The profits of most listed apparel companies in Bangladesh tumbled in July-September quarter due to the collapse in demand abroad amid the coronavirus pandemic. Fifteen of 39 textile and garment Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) listed companies who published their first quarterly financial reports, posted lower profits than in the same period a year ago. Nine of these companies made profits during the period while five companies extended their struggle to return to profits.

The woven sector received the major blow as the demand for formal shirts and apparel products dropped, said Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury, Chairman, Evince Textile. Export earnings from the sector declined by 5.78 per cent to $3.88 billion in the July-September quarter, reveals data from the Export Promotion Bureau Of the total earnings , $4.46 billion came from knitwear shipment, which rose 7.04 per cent. Many retailers thought they would do good business during Christmas, the biggest spending season in the western world, but it might not happen because of the second wave. The textile sector performed worse than expected said Mir Ariful Islam, Head-Research, Prime Finance Asset Management Company.

Between July and September, the shipment of apparels grew 0.84 per cent year-on-year to $8.12 billion. Among the listed textile firms, 14 apparel companies incurred loss in the quarter, the highest ratio among all the industries..Safko Spinning was the biggest loser: its EPS was Tk 2.09 in the negative in the quarter, higher from Tk 1.62 in the negative in the first quarter of 2019-20.