Bangladesh’s textile and garment machinery market now worth over $4bn

Bangladesh's textile and garment machinery market is now worth more than $4bn as the sector has registered a 20% year-on-year growth, thanks to its strong textile and garment manufacturing strength, according to capital machinery manufacturers and local industry leaders.

At the Dhaka International Textile and Garment Machinery Exhibition, the biggest machinery expo in South Asia, international machinery manufacturers said that Bangladesh is now one of the most important hotspots for the sector as work orders are shifting from other countries to this country.

They made these observations with The Business Standard at South Asia's biggest machinery expo, the Dhaka International Textile and Garment (DTG) 2023, held at International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB) in Dhaka.

"Bangladesh is a lucrative market for my company as our business with Bangladesh grew even during the Covid," Gianpiero Valsecchi, sales area manager of Santoni, an Italian textile machinery producer, said at the 4-day exhibition's inauguration on Wednesday as it returned after a three-year hiatus due to severe pandemic fallouts.

The machinery supplier told The Business Standard that he believes machinery sales have increased in Bangladesh as local entrepreneurs are making huge investments on man-made fibre-based textile and garment manufacturing plants.

"In the last two years my business grew 40%. We received a lot of bookings online since businessmen could not travel during the pandemic," he said.

"Although demand for clothing items is a bit low at this time due to the Russia-Ukraine war, I believe it will improve soon and the textile machinery sector's growth in Bangladesh will continue," he added.

Expressing a similar view, Thomas Streicher, area sales and product manager of Trutzschler, a German machinery company, said Bangladesh is one of the most potential markets for his company as well.

"We delivered a lot of machines here and we are very much optimistic that the Bangladesh market will grow a lot in the future," he said.

His company mainly supplies spinning machines and so far the company has supplied 600 machineries to its clients in Bangladesh.
Ikuto Umeda, chief executive officer of Shima Seiki (Hong Kong) Ltd, also said that Bangladesh is the number one destination for his company as well.

Umeda's company supplied 20,000 units of machineries to 200 local customers over the last seven years.

The business is growing for his company in Bangladesh, although the growth has slowed down to some extent in the aftermath of the pandemic and the Ukraine war, he added.

Akai Lin, overseas director of Chan Chao International Co, the organiser of the exhibition, said when his company held the first machinery expo in Dhaka in 2004, Bangladesh was the fourth largest apparel supplier worldwide and now the country is the second largest garment exporter, which indicates the strength of the sector.

Judy Wang, executive director (overseas) of Chan Chao International, said some 1200 companies from 35 countries have been participating in the four-day event.

It is mainly high technology and advanced machinery with high productivity which have participated in the exhibition with the nature of productivity in the industries changing over the last few years, she said.

Many companies are interested in investing in Bangladesh, she said, adding this is why the country is popular with international retailers and brands.

At the opening ceremony, Salman F Rahman, adviser to the prime minister on private industries and investment, suggested that local entrepreneurs should invest more in man-made fibre, which accounts for 70% of the total volume of garments traded worldwide.

However, 90% of the garments produced in Bangladesh are made from cotton and cotton mixed fibre, he said.

He also noted that the rising price of energy is affecting investment in the textile and garment sector in Bangladesh.

Md Jashim Uddin, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said Bangladesh has a target of exporting $300 billion worth of merchandise by 2041.

Innovative and sustainable garment items will help achieve the target, he said.

Mohammad Ali Khokon, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, thanked the government for taking measures to import LNGs to address energy issues in the country.