Textile exports to U.S. rose in January

Textile exports to U.S. rose in January

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian textile exports to the world's largest market, the
United States, were on the rise over the past two months, raising
optimism about the outlook of the industry that has cut tens of
thousands of jobs over the past few years.

Quoting data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Baahri La
Inggi, a textile industry analyst, said Indonesian textile
exports to the U.S. rose by around 8.6 percent to US$223.76 in
January this year, compared to the same month of last year.

For February, he expected that exports to the U.S. could rise
by at least 6 percent.

"We have yet to find out the figures of our exports in
February. But I have confidence that our exports booked an
at-least-6-percent increase compared to the same period a year
ago," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Baahri, who is also an advisor to the Indonesian Textile
Association (API) for Greater Jakarta, argued that the increase
was caused by buyers' experiences over the years that Indonesian
textile products were better quality than products from China and
Vietnam.

"Although Indonesian textiles are more expensive than products
from China, buyers from the U.S. and France have come to realize
that we have higher quality products than both of our
competitors," he said.

Despite a better performance in 2003, the nation's textile
industry has experienced difficulties for years in competing with
products from China and Vietnam, which have been flooding the
global market, including Indonesia, over the past few years.

Several analysts have painted a bleaker outlook for this year,
predicting more job losses in the industry, which was forced to
cut about 50,000 jobs in 2002.

Indonesia's textile exports reached $7.034 billion in 2003, an
increase from $6.88 billion in 2002. However, the 2003 figure was
still lower than exports in 2001 and 2000 which stood at $7.67
billion and $8.20 billion respectively.

The U.S. market absorbs more than 28 percent of Indonesian
textile exports while European Union countries, Canada, and Japan
take 40 percent, 10 percent and 6 percent respectively. Indonesia
now has 2.5 percent of the total world market share.

A textile exporter, A.T. Chuan, acknowledged that he managed
to increase his exports in 2003, while he also experienced export
growth in the first two months of the year.

"Hopefully, the trend will continue for the rest of the year,"
he said.

Sofyan Wanandi, the chairman of the Indonesian Employers
Association (APINDO) said the current export trend belied the
notion that the performance of Indonesia's textile industry was
declining.

"Many of our products, especially the high quality ones, can
compete with products from China and Vietnam," he said.

However, he admitted that several problems, such as outdated
machineries, would remain major threats for the survival of the
industry for at least three years to come.

"We need investment to replace these machines so badly. The
problem is that the banking sector has misjudged the prospect of
the industry and refuse to give credit to textile businessmen. As
a matter of fact, they are bankable," said Sofyan.