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Coronavirus: China’s textile exporters brace for pain amid wave of cancelled overseas orders
- Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the entire fashion development, order and production cycle this year
- Textile traders say orders from US and Europe may be very low until August or September
Reading Time:5 minutes
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The most frequent query that Jeremy Maclaurin has received from Chinese textile and apparel makers in recent days is: when are our next orders coming in?
MacLaurin runs China Textile Traders, which helps brands source from the southern Chinese manufacturing hub Guangdong province, as well as from other Asian countries like Vietnam.
Normally at this time of the year, brands are looking for new product samples to use for the winter season, he said.
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But the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the entire cycle of fashion sourcing and is threatening to slash orders in coming months, making the manufacturers’ questions very tough to answer.
“At the moment, we are still catching up with post-Lunar New Year orders. We just anticipate that once these orders are fulfilled, we are going to have a very quiet three to four months – probably until August or September,” MacLaurin said on the phone from his office in Vietnam.
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The situation for Chinese exporters has changed dramatically over the past two months. In February, they were unable to work on overseas orders due to draconian lockdowns imposed by the Chinese government.
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