A garment's cost is built up from fabric consumption per piece plus trims, then the cut, make and trim (CMT) charge, any washing or printing, packing, testing, factory overheads and margin, and finally the inland freight and port charges needed to reach the Incoterm point for a free on board (FOB) price. The two numbers buyers hear most often, CMT and FOB, are two different points on that build-up. CMT is only the factory's charge for converting your fabric and trims into garments; FOB is the whole garment delivered on board a vessel at a named port such as Mundra, Hazira or Pipavav.
Knowing how the stack is assembled lets you compare quotations properly, because two factories quoting the same FOB price may have built it very differently.
The cost build-up in order
- Fabric: consumption per garment in metres or kilograms, including cutting waste, multiplied by the fabric price, with any shrinkage allowance.
- Trims and components: thread, buttons, zips, labels, interlining and hangtags at their quantity per garment.
- CMT: the factory's labour, machine and supervision charge for cutting, sewing and finishing, usually set from the standard minutes a style takes to make.
- Wet and value-added processing: washing, garment dyeing, printing, embroidery or special finishes, often done by outside units and charged per piece.
- Packing: polybags, cartons, tissue and any retail packaging.
- Testing and compliance: lab tests on fabric and garments, inspection charges and any certification costs allocated to the order.
- Overheads and margin: the factory's fixed costs and profit, applied as a percentage or an amount per piece.
- Freight to the Incoterm point: inland transport, terminal handling and documentation for FOB; for ex-works these are excluded, and for CIF or similar the ocean freight and insurance are added.
CMT and FOB in practice
A CMT arrangement means you, or your agent, buy and deliver the fabric and trims and the factory charges only for conversion. It gives you control over fabric quality and price, but it also makes you responsible for consumption, yield, delays and shortages. An FOB arrangement puts all of that on the factory, which buys everything and delivers finished goods to the port.
Many buyers choose FOB for simplicity but still ask for a CMT breakdown inside the quotation. That lets you see whether fabric is being bought efficiently, whether the standard minutes look realistic for the style, and where a price difference between two factories actually comes from.
Consumption is the figure to question. A small saving in fabric per garment, found through a better marker or a tighter cutting lay, can outweigh any plausible reduction in the sewing charge.
How we help
We ask factories for open costings with consumption, CMT and processing shown separately, and we check the fabric and trim prices in the quotation against what the mills are actually charging. We visit and audit each unit, keep one approved supplier plus one backup, seal the PP sample, send sealed samples to an NABL-accredited lab, inspect inline and at final, and supervise loading. Weekly updates keep you informed, and a free 20-minute sourcing review is a good place to compare quotations you already hold.