Industry Report
A changing global market A
Dmitry Sarbaev, managing director of FLUXMALL DTG, writes from Vietnam about the changing and evolving global garment decoration market.
s the Lunar New Year holidays have officially come to an end, and we finally find ourselves in year 2023, both in traditional and lunar calendars, the garment decoration industry made its New Year resolutions and established new plans for the year ahead.
Being located in the world’s manufacturing hub for apparel and fashion – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – I would like to reflect on how the digital printing industry on garments might evolve in this mass production country and beyond, and how it will inevitably affect global markets.
Global brands remain active in South East Asia countries
With the energy crisis affecting the Western markets, South East Asia (and Vietnam in particular) continues to be an attractive manufacturing spot on the map for global brands, not only because of low labour costs and affordable production overheads, but also the flexibility of local manufacturers to
With the ongoing energy crisis Vietnam is seen as an attractive manufacturing spot for global brands
quickly adapt to the new normal and promptly deploy new tech advancements in their factories. The end-customer has become demanding for customised fashion products and swift changes of collections, so the brands have to respond accordingly to this fast-pace ‘mode’ and contract factories with availability of smaller production runs and shorter turnaround times. The buyers are actively looking for developed, reliable facilities to handle digital printing orders, imposing strict conditions of low MOQ (minimum order quantity), full colour designs and very tight deadlines. Vietnam has significantly progressed in this component over the recent years, and continues to gain the momentum of digital transformation, and many factories adapted to the new requirements in order to keep the export businesses. However, with the number of estimated digital printing machinery placement, the market is still small compared to developed Chinese and Korean markets. It’s no surprise that many digital printing orders end up in these countries, therefore Vietnam is still a runner up in the volumes of digital printing orders, but as new manufacturing startups get stronger, this gap will inevitably be closing in years to come.
The rise of local Vietnamese fashion brands is another positive trend over the recent years, and though many of them were significantly affected during COVID-19 pandemic, they are now being reinforced by the high consumer demand domestically, and make enthusiastic and ambitious plans to enter the western markets with their products. A big advantage to this business model is that many of them have their own manufacturing assets in the country or the region, or hold strong long-term partnerships with factories around that back them on high-volume production. Therefore, they are able to enter the foreign markets at much lower-level price points while having many years of experience in manufacturing for the quality fashion. Similar to how the Vietnamese automobile brand Vinfast is currently invading the US market of cars with its top-notch products, it will be no surprise to see these fashion brands make solid steps abroad.
China machinery becomes strong in competition Over the years industry consumers have blamed China on the low quality of products and services – raw materials, components, assembly works, and lack to zero support. China seemed to have silently absorbed all the claims, made conclusion and worked behind the scenes to make improvements. It is now obvious that China is not the same anymore, and specifically in the digital printing sector many OEMs have made significant steps forward on the following items: • Global awareness
You can hardly think of any global printing tradeshow or digital textile conference where the presence of Chinese manufacturers is non-essential. A lot of the OEMs actively take part in online educational events organised by the recognised information networks. Now when China has reopened after COVID-19, many Chinese companies are expected to be present in upcoming tradeshows, including the most expected ITMA 2023 in Milan.
| 48 | March 2023
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
