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In order to attract investment, the Bihar industries department and state apparel and textile sector in association with Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) organised a meet at Ludhiana to showcase initiatives taken by the Bihar government.
The state’s principal secretary (industries) S Siddharth gave a detailed presentation on policy initiatives, infrastructure, ease of doing business and availability of land and skilled workers in Bihar. He pointed out they have launched an online single window clearance system for investors to submit their proposals from any part of the world. Approvals will be granted online, further around 2,000 acres of land is available with the state government for allotment to investors.
Leading exporter and AEPC's Harish Dua said they plan to visit Bihar soon to decide on investments in the state. Investment commissioner R S Srivastava stated there is large domestic market in Bihar with a population of over 11 crore. Also, the state provides electricity for more than 22 hours a day throughout the state.
Asics has become Bluesign’s first Japanese partner for responsible chemical management. The sportswear brand joins 500 companies worldwide that are using Bluesign framework to eliminate potentially harmful substances from manufacturing in the production of textiles.
Asics intends to use Bluesign assessment tools for chemical management throughout its supply chain. The brand will use Bluefinder, which acts as a database for suppliers showing chemicals that have received Bluesign approval after a series of risk tests. The company says it will also use Blueguide which supports brands in their selection of materials as it highlights Bluesign approved fabrics, accessories and trims.
Partnering Bluesign offers Asics the opportunity to shift focus from restricting hazardous chemicals to providing insight into positive chemicals that its suppliers can use. Asics has sustainability targets that include expanding its supply chain management scope to include Tier II suppliers by 2020, which the company says Bluesign will contribute to.
Year 2016 was a special one for the ASICS group. This was the year it kicked off its new five-year ASICS growth plan, embarking on an ambitious new set of sustainability targets towards 2020. Last fiscal, ASICS Europe launched a centralized review of energy procurement and updated its electricity contracts.
The Council for Textile and Fashion is one of the participants at ISEA Australia. It is clearly mandated to promote the growth of the textile and fashion industry in Australia and has been in service for over 65 years. This not for profit organisation draws members from across the fashion and textile industry/ supply chain ranging from micro to large business establishments from both Australia and globally. Its focus areas are strengthening supply chains, fostering design and innovation, promoting ethical practices, supporting emerging businesses and building an Australian export base.
Fairs like ISEA provide immense opportunities for trade and support services. The Australian business environment is ingrained with lots of innovation across the supply chain and business enterprises are seriously focused on niche businesses.
It was not very long ago when the Australian textile and clothing sector had many mills and factories. That has changed. The new age business environment today is fostering immense lateral thinking to stay tall and lofty in this fiercely competitive business landscape.
Changing business dynamics is forcing this segment to relook the entire business proposition as wages per month in the Australian market have increased significantly through the years.
Australia’s spinning facilities are depleted. Well rounded skill sets are also conspicuously missing from the textile manufacturing stand point. Warp knitting has become antiquated. However there are groups like TFS that are thriving. TFS specialises in research and development for elastane-based fabrics.
India’s textile exports to Australia are growing by 12 per cent. With a FTA that can reach 20 per cent or thereabouts even though the Australian textile and clothing industry is growing only by one per cent or so.
India has an advantage in that it has a complete supply chain unlike Bangladesh, Vietnam, or Cambodia.
Going forward there is a huge business opportunity for Indian economy and trade. By 2025 India and China are expected to be the largest business block globally, approximately 800 billion dollars, compared to the EU and the US, which is expected to be not more than 750 billion dollars.
Fieo is leading the participation of over 80 companies in this edition of ISEA. The variety of products exhibited range from men’s wear, children’s wear, footwear, jewelry, fabric, textile etc. India's exports to this sector also constitute roughly 2.6 per cent of its exports to the world. Therefore, the potential to increase India's share in the lucrative Australian market in this sector is enormous.
ISEA provides the right platform for exhibitors from India to present a strong business case. It will also be an opportunity to forge partnerships and invite others to participate in India's fast growing economic landscape. The objective of Indian participation here is to project the image of India as a fast emerging economy and its attractiveness as a destination for high end manufactured goods.
Bangladesh is the world’s second largest textile exporter. It is geographically well placed to exploit its well harnessed and oiled ecosystem which started some 35 years ago.
The next Asian tiger dreams of becoming a middle income and developed country by 2041. As of now it's the 77th largest trading nation clocking an annual export growth of 13.6 per cent and 73 per cent of its population is below 40 years.
With garment buyers moving out of China, the sourcing caravan is moving on to the next hotspot: Bangladesh. Its core competencies remain in knits and denims where it already sort of self-reliant. The major export destination remains the EU region but the country is consciously moving to non-traditional markets going forward.
It enjoys GSP facilities to the EU, quota and duty free access to many first world countries. Reputed buyers are making a beeline for Bangladesh’s exporters.
Bangladesh-Australia trade has doubled in the last four or five years. The textile landscape has changed dramatically in the last 10 or 15 years in Australia. The country had many textile mills and factories. But now it is largely an evolved retail market and dependent more or less on imports.
Reliance will increase its presence in the polyester space after the launch of its new brand RElan. This is a portfolio of specialty fabrics. Reliance is in talks with at least five leading domestic and international apparel brands to co-brand RElan. The co-branding will give Reliance a foothold in the Rs 2,50,000 crore Indian apparel industry, almost a 50-50 share of men’s wear and women’s wear. The move will help India to reduce its dependence on imports of specialty fabrics, most of which come from China, and to a smaller extent from Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea.
Reliance is planning to tie up with 200 textile manufacturers, giving focus to Punjab, Haryana, UP and Rajasthan, which account for 20 per cent of India’s fabric production capacity and manufacture textiles worth Rs 50,000 crores a year.
Global per capita consumption of polyester is 6 kg per person, compared to 3 kg per person in India and 11 kg in China. The polyester industry in India is expecting a yearly growth of around five per cent, much higher than the global average of three per cent. In partnership with VF Corp, owner of the world’s largest denim brand, Wrangler, Reliance will also launch an Inficool denim range by February.
A new natural fiber has been extracted from a plant that grows almost everywhere in Bangladesh. The thread is said to be better than jute or linen and surpass the brightness, softness and strength of jute and linen.
Prof Anwar Ul Islam, a pharmacy professor of Rajshahi University in Bangladesh has already finished a four-year research on the fiber and has called upon textile experts to work on his findings and see whether it could be produced commercially. He feels it would be useful for making comfortable clothes.
The extraction process of the fiber is the same as jute's. According to a 2016 report, the fiber is quite comfortable like cotton as well as very glossy, which would bring luster, brightness and shine in clothing. The plant from which the fiber is obtained was never used for collecting fibers anywhere in the world. Nor was the microorganism or bacteria ever used for rotting the plant's stem to extract any fiber.
The professor who is currently working with US scientists on anti-cancer medicines calls his findings a by-product of his regular hit-or-miss experiments. Apart from teaching, he conducts experiments, often out of his personal necessities. The professor developed a herbal nasal drop when he suffered cold, and produced a hair tonic and a fairness cream from herbs when he felt he was ageing. The new fiber came up in the middle of these experiments.
For the first time, new viscose filaments from cotton have been produced by a successful chemical recycling process of polyester/cotton fiber blends. The process is called Blend Re: wind and generates three circular outgoing product streams. Cotton is turned into new high quality viscose filaments and polyester into two pure new monomers.
The project focuses on chemical recycling of polyester/cotton (polycotton) fiber blends with the objective of separating and generating relevant outputs for future industrial use; polyester monomers and a cotton pulp suitable for regeneration into cellulosic textile fibers such as viscose fibers.
Blend Re:wind is a separation process. It is developed having existing industrial processes in mind. The aim is to integrate as much as possible to minimize both environmental and economic costs while boosting businesses. Scaling up from lab scale is the biggest challenge at the moment and it is also costly. The integration possibilities of the Blend Re:wind process would however address these challenges in feasible ways.
The Blend Re:wind process includes high quality of recycled filaments; complete recycling of polycotton blends with pure product streams at high yield; good feasibility with existing industry processes; and strong environmental performance since it is water based and uses only common, cheap bulk chemicals and a catalyst.
Eastman Naia has launched a cellulosic yarn which is cool and soft, with superior breathability compared to other cellulosic and synthetic fibers like nylon and polyester. Garments made with Naia fabrics have superior drape, flow, vivid colors, textures and prints.
Considering all the positive attributes that Naia brings to garments, including comfort, performance and sustainability, the future is bright for the Naia family of cellulosic yarns. While the initial launch was targeted at the intimate apparel sector, its applications range from athleisure to women’s wear and formal wear for both men and women.
Naia was launched in January 2017 and subsequently has been featured in shows that covers global markets. The brand has been shown in both Asian, European and the US markets. Eastman Naia is a global company with offices around the world. This allows the team to interact and engage with local mills and brands, directly providing them sales support. New grades of fiber are always under development to meet the evolving demands of mills and brands.
Cotton and garment waste are essential raw materials for Bangladesh’s terry towel, home textile and rotor spinning mills. But they are in short supply and are being exported instead. Export of garment waste increased 140 per cent in the first three months of the current fiscal year.
Textile mills produce some 150 million kg of cotton waste. Following the scarcity of raw materials, factories are unable to meet export orders and maintain lead times. Factory owners say exports of cotton waste should be stopped and high tariffs should be imposed to discourage exports.
Some 110 home textile and terry towel factories create employment for some 65,000 workers in the country. Bangladesh’s rotor spinning mills produce yarn using cotton waste and similarly modern recycling mills produce another type of yarn using waste from readymade garments especially knit fabrics. These yarns are used in making terry towels, home textiles, denim and other types of clothing and exported to global markets fetching millions of dollars of foreign currency.
Denim mills for instance can't use their full production capacity due to a shortage of the required yarn. More than 26 denim mills across the country need 200 million kg of yarn to produce 400 million meters of denim fabric.
