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Cashmere Faces Hard Times
Cashmere garment producers are racking their brains for ways to increase their incomes during the summer months, according to China Daily report.
As the days are heating up, cashmere garment makers are facing their toughest few months. To extricate themselves from this predicament, the sector has come up with a new product - summer cashmere clothing.
Hang Lianxiang, vice-president of the Inner Mongolia Erdos Cashmere Products Co Ltd, a leading firm in the sector, said his company last year released summer clothing under a new brandname - "Erdom."
He said they are also selling shirts made from a combination of cashmere and silk or cotton.
Backed by the company's large winter profits, Erdom did well last year and its sales are expected to increase by 30 per cent this year.
But analysts are not as optimistic as Hang.
The revenues from Erdom accounted for only 3 per cent of the company's total profits last year.
Analysts say the domestic market for summer clothing is already saturated and faces fierce competition between garments made from cotton, silk and linen.
Cashmere products, always sold at high prices, do comparatively badly on the domestic market even in winter. Although the manufacturers claim that the summer cashmere clothing they make is fashionable, comfortable and of high-quality, summer sales are still slow.
It will be a long time before cashmere garment producers gain a firm foothold in the summer clothing market, analysts said. Cutting prices, a common way for season-related industries to deal with the off season, does not appeal to cashmere garment makers.
Cashmere is a rare fabric and its price cannot be lowered without losses being incurred, Hang said.
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