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Brazil could become the world’s second largest cotton exporter. The country is expected to export 1.12 million tons of cotton lint in the 2018-19 harvest, which would place it second to only the United States. The US-China trade war is set to directly benefit Brazilian cotton growers, with Chinese cotton processors indicating they would buy any additional supply of cotton that Brazilian farmers can produce.
China slapped a 25 per cent tariff on US cotton imports, among a raft of duties that took effect in July in response to tariffs announced by the US. Brazil’s overall production is expected to rise to 2.3 million tons of cotton lint in 2018-19 from two million tons the prior season.
Chinese demand will be driving growth in planted areas, with a record 1.4 million hectares of cotton expected next year, and two million hectares by 2022. Right now India is the second largest cotton exporter and Brazil is the third. Brazil has a wealth of arable land, plentiful rainfall, a large group of professional growers using the most advanced technologies, and a strong network of cotton industry associations.
Despite its many advantages, Brazil does have several significant obstacles to overcome before it can take its cotton production to the next level. Foremost on that list are logistics and transportation. Brazil is a huge country—larger than the continental United States—but its road and rail systems are either nonexistent or underdeveloped.
Bräcker will show its latest applications at ITMA Asia, to be held in Shanghai from October 15 to 19, 2018 at the National Exhibition Convention Centre. The company will exhibit latest innovations in key components for ring spinning machines. Its products enable spinning mills to increase their production output at an efficient price-performance ratio. The surface treatment of the ONYX travelers facilitates a higher efficiency. The improved gliding characteristic allows for an increase of the spindle speed by up to +1000 rpm and prolongs the life of the traveler by up to +50 per cent. On top of that the running-in period is considerably reduced.
The large contact surface between SFB traveler and ORBIT ring allows increased spindle speeds even with fibers like viscose or with fibers, tending to thermal damage, e.g. polyester. Higher traveler speeds of 10 – 20 per cent are achieved compared to the T-flange ring / C-shaped traveler system. To cover the new demands, the SFB traveler portfolio was substantially expanded in regards of traveler profiles and weights.
The Asia Pacific region has the largest market share for textile printing, followed by Europe and North America. Within Asia, China and India hold the largest market share for textile printing. Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth and maintain its dominance till 2021.
The key objective of textile printing is to produce fabrics with an attractive design and defined pattern. This lucrative market expansion can be attributed to several factors such as the rise in customer demands, faster go-to-market strategy by companies and also the rapid expansion of the healthcare, real-estate, hospitality, education and retail sectors.
There has been a growth in demand from across various vertical industries. The growth has been due to the rapid expansion of retail malls and the hospitality industries. Progress in technology paired with increasing method of printing is driving the global textile printing market.
Among all forms of printing, digital printing is expected to garner the highest growth in the coming years. On the basis of technology the global market for textile printing can be split into direct printing, white/ color discharge and resist printing. Other forms of printing include block printing, roller printing, duplex printing, screen printing, stencil printing, transfer printing, blotch printing, jet spray printing and electrostatic printing.
Jacob Holm has simplified the supply chain for its production of Kevlar and Nomex protective fabric products. Jacob Holm will deliver Kevlar and Nomex directly from its production site. This site at one time belonged to DuPont and it’s from this site that DuPont first introduced the proprietary aramids containing spunlace technology to the market 31 years ago.
Jacob Holm acquired the site in 2014 and maintained production of the aramids containing protective fabrics while implementing significant production asset upgrades, quality enhancements, and other process improvements.
Jacob Holm is a global leader and innovator of spunlace nonwoven fabrics and finished goods. Founded in 1794 it has production facilities in France, Spain and US. It produces spunlace nonwovens for consumer wipes, industrial, beauty care, hygiene and health care markets.
For the past four years, Jacob Holm has sold the aramid containing fabrics through DuPont as a toll manufacturer. While the aramid containing spunlace base offering has not changed, the innovation team at Jacob Holm has developed an exciting pipeline of products.
Jacob Holm will continue providing aramid fabrics under this simplified supply chain and it looks forward to strengthening partnerships with its valued customers through the addition of Kevlar and Nomex fabrics to its product offering.
As per ICRA analysis, India’s apparel exports are expected to grow at a modest pace of 1-2 per cent year-on-year for the rest of FY19 vis-a-vis a sharp degrowth of 14 per cent y-o-y in 4M FY19. This would mean a 4 per cent y-o-y decline in the country’s apparel exports in FY19, the fourth consecutive weak year for India’s apparel exports, following the 4 per cent degrowth in FY18 and modest growth rates of 1 per cent and 3 per cent in FY16 and FY17, respectively.
India’s apparel exports have exhibited an discouraging trend, with a marginal de-growth of 1 per cent in FY18 as well as 4M FY19, even after adjusting for apparel exports to the UAE, which have declined inexplicably and sharply over the past one year. Growth of apparel sector in India is being constrained by the challenging of the export subsidy schemes by the US at the World Trade Organisation.
"Though it’s difficult for the millennial to imagine the UK as a mass producer of clothing and textiles, the nation in 1970s had a thriving textile manufacturing industry. The industry started to drift slowly by early 1980s when retailers and brands relocated to emerging markets in a bid to cut costs and increase margins. The bulk of this manufacturing drifted to China, which effectively began churning out goods for markets across the globe. In the early 2000s, the UK clothing and textiles sector reached its low¬est number of employees, totaling only about 90,000 workers. As expected, with a big fall in demand, factories across the UK closed down, although some firms specialising in tailoring, outerwear and premium knitwear clung on to British soil."
Though it’s difficult for the millennial to imagine the UK as a mass producer of clothing and textiles, the nation in 1970s had a thriving textile manufacturing industry. The industry started to drift slowly by early 1980s when retailers and brands relocated to emerging markets in a bid to cut costs and increase margins. The bulk of this manufacturing drifted to China, which effectively began churning out goods for markets across the globe. In the early 2000s, the UK clothing and textiles sector reached its low¬est number of employees, totaling only about 90,000 workers. As expected, with a big fall in demand, factories across the UK closed down, although some firms specialising in tailoring, outerwear and premium knitwear clung on to British soil.
Market revival
In 2007, Zara swooped on to the global market, creating a fast fashion model that others envied. Some retailers
and brands started to bring manufacturing – albeit a small amount – back to the UK. This resurgence was also fuelled by a newly found interest in Made in UK products. The emerging BRICs economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) created a new wave of consumers with new spending power, and they desired British-made goods.
The biggest increase came from a rise in the number of garment manufacturers, up 10.7 per cent to 3,830 companies, while the number of textile producers had increased 4.9 per cent year on year to 4,030. This growth was attributed to the rising cost of overseas production, increasing need for supply control and flexibility, and growing demand for UK-produced clothing.
The number of people employed in textile and clothing manufacturing (including self-employed) was at its highest level since 2006, at about 132,000. The UK’s decision to leave the European Union also encouraged retailers to look closer home for sourcing. The weakness of sterling since the Brexit vote – and the attendant effect on exchange rates – resulted in higher import costs, and makes buying in pounds from within the UK a more attractive prospect than it has been for some time.
Workforce limitations
A survey of textiles employers for a report published by the Alliance Project in 2015 revealed, the potential for rejuvenated UK textile manufacturing, 37 per cent of the firms felt that skills shortages were a barrier to growth. Almost half (49 per cent) reported hard-to-fill vacancies, and half said their recruitment problems in the past two years had related to small numbers of applicants with the experience and qualifications required.
In April 2017’s ONS Labour Force survey found the UK’s textiles workforce stood at 127,500 across all skill levels, from packing and warehouse staff to board directors. The age profile of workforce is another limitation. A lot of manufacturing workforce is above 40. So the brands have to make manufacturing more appealing to young people and urge to take it up as a career. The prospect of Brexit makes predictions about how UK manufacturing will pan out, tough. But most analysts remain ¬optimistic. Certainly, the industry needs to rally together to help keep up the momentum.
Xinjiang has attracted major textile companies from East and South China to set up branches and factories, as the largest cotton grower in China. Aksu, Kashgar and Hotan in Southern Xinjiang are major producers of cotton. Aksu's long-staple cotton output accounts for 93 percent of the country's total.
According to Sun Weiting, these factories do not only produce textiles, but are also involved in a fashion designing, developing platform and intelligent and digital machines for developing environmentally-friendly textiles. The textile mill is owned by Huafu Fashion, the world's largest supplier of melange yarn, which is based in east China's Zhejiang Province.
The company also invested 2.5 billion yuan to build a dyeing industrial park in Aksu, which is designed with a capacity for dyeing and printing 100,000 tonne of cotton yarn a year. The world's largest textile mill for spinning colored yarn was launched in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Built with an investment of 5 billion yuan ($735 million), the mill in Aksu, southern Xinjiang, will see one million spindles installed by the end of the year.
Chinese textile manufacturers are shifting to the US. While labor costs are greater than that of China, energy, land and raw materials are cheaper in the United States. Therefore, total cost of production is less. Chinese manufacturers find the production cost per ton of textiles is 25 per cent lower in the US.
The cost of labor in China has been rising and other countries like the US could potentially do it better and cheaper. Labor would still be a lot more expensive. But energy costs could be notably less. These capital intensive textile mills have little labor costs and relatively cheaper energy prices.
Moving closer to the US benefits not only the upstream US supplies of textile components but also boosts the competitiveness of cut and sew operations in the NAFTA and DR-CAFTA regions, the US textile industry’s most important export markets. Moreover, tariffs would encourage more R&D focus on automating apparel assembly, technology showing very promising potential to re-shore jobs.
Unless China begins to automate its processes and to reduce its costs, it is inevitable more clothing makers will relocate to the US. And that will mean new investments in factories and machinery — if the tariffs were to go into place.
The Union Ministry of Textiles has issued a draft notification prescribing quality standards for cotton bales as per Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms. This will help Indian cotton get better prices in the long run and, in turn, benefit farmers. As per the notification, cotton bales will conform to IS 12171:2013 and shall bear the Standard Mark under a licence from the BIS as per Scheme–II of schedule II of BIS Conformity Assessment Regulations, 2018.
The certifying and enforcing authority for these bales will be the Bureau of Indian Standards along with an officer not below the rank of General Manager, District Industries Centre in the Department of Industries of the State Government. The government has fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of cotton for 2018-19 season at Rs 5,150 per quintal for medium staple and Rs 5,450 per quintal for long staple.
Splenora Textures, based in Gujarat, is planning to start jeans manufacturing. It already produces six million meters of denim fabric per annum. The company will produce premium denim fabric like 12.5 ounce stretch denim, premium slub Lycra etc.
To cater to the market effectively, and to offer the best services, the company will not go for bulk production but will focus on quality and consistency. It has a plan to focus equally on exports and the domestic market but will change according to the dynamics of the market. Along with this plant the company is also eyeing garmenting. The products will be cost-effective as the fabric will be in-house.
Splenora has a setup for ginning and spinning, with 85,000 spindles. As the company has a small setup for garment manufacturing for job-work, it has the basic know-how of garment manufacturing too. It is in touch with some local clients and will approach all e-commerce giants for jeans. As it has its own spinning set up, it plans developments at the yarn stage too. So the feel of the fabric will be also unique.
India is witnessing a glut in denim fabric production as more than 45 denim mills are producing around 1.5 billion meters fabric a year.
