Clothing imports hit local production, employment
● Employment in the clothing sector has declined as increased garment imports have led to a drop in local production.
The number of workers in the textile, knit mills and clothing industry dropped from 120 000 in 1995 to 20 000 in 2016, according to a report compiled last year by Helena Claassens of Cotton South Africa.
Stuart Queen, CEO of Deneb Investments, which has a textile manufacturing division and specialises in knit cotton, said most yarn imports carried a duty of 15%. Finished garments and fabrics brought into South Africa at undeclared values remained a significant problem for the formal clothing and textile industry, he said.
“We largely source our cotton yarn from regional sources. We do import certain yarns that are either not made locally or can’t be sourced at competitive prices.”
The knitted fabric manufacturing segment had been a relatively stable part of the industry for “quite a few years”.
“The main reason for this is that there is usually less variety in the knitted fabric segment compared with woven fabrics, and hence greater volumes of knitted fabrics are produced. Textile mills need volumes to operate efficiently,” Queen said.
Deneb produces up to six million metres of fabric a year.
Claassens’s report said that in 2013 the government approved a five-year business plan and R200-million in funding to establish the Southern African Sustainable Textile and Apparel Cluster (Sastac), to build capacity in the cotton industry.
Employment had declined from 2000 onwards, the report said. Textiles, especially spinning and weaving, are mostly capital intensive, while knitting mills are both capital and labour intensive. Clothing is mostly labour intensive.
“Exports of clothing showed a stagnant line. Whatever programme was introduced by government had little or no effect on the exports of clothing. On the contrary, imports increased substantially while exports represent a flat line,” it said.
Brian Brink, executive director at Textile Federation, said Sastac became the Sustainable Cotton Cluster (SCC) shortly after it was formed. Its main focus was the cotton value chain.
There was still a significant volume of fabric available, both knitted and woven, complemented by imported fabrics, to make up any shortfall in demand.
“There are no incentives for exports,” he said. “These are prohibited in terms of our international undertakings. Imports are subject to the normal duties and to preferential duties from countries with which trade agreements have been concluded.
“In short, illegal imports need to be halted, skills development needs to be vigorously pursued, preferential domestic purchasing programmes instituted and the investment incentive programme currently in place needs to be maintained and redirected.
“The biggest factor to have hit the industry is illegal imports, which commenced in the early 2000s and persist to the present day,” said Brink.
Denim designer Tshepo Mohlala, who sells his clothing independently and uses social media as a tool to launch his collections, said he sourced his material from fabric retailers in Johannesburg.
“The biggest challenge is fabric supply. We don’t have denim mills in South Africa, so the industry is nonexistent. We buy what we can find in the market, and this means we have small runs.”
100 000 jobs lost over past 20 years in textile and garment industry