FW
Vertically integrated knitter Pratibha Syntex has developed a process by which it can reduce its dependence on water by one billion liters a year. It evolved a way to reduce water consumption at its manufacturing facilities and cotton farms. Pratibha increased its use of mélange fabrics, which use substantially less water than conventional dyeing. Other initiatives include: adoption of a new generation of water and energy-efficient dyestuffs, optimisation of its color palette and solid capital infrastructure for effluent treatment.
Pratibha’s blue water footprint has reduced by 53 per cent from 2010-11. It is the first textile manufacturer in India to receive this certification. It has implemented drip irrigation in organic cotton farms, coupled with intensive training to farmers, in water-efficient farming techniques for producing BCI and Fairtrade cotton. One product innovation pioneered by Pratibha uses spun dyed fibers leading to 85 per cent savings in water and 35 per cent less energy use.
The company, which is based in Mumbai and began operations in 1997, currently produces more than 12,000 tons of knitted fabric a year. It also operates more than 3,500 sewing machines enabling it to produce more than 55 million garments a year.
www.pratibhasyntex.com/
Textile mills in Tamil Nadu that make polyester or polyester cotton yarn are exploring new markets and products in an effort to go in for value addition and get better prices for their yarn. As many as 90 textile mills that make synthetic yarn in the state had stopped production for two days a week for four weeks as prices of yarn had dropped and the mills were finding it unviable.
With export orders too declining, the yarn that was for overseas markets was also coming into the domestic market. Some mills that found it difficult to stop production for two days a week went in for a 30 per cent cut in production.
There are positive enquiries now and mills are able to sell some of the stocks. Prices too have improved. Mills have decided that individual units will decide production based on their stock and order book position. Most mills sell the yarn to weaving units in Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Ichalkaranji. Weaving units had reduced production for several reasons for the last few months and are reviving operations only now. So textile mills in Tamil Nadu are hopeful of orders going up in the coming days.
Once loved denim are being pushed out of the closets to make a way for athleisure. Britain's love affair with a pair of denim seems to be more than over as consumers prefer slipping into comfortable yoga pants and jogging bottoms.
The trend of wearing yoga pants is no more restricted to gym, walk or such fitness-related activities but a study finds out that Brits are either ditching their jeans or simply wearing them less often. While young men are sporting branded ‘trackie’ bottoms, women are embracing stretchy leggings. The trend is definitely making an adverse impact on denim makers and sales of denims. World's biggest maker of denim clothes, Levi's in its latest results, witnessed a five per cent fall in its worldwide sales. In fact, a lot of denim brands have begun manufacturing athleisure to cater to today’s audience.
The US-based company said 20 per cent of its sales were now in belts, shirts and other accessories for the first time ever and the split is forecast to be 50-50 within the next few years. In Britain, sales of denim, last year rose by three per cent but is expected to only rise by two per cent a year for the next few years, which is better than a loss but only half the expected growth in other forms of clothing, according to a recent report by analysts Euromonitor.
Euromonitor report said, “The rise of so-called 'athleisure' in the UK apparel industry has had a direct negative influence on sales of jeans as fewer consumers are now interested in wearing jeans as casual day-to-day wear. The rise of 'athleisure' modes of dress has resulted in consumers adopting leggings or sports trousers and running shoes on a daily basis, reducing demand for jeans.”
Picanol a market leader in airjet and rapier weaving machines has introduced two new rapier machines, Opti Max and Terry Max. Opti Max is the fastest industrial rapier weaving machine in the world. Thanks to its innovative design, it is also the most versatile and user-friendly rapier machine with the lowest energy consumption in the market. It can be adapted to a wide range of fabrics, which means that it provides weavers with a great deal of flexibility in reacting to changes in market requirements.
TerryMax is a new machine for weaving terry fabrics that is for the first time available in a rapier format. The new rapier machines will be making their international debuts at the ITMA Milan trade fair for textile machinery that is set to be held in November, where Picanol will be presenting its new technologies.
Picanol weaving machines are a synthesis of technological know-how and experience that has been built up over almost 80 years. There are more than 1,75,000 Picanol weaving machines running in some 2,600 weaving mills worldwide. The company offers a wide variety of machines and services that enable weavers to create every type of fabric imaginable. The machines are energy-efficient, versatile, user-friendly and easy to set.
www.picanol.be/
Karnataka will establish textile parks in every taluka of the state to encourage youths to become entrepreneurs and self-dependent. The state government has also decided to adopt a new policy to help establish small and medium industries by providing 35 per cent financial assistance to the general category, 40 per cent to women and 50 per cent financial assistance to those belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes.
The government will provide power, land, water and other infrastructure including loans from banks and financial institutions at very reasonable rates of interest. The first such park will come up at Holalkere taluka on 20 acres of land. Another 1,000 acres have been allotted for a textile park at Yadgir in north Karnataka. The construction of the textile park, in the most backward region of the state, is likely to improve the condition of cotton growers and weavers besides generating employment for a large number of people.
Karnataka wants industries to move away from the congested Bangalore region. The government is ready to offer incentives to industries willing to move out of Bangalore. Large areas will also be identified for setting up mega textile parks. Each of these mega parks will be on 2,000 to 5,000 acres of land so that foreign direct investment can be attracted.
When textile veterans like Arvind are gradually focusing on brands and retail business, Ahmedabad-based Nandan Denim (NDL) continues to add denim fabric capacities to take advantage of the demand in domestic as well as overseas markets.
NDL has increased its denim capacity from 76 million metres per annum in 2014 to 99 million metres per annum by March 2015. The company now aims to further increase it to 110 million metres per day by March 2016. NDL anticipates capacity expansion to boost contribution from exports to about 30 per cent of the overall business in two years. Along with denim fabric production, the aim is also to expand it spinning and shirting segments. The company's export revenues were 13 per cent of the overall business of Rs 281 crores in the June quarter.
NDL will invest Rs 612 crores on capacity expansion through debt and fresh equity ratio of 70-30 respectively. Company's debt-to-equity ratio stands at 2:1. NDL produce different varieties of denim fabrics. Of its total denim production 50 per cent is driven by pure cotton denim and the rest 50 per cent is a blend with man-made fibre.
However, brokerage firms like Nirmal Bang are maintaining a cautious approach on the company's export ambitions. “Export incentives given by the government have declined by around two per cent from about 7-9 per cent earlier to about five to seven per cent now. Therefore, we believe this will have a negative impact on NDL’s export margin,” Nirmal Bang stated in its recent Institutional Equities report on NDL. www.nandandenim.com
While imports to Europe and US markets showing signs of improving by the end of this fiscal, Indian exporters are seeking government help to create a conducive environment to boost exports. Declining rupee against the dollar, experts feel can work in favour of exporters.
However, D K Nair, Secretary General of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) feels, with the global crisis hitting India’s key markets, demand has slowed down. At the same time, markets like the US and Europe, are showing signs of improvement. To take advantage of this situation, the government must step in and resolve issues affecting cotton and cotton yarn. Nair says the changing Chinese import policy has led to surplus stocks and forced many spinning mills to work on lesser number of shifts and some to even close down.
In the case of garments and apparels, Indian exporters have to pay 16 per cent import duty on shipments to its largest market Europe, while competitors like Cambodia, Vietnam and Pakistan enjoy zero per cent duty. Agrees K Selvaraju, Secretary General of South Indian Mills Association (SIMA). He says that the government should help in increasing exports of garments and made-ups to help segments like cotton and cotton yarn. He added that the fabric units could increase their production for the garment industry and absorb the surplus stocks of yarn. Also most spinning mills are facing working capital crunch with subsidies under the technology upgradation fund scheme (TUFS) still pending. Subsidy amounting to Rs 3,000 crores has been pending since 2010 and the incentive under focus market scheme has also been withdrawn.
Release of payment of subsidies, he feels can at least solve the working capital problems of mills. Even investments in Tamil Nadu, which saw annual investments of over Rs 20,000 crores prior to 2008, have dried down. At the recent Global Investors Meet in Chennai, the industry could garner a meagre 0.8 per cent of the total investment commitments which amounted to Rs 1,955 crores.
www.citiindia.com
Indian exports of silk waste yarn increased by 141.08 per cent in fiscal 2011. There was a slump of 47.60 per cent in ’12. In fiscal year 2012-13, exports grew by 1.19 per cent, while in ’14 growth was 70.33 per cent. In 2014-15, exports once again dipped by 28.57 per cent. The key nations to which India exports yarn spun from silk waste are Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Laos, South Africa, Guyana, Iran, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Belgium, France, Spain, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Silk waste includes all kinds of raw silk which may be unwindable and hence, unsuited to the throwing process. Since the product has been degummed it can be easily dyed. Silk waste is produced from the reeling process. The fine yarn is removed from cocoons and the left over is called silk waste. Thrown silk waste happens when things go wrong at the mill. The fibers get tangled around the machinery or in some other way become unable to be used for finished yarn.
Throwster silk yarn waste is processed in order to impart optimum strength. The recycled yarn is made of throwster yarn waste that can be used in carpets, knittings, embroidery and other fancy lace works.
Business matters most
The outcome of the fair indicated that medium-to-top level spinning industry is doing well and knitwear companies that structured and adapted to buyers’ demands are not overly concerned by a slowdown in the sector. Spinners and knitwear manufacturers adjust their production to fit the needs of global markets, with brands that also have to re-adjust their positioning and strategy.
Chinese visitors totalled 8,049, a stable number compared to March 2015, and foreign visitors were 2,049, a progression of 32 per cent over the March session. Hong Kong showed a high progression with 638 visitors compared to 373 for the March session. Europe showed a slightly higher number of visitors with 318 versus 252 for the former show.
Spinexpo continues to screen the potential VIPs among its visitors and owing to the work conducted by its promotion offices, is now able to upgrade Chinese companies as well as brands from outside China. The fair continued to renovate presenting trend information, slowly moving away from swatches displayed by colour stories to more focus on yarn categories, uses and their performance.
Zones, programs set the trend
Divided into three zones, the main trend area started with an in-depth active wear presentation, covering shoes, socks, and active sport starting with a soft dance/yoga section, on to endurance and performance. This part of the trend area showed visitors how to start with a yarn, go through the machinery process and end up with the finished product with the accurate explanation from the stylist Eva De Laat, in cooperation with Santoni at their Shanghai Centre.
The partnership between machinery, spinner and stylist is a direction that Spinexpo intends to develop, moving away from general trend directions based on colours and stories. The garments at the ‘SpinExclusive’ part of the trend area brought together a spinning mill, a knitwear manufacturer working on new machinery software and one stylist. It showed that knitwear manufacturers have to discover what is on offer, learn how to process the machine and what to expect from them. Many knitwear manufacturers were present in this area, from Fenix Hong Kong to Yanfan China; spinners included Consinee, Top Line, Zhongding, Yarns & Colors, Hubo, UPW, Best Leader, and stylists Paula Cheng, Steven Oo, Rory Longdon, Uki Lau, Iben Hoej and Felicity Brown.
Swatches from Rory Longdon featured techniques on a number of new software developments and completed the presentation. The swatches displayed by colour story were presented for the last time during this session, and will be replaced by a presentation based on type of yarns, functionality, in the same way as Spinexpo presented it in the active presentation. The former marketing area was transformed into the ‘spinners’ products orientation’ and presented the spinners’ own developments and new products, with a special focus on interesting novelties, coatings, blends and new fibres.
The fair also presented the ‘Knitted Room’, a project put forward by Yarns & Colors and Aussco, introducing its InDHouse project. The second part of the presentation was designed by Steven Oo and featured a bedroom and study room decorated with knitted and yarn constructions, with the help of Yanfan and Santoni. The idea was well-received. Woolmark presented its new products orientation with two seminars: the Wool Lab A/W 2016/17 and the latest innovations in Merino wool including Merino retract, wool denim jersey, wool denim knits, warp knits and mottled Merino.
www.spinexpo.com
Itema, the largest privately-owned manufacturer of best-in-class weaving machines, spare parts and integrated services, for the first half of 2015 reported robust growth of a CAGR of 13 per cent. The company released the financial results with official launch of its new terry weaving machine, the R9500terry as well as a new training centre, Itema Campus.
“These are exciting times for us at Itema,” said Carlo Rogora, CEO of Itema Group, adding, “Our company’s fundamentals are solid. Our manufacturing facilities are top-notch. We have never been more committed to provide the best possible technology to fulfil our customers’ needs.”
In the first six months of the year, Itema sold 17 per cent more weaving machines compared to same period last year, increasing the group turnover from weaving machines by 24 per cent, and the consolidated turnover including spare parts and other company transactions by 20 per cent year-on-year. Since 2012, the company has continuously grown, more than doubling the volumes of textile machines sold worldwide.
Both EBITDA and EBT increased more than 20 per cent year on year and seamless cash flow production too increased, month after month. The newly launched R9500terry loom was presented in a series of events in July and September with a punchline ‘Weaving terry like never before’, to a select panel of worldwide customers.
On the occasion of the R9500terry launch, the company also opened doors of ‘ItemaCampus’, the new, next-generation training centre. The new and enhanced facilities will help, as the company prepares to take bookings for customers before, during and after ITMA, taking place in Milan from November 12 to 19, 2015. At ITMA, the company will showcase some of its latest rapier and airjet models in a wide range of weaving applications.
“We have high hopes for the upcoming ITMA and beyond, but, even if the order portfolio is still quite robust, the outlook for the remainder of the year remains uncertain. Along with the continuing and in some cases worsening, political instabilities in some areas, recent economic struggles in China caused significant changes in our customers’ attitude in investments,” added Rogora.
www.itemagroup.com
