Portugal’s footwear manufacturers are receiving the first signs of a recovery. Nearly 2 out of 3 companies have enough orders to work for the next 2 months. While 50% of companies were forced to interrupt production activities in April, only 10% of companies hadn’t yet reopened their doors.
At least 2 months-worth of orders
APICCAPS, the national reference association for footwear manufacturers in Portugal created the “Weekly Situation Survey”, so as to continuously monitor the situation of Covid-19. The last survey shows promising results: 61% of companies stated to have enough orders to continue work for the next two months. Only 6% of companies had enough orders to only work for 1 week or less.
Nearly at full capacity
Portugal’s footwear segment started working again. Only 10% of companies hadn’t reopened as of the last week of May. The first negative sign is the reduction of orders from international clients, while in 2nd place is the lack of raw material, mostly the imported portion. Only 13% of employees, meanwhile, hasn’t gone back to work yet.
Critical signals
But there are issues. Such problems are shared across all the national footwear production, most of all European ones. “Simplified dismissals” were the preferred measure in Portugal, for 71% of businesses. Moreover, 66% of companies have already used the additional credit lines offered by the government or plan to do so in the future.
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