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Indonesia launches Asia Pacific Rayon (APR) factory in Pelalawan, Riau. The new plant is a step forward for Indonesia's Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0. It has the technology to turn wood into fabrics and garments.
The factory is an affiliate of pulp and paper producer Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings, and both entities are subsidiaries of the Singapore-based Royal Golden Eagle. It claims to be the first fiber plant to have the capacity of planting and harvesting trees for sustainable sourcing and manufacturing. According to its sustainable policy, APR is committed to only sourcing wood fiber from sustainably managed plantations
With this new APR plant, Indonesia attempts to monitor the entire supply chain for viscose to brand itself as a market for ‘sustainable fashion.’
In Pelalawan, where the APR plant is set up, the forests were destroyed by recurring fires, a problem accelerated by the expanding palm plantations. Big corporations were accused of clearing vegetation for palm oil, pulp and paper plantations with a slash-and-burn technique to yield extra land. Indonesia saw 328,724 hectares of land burnt in 2019 alone, most of which were rainforests. Those that have already been developed into economic plantations, however, stayed untouched from the fires.
The First South Asian Conference on Sustainability in Textile and Apparel Industry was held in New Delhi at the C D Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Centre. The conference inaugurated by the Textiles and Women and Child Development Smriti Z Irani, focused on creating awareness amongst students and young professionals about the sustainable built environment, safer work places for workers and minimum damage to the environment.
It was organized by the Prem Jain Memorial Trust and Michigan State University, in association with School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi, Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, IDH-the Sustainable Trade Initiative, Indian Green Building Council and Ella Pad Foundation, Bangladesh.
Prem Jain Memorial Trust’s mission is to create, establish and maintain the sustainability paradigm through education, recognition and nurturing of the present and future generations. Its vision is to identify future leaders and be a catalyst for global development of sustainability, to create awareness and advocacy on sustainability and environment and to nurture India's young talent by disseminating education on sustainable development ecosystems, built environment, traditions, arts, crafts and related studies across India’s youth and working professionals.
The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has purchased 10,000 bales over the last few days for its commercial account due to low prices. Seventy lakh bales have been purchased under the minimum support price (MSP) operations till now. Nearly 65 per cent of the cotton has arrived in the market. Nearly 53 per cent of the cotton procured so far this season is from Telangana. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana are the top three cotton growing states in the country. Though there has been a marginal rise in buying for the commercial account, the state-run corporation is hard pressed as MSP purchases are in full swing.
This is probably the first time commercial purchase is happening alongside MSP operations. Last year, the agency had commenced commercial operations during the end of March. CCI is likely to purchase nearly 80 lakh bales under MSP operations for this season and could even buy up to 96 lakh bales subject to market conditions. The MSP for medium-staple variety of cotton is Rs 5,255 per quintal and Rs 5,550 per quintal for long staple cotton. CCI has nine lakh bales stock of cotton from the previous seasons and 70 lakh bales from this season. CCI might look at exports. It has received enquiries from Bangladesh for exports.
The Cotton Corporation of India, Ministry of Textiles established in the year 1974 has been exercising commercial cotton operations and cotton minimum support price operations to protect the interests of the cotton farmers and the predominantly cotton based textile industry. CCI had to exercise MSP operations during the start of the 2018-19 season and also during the current cotton season due to the fall in market prices, sluggish market conditions globally and considerable increase in the domestic crop output. CCI could not sell the cotton procured in the 2018-19 season to the tune of nine lakh bales due to drop in prices. During the current season, CCI has procured over 60 lakh bales of cotton under MSP, the cost of which is much higher than the market price. Hence, CCI has been quoting higher prices than the market price and practically there was no off-take except the mandatory purchases by the public sector spinning mills. The cotton industry has been pleading with the Ministry of Textiles to sell the cotton at market prices to have stability in the cotton market and protect the interests of the spinning mills and its downstream power loom and handloom sectors.
In a press release issued today, Mr. Ashwin Chandran, Chairman, The Southern India Mills Association has thanked the Hon’ble Union Textile Minister Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani for the intervention, enabling CCI to offer volume based bulk discounts for its 2018-19 cotton and protecting the interests of MSME spinning mills by offering the discounts from 500 bales and restricting the same at 10,000 bales. The discount ranges from Rs. 3,200 to Rs. 4,400 per candy of 355 kgs and CCI has quoted Rs. 46,400 per candy for 30 mm cotton of fair average quality while the current market price is around Rs. 40,500.
SIMA Chairman has stated that considering the free lifting period and quality claimed by CCI for its cotton, the prices would come closer to the market prices and mills might commence procurement from CCI. Mr. Ashwin hopes that CCI would soon offer its current year MSP cotton at market prices at constant intervals till season end and facilitate stability in cotton prices.
Mr. Ashwin stated that CCI had earlier offered attractive bulk discounts and free period upto 120 days facilitating multinational cotton traders to garner the cotton and speculate the prices during off-season. He has appreciated the bold decision of the present Hon’ble Union Textile Minister to abolish such discounts during 2017 to stabilise the cotton prices, protect the interests of the actual users of cotton especially the MSME spinning segment and its downstream sectors.
SIMA Chief has appealed to the Government to include cotton yarn under various export benefits such as IES (interest subvention) and RoSCTL/RoDTEP (refund of embedded/blocked taxes and levies), to make Indian cotton yarn which attracts considerable tariff in all the export markets, globally competitive and thereby boost exports. Cotton yarn export from India has dropped around 30 percent during the year 2019-20 when compared to the previous year. Mr. Ashwin stated that increased yarn exports will stimulate demand for cotton which in turn would also help the Government to reduce the losses on account of MSP as CCI is on track to procure upto 100 lakh bales of cotton during the current cotton season.
"Automation not only enables apparel manufacturers to design multiple styles in short runs but also manage stock levels, improve delivery times and boost the quality and consistency of garments. The latest era of automation ‘Industry 4.0’ includes a host of innovations from industrial-scale ‘Internet of things’ and augmented reality, to machine-to-machine communication in knitting machines, and 3D printing."
Automation not only enables apparel manufacturers to design multiple styles in short runs but also manage stock levels, improve delivery times and boost the quality and consistency of garments. The latest era of automation ‘Industry 4.0’ includes a host of innovations from industrial-scale ‘Internet of things’ and augmented reality, to machine-to-machine communication in knitting machines, and 3D printing.
Just as in the rest of the world, automation is also taking root in Bangladesh, especially in many of its mass-market manufacturing factories from where top global apparel brands source. Factors like customisation and quick delivery are driving demand for better and more sophisticated automation in these factories. Customers are also demanding granularity, with more and more bespoke designs. For instance, Fung Group has been experimenting with customised shirt-making, made to measure garments that use a digital scan of a person’s body.
Increasing labor costs driving automation
One factor driving demand for automation is increasing labor costs. For instance, Chinese apparel firm Tianyuan
Garments has invested more than $20 million in a factory in Little Rock, Arkansas in the US. Though the factory has a staff of 400 laborers, it also uses 24 robots capable of producing one T-shirt every 30 seconds without any need for human intervention. Similarly, sportswear giant Adidas has developed highly automated speed factories that boast production speeds by three times.
Barriers in growth of automation
However, despite various benefits, the process of automation is not yet widespread as automated machines and equipment are expensive and their reconfiguring and redesigning requires time and skills. The pay-off associated with digitising processes proves to be too far off for most manufacturers, especially in an uncertain economic environment. Changing business models also pose a challenge for automation as brands may demand customised products today but tomorrow their demands may change.
A negative impact on employment
While automation increases speed and efficiency, it negatively impacts labor and employment. As a recent McKinsey study reveals, automation will result in the loss of around 800 million jobs worldwide by 2030, with the garment sector of Bangladesh being particularly badly hit. Another study by the Bangladesh government suggests that the increasing adoption of automated knitting machines, robotic auto-coners, automatic chemical and dye dispensers are likely to result in a loss of five million jobs in the next t 15 years. Around half a million people that operate single and double needle lockstitch sewing machines in Bangladesh will be out of work by 2041, with many smaller factories being hardest hit financially.
Adopting a responsible approach
The challenge for the textiles sector therefore is to find a responsible approach to automation that ensures workers are not left behind. This involves training workers to upskill and be relevant as new equipment is introduced. Sarah Krasley, Founder of fashion technology company Shimmy proposes providing people with digital literacy skills to enable them to work side by side with machines – and bringing brands, manufacturers, agencies and technology providers together to work on education, skills development and R&D.
This is most updated information about Technical Textiles economy in China in 2019, with statistics from Jan-Dec 2019, collated in February 2020. The year of 2019 witnessed 235.93 billion Yuan in business income, 1.2 percentage growth, but its profit went down by 4.3 percent with averaged profit/business income rate at 5.9%, 0.3 percentage point down as opposed to that of the year before.
The risk of being infected has diverted the consumers’ eyes away from the traditional luxuries to a new concept of de-luxe goods, masks and protective tissues and safety wears, etc., making the Technical Textile sector come into spotlight, far it more significant than fashion wear, at this moment .
China’s technical textile industry plays an important role in mobilizing the member companies to resume production to respond to national call for synergizing all the efforts and resources to fight the coronavirus(COVID-19).
You might be interested in understanding this particular sector of the whole textile industry in China in the days gone by and in the days to come. Here is the brief of the new annual report:
Production
As driven by the rising demand for non-woven both at home and abroad, its total production reached 5.03 million tons, up by 9.9%, but the tyre cord fabric did not present such a promising picture as the withering automobiles industry delustered its supply chain, making the production of the cord fabric drop by 7.4% in growth rate to result in 623,000 tons in 2019.
Economic performance
The year of 2019 witnessed 235.93 billion Yuan in business income, 1.2 percentage growth, but its profit went down by 4.3 percent with averaged profit/business income rate at 5.9%, 0.3 percentage point down as opposed to that of the year before. If we look into the sector-specific performance, there is a diversified picture in the fact that the tents and canvas got an uptick in gross profit rate and profit rate respectively by 1.5% and 0.5%; Rope, cordages and cables plummeted by 18.2%, while the belts and tyre cord fabric by 9.7% in profit gains. Moreover, the other industrial textiles, such as tech-textiles used in filter, geo-synthetics, safety protection, transportation and composite materials, curved up by 7.2% in profit rate based on its better gross profit rate at 16.1% level, taking a leading role in all the technical textile industry.
The non-woven sector finished with 2.9% growth in business income, and 3.8% drop in total profit and 0.4 percentage point down in profit rate last year.
International Trade
China shipped out $27.34 billion worth of technical textiles, marking 2.1% year-on-year growth as against 5.7% drop in importing goods worth $6.73 billion in this category. In the major markets, laminated fabrics or coated fabrics, non-woven and tents & canvas are ranked in the top three products in the export sheet, growing at 0.4%, 5.4% and 2.7% respectively in value terms. Of the top three, the non-woven was exported on a rise by 9.1%, amounting to 1.051 million tons in volume. Prominently, the one-off sanitary-purposed textiles continued to remain dynamic, registering 16% and 18.8% higher level in export value and volume than that seen in the previous year. Conclusively, it was the volume that counts most in pushing forward the export growth in China’s industrial textiles last year.
In view of the main destinations, United States is the largest market where $3.7 billion worth of technical textiles from China were shipped to, sliding down by 9.1%, as was handicapped by the trade altercations between the two countries. On the other side of coin, the export to Vietnam outran Japan, up by 10.18%, making this neighbor country the second largest market while the shipment to Japan and South Korea stayed stable, somewhere it had been in value level in 2019 as compared with the year before. It is interesting to see that the countries along “Belt and Road Initiative” territory are rising to be the important driver for China’s technical textiles export, with $10.85 billion seen last year, at a growth rate of 7.1 percent, of which the non-woven ramped up to 16.7% in dollars and to 18.9% in weight.
Forecast
What is in store for 2020? It is estimated the total economic performance for the industrial textile sector will turn out to be good, at a moderate growth rate in important indicators like production, sales and export for the whole year, but the first half will see a downslide, to some extent, because the factories have not got a full-house operation as the on-going tightened measures to prevent and control coronavirus in some areas are still in effect, making it difficult for all the workers come back to production lines. Optimistically, we see the light at the end of the dark tunnel.
Contributed by Mr. ZHAO Hong
He is working for CHINA TEXTILE magazine as Editor-in-Chief in addition to being involved in a plethora of activities for the textile industry. He has worked for the Engineering Institute of Ministry of Textile Industry, and for China National Textile Council and continues to serve the industry in the capacity of Deputy Director of China Textile International Exchange Centre, V. President of China Knitting Industry Association, V. President of China Textile Magazine and its Editor-in-Chief for the English Version, Deputy Director of News Centre of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), Deputy Director of International Trade Office, CNTAC, Deputy Director of China Textile Economic Research Centre. He was also elected once ACT Chair of Private Sector Consulting Committee of International Textile and Clothing Bureau (ITCB)
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) may upset the rollout of the Wrangler brand in China. Wrangler was to be launched in China in the first quarter of 2020. The brand run by Kontoor Brands accounts for 58 per cent of Kontoor’s sales. Kontoor saw an opportunity to expand Wrangler to China and had been planning a major product rollout for the country, but that has all been thrown into doubt. That means Kontoor may have to rely upon the other two planks of its growth strategy, which are brand extensions, such as getting into tops and outerwear, and new distribution channels, particularly direct to consumer. The wholesale channel, which includes sales to department stores and retailers, is still Kontoor’s biggest source of revenue, representing 85 per cent of total sales.
The US represents 73 per cent of Kontoor’s total sales, but China is seen as a big growth market, because jeans from US companies are still considered prestigious and carry a premium. For the Wrangler rollout, Kontoor had partnered with a large digital company for the effort. Last summer it had hooked up with e-commerce giant Alibaba and was using its research and development arm, Tmall Innovation Center, to design products for local customers.
In an effort to offset falling exports resulting from the virus outbreak, Vietnam will facilitate enterprises to take advantage of the free trade agreement with the European Union,
Efforts are being made to look for new markets for the country’s agricultural produce and seafood, whose exports have been hit by the epidemic. Vietnamese trade missions abroad are also required to support local enterprises to connect with foreign partners that can supply medical equipment and materials.
Several industries in Vietnam like automobile, garment, footwear and electronics are facing raw material shortages due to the outbreak in China and other countries. Vietnam’s raw material imports from China have dwindled. If the disease persists, supply and transport chains will be in trouble and in the worst case scenario manufacturing will have to stop or be delayed. So for instance leather factories may have to shut down if they can’t source the material from China. Production of rubber and plastic in Vietnam is largely dependent on China with 70 per cent of materials imported from the country. China accounts for 55 per cent of Vietnam’s fiber imports. China has shut down manufacturing in many cities to contain the virus. So textile companies in Vietnam have to tap other markets to meet production targets.
Şen Tekstil, based in Turkey, has started making antibacterial suits to be shipped to China. The factory which normally makes women’s clothing has increased production capacity with the new Coronvirus (COVID 19) outbreak and hired more workers after receiving a staggering amount of orders from China. It is producing around 5,000 units a day which are being sent to China on cargo planes. The protective antibacterial suits, which are completely airtight and disposable, are essential for medical personnel treating patients. The depreciation in the Turkish currency against other currencies has made the country’s exporters more competitive. Turkey has the advantage of being able to deal with sharper deadlines compared with the Far East. Though the Turkish textile sector has increased capacity and gone in for digital transformation, it is not out to make a profit of the Coronavirus.
The deadly virus that began in China shows no sign of slowing down as more new cases continue to pop up in countries across around the world despite efforts to stop it from spreading. The list of countries hit by the virus has climbed to nearly 60. The viral outbreak has infected more than 86,000 people worldwide, with deaths topping 2,900.
Despite a surge in the number of brands incorporating recycled materials into their products, sorted post-consumer textiles continue to struggle to find suitable end markets that preserve their highest value. The problem is accelerating consumption and disposal practices, which are causing textiles entering the market to reach their end-of-use rapidly. Key hurdles for the market readiness and uptake of such materials include the difficulty of separating fiber blends, the available textile-to-textile recycling technologies, the potential (and incentives) for further development of these technologies and the market demand for materials containing recycled content. While the recycling sector has boomed, just one third of recyclers can process more than one material composition.
Some 60 per cent of recyclers use mechanical technologies, which require color sorting and the physical removal of trims and hardware, resulting in low financial viability and poor price parity with virgin materials. As such, recycled content from post-consumer sources remains low. Most chemical recycling still remains at the pilot scale. The lack of traceability on most textiles risks reintroducing textiles into the system that could threaten product safety due to chemical contamination.
Opportunities to scale the use of recycled textiles remain manifold as evidenced in the growth of textile-to-textile recyclers and recycling technologies.
