Cambodia’s exports to Japanskyrocketed in the first quarter of the year thanks to the improvement in regional connectivity within the 10 Southeast Asian nations.
As per the latest data from the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), total exports from Cambodia reached almost $329 million in the first quarter of the year, a big increase of more than 34 percent, compared with $245 million in the same period last year.
According to Hiroshi Suzuki, CEO/Chief Economist for the Business Research Institute for Cambodia, the increase in items would be garment products and shoes. He said Cambodia has good advantages for the production of these items. The advantages are lower labor costs and improved logistical connections with Japan.
Products mainly Cambodia exported to Japan were garment products, footwear, sugar, fish and seafood, and the country imported machinery, cars, electronic products, meat, iron, steel and pharmaceutical products from Japan.
The Cambodia-Japan Association for Business and Investment (CJBI) was officially launched in late March to bring business groups in the two countries together. Now there are 250 Japanese companies that invest in Cambodia, while 222 companies enrolled in the association.
According to Joao Paulo Sabido Costa, Charge De’ Affairs of Portugal to Islamabad, his country is making efforts to enhance trade with Pakistan especially in the sector of textile, chemical industry, aeronautical, marble, dairy farming, agriculture and tourism.
He said that Portugal had softened the visa policy for students and the business community.The delegation of Portuguese parliamentarians under the chairmanship of Speaker Portugal Assembly in June, will meet President, Prime Minister, Speaker National Assembly and Pakistani parliamentarians.
Costa said that Pakistan had a fairly vast scope in tourism. The business councils of both the countries would arrange an exhibition of Pakistani products in Lisbon next month. Pakistani products have a good demand in Europe. Businessmen from Pakistan can participate in the exhibition as Portugal had a softer visa policy for the investors.
Costa admitted that the trade volume between the two countries was very meager but efforts were being made from both sides to lift it by the end of the current year.
Gap, the clothing retailer reported another quarter of declining sales recently, a sign of deepening trouble in its battle to keep up with fast fashion and online retailers.
The 47-year old apparel maker Gap, known for its trademark blue denim, khakis and other mostly youth-oriented looks, saw sales fall at all three its store brands: Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy.
In the first quarter, sales fell 6.0 percent to $3.44 billion, with Banana Republic sinking the most at 11 percent. Old Navy, the group's cheapest line mostly aimed at children and teens, outperformed its sister chains for most of 2015.
Key challenges for all three though include toughened competition from H&M, Uniqlo and other fast fashion chains, as well as the headwinds from a broader tilt against brick-and-mortar stores as more shoppers go online.
A year ago Gap announced plans to cut 175 namesake stores in North America, pledged renewed focus to streamline its operations and whittle its presence internationally to the most promising markets.
According to chief executive Art Peck, the industry is evolving and they should transform at a faster pace, while focusing their energy on what matters most to their customers.Peck said more details would be revealed when the company reports earnings on May 19.
According to Rebecca Chiang, executive director, Malaysian Knitting Manufacturers Association (MKMA), Malaysia’s textile division will grow by at least 30 per cent, thanks to a surge of investment when the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement comes into force.
The trade deal’s ‘yarn forward’ rule makes it mandatory to use TPP member-country produced yarn for TPP-made textiles in order to be covered by the agreement’s market access benefits, and it means ‘downstream garment exporters need to consume local or TPP country’s fabrics, which will definitely benefit Malaysian knitters,’ says Chiang. Malaysia has proven to be the most enthusiastic TPP signatory country – on 27 January, the Malaysian parliament endorsed the deal, while many other national assemblies have yet to debate the agreement.
U.S. is an important market for Malaysia’s garment and textile exports. Malaysia currently ranks number nine in the list of top exporters to the US for woven men’s shirts and number 22 in the list of exporters of knitted men’s shirts, according to an analysis on the impact of TPP on the Malaysian textile and apparel industry undertaken by the MKMA. However, in terms of total exports of textiles and apparel products to the US, Malaysia ranks number 26. But with the TPP, Malaysia’s exports will increase. MKMA predicts 72.9 per cent textiles tariff lines, constituting 36.44 per cent of total exports [by TPP member countries] to the USA, will see duty elimination upon entry into force of the agreement. Without the TPP, only 11 per cent of tariffs or 0.9 per cent of total exports in these countries would be duty free.
"According to one estimate, Vietnam's textile exports will double in the decade from 2015 to 6 trillion yen ($55 billion). In addition to low labor costs, expected cuts in tariffs under the agreement are drawing textile companies to the emerging country."
Vietnam is emerging as a potential new world production center of textile products, as major global apparel makers are expanding their production in the Southeast Asian country.
Avery Dennison RBIS, a U.S. manufacturer of apparel labels and tags, and South Korean clothing maker Panko are building new plants in Vietnam, which is part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade liberalization pact among 12 Pacific Rim countries, including the U.S. and Japan.
According to one estimate, Vietnam's textile exports will double in the decade from 2015 to 6 trillion yen ($55 billion). In addition to low labor costs, expected cuts in tariffs under the agreement are drawing textile companies to the emerging country.
State-of-the-art label printers are rolling off paper tags for global apparel brands such as Nike and Adidas at Avery's brand-new plant in Long An Province in southern Vietnam. The plant, which came on stream in January, can print 10,000 tags per hour containing information like prices and materials used. Its production capacity is twice that of the old plant. The tags are then delivered to factories in the surrounding areas that mainly manufacture sports apparel.
According to Rishi Pardal, the company's vice president in charge of North Asia, Vietnam will replace China as the principal hub of textile exports to Western and Japanese markets.
Meanwhile, Panko is building a new plant in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, at a cost of $100 million. The company is responding to growing orders from global apparel brands, including Uniqlo. Choi Jae-ho, a director at Panko's local unit, said the company's sales increased 30 per cent last year and the outlook is for a similar expansion this year, too.
Incidentally, China is still the dominant player in Asia's apparel business, with a total export value of 30 trillion yen. The figure dwarfs India's annual apparel exports of slightly less than 5 trillion yen, the second largest in Asia.
But rising labour costs, which have doubled in five years, are threatening China's status as the regional champion. Textile exports from China fell last year for the first time in six years, signaling that apparel makers are looking to other countries with lower costs.
Clearly, Vietnam has the potential to become a serious challenger to China's supremacy in textile production and exports. In addition to low labor costs, which are nearly 60 per cent less than in China, the TPP, which is expected to come into force around 2018, will further enhance Vietnam's competitiveness.
The trade pact will, for instance, immediately scrap tariffs averaging 20 per cent on 70 per cent of the items Vietnam exports to the U.S. Vietnam's advantage as an exporter will receive an additional boost from its free trade agreement with the EU, which is pending ratification.
To gain the most benefits from the tariff cuts under the TPP, a country needs to have both upstream and downstream sectors. In the textile industry, that means Vietnam needs both spinning and dying as well as sewing businesses.
Huntsman Textile Effects, a division of Huntsman and a leading manufacturer of textile dyes and chemicals, is seeking to capitalise on new business opportunities in Vietnam created by the trade accord.
The company used to transport dyes for yarns and cloths from a warehouse in Thailand to Vietnam, which took two to three weeks to deliver products after receiving orders. But, last year, Huntsman opened its own bonded warehouse in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam, which cut delivery times down to as short as four business days.
Meanwhile, even though China has not joined the TPP, Chinese textile companies are also expanding their operations in Vietnam.
Texhong Textile Group, a major Chinese textile manufacturer, has spent 600 million yuan ($92.6 million) to build new production facilities on 220,000 sq. meters of land it purchased in Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam. In partnership with a Hong Kong-based knitwear manufacturer, the company is planning to build up integrated textile manufacturing and sales operations in the country, starting with yarn production.
According to Hong Tianzhu, Texhong's chairman, his company will seek to be the top player in Vietnam, which he describes as the biggest beneficiary of the TPP.
Shoe manufacturers are also expanding in Vietnam. Pou Chen of Taiwan, the world's largest contract manufacturer of footwear, which counts Nike and other major brands among its customers, made 42 per cent of its products in Vietnam as of the end of 2015, compared with 25 per cent in China.
But Vietnam is facing tough challenges in its quest to become a global textile giant: Minimum wages in the country are rising at double-digit rates, and its underdeveloped petrochemical industry is limiting production capacity.
If it wants to become the world's new textile plant, Vietnam needs to quickly upgrade its industrial structure while its textile exports still maintain price competitiveness.
Other Asian countries are also trying to benefit from the TPP. Since the trade deal was struck in October last year, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have announced their intention to join. These countries are clearly feeling pressure to keep up with their neighbors in global competition.
Foreign investment in Vietnam's textile industry totaled $5.7 billion in 2014-15, equal to nearly 70 per cent of the accumulated investment over the past 20 years. Such rapid growth cannot be attributed solely to the TPP, but the trade pact has no doubt been a major factor.
The situation poses a puzzle for Japanese textile makers operating in countries such as Thailand and Indonesia. They must decide whether to expand into Vietnam now or wait for its neighbors to join the TPP.
Bangladesh’s apparel export to the US market has seen a 4.30 per cent rise to $1.45 billion in the first quarter of current calendar year, despite the declining trend of overall apparel import by the United States from across the world.
Meanwhile, the overall apparel export to US from other countries has declined by 2.14 per cent to $19.30 billion, which was $19.72 billion in the same period a year ago.
As per the January-March data of the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA), US Department of Commerce, Bangladesh earned $1.45 billion, exporting clothing products to the US market, which is 4.30 per cent higher compared to $1.40 billion a year ago.
However, the volume posted an 8.38 per cent growth to 517.63 million square meters equivalent (SME) to the same period that indicates the unit prices of apparel products made in Bangladesh have seen a fall.In the same period last year, the volume was 477.62 million SME.
Meanwhile, the overall RMG import by the US increased by 4.14 per cent to $5.60 billion with an 11.93 per cent rise compared to $5 billion in the same period a year ago.
One of the world’s largest integrated producers of polymers and fibers, Invistawill launch two new Thermolite® brand technologies at the upcoming Kingpins denim show in New York City. Both innovations offer a high level of performance that may change the way we think about what jeans to wear in colder conditions.
Thermolite® Infrared technology and patented Thermolite® Dual Layer technology are the first offerings under a new brand category called Thermolite® Pro. At Kingpins, Invista will demonstrate how these technologies provide a higher level of warmth and insulation than traditional denim fabrics.
According to Jean Hegedus, global segment director for denim at Invista, the THERMOLITE® PRO innovations were driven by consumer research* that showed that more than 70 per cent of respondents were interested in the concept of a winter jean.
Denim fabrics made with Thermolite® Infrared technology increase their temperature when exposed to solar or artificial light. Special ceramic pigments are added to the fiber that transfer the energy of infrared rays into heat the body can feel. For example, after three minutes under infrared light, surface temperatures of fabrics with infrared yarns increased two to four degrees Celsius, depending on the content of the infrared yarn in the fabric.
FESPA Africa and Sign Africa 2016 will take place from 7-9 September at Gallagher Convention Centre, will feature educational content and a variety of exhibitors showcasing the latest industry trends and new products geared at helping visitors expand their businesses.
The event attracts a high quality audience who want to take advantage of the signage and printing industry growth in Africa.There is an increased focus on Sub-Saharan Africa this year, with FESPA Africa hiring a dedicated marketing person and launching a strategic marketing plan to target this region, such as the FESPA Africa Forums hosted in Nigeria and Kenya.
The objective of the forums is bringing together industry professionals from the digital wide format printing and signage sectors to discuss the future of the market, upcoming trends and new opportunities.
According to the research from Whitehouse & Associates, the printing industry's growth and consumption indicates that the industry in Sub-Saharan Africa has grown extremely quickly over the last decade or so.
The research reveals that global exports to Sub-Saharan Africa of these products stood at R9bn (US$681m) in 2000, when the first ‘green shoots’ of Africa’s economic and political change began to become evident.
FESPA Africa will be co-located with Sign Africa, Africa Print and Africa LED.
According to the data released recently by the International Trade Administration’s Office of Textiles and Apparel, or OTEXA, denim brands and retailers implemented a big shift in sourcing strategy in the first quarter of 2016.
In the first three months of 2016, denim imports from China represented 24.6 percent of the total, down from 24.9 percent a year ago.Imports from Mexico suffered an even bigger fall, dropping from 30 percent of total U.S. denim imports in the first quarter of 2015 to 26.7 percent in 2016.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh and Pakistan each gained 100 basis points of share, to become the number 3 and 4 suppliers of denim jeans to the U.S. market. This is consistent with industry trends showing a shift in denim market share toward the fast fashion retailers that are a favorite of younger consumers.
Total U.S. imports of denim jeans fell by 4.3 percent to $674.6 million in the first quarter. Units declined 3.5 percent to 85 million, resulting in a drop of 0.8 percent in the average cost of a pair of imported jeans.
Men’s and boy’s jeans suffered the biggest drop, with the dollar value of imports down 7.8 percent to $351.6 million.Women’s and girls’ jeans imports were virtually flat at $323 million in the quarter.
Vardhman Textiles, major integrated textile producer in India, reported consolidated net profit of Rs. 159.44 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, registering growth of 45.91 per cent y-o-y and 7.77 per cent q-o-q. The company’s consolidated revenue stood at Rs. 1,702.68 crore, down 0.75 per cent y-o-y and 1.03 per cent q-o-q.
The company’s consolidated core operating profit of Rs. 382.37 crore for the quarter, clocked growth of 8.57 per cent y-o-y and 8.96 per cent q-o-q. Operating profit margin for the current quarter at 22.46 per cent expanded by 193 bps y-o-y and 206 bps q-o-q.
The company reported consolidated net profit of Rs. 578.65 crore, growing by 44.59 per cent y-o-y for the year ended March 31, 2016. Its consolidated revenue for the period stood at Rs. 6,723.27 crore, registering decline of 3.29 per cent y-o-y.
Meanwhile, Vardhman Textiles' core operating profit stood at Rs. 1,401.81 crore, recording growth of 9.17 per cent y-o-y. Operating margin for the current period at 21.17 per cent expanded by 458 bps y-o-y.
On standalone basis, Vardhman Textiles Ltd, reported a net profit of Rs. 217.49 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, registering growth of 141.12 per cent y-o-y and 69.5 per cent q-o-q. The company’s standalone revenue stood at Rs. 1,435.40 crore, down 0.92 per cent y-o-y and 0.65 per cent q-o-q.
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