11:34 AM |
Author: EmerGence
By K.M. LEW
PETALING JAYA: Consumers will have to pay more for new clothes this Christmas and the New Year after a surge in the price of cotton and yarn.
The shortage of raw materials worldwide and higher demand for garments has led to the escalating prices of all raw materials for textiles and garments since early this year.
Malaysian Textile Manufacturers Association chief executive officer Andrew Hong said local manufacturers had to absorb the higher manufacturing costs and cope with surging raw material prices.
He said all raw material prices had surged by 25% to 40% in the past two to three months.
He foresaw prices of apparels at retail outlets increasing next month onwards as manufacturers would pass on some of the costs to end users eventually.
He explained that flooding in cotton-producing countries like China, India, United States, Pakistan and Brazil had caused the serious shortage of supply of raw materials. Hong said he expected the price of cotton to stabilise only in the middle of next year when the production of polyester fibre, a substitue for cotton, increased.
“Currently, polyester fibre producers are struggling to increase production. They need time to enlarge their production capacity,” he added.
Grand Bell Trading Sdn Bhd, a manufacturer and retailer of Skiva undergarments, has plans to increase retail prices for its products next month.
Its chief executive officer Joseph See told The Star that the price of cotton was “surging crazily” last month, and its manufacturing unit had to pay 60% more for raw materials.
He said the company was bearing the increasing manufacturing costs since January.
“We have no choice but to pass on some of the costs to consumers by raising retail prices by about 20% next month,” he said.
See expected retailers in the undergarment industry to increase prices by at least 25%.
Sports and casual wear retailer Cheetah Holdings Bhd executive director Chia Kee Kwei also said prices of apparel and garments would be increased from next month.
“We are still working on a new pricing list for our products according to the manufacturing cost,” he said, adding that 70% of its apparels were imported.
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National
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