Vietnam's 2022 garment exports expected slightly below target

Vu Duc Giang, chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association, recently said that Vietnam's garment exports in 2022 are expected to reach US$42 billion, slightly lower than the set target of US$43 billion to US$44 billion.

In October, Vietnam's clothing exports were US$3.18 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3.3%. Among them, exports to the United States were US$1 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 14%; exports to South Korea were US$380 million, a year-on-year decrease of 9%; exports to China were US$230 million, a year-on-year decrease of 35%. In terms of export categories, yarn exports were US$307 million, a year-on-year decrease of 34%; textile exports were US$2.87 billion, an increase of 11.7% year-on-year.

According to the "Vietnam Economic Daily", exports of Vietnam's textile and garment industry are expected to shrink in the first half of 2023. Currently, the United States is Vietnam's largest clothing export market. Past data show that U.S. apparel and footwear retail sales take 8-10 months to gradually return to normal after inflation peaks. At the same time, the congestion of shipping orders recovered faster than expected, and the volume of new orders was not adjusted in time, which led to the increase of US clothing and footwear imports to a record high in August, which put pressure on destocking in the fourth quarter of this year and even in the first half of 2023. Since October 2022, the retail sales of clothing and footwear in Vietnam's main export markets have experienced negative growth, which will bring challenges to Vietnamese textile and clothing enterprises.