JakartaPost-Nov 7, 2022
Tens of thousands of Indonesian textile workers are on the chopping block as the industry faces a steep drop in exports while imported clothing eats away at its domestic market share. As of October, at least 64,000 workers from 124 textile firms in West Java had been laid off, with almost 10,000 of them losing their jobs after the closure of 18 companies in the region, the West Java Textile Entrepreneur Association (PPTPJB) reported. Suppliers for some of world’s most prominent apparel brands, such as Nike and Victoria’s Secret, were affected. The PPTPJB also reported that demand for domestically produced textiles had fallen between 50 and 70 percent since April and projected that the trend would continue into next year. The textile sector employed some 1.1 million workers in 2020, more than 18 percent of the country’s total employment in medium and large-scale industry, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show. Textile firms blamed the hardship on plummeting exports, as foreign buyers reported steep drops in demand amid decreased consumer spending in their respective markets. These problems are in line with weak global economic growth projections for 2022 and 2023 and multi-decade inflation highs in many countries, which have prompted people to cut back on spending on clothing to cover housing, energy and food costs. Indonesian Textile Association (API) chairman Jemmy Kartiwa said on Wednesday that many foreign buyers had asked for their shipments to be postponed by two months or more but noted that there had been no outright cancellations yet. Several buyers had reported that their stocks were piling up, preventing them from accepting more deliveries. Local textile firms had seen orders drop by 30 percent in the third quarter and the situation could worsen next year as many factories cut their operations from seven days a week to five. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2022/11/07/textile-industry-faces-layoff-storm-amid-ailing-exports.html
