Orders are back

With drastic solutions to facilitate production and business activities, maintain a growth rate, economic situation of the province in the third quarter continued to show optimistic signs. In September, the province's key products continued to grow well. According to information from associations and industries, many good signals are approaching after months of efforts to maintain production. Export turnover of wood products in September was estimated at USD 612.7 million, up 6.5% compared to the previous month, garment exports were estimated at USD 338.2 million, up 10.7% over the previous month... The growth figures have been the motivation for industries to accelerate their operations in last months of the year, creating new motivation for the new period.

Companies are pleased and encouraged as orders start to flourish again, and are making efforts to offset negative effects of the pandemic. Sompob Witworrasakul, General Director of Vina Kraft Paper Company, said the company overcame certain difficulties, gradually operated steadily and strived to fulfill targets set in this year. Mr. Sompob appreciated Binh Duong's effort in disease epidemic control, creating favorable conditions, supporting enterprises to operate effectively.

To food production companies, such as Vi Hao Company (Tan Uyen Town), the recovery sign from export orders is quite clear. By the end of September, orders from the U.S., Europe, Japan, South Korea also began to return. "The return of orders are a good sign for manufacturing sectors, but the challenge now is that partners have not placed long-term orders but only immediate needs", said Nguyen Thi Xuan Thuy, Managing Director of Vi Hao Company.

In the domestic market, enterprises have also been striving to achieve equal revenues to ones in 2019. Many retail companies are implementing a throughout strategy that focuses on existing resources, especially to retain customers through improving services and launching many discounts and promotions to stimulate consumption. According to a representative of MM Mega Market, since the epidemic outbreak, all sales from wholesale sales to restaurants, hotels, schools have declined, even there were months without revenue. To ensure equal revenue to the figure in 2019, enterprises also proposed many solutions, including focusing on sales promotions and discounts to stimulate consumer demand. Currently, many items in this supermarket system are having a reduction rate of up to 50%. After the outbreak of Covid-19, consumer habits and behaviors have changed dramatically. Consumers tend towards online shopping. Therefore, the prioritized strategy of this company this year is to find and expand the market, research and develop new product lines and continue to implement cost reduction measures.

Many great opportunities

A positive sign for the footwear industry after the Covid-19 is that Vietnamese enterprises have many great opportunities to participate in the world supply chain. Nguyen Duc Thuan, Chairman of Vietnam Leather Footwear and Handbag Association, said: "The world's major footwear corporations are projecting to shift about 15-20% of the supply chain from China to other countries. Vietnam is a place that can quickly satisfy large and difficult orders. When the Covid-19 subsides, many orders for shoes and bags will move to Vietnam."

Contrary to the previous hesitancy, Tran Thanh Trong, Chairman of Provincial Association of Electrical Engineering, said that many enterprises in the association were confident in their production capacity to participate in the market supply chain, especially to immediately supply FDI enterprises in Binh Duong to minimize transportation, import costs, reduce product costs, improve the competitiveness of goods. In particular, many enterprises manufacture not only simple products, such as screws, molds, plastic covers, packaging... but also products with high added values, such as motor cores, electronic chips, circuit boards...

Currently, many FDI enterprises, after a favorable investment period in Binh Duong, have expanded their production scale and continued to increase investment capital in factories. According to Tran Van Hiep, General Director of Dai Hoang Company specializing in factory construction for foreign partners: “During the epidemic, our company still worked to full capacity, and now we cannot receive more orders. Customers regularly update production progress via Email, Zalo... Up to now, the company has signed construction contracts for 10 projects with investment capital from several millions to several tens of million USD”.