Textile body rejects claim by retailers
Local retailer Foschini said last week restrictions on clothing and textile imports from China had forced it to cut back severely on obtaining ready made garments from local “cut, make and trim” operations as clothing manufacturers struggled to obtain textiles locally, on time and in adequate volumes, while agreements with Chinese suppliers had also been affected by the quotas.
Two cut, make and trim operations, working exclusively for Foschini, have been forced to close down while others are reportedly struggling to make ends meet.
But the Textile Federation (Texfed) has entered the fray and rejected claims that the industry is unable to meet demand.
Texfed executive director Brian Brink said a common cause of late deliveries was customers' poor credit rating or the late settlement of accounts with suppliers.
“This indicates a severe under capitalisation in the clothing industry and cash-flow problems caused by the squeeze exerted by retailers. Late settlement of overdue accounts also has a snowballing effect up the supply chain,” he said.
“Deferred deliveries of yarns occasioned by late account settlement leads to late deliveries of fabric and then ultimately to late delivery of the end-product garments.”
Brink also dismissed charges that the local industry was providing inferior quality fabrics, saying this was “a gross generalisation”. “The quality of local fabric manufactured is in general superb and first rate. Naturally, there are instances of substandard product but these are extremely limited.
“These tend to occur in instances of severe downward price pressure by retailers on particular manufacturers when, as a consequence, quality is compromised,” he said.
The trade and industry department's chief director of industrial policy, Nimrod Zalk, said last week that companies, particularly retailers, were allowed to approach the quota committee for adjustments to their quotas and that the committee had generally displayed flexibility in increasing quotas in exchange for commitments to local procurement by the retailer making the application.
“Quotas were set on the basis of declared imports prior to their introduction, and in some cases under-declaration prior to the introduction of quotas had led to lower quota levels than companies' actual requirements,” Zalk said.
National Clothing Retail Federation of SA executive director Michael Lawrence said the sourcing difficulties clothing manufacturers experienced were real, notwithstanding slowing consumer demand.
“There is no conceivable reason for clothing manufacturers to place themselves at a disadvantage by not optimising the access to fabric,” he said.
“When concerns are expressed by stakeholders who have made every effort to optimise the scenario created through the draconian, and virtually unilateral, imposition of quotas, then it is churlish to trivialise the reality being described,” Lawrence said.
Source: Business Day
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