Textile/garment machinery market large enough for all investors

In the past, the Saigon Garment & Trade Company (GMC) needed 50 workers for cloth cutting and spreading, because the work was done manually. But since it began using cutting machines from Nhat Tin Technology JSC, productivity has improved significantly and the number of workers needed has been cut to eight.

GMC managers believe they made the right decision to buy new cutting machines.

Other textile and garment companies also tend to spend more money on upgrading technologies. This is why Nhat Tin’s sales of cloth spreading machine have increased by 300 percent compared with the same period last year, according to Nhat Tin’s president Nguyen Tan Thanh.

However, domestically made products are still far from satisfying the demand from the textile and garment industry. At present, most machines used in the industry are imports.

Vietnam is one of the biggest garment exporters in the world with $24 billion worth of exports in 2014. To put out such big volume of goods, it has to import nearly 100 percent of machines and input materials needed to make finished products.

European machines are the most expensive and the best ones for textile and garment companies. Mid-grade machines are from South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Meanwhile, Chinese machines are the cheapest, and are the choices of most small- and medium-sized enterprises.

According to Nguyen Viet Thang, director of Viet Tin Technology JSC, 50 percent of machines and equipment being used in the textile and garment industry are from China.

Vietnamese businesses prefer Chinese machines not only because they are affordable, but also because Chinese suppliers can offer products of different types and at different price levels.

According to Nguyen Van Tuan, deputy chair of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vinatas), the industry needs 6.5 billion meters of cloth more a year.

In order to make out the volume of cloth, it will need $6.5 billion worth of investment capital, 60 percent of which would be spent on machines. This means that Vietnam would need $3.9 billion worth of machines for the textile and garment industry.

Having realized the high demand in Vietnam, foreign manufacturers are now trying to exploit the market.

Japanese Tsudakoma Group, a textile machine manufacturer, has been contacting many Vietnamese enterprises to discuss the supply of machines. Vietnam, together with China and India, are the largest markets for the Japanese group.