Mr Lim Tjin Ik

Mr.Mr.Mr. Lim Tjin IkLim Tjin IkLim Tjin Ik

Mr. Lim Tjin Ik, a first-generation fabric manufacturer, formed his own textile company along with his brother in 1999. Before that, his brother had split up from his business partner due to the economic downturn in 1997, then he and his brother decided to form a new company that was fully owned by their family. The previous company was one of those that experienced hard conditions during the economic downturn. And although they are running a textile business, they never received any formal education in textiles. His company today specializes in fabrics for knitting.

In 1998, the situation was chaotic. There were riots at that time, but they still managed to run the business very well, all because of African buyers and the exchange rate. African buyers bought finished goods and the exchange rate got higher (1$=17k). At the end of 1998, they finished liquidating the company successfully. In the knitting industry, they would mostly sell their products directly to the garment house, fashion house or confection house. Although the company could directly sell their products to all their targets, the trading house could sell the product to all its targets. As a result, their main buyers were the trading houses.

The whole process of production starts with the fiber. There are 3 main fibers in the world. The first one is cotton, the second is polyester and the third one is viscose/rayon. Cotton is made from cotton tree fiber, polyester is produced from the petrochemical industry and viscose are man-made fibers made from pulp (paper porridge).

From fibers, yarn is made in the spinning mill. And it is then knitted to become raw fabric. After that, it will go into textile processing which consists of dyeing (coloring) the fabric, heating, and softening the fabric to stabilize it. Finally, it will go to the garment process to make clothes.

Mr Lim's company is now facing the same struggles as other textile businesses, such as illegal imports, smuggling and scamming. Several years ago, people would import used clothes, as usually in more developed countries people would use their clothes for a maximum of 2 years, unlike in Indonesia where lots of people will keep their clothes for a long time (at least 5 years).

As you probably know, China is the biggest garment manufacturer in the world, While the biggest factory in Indonesia produces 350 tons per day, in China 350 tons per day is considered small. But in Indonesia, we have a unique strong point since Indonesia is the biggest market for Moslem wear, which accounts for about 70% of garments sold in Indonesia.

Issues that need to be addressed after the pandemic include the fact that the supply chains are not as smooth as before because of the slower freight flow from country to country, and that many factories are closed. The prices of raw materials now are also very high compared to before the pandemic. For example, one bale of cotton yarn used to cost 8.5 million RP, but now the price is 15 million RP per bale. Prices of chemicals for dyeing have also increased by up to 150 per cent. Therefore, the supply and demand situation is not working well, since the supply is limited.

Textile companies in the past were also often considered polluting industries. All parts from upstream to downstream (from the cotton field to fabric manufacturing) were causing pollution, especially for the dyeing. For the last 25 years, there has been a movement toward sustainability to support the environment and the Earth’s greenery. In 2018, Indonesia launched environmental laws that industries would have to follow, so in the future, sustainability for the Indonesian textile industry will hopefully become better.

written by Faith Abigail Hernawan