Garments earnings dip 4.9% to $2.4-B

Earnings from garments declined by 4.9 percent to $2.4 billion in the first 10 months of the year from $2.5 billion in the same period last year as a result of growing competition from other low-cost producing countries, particularly China, the Garments and Textile Export Board (GTEB) reported yesterday.

The country’s garment exports include apparel, non-apparel and textile products.

Shipments of textile from January to October rose by 87 percent to $106.7 million from $57 million a year ago.

Despite the notable increase, textile’s growth was not enough to create an upward push as this product accounted for only 4.4 percent of total shipments.

Exports of apparel, on the other hand, went down to $2.07 billion during the 10-month period from $2.08 billion a year ago.

Non-apparel, which accounts for about 10 percent of total garment shipments, went down sharply by 40 percent to $401 million from last year’s level.

The non-apparel segment is basically comprised of luggage with fabric components.

The GTEB said the Philippines has been losing out to China, particularly in the lower-priced, non-apparel segment.

The GTEB also said that shipments of garments and textile could drop further during the last quarter of the year due to recent reports that the major economies, particularly the US and Japan are showing signs of renewed weakness.

Meanwhile, the GTEB and representatives from the garment export industry called the Garment Industry Transformation Team, have drawn up and started implementing a crucial industry assistance package determined to preserve the 400,000 workers currently being employed by 1,200 garment firms, and to ensure continued existence for the industry in the quota-free setup of 2005.