Covid's second wave of panic weakened import orders
Bangladesh's import orders fell nearly 14% in October as garment exporters cut back on textile purchases in the second wave of coronavirus in the United States and Europe.
According to the latest data from the central bank, the amount of L / C opened in October fell to $3.83 billion from $4.43 billion a month ago.
Similarly, in value terms, the settlement of letters of credit (commonly known as actual imports) fell by more than 10% from $3.71 billion in October to $3.34 billion in October.
A senior official of the Bank of Bangladesh (BB) said in a talk with Fuyu that the country's overall imports fell again as a second wave of coronavirus infection swept through the United States and European countries, which reduced demand for clothing (RMG) products in Bangladesh.
Moreover, the central bank governor attributed the recession to an unexpected slowdown in the global economy from the pandemic.
According to BB data, the opening volume of import letters of credit for textile back-to-back imports fell by more than 21% to $4313.4 million in October from $5467 million in September 2020.
After analyzing the data for the past eight months, it was found that the downward trend in imports started in April this year after the outbreak of the coronavirus in Bangladesh.
From July 2020, the overall import business will start to decline again from June 2020. The downward trend in imports continued into August.
RMG entrepreneurs pay close attention to the overall situation because they are worried about the outbreak of a new covid-19 pandemic in western countries, Bangladesh's main export destination.
"New orders for RMG products have fallen slightly since October due to the second wave of covid-19," said Fazlul hoque, former chairman of the BKMEA
Mr hoque, who is also managing director of plummy fashions, is concerned that back to back imports of RMG products may fall further in November.
Sayeed Ahmed Chowdhury, general manager of square denims, echoed Mr hoque that new orders from global buyers fell by about 7.0% during this period, mainly due to the second wave of coronavirus infection around the world.
"Supply chain disruption in the clothing and apparel industry continues due to the continued covid-19 pandemic," Chaudhry said
On the other hand, import orders for raw cotton increased by nearly 20% to $237.1 million from $194.2 million a month ago, while the opening of letters of credit for capital machines increased from $409.8 million to $448.8 million.
