This is the only country where the number of infected people may exceed 700 million. The epidemic is extremely serious, but the people are quite optimistic.
According to institutional research, India may become the only country in the world with more than 700 million confirmed cases, which is 60% of the entire population. Already infected. So with so many people infected, why has India only announced 10 million now? In fact, the reason is very simple. On the one hand, India’s medical conditions are limited, and on the other hand, India’s current testing capacity is also very limited, and the Indian government also intends to reduce the scope of testing, causing the entire epidemic to be seriously underestimated.
As we all know, India is actually a country with a huge textile and clothing industry. It is understood that there are more than 17,000 garment processing factories in Tirupur in the south. More than half of the clothing comes from here, which is equivalent to the clothing wholesale market in Guangzhou, China. It is a place that relies on one industry to develop.
In recent years, India has always been accustomed to comparing its economy with China. Although the total economic growth cannot compare, it might as well compare its economic growth rate. Unexpectedly, an epidemic directly caused India’s economic growth to “overturn.” What is even more surprising is that India suddenly “changed its attitude” and transferred the orders it had been holding tightly to China, and the amount of these orders actually accounted for 20% of the total orders. Why is India suddenly so generous and willing to take the initiative to share orders with China so that Chinese companies can make money? Is there anything “tricky” in it?
Since the epidemic swept through India, according to the latest data, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in India has exceeded 32 million, and the death toll has been close to 440,000. Many garment industries have experienced difficulties in production and have even gone bankrupt.
The city of Tirupur in southern India is known as the “Textile and Clothing Capital of India”. Here, there are more than 17,000 garment processing companies and related supporting industry chains have been established. Although there is still a considerable gap compared with Guangzhou in my country, its scale and supporting services have gradually matured. More than half of India’s clothing comes from here, and a large number of overseas orders flow from here.
However, the epidemic changed everything. Since the epidemic in India has never been completely controlled, the Indian market has shrunk. At the same time, many overseas orders have also been greatly affected by the epidemic. In addition, workers often become infected, causing production efficiency to drop again and again. In the end, many small and medium-sized factories were forced to temporarily close or directly declare bankruptcy because they could not bear the losses. However, some large factories face three embarrassing problems.
First of all, during the epidemic, workers either fell ill or took leave, making their attendance extremely unstable, but the factory had nothing to do about it. At the same time, factories are also facing difficulties in recruiting workers, causing production capacity to become extremely unstable.
Secondly, because some large factories still have a backlog of orders, they cannot even stop production. Once the work is stopped, not only orders and customers will be lost, but also large amounts of liquidated damages will be faced. Therefore, even if we bite the bullet, we still have to start work and maintain part of our production capacity. However, even if part of the production capacity can be maintained, it is still difficult to compare with the peak production capacity. This also leaves them with empty orders, but not enough production capacity to complete them. As a last resort, they have to transfer these orders to China.
Finally, it is also the most embarrassing problem for Indian companies. That is, as up to 20% of clothing orders were transferred to China, a large number of overseas orders also “bypassed” India and went straight to China. As a result, with India’s “magic assist”, my country’s clothing exports actually achieved a 17.3% growth from January to May this year. In just half a year, total exports reached US$112.7 billion.
Faced with this situation, frankly speaking, Indian companies are “very unhappy”, but they have nothing to do. Looking at the world, China is the only country that can receive 20% of India’s clothing orders, and the quality of the clothing produced can be guaranteed. In this way, Indian companies can at least retain customers.
Previously, relevant Indian departments have given a set of survey data. According to the data, the amount of losses suffered by clothing production factories in Tirupur during the epidemic has far exceeded 100 billion rupees. According to the current exchange rate, it is approximately 8.686 billion yuan. However, the real loss is even greater, likely reaching 10 billion yuan. In desperation, India can only turn to China and transfer 20% of its orders to China, hoping that China can take over this batch of orders. Why choose China instead of Vietnam or other countries?
First, China is close to India. The domestic epidemic situation in China is now stable, while Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries are still deeply affected by the epidemic.In such a hot and deep market, only China has the ability and strength to undertake orders.
Secondly, China’s textile industry is also world-famous, with high quality, so it is absolutely reliable to find China.
Thirdly, the Chinese market is huge. Many countries sell clothes to China after manufacturing them in India. Now they can be sold directly to China and save tariffs. It can be said to be a win-win situation.
For this reason, some Western media said that because of the epidemic, the Indian city of Tirupur missed an excellent opportunity to close the gap with Guangzhou, China. On the contrary, in terms of clothing production and export, the gap between the two sides has become wider and wider due to the epidemic. However, some Indian economic “experts” have given a different view. In the opinion of Indian experts, although the epidemic has had a big impact on the clothing production of Tirupur, it is also a major “shuffle”. event”.
When the epidemic passes, the medium and large garment factories in Tirupur will absorb more labor and conduct market integration. After that, the strength of medium and large garment factories and enterprises in Tirupur will only increase instead of decreasing. In the long run, this will lay the foundation for India’s apparel production and exports to take off.
However, compared to the optimism of Indian “experts”, local people say that we cannot compare with China at all. The epidemic is like this, the manufacturing industry is like this, and the clothing production is also like this. China’s garment exports are growing, but even if local garment factories can survive the epidemic, they will ultimately be unable to survive.
The closure of a large number of factories means that there will be a lot of local unemployment. So, how can the situation be optimistic? Regarding the views of Indian “experts”, the local people’s attitude is very clear. They believe that the “experts” just stand up and talk without pain, and are of no use at all. But despite this, local factories are still working hard to “survive” and apply for subsidies from local city-states, hoping to survive this “cold winter.”
In general, the epidemic has a particularly large impact on the world, especially labor-intensive industries. The impact is more serious, but fortunately these industries in India are not high-tech, otherwise it would be difficult to find someone to take over. </p
