, the industry is facing a serious shortage of fabric, which has also increased in price by over 30 per cent overseas, mainly in China where up until recently, it was their trusted source. Another challenge that has crept in the industry is that the prices of the containers used for the transportation of the material (fabric and finished goods) have also increased by almost a similar percentage.

Crisis

The players in the industry claimed that in China, where they sourced their fabric and other raw materials, there had been an electricity crisis which is caused by the fact that the country generates more than half of its electricity from coal-fired power stations. According to sciencedirect.com, a coal-fired power station is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. In recent months, the cost of coal drastically increased globally while also coal production has also been hit by new safety checks at mines and stricter environmental rules.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recently reported that mills which manufactured fabric that operated 24 hours were now functioning for about eight hours per day while they were advised to cease operations on some days. Due to this, according to some industry players, the quantity of fabric produced in China had decreased drastically. This, they said, resulted in escalated costs by about 30 per cent due to the demand. The increase in demand, it was said, had resulted in local textile factories being outbid by competitors who seek to pay more than the usual cost of the raw materials. Furthermore, the energy crisis in South Africa had a silver lining for them as they received more orders from customers who were dealing with their counterparts in South Africa.

They said this was because during the energy crisis in the neighbouring country, Eskom implemented load-shedding, which affected production in the factories yet the buyers were strict with deadlines. They bemoaned that such an opportunity was going to waste as they did not have enough fabric to meet the demand. These developments were confirmed by the Eswatini Textile and Apparel Traders Association (ETATA).

Deteriorate

The association said in as much as factories were able to operate at the moment, there was a possibility that the situation would deteriorate as the shortage of fabric from the manufacturers could result in exorbitant price hikes. They said this could result in job losses of about 12 000 if not more as they would have to trim production. However, the organisation said even though the industry had closed for the festive season, the employers were monitoring the situation closely.
On the other hand, ETATA Chairperson, Tokky Hou, said as an association, they saw an opportunity for the country to expand the textile and apparel sector.
For example, she said with the assistance of government, the industry could extend the only mill that manufactures a certain type of fabric in the country. The mill is TQM Textiles and Manufactured, a company which is under Tex Ray Swaziland.

The chairperson said the extension of the fabric producing mill, could give birth to the expansion of the sector because the critical raw material would be easy to access as it would be produced locally. Meanwhile, recently this publication reported that consumers were likely to experience a sharp increase of garments in 2022 following the hike of fabric prices, which was still anticipated to escalate at any moment due to the energy crisis in China as production could decrease and result in the scarcity of garments.

ETATA said this projection was also based on the fact that in Asia, some countries were looking to increase garments prices by 30 to 40 per cent. For example, according to www.fibre2fashion.com, prices of textiles and garments made in China were likely to rise by 30 to 40 per cent in the coming weeks on account of planned shutdowns in industrial provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong. The shutdowns are due to government’s effort to reduce carbon emissions and shortage of electricity production owing to short supply of coal from Australia.

lockdowns

Worth noting is that, the effects of the energy crisis comes at a time when economies of the world, including the Kingdom of Eswatini were affected by the outbreak of COVID-19, which saw governments implementing lockdowns, which prevented the movement of people. As such, many sectors of the economy, including the textile and apparel industry, were closed resulting in no bonuses for many in the sector last year.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: