As the clouds of recession started failing, andcountries seeing hope, the cruel twist of fate seems to assault through the ashclouds spewed from the Iceland volcano to infect trade activities.
Clouds of volcanic ash from Iceland moved in the air and madeits way into the Northern Europe affecting trade and transportation. Withclouds of ash drifting southeast from the volcanic eruption, most of the airspace of Europe has been closed. Due to ash clouds, air space over Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, and Spain are closed. Heathrow, Schipol, Frankfurt, Brussels and fewother airports are also shut down. Even flights from Newfoundland and Canada were cancelled as a cloud of volcanic material drifted westward towards Canada. A total of 313 airports have been reported to be affected, with cancellations ofmore than 63,000 flights since April 15th. The economy of theseplaces and many other countries are brought to a gridlock. Apparel industry isnot an exemption to this.
Though affect to some extent seriously, still, garmentindustries can take comfort over other businesses dealing with perishablearticles like flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Fashion retailers who move theirmerchandise through air transport will have an impact. They have to ensure aregular supply of new and latest design apparels matching with the currenttrends. Even before the business is finalized they require sending samplegarments many times from their overseas factories to the buying offices in manyparts of Europe. Due to delayed flights, they are now falling behind theirdeadlines. Due to this, garments are now piling up in the factories.
The extent of impact of these ash clouds have been to aglobal level. Businessmen from all over the world are suffering, with exportersgetting nervous about their losses, delay in payments, and cancellation of bigorders. Bulk orders for low-priced items are usually shipped, while high endluxury articles are sent through air. Indian exports worth of $1 billion areexpected to be affected. Delivery of goods is likely to be rejected, and orderbookings will get cancelled. As most of the goods now are being shipped, cargocosts have doubled now. Many consignments are also cut off due to delay intimely delivery.
German brand Hugo Boss expects delay in its pre-springcollection such as Macys Inc, and Nordstrom Inc. Shutdown of air cargo routesto Europe has its impact on the high-end exports from South Chinas Pearl RiverDelta which is known as the worlds factory floor.
Apparel retailers are bracing themselves for delays causedby the ash clouds. They positively hope that the disruption ends soon, thingsfall back to its place, and their business start soaring once again.
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