Previous Story
Apparel firm prepares for globalization
|
Posted on May 17 2004
Globalization and the upcoming elimination of quotas on world trade in 2005 have started to hit home for Saipan’s apparel industry. Last week, Concorde Garment Manufacturing Inc., an affiliate of L&T Corp. and a leading manufacturer on Saipan, took measures to streamline its workforce, citing the need to trim overhead in order to compete in the global market.
While the company declined to release numbers, the apparel manufacturer provided notice to employees of numerous departments that certain operations would be affected. The company said great care was given to workforce reduction policies and protecting the rights of employees in any severance procedures.
Labor is a major component of the prices Saipan’s factories can offer buyers. Ultimately price is expected to dictate where the orders will go. The 2005 quota phase-out is already bringing on “price wars” for apparel.
“Today’s environment calls for short lead time and competitive prices. We must be able to produce apparel at the right costing. As a result of this, Concorde is in the process of re-engineering the factory and streamlining so it can better compete,” said company officials.
Over the past few years, Saipan’s apparel industry has identified measures it wants to see put in place to help it remain competitive. These include a renegotiation of certain trade concessions with the federal government, similar to the favorable agreements with Central America, Africa and Singapore. However, to date the CNMI government has not made significant moves to protect the industry as many other countries are now doing.
