GTEB bares surge in garment orders from world markets

The Philippines is already experiencing a surge in garment orders from international markets following the phaseout of garment quota system, Garments and Textile Export Board (GTEB) Executive Director Serafin Juliano said yesterday.

Juliano said quota restricted categories accounted for the bulk, or about 60 percent, of new orders.

"The increase in demand was good news for subcontractors," Juliano said.

However, he admitted that local garment manufacturers still have to be careful and maintain a low overhead since there has also been a significant decline in prices due to a stiff competition from other low-cost producers.

The higher orders, Juliano said, boosted the GTEB’s optimistic projection that export growth for garments alone, would reach 10 percent this year, much higher than the three percent actual growth recorded for the whole of 2004.

Garment exports managed to perform better last year than earlier expected.

Based on preliminary figures of the GTEB, garments and textile exports from Jan. 1 to Dec. 28, 2004 amounted to $2.691 billion, expanding by almost three percent over the $2.615 billion for the comparative period of Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2003.

Juliano said the increase was actually due to price movements rather than an increase in quantity.

The Philippines, Juliano clarified, is still shipping the same amount of dozens, "but there has been price movements."

Juliano explained that December garments and textile exports actually posted a decline as the amount of orders for spring styles was a bit lower than the previous year.

Again, Juliano clarified that the decline in orders is not due to a decline in demand, but a lower inventory level by US retailers.

Exports to the United States, which accounts for 70.40 percnt of exports, amounted to $1.894 billion, posting a slight decrease of 1.62 percent compared to last year’s exports of $1.926 billion for the whole of 2003.

Exports to the European Union, which accounted for 15.30 percent of total exports, went up by 23.12 percent to $411.823 million compared to exports amounting to $334.483 million in 2003.

Shipments to Canada, which accounted for just 2.77 percent of the total quota exports market, posted a 17.24 percent growth amounting to $74.641 million compared to the $63.667 million exported in 2003.

Exports to non-quota countries increased 6.42 percent to $310.366 million in 2004 compared to the previous year’s $291.652 million.