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Tencel is considered the fiber of the future. It's a third generation fiber having the comfort of cotton but with wrinkle-free properties. The fibre has better colour retention and better shelf life. Moreover it is biodegradable. Talking about the fibre’s properties, T Murugan, General Manager, Sales, Lenzing, says, “All our products are sustainable and biodegradable. Our fibers are made from completely sustainable forests and we follow green manufacturing processes. Our manufacturing base is in Austria, Indonesia, the US and the UK.”
Lenzing USP and applications
Lenzing is a manmade cellulosic fiber. Lenzing produces three generations of cellulosic fibers: viscose, Modal and Tencel. It is used into textile and non-woven applications. In textile applications, Modal is used in making innerwear. Tencel is used for wovens like denim, shirting, home textiles and advanced applications of filters and non-wovens. It can be blended with cotton and polyester in various applications.
Tencel is a cellulosic fiber that blends well with cotton. “Even a small amount of Tencel in cotton blends, to the extent of 20 to 30 per cent and gives a huge value addition to cotton in terms of better crease recovery, shrinkage properties, durability and colour retention. This is what we are proposing, to have a minority blend of Tencel with cotton to enhance the properties of cotton,” explains Murugan.
Growth prospects and demand
“Since we work with specialties like Modal and Tencel, we are doing well. In four or five years we see a shortage of cotton. The growing population means, more land has to be allotted to food grains than cotton crop. You have an alternate source for clothing but not an alternate source for food grains. You have to grow these on land. But clothing can be made from trees growing on hills, in forests, so demand for Tencel and Modal kind of products will increase,” avers Murugan, talking about the future prospects.
Export trends for Modal and Tencel are very good. Prices of manmade cellulosic fibers remain stable. While the production of cotton is 27 million tons, production of manmade cellulosic fibers is four million tons. But demand for specialty products is on the rise.
www.lenzing.com
Tanboocel, is a patented bamboo fibre brand supplier to all big Indian spinners like Pallava, RSWGM, Nahar and Vardhman, from a very long time. The company now plans to launch bamboo as fashion fibre. The USP of bamboo fibre is that it can be spun purely or blended together with cotton, hemp, thin silk, woolens, Tencel, Modal, polyester or spandex. Its downstream products can be applied for bedding, bathroom fittings, nonwoven cloth, medicinal materials (bandage, mask, surgical clothes etc), underwear, socks, clothes, decorating articles and so on.
Tanboocel fibre has been validated by Japan Textile Inspection Association as possessing excellent anti-bacteria, bacteriostasis qualities even after 50 washing.“The product is antibacterial, breathable and has thermo control properties and moisture absorbency and is much better than cotton,” says Chen Zhen, Regional Director, Jilin Chemical Fiber Group, adding, “More water absorbency is the main property of the bamboo fibre. We are going to launch bamboo as a fashion fibre now.”
Applications of bamboo fibre
The main application of bamboo fibre is in terry towel industry, knitting and furnishing
products as well as woven industry such as bed sheets. “Now we are developing more products like dyed bamboo fibres and bamboo filament yarn as well. These are the new developments for Indian market, and we are hopeful that we will have a good market for bamboo fibre in India. Our main supplier and producer are Hebei Jigao Chemical Fiber manufacturing company from China,” explains Zhen.
Bamboo fibre is exported to many markets such as Europe, Australia among others. Recently the company launched bamboo fibre that can be used in carpet as well. There are some chemicals used but it has OKEOTEX certification for it. Elaborates Zhen, “The product is eco friendly, and we possess a trademark from the Indian government as well.”
Demand and capacity expansion
What works for bamboo is that there is no need for replantation as it is a core sustainable product. For all other products like cotton replantation, re-harvesting is required. In bamboo, there are no pesticides, it grows three feet in the night on its own that is why it is also the fastest growing plant on the planet. “Bamboo takes three years to mature to become bamboo fibre. Availability is also plenty and we are supplying a good quantity of bamboo fibre to Indian spinners,” informs Zhen.
Indeed, Bamboo fibres are expensive compared to cotton because of its properties. As Zhen says, China is the only manufacturer of bamboo so production is limited. “But we are happy to continuously supply good quantity of fibre and have recently installed a new factory for bamboo pulp in China and then the capacity will almost double. At the moment, our capacity is 24,000 per annum, and we are launching more plants for bamboo pulp and fibre,” he adds.
At present, all products go to export markets. The fibre is imported from China and yarn, spinning of yarn and garmenting and value addition is done in India but the end product goes overseas. The products are not available in the Indian market. “We look forward to an increase in bamboo fibre applications in India,” states Zhen.
www.jlhxjt.com
The Texworld exhibition in Paris is making young designers an essential part of its strategy. The festival, in its 21st year, was held from April 11 to 13 and welcomed a large number of professionals from the world of fashion and textiles. Aware of the specific demands of young designers and labels, Texworld’s organisers have developed the Small Order Itinerary, a tool that lists around a 100 exhibitors who will accept small volume orders.
Designers, especially those based in Paris, value this offer and attend Texworld regularly in large numbers. The couturier Christophe Josse, Christophe Guillarmé, Christine Phung, Irakli, Marc Antoine Barrois and Hanno Wessel are among those who buy at the show and have products developed. Over the past few seasons, Texworld has become more accessible to designers who are interested in smaller quantities. A circuit and floor space is dedicated to make it easier to meet these suppliers.
The show has supported young designers in engaging Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud, young talented graduates from the Esmod school at the time, as artistic directors. With Esmod as partner, the exhibition organises the Designer & Fashion Service, a matchmaking service to put young designers, pattern-makers and marketers in touch with companies that attend the shows in search of talented young people. The next Texworld will take place on September 15 to 18, 2014, in Paris.
The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) says the cotton standardisation fee is unjust and a burden on the ginning industry. It has urged the ministry of textile to meet its annual expenditures from its own kitty instead of financially burdening the ginning industry.
PCGA says the ministry is doing nothing for the welfare of cotton growers and ginners. Ginners had already rejected the cotton standardisation fee of Rs 5 per bale in 2007-8, but it has now been revived. The association says the ministry has not taken any interest in ensuring the availability of well-germinated, heat-disease resistant seeds for boosting cotton production and that no market mechanism has been evolved to safeguard the interest of growers as well as ginners. Nor have modern agro-machinery, fine quality fertilisers, and farm implements been supplied to growers.
Ginneries in Pakistan received about 14 million bales of cotton as on April 15, 2014. More than 12 million bales of cotton were purchased by domestic textile mills in Pakistan. The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association is a representative body of over 1,200 ginning factories in Pakistan. It came into existence in 1958. It takes care of the interests of ginners.
pcga.org/
The Bangladesh government has used the first meeting of the Forum on Trade and Investment with the US to announce plans to eliminate tariffs and other charges on fire safety equipment. The decision comes after North American apparel retailers and importers last month expressed their concerns that efforts to improve safety in Bangladeshi garment factories are being hampered by high tariffs of up to 61 per cent on imports of essential building and fire safety equipment such as sprinklers and fire doors.
No time frame has been put on the move, but it should make the costs of building remediation less expensive for factories and encourage critical investment into these products. The United States-Bangladesh forum on trade and investment gives the two governments a mechanism under which to discuss trade and investment issues as well as areas of co-operation. It is also seen as a key measure in helping to restore preferential tariffs for exports from the Asian country.
Other issues discussed by the two countries included investment rules, intellectual property protection, fumigation requirements for cotton imports into Bangladesh, and economic development and cooperation in the South and Southeast Asia region.
A new research, development and manufacturing center in Canada is being set up to try to make the workplace safer. Olds College is joining Alberta Garment Manufacturing to establish what is believed to be Western Canada’s first apparel research and development facility. When it opens in 2015, the facility will test, design and manufacture protective clothing for the energy and construction industries as well as for the Canadian forces.
The center will design its own product lines and test designs from other companies. An example would be tests on cold-weather gear developed by the Canadian military. Canada is known as a cold country. It doesn’t have many facilities that can test their cold ratings of products. Now it will have.
There is a need for testing products and developing standards for steam because steam processing is a dangerous occupation. Right now there is no clothing that protects the worker from steam accidents. So the project will work on development of flame retardant clothes, especially clothing for steam exposure, that is, hot liquid exposure.
The new facility will complement the Fashion Marketing and Apparel Technology programs offered by Olds College and will be connected to the Alberta Garment Manufacturing facility in northeast Calgary.
www.oldscollege.ca/,
UK department store operator Debenhams is the latest retailer to sign a sustainability plan, designed to reduce environmental footprint of clothing over its lifecycle. The Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) is led by the UK government's Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP).
By 2020, signatories aim to have reduced their carbon and water footprints as well as the amount of waste sent to landfill by 15 per cent. The SCAP 2020 commitment also includes a 3.5 per cent cut in waste arising per ton of clothing. If these targets are met, WRAP expects to save the equivalent annual CO2 emissions of nearly 2,50,000 cars, water in 1,60,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and over 16,000 tons of waste.
Key action areas include reducing the environmental footprint of clothing through fiber and fabric selection, extending the useful life of garments, and increasing re-use and recycling. The campaign includes the SCAP footprint calculator, which enables a brand or retailer to quantify the carbon, water and waste footprints of its entire garment portfolio.
WRAP works with major UK businesses, trade bodies and local authorities and helps people recycle more and waste less, both at home and at work, and offers economic as well as environmental benefits.
www.wrap.org.uk/
Intercontinental Exchange Group (ICE) plans to issue a new world cotton contract to reflect global prices in the fourth quarter of 2014. The new contract would trade alongside ICE's US-based cotton futures contract.
The exchange expects the new international contract to begin trading before the end of the year and have its first delivery in early to mid 2015. The exchange's current cotton contract is only for US-grown cotton, with delivery points in the US. While the US is the world's top exporter of cotton, an international contract is necessary because the US contract doesn't necessarily reflect the global cotton market.
Both the International Cotton Association, a trade group, and American Cotton Shippers Association, an industry group, are now working together on the contract. The origins of cotton that could be delivered to fulfill the futures contract include Brazil, US, Australia, India and five West African nations like Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali and Ivory Coast. The contract price will be based on US-origin cotton, with premiums and discounts for cotton grown in other countries.
Australia, will most likely trade at a premium, while fibers from other origins will be discounted to varying degrees. The size of a lot on the world contract will be £55,000, nearly £5,000 pounds more than the US contract. That is because cotton tends to be shipped in £55,000 containers.
Hopes are high that the US will renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) before its expiry on September 30, 2015. But there have also been calls from US policy makers to investigate the effectiveness of the trade program, which provides duty-free access to the United States for products from sub-Saharan Africa.
Total US imports from AGOA beneficiary countries grew at an average annual rate of 6.7 per cent during the 13-year period from 2000 to 2013. Growth was most pronounced in the first eight years, when the value of these imports increased almost fivefold in 2008. Since then, however, US imports from AGOA countries have fluctuated sharply.
The increase in imports was primarily from three categories -- apparels, cars, and refined petroleum products. Apparels was one of the categories having experienced particularly strong export growth in the whole 13-year period.
Three major recommendations have been made: improving supply capacity, including seeking out foreign direct investment and capacity-building assistance; making AGOA permanent and binding; and improving the business climate of beneficiary countries. This could include improved rule of law and protection of intellectual property rights.
One suggestion is expanding the list of eligible products, ending country eligibility requirements to aid beneficiary countries in formulating long-term export strategies, and increasing trade assistance to improve both institutional and trade capacity.
trade.gov/agoa/
Amsterdam can be called the European capital of denim. The concentration of jeans brands in the Dutch capital is indeed impressive. Key industry players like G-star and Tommy Hilfiger Europe are headquartered here. The boutique denim trade show Kingpins will be putting on its first European edition this week in Amsterdam.
This October, House of Denim will open Denim City Headquarters in Amsterdam. The central goal of House of Denim is to educate the denim industry about cleaner production methods that conserve water, while attracting industry players as well as denim brands themselves. Members will be able to take advantage of resources offered at Denim City Headquarters: 125 sq. mtr. of the headquarters will be set aside for archives provided by the House of Denim and partners.
A 275 mt. sq. space will be equipped with sewing machines, serving both as a production workshop for up cycling companies as well as a laboratory for business incubators. Up until now only available to Dutch students, the program will welcome 25 international students in 2015. Denim City Headquarters will provide space for workshops. 300 sq. mtr. will be rented out as office space for denim companies or experts who want a pied-à-terre in Amsterdam - in line with House of Denim’s goal of connecting the industry’s professionals.
