Vietnam's COVID-19 lockdown ensnares world's clothing giants
29 September, 2021
From shoes and sweaters to car parts and coffee, Vietnam's strict and lengthy COVID-19 lockdown has sparked product shortages among worldwide brands such as Nike and Gap which have grown increasingly dependent on the country's manufacturers.
The snarl-ups at Vietnam's factories are part of a broader crisis around the planet that is sending inflation surging and raising concerns about the pace of recovery in the global economy.
At a fabric mill east of Hanoi, Claudia Anselmi - the Italian director of Hung Yen Knitting & Dyeing, a key cog in the supply chain of several European and American clothing giants - worries daily if the factory can keep the lights on.
Its output plunged by 50 per cent when Vietnam's latest devastating virus wave first struck in spring, and it faces perpetual problems securing the yarn it needs for its synthetic material.
"At first we were lacking people (to work) because everyone was stuck at home," said Anselmi, whose company's fabric is later used in swimwear and sportswear for customers including Nike, Adidas and Gap.
Now, "travel restrictions have jeopardised all logistics in and out ... this has created long, long delays," she told AFP. "We only survive if we have the stock."
While lockdowns are gradually loosening across the country as infections steadily decline, millions of Vietnamese have been under stay-at-home orders for months.
And a complex web of checkpoints and confusing travel permit regulations have made life impossible for truck drivers and businesses trying to move goods across, as well and in and out of, the country.
Hamza Harti, managing director at FM Logistic Vietnam, said that several drivers in the Mekong Delta had been forced to wait three days and nights in their vehicles to enter the city of Can Tho.
"They were without food, without anything," he told a French Chamber of Commerce panel discussion in Hanoi.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com