The development planning of Vietnam Textile and Garment Industry to 2015, vision 2020 aims to make textile industry become the key sector in export, satisfy the increasing demand for domestic consumption, improve competitiveness and firmly integrate into the regional economy and the world. Moreover, the textile industry needs to ensure the sustainable and effective development, on the basis of modern technologies, quality management system, labor management system and environment management system according to international standards. To achieve that goal, domestic textile enterprises are trying to renovate technologies, increase productivity and product quality. In particular, the issue of energy use plays an important role in reducing production costs.

In recent years, Vietnam's textile industry has been growing with high rate. In 2001, export turnover of textile products was only USD 1.97 billion, but in 2008, it increased to USD 9.1 billion USD, accounting for 14.38% of the total national export value.

Effort from enterprises

To compete in regional markets and the world, the cost factor is crucial to textile products of Vietnam. Therefore, many businesses have actively improved technology to minimize production costs.

According to Mr Nguyen Xuan Duong, General Director of Hung Yen Garment Joint Stock Company, in recent years, the company has significantly reduced electricity costs thanks to the use of energy saving lighting system and installation of energy saving devices for the sewing machine motors. Most recently, in 2009, the company invested nearly VND 200 million in installing Sewsaver device for 400W industrial sewing machines. Through one year of operation, 110 thousand kWh has been saved, over 85 tons of CO2 emissions has been reduced.

Only in 2009, 19/5 Textile and Garment Company, Hanoi, invested VND 12 billion in energy efficiency. With such investment, each year, this business could save a large amount of expenditure of over VND 1.5 billion. Also in Song Tien Garment Company, Tien Giang, energy saving solutions have helped the business save 270 kWh, equivalent to over VND 350 million annually.

Nam Dinh Textile and Garment Corporation, from 2006 to date, has implemented many projects to save energy in production. Calculations have shown that the enterprise has reduced electricity consumption by more than 530 KW, equivalent to billions of VND. To obtain that result, the business has had to invest nearly VND 9 billion by collected capital.

According to Mr. Pham Van Hung, Deputy General Director of Nam Dinh Textile and Garment Corporation, the company has found that saving energy is necessary since it contributes to reducing production costs, increasing competitiveness, increasing profitability, enhancing the lives of officials and employees and improving the environment. In addition to technological solutions which require large investment, the company has also applied management solutions such as establishing Department of energy efficiency, launching a movement extensively in the company to save energy to ensure that all units thoroughly cut power in break time and increase production in low-load hours.

Some businesses said that although they are aware that implementing energy efficiency in production has many benefits, it requires technology innovation and change of production lines. Speaking of technology is speaking about quite a lot of investment capital, while not all businesses have enough resources to implement. Moreover, many businesses are still confused of how to do and where to begin since they cannot approach credible information sources.

According to Mr. Nguyen Ba Vinh, head of the project Supporting small and medium enterprises in implementing energy efficiency, with the characteristics of the textile industry, immediate energy saving measures do not require a large amount of investment; some solutions such as improving lighting efficiency, strict consumption management, can help enterprises significantly reduce costs. When companies have been successful with these measures, they can gradually switch to complex technology solutions. Surveys in many textile enterprises have shown that the potential of energy saving mainly concentrates in the steam system, lighting system, compressed air system and load management system.

The potential is still large

According to a survey of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group, approximately 50% of the equipment of textile industry of our country has been used for over 20 years. Compared to Thailand and China, these technologies have been outdated for 15 - 20 years.

In Thailand, energy cost accounts for only 6-7% of the cost of textile products if they are produced with high consumption of raw materials and fuel; this number in Vietnam is 10-12%. In fact, most textile enterprises in Vietnam have the potential to reduce consumption of raw materials, fuel inputs and energy. Survey results have also shown that the rate of energy waste in this sector is up to 20%.

In dyeing factories, depending on the technology and production equipment, each ton of product has the potential to save approximately: 0.2 to 0.5 kg of dyes, 100-200 kg of chemical and auxiliary; 50-100 m3 of water; 150 kg of oil and approximately 50 - 150 kWh of electricity.

According to Mr. Vinh, survey results from the project “Promoting efficiency conservation in small and medium enterprises "(PECSME) have shown that the stage of vacuuming (to create dryness for fabrics) in textile businesses has the waste rate of about 25%. To overcome this problem, enterprises should install inverters. Through calculations, with the size of enterprises using 15kW vacuums, an investment of about VND 21 million in installing inverters can save approximately VND 20 million on electricity annually. Thus, only after about a year, businesses can retrieve investment capital.

Also at the stage of discharging glue after dyeing process, the level of waste is still great. Normally in businesses, motors of glue discharging machines only run at one speed so they cannot regulate the amount of water but through the valve system. Installation of inverters can overcome this situation.

Specifically, with a 25 HP glue discharging machine, installation of inverters costs about VND 61 million, can save about VND 56 million on electricity, thus the capital can be retrieved after one year.

 By Minh Duc