Indonesia's garment exports rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2017, mainly due to increased market concerns about the soaring unit price of Indonesian clothing exports. It is understood that Indonesia's garment production is limited by the backwardness of machinery and equipment and the inconvenience of electricity consumption, and the continued development of chemical fiber clothing has supported the export of Indonesian clothing. It is expected that Vietnam’s garment export competitiveness will recover as the US returns to the TPP process.

According to statistics, in October 2017, Indonesia's textile and apparel exports increased by 15.1% year-on-year, and in November, it increased by 16.1% year-on-year. In December, it increased by 5.7%. In October and November, the average unit price of Indonesian textile and apparel exports increased by 7.3% and 7.1% respectively, and in December it fell by 4.4%.

In 2017, Indonesia’s textile and apparel exports stagnated, and the export value increased by 5.9% year-on-year in US dollars. In 2017, Indonesia’s textile and apparel imports increased by 6.1% year-on-year, mainly due to the surge in Indonesia’s domestic population. And Indonesian garment production is highly dependent on imported yarns and fabrics. It is understood that Indonesia's garment exports to the United States continued to decline in 2017, but it is still the fourth largest supplier of apparel imports in the United States, second only to China, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

In the past few years, many factories in Indonesia have been forced to suspend production due to the continued increase in wages of Indonesian workers, 80% of equipment has been over 20 years, and poor quality of factory power grids. At the same time, the lack of raw materials such as cotton led to the transfer of Indonesian garment production to chemical fiber, and the implementation of preferential export policies in other countries led to a surge in Indonesian export competition.

It is expected that with the advancement of the US return to the TPP process, Vietnam’s export tax-free access policy to the US market will have a heavy blow to Indonesia’s garment exports.

Editor in charge: Xu Yuehua