The collapse of the textile industry in South Africa has seen more than $13 million worth of equipment being sold online to companies in countries such as India, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
The Business Report newspaper of Johannesburg reported today that the transactions have been conducted by a company known as Textile Horizons in a joint venture with Goindustry DoveBid, one of the world's largest online auctioneering firms.
The newspaper quotes a partner of Textile Horizons, Reg Taylor, as saying that just about all the group's activities had been concentrated in South Africa due to the collapse of the local textile industry.
Taylor is quoted as saying: "To date, we have carried out the disposal of seven major textile mills randing from spinning (to) weaving, knitting, dyeing, printing and finishing plants.
"All equipment sold by means of online auctioning occupied approximately 2,00,000m sq factory sloot space and exceeded Rs 100 million (about $13 million)."
Most of the online buyers were from Indian, Bangladesh, Belarus, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, North America and South America.
Taylor is further quoted as saying: "The collapse is due to an unstable exchange rate, high labour costs, high service costs... As well as the flow of cheap apparel and textile imports from the Far East."
The situation was also exacerbated by drastically curtailed consumer spending due to the global economic meltdown.
