FW
In 2016, Rieter’s net profit fell 14 per cent as sales decreased nine per cent. EBIT margin was six per cent. Rieter supplies systems for short-staple fiber spinning. In the full year, order intake rose 13 per cent year-on-year. In the first half of 2016, orders were at a good level, mainly driven by solid demand from Turkey. In the second half of the year, the dynamism in Turkey and India slowed significantly due to increasing political uncertainties, with the result that orders declined.
Sales in China increased 33 per cent and in India it rose 28 per cent. In other Asian countries, sales declined 12 per cent but remained at a good level. In North and South America, following the completion of deliveries of large orders in the previous year, sales declined. In Turkey, a large portion of good order intake from the first half year was delivered on schedule by the end of the year. Despite this, sales in Turkey fell by 17 per cent compared to the previous year.
Despite low visibility in the sales markets, Rieter expects sales and profitability for 2017 to be at the level of the previous year (before restructuring costs).
Patagonia has won the Accenture Strategy Award for Circular Economy Multinational during the World Economic Forum’s Community of Young Global Leaders in Davos.
Patagonia has made notable contributions to the circular economy, driving innovation and growth, while reducing dependence on scarce natural resources. In summer 2017, Patagonia will launch an e-commerce platform where the company will sell used Patagonia clothing and gear online, sourced directly from its customers. Customers will be invited to bring used items to their local Patagonia store in exchange for Patagonia merchandise credits. This platform’s aim is to extend the life of garments by encouraging people to sell unused clothing, reach new customers and promote the durability and quality of Patagonia products.
The growing trend toward fast fashion has created a very linear economic model that produces enormous waste. In contrast, Patagonia is working to counter this approach with a circular business model that focuses on making the highest quality products and helping its customers keep the products in use as long as possible.
Patagonia encourages people to take good care of their gear, washing and repairing as needed, and eventually recycling once the garment can no longer be used. Its facility in the US repairs over 45,000 items a year, and the company operates retail repair stations around the world, in addition to providing customers with free tools for repairing their own clothing. With every repair, the company provides feedback to its designers to improve future products.
Jakob Müller will exhibit its latest technological solutions at Techtextil, Germany, May 9 to 12, 2017. Comez Acotronic 8B/600 is a high-efficiency, electronic crochet knitting machine that employs compound needles for the production of a wide range of ribbons, technical and medical textiles, both elastic and non-elastic. The machine comes in several gauges, from E10 to E20, has a 600 mm working width and is fitted with eight weft bars with electronic control.
A new feature of this machine is a special embroidery device which allows to sew weft yarns into a ground fabric. This device requires the use of piercing-compound needles and the yarns that can be processed are numerous: synthetic and natural yarns, as well as high-performance fibers.
The electronically controlled NH2 53 2/130 narrow fabric loom, which offers virtually unlimited repeat lengths, produces a bag tape with woven-in drawstring. As a result of the electronic shed formation possessing patterning possibilities employing up to sixteen electronically controlled shafts, a variety of bags in differing sizes can be produced on every machine space.
Jakob Müller is a specialist in the technology for manufacturing woven and knitted tapes and webbings as well as technical textiles, printed narrow fabrics and winding machinery.
Between April 2016 and January 2017, India’s exports of wool and wool blends fell 18 per cent in dollar terms and 15 per cent in rupee terms. One reason is the US, the European Union and the UAE are witnessing a slowdown. About 70 per cent of the exports go to the US and European countries, so any fall in demand impacts exports to a substantial level.
The slowdown in global demand has affected medium-sized manufacturers in Ludhiana and Amritsar. Punjab accounts for 35 per cent of the total exports of wool and wool-blended products followed by Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Now, woolen manufacturers are exploring options like Kazakhstan, Australia, Germany and China. They are participating in trade fairs and buyer-seller meets.
In addition the industry has asked for exempting raw wool from import duty, abolishing import duty on woolen textile machinery and increasing duty drawback rates. India’s wool and woolen textile industry is the seventh largest in the world. India’s wool and woolen industry can broadly be divided into worsted yarn, woolen yarn, wool tops, fabric, shoddy yarn, shoddy fabrics, blankets, knitwear, handmade carpets and machine made carpets.
Woolen handmade carpets contribute 72.7 per cent to total woolen exports.
Textile production has a major environmental impact. Conventional cotton growing, where large quantities of insecticides are spread directly on land, stands out as a particularly heavy burden on the environment.
Choosing eco-labeled clothes makes a difference. There are several cotton labels. However, eco-cotton labels only indicate that the cotton was organically grown – they say nothing about the rest of the production process (dyeing and treatment). The major environmental impact is found in post-fiber processing stages: spinning, weaving, knitting and, above all, in the dyeing – the wet processing.
In industrialized countries, only a tiny percentage of garments are worn 100 to 200 times, which is usually the potential lifetime. In Sweden, for example, consumers buy an average of 50 new garments per person and year. Similar figures apply to the rest of Europe and the United States.
Textiles that are made of cellulose from trees and plants are an important track in research and development to close the loop so that the textile industry becomes sustainable. Viscose, modal and Lyocell/Tencel are examples of such textiles that are already available and whose environmental performance is often good. When consumers buy used clothing instead of new, the environmental benefit is substantial.
Online shopping is generally a very good alternative from the environmental perspective.
The spandex market in China has been climbing for the last five months. As polyester and nylon prices have slipped, spandex prices have surged. Spandex demand from downstream markets has varied. Large weaving plants have built up sufficient raw material stocks. Small and medium plants are mainly purchasing raw materials on a need-to basis. In Xiaoshan and Shaoxing, some circular knitting plants have reduced operating rates after completing previous orders. In Guangdong, warp knitting plant operating rate stands around 70 per cent while in Fujian, lace knitting plant operating rate remains below 50 per cent.
Xinxiang Chemical Fiber has already started trial production of its second phase of the super-soft spandex project. Hyosung is expected to commence a 20,000 tons per annum project in March 2017.
As spandex capacity expansion continues in 2017, some players remain hesitant about market outlook. However, in the short term, spandex prices remain buoyant on the back of strong raw materials and low inventory. Currently, downstream plants are mainly running on previous stocks and fresh deals are rare. Besides, as polyester and nylon prices have been falling lately, downstream plants are hesitant about buying raw materials. Thus while spandex prices continue to rise trading volumes are gradually decreasing.
China may become Vietnam’s largest export destination by 2030. Right now, the US is Vietnam’s largest export market. The US and Vietnam enjoy historically strong commercial linkages and by 2030 the US will still account for 15 per cent of Vietnam’s exports.
Clothing and apparel are expected to top Vietnam’s exports, contributing almost 20 per cent to total merchandise exports. Vietnam’s infrastructure has improved over the last decade, supported by higher FDI inflows and reflecting strong growth. Substantial infrastructure development means industrial machinery will continue to be Vietnam’s largest import sector through 2030, contributing around a quarter of import growth over the forecast period.
Vietnam’s biggest imports will be from China and South Korea through 2030. As well as having strong footholds in the global market for industrial machinery, the two countries also present relatively easy transport logistics, with China sharing a border with Vietnam and South Korea just a short journey by sea.
Imports from India will also grow strongly, contributing 14 per cent of total import growth by 2030, propelling India past Singapore to become Vietnam’s third largest import partner. Mobile phones and associated items accounted for 16 per cent of Vietnam’s exports in 2014, while electronics, computers and components accounted for another eight per cent, leaving the electronics sector accounting for a quarter of Vietnam’s total exports.
"The third day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia started with the show by DARIA DASHINA. This unique Russian brand uses fine handcrafts and state-of-the-art technologies. Fall-Winter 2017/2018 collection offered trendy integrally knitted garments for both women and men. Specially for the latter DASHINA started a line of sweaters with large surface patterns and turtlenecks. Jersey elements of the ensemble and accessories are supplemented with suits made of natural fabrics and glossy sparkling dresses and skirts."
The third day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia started with the show by DARIA DASHINA. This unique Russian brand uses fine handcrafts and state-of-the-art technologies. Fall-Winter 2017/2018 collection offered trendy integrally knitted garments for both women and men. Specially for the latter DASHINA started a line of sweaters with large surface patterns and turtlenecks. Jersey elements of the ensemble and accessories are supplemented with suits made of natural fabrics and glossy sparkling dresses and skirts. The designer used different technologies to entwine threads and to mix several colors in one garment for mélange and gradient effects. Main colors of this collection are black, white, red, blue, lilac and brown.
The collection «PH-XXXI» by YULIA KOSYAK was a real performance. The show started under the music background performed by WEREWOLFFAMILY Project. The designer uses leather, feathers and graphic images, parlaying personal touch and nontrivial texture combinations. Main colors of this collection are black with some green, beige, terracotta, brick-red and gold.
A Big-City Girl is always a hero. She arrests sights with her charming femininity, grace and trendy customized looks. In her FW17/18 collection KONDAKOVA offers her fans luxurious silhouette models, dresses and bombers, decorated jackets made of bouclé wool and cashmere, as well as zephyrian silk blouses.
YASYA MINOCHKINA revealed the inconsistency of the women’s nature. Romantic pencil pinafore dresses with gauze sleeves were harmonically supported by transparent below-knee skirts. Classic trenchcoats and cocoon overcoats were attenuated by basic T-shorts and sport bags. Lacquered leather and paillettes added some spice. The designer gave preference to big check and minutiae embroidered flowers that were supported with the overall color pallet with shades of sakura, violets and verbena.
Ekaterina Akkhuzina and EKATERINA FURS Fashion House presented the fur street-style collection. The designer experimented with the silhouettes and complicated pallets – sapphire, bright pink, orange with emerald-green, traditional brown. Massive graphic fur coats took turns with light pastel-shaded blue and delicate pink ones. Some of the challenging solutions were trendy rich-in-color puffer coats and fur biker jackets, as well as chevrons in pop-up style and strident inscriptions. The hero of this collection is a bold and epatage girl ready for new findings and adventures.
The Russian honored actress EVGENIYA KRYUKOVA made her debut with the women’s Fall-Winter collection in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. Evgenia in love with delicate and thrilling lines of retro silhouettes combines them with current trends. Tucked and folded fabric, flounces, airy sleeves and trumpet skirts give a good showing of beautiful body shapes. Not only had the general cutout of garments reminded of the retro style. There were big polka dots, checks, bright citron and light beige colors, too. The designer boldly combined fabrics with different patterns in a single ensemble, caught on flower brooches and found new uses for imitation fur decorations.
GOGA NIKABADZE seemed to take the audience to the imperial environment of the East. The designer managed to combine comfort and authenticity with forethought and persistence. He offered velour pipestem pants, cotton shirts, cardigans and vests for men and gorgeous chiton-like floor-length shirt dresses for women. Uniqueness of this collection was emphasized with natural splendor of sandy, burgundy and sapphire shades.
In the presentation corner the provocative MyMokondo brand was presented that was established just about a year ago but has already won hearts of many fans. Eva Bogdanova, the designer, invented and patented erotic accessories to be put over underwear, outwear or on nude skin, so-called ‘straps’. The line has a great variety of straps like Aura, Shaula, Volans, Petra and many others, of different colors and width. MyMokondo boutique presents fetish accessories, leather masks, sword knots and chokers.
"Chinese market for yarn imports has seen a major shift due to two factors. One, lowering of price difference between international and domestic cotton this has made yarn imports less attractive. Further expansion of Xinjiang spinning capacity has made local yarn prices even more competitive due to cost advantages of spinning in Xinjiang. However, yarn imports would continue as still there is a gap in cotton availability in China vis-à-vis the demand. “So, yarn imports are here to stay but price competition would remain intense,” highlights Peter Dong, Birla Jingwei Fibres."
Chinese market for yarn imports has seen a major shift due to two factors. One, lowering of price difference between international and domestic cotton this has made yarn imports less attractive. Further expansion of Xinjiang spinning capacity has made local yarn prices even more competitive due to cost advantages of spinning in Xinjiang. However, yarn imports would continue as still there is a gap in cotton availability in China vis-à-vis the demand. “So, yarn imports are here to stay but price competition would remain intense,” highlights Peter Dong, Birla Jingwei Fibres.
Dealing with adverse situations
China being the dominant textiles market in the world is bound to have an impact on all international business in textiles, according to Dong. Due to increasing costs in China especially for cotton related products, China has shifted more and more to others fibres. Other markets like Vietnam and India are more competitive for Cotton yarns / fabrics now but they are still unable to match the scale and delivery capabilities of China.
“We as the largest viscose player in the world and are catering to specific niches in China market through our products Birla Modal and Birla Spunshades. Lot of yarn capacity in countries such as India, Pakistan etc, was added to serve China demand but with drop in attractiveness of China imports, it is creating extra competition in other parts of the world. At the end of the day, it is a global and interconnected market and China impacts rest of the world in a big way,” emphasises Dong.
Global outlook on cotton
Dong doesn’t expect global yarn production to increase by 3-4 per cent. Cotton yarn production is expected to grow by 2-3 per cent only whereas manmade cellulosic fiber yarns should grow by 6-7 per cent. “Bangladesh would be a growing market but he feels that more yarn needs to be converted to yarn and fabric within local markets itself rather than being exported. Exports are vulnerable to policy changes and government intervention in the form of duties. Vietnam and Indonesia have good spinning capabilities but lack domestic cotton. However, they can import cotton easily from good sources. Vietnam’s demand and supply dynamics in short to long term, as its domestic consumption is increasing. Vietnam has become a major yarn exporter now but that would change as local fabric production increases. Vietnam despite demise of TPP would remain an attractive textiles market in years to come” says Dong.
Expectations from Yarn Expo
“Yarn expo, March 2017 would be the first major textile industry event in Asia and we expect to see good participation from across the industry. 2016 was a volatile year but we finally saw yarn and fabric prices reverse the trend of falling prices and return to a more reasonable level. So, sentiment for 2017 and this event is broadly positive. Further, we expect to interact with our partners in downstream value chain so as to be geared up to meet their requirements in future. We would be mainly highlighting Birla Micro-Modal and Birla Spunshades fibers during this exhibition. While Micro-Modal meets the requirements of softness and addresses the trend towards finer and lighter fabrics.” Birla Spunshades addresses the issues of dyeing related pollution in the textiles industry. Both these products ideally fit the requirements of the industry and we would promote these during the show, remarks Dong.
“We are focussing on increasing visibility of viscose in the markets such as India through initiatives of Liva branding and Liva accredited partner forum. We are also upgrading our product mix towards more specialty fibres such as Modal and spunshades, which are meeting the needs of softness and resource conservation issues in textile industry,” concludes Dong.
"Cotton has predominantly been a volatile commodity and depends on many natural factors. It does impact on imports of yarn in China, yet niche buyers are always on buying table for good quality yarns and here Indorama has been having edge. Chinese knitting companies are large in size and look for big volumes of consistent quality. “Apart from huge local base, they look for Imports as well and demand has been fairly consistent from quality buyers."
Cotton has predominantly been a volatile commodity and depends on many natural factors. It does impact on imports of yarn in China, yet niche buyers are always on buying table for good quality yarns and here Indorama has been having edge. Chinese knitting companies are large in size and look for big volumes of consistent quality. “Apart from huge local base, they look for Imports as well and demand has been fairly consistent from quality buyers. Cotton seems to be going strong for the 2017-18 period and with depleting cotton stock in, the world is looking at China increasing its buying and expecting spike in cotton buying and interest from Hedge funds who are unfortunately controlling the commodity prices,” says Anil Tibrewal, PT Indorama Synthetics, Indonesia.
Global cotton outlook
With an increase in spindles in Xi’an and India, yarn production is increasing and so is demand. “At the end of the day, everything depends on fashion and final garment price. If brands decide to increase garment prices, threat from polyester which is all time low, may intervene and check. Bangladesh, China, Turkey and Egypt remain the largest markets for cotton yarn and readymade garments,” he says. Production base in Bangladesh is ever increasing backed by very low power and labour cost and availability of yarn locally.
China has many alternatives to India and Vietnam. “Duty free agreement will hurt Indian exports to China but domestic competition in India is hurting more than outside. Mere dependency on government subsidies to survive in cotton business needs to be checked with better infrastructure/port facilities, which I feel will improve in coming days after demonetization,” Tibrewal opines.
He says, TPP is important globally and its actual impacts are yet to be seen. “I am seeing positive factors as TPP could have been disastrous to textiles. Increased manufacturing in US with higher buying power may give a boost to overall textile trade. Manufacturing cost in textiles in US is not going to be cheaper either. They might still continue importing from across the border despite failed TPP and NAFTA as the cost of imports after adding the 20-25 per cent duty is still cheaper than local buying. Americans are used to larger margind contrary to Asians and would like to encash on this opportunity for quicker deliveries,” believes Tibrewal.
Promising prospects
Indorama is optimistic about the current situation of cotton business in China. In 2017, the trend is tilting towards cotton and cotton blended based products. Consumption is increasing and demand for good quality cotton yarn is on an upswing in China. “We are enjoying good buyer base in China. We are specialised with large production of 100 per cent combed compact contamination-free cotton yarns from Indonesia apart from virgin cotton open end yarns suitable for knitting. Above two products are not easily available and buyers are relishing the kind of quality we are shipping,” Tibrewal sums up.
