Demand for apparel in the global market has shot up steadily since last year and the trend is likely to remain positive in the next few years.

PCCS Group Bhd executive chairman and group managing director Chan Choo Sing said the garment and textile industry was now recovering after the slowdown of 2008 and 2009.

“It is quite wrong to label it as a sunset industry as people still need to put on clothes,” he told StarBiz after the company AGM recently.

Chan said the demand for apparel and textile-related products would continue to increase in tandem with the global population growth.

The United Nations had in May projected that global population would likely reach seven billion by next month and might reach 10 billion by 2100.

Chan said the current debt crisis in the United States and certain countries in the eurozone did not have much impact on the company's operations and activities.

“Our buyers such as adidas, Benetton and Puma are from Europe and they are still ordering from us and not cutting down on their orders,” said Chan.

Meanwhile, executive director Cha Peng Koi said the company would not depend on a single market or region for its exports so as to lessen risks in times of economic uncertainties. For years, the company had been depended too much on the United States market but it has now exported its products to more countries in the world.

“We are not putting our eggs in one basket and are quite balanced in terms of exports to Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America,” said Cha. Although the United States and Europe are facing economic uncertainties, the slowdown was mitigated by good prospects in Asia and Latin America.

Asia would become more important to the company in the coming years with strong economic growth despite the economic woes in the United States and Europe, he said.

The demand for sportswear in Brazil and other Latin American countries would likely go up as Brazil would be hosting the Summer Olympics in 2016 and the World Cup in 2018, he said, adding that from his experience, when China hosted the 2008 Olympics the demand for sportswear in the republic had surged.