Textile industry unravels

JAMES HALL
MBABANE – Road and rail transport firms headquartered or working in Swaziland stand to lose one-third of their business as many customers in the textile industry and once-flourishing garment factories downsize this year.
A third of the country’s 45 000 garment workers will be jobless by June, and no garment maker has orders to fill beyond March. Swazi goods are priced in rands, and because of currency appreciation they are twice as expensive for US customers as they were two years ago, negating the AGOA benefit of allowing Swaziland-made products to enter the American market duty free. The second culprit is China’s entrance into the world market this year, which has brought inexpensive garments that undercut Swazi prices.
“A Chinese worker gets about R427 a month. A Swazi worker earns twice as much, R915,” said Robert Maxwell of the textile exporters’ association.
Swaziland Railway, which brings in raw materials from Durban and returns to the port with finished garments, is experiencing declining business.
“We transport 100% of their raw materials into the kingdom. If these firms close down our company as a transporter will be negatively affected,” said Gideon Mahlalela, the railway’s CEO.
Ironically, Swaziland’s garment factories are largely owned by investors from Taiwan, China’s rival. Taiwan paid for a R9 million renovation of the Matsapha Inland Container Depot, the so-called Dry Port, to assist the export of garment products.
Some trucking companies dispute Mahlalela’s claim that garment factory raw materials are brought in exclusively by rail. They say they are experiencing a decline in business as the clothing shops shut down.