Indonesia hopes to increase textile exports with the strengthening of the dollar against the rupiah. The textile sector is the third biggest foreign exchange earner for Indonesia. Palm oil industry is first followed by tourism. Textile and textile products industry is a strategic manufacturing sector in the Indonesian economy. The country’s foreign exchange earnings from textile exports are more than $3 dollars annually. Indonesia’s textile production was up eight per cent from January to March 2018.

The increase was triggered by domestic demand and tightening of wholesale and other imports. Indonesia hopes to triple textile and textile product exports in the next five years. If this happens, this sector will be Indonesia’s largest non-oil export contributor and create jobs for six million people.

The industry now wants an integrated cluster and close to the source of raw materials; a tightening of textile imports; affordable factory rental rates; upstream and downstream industries integrated in one region. In 2016, apparel exports decreased 3.2 per cent due to several challenges including high logistics costs and gas and power tariffs being higher than other competitor countries.

The chief minister of Manipur recently inspected the three manufacturing units of Imphal: Apparel and Garment Making Centre, Lamboikhongnangkhong in the west district. The building and machinery of unit-1 of the government-owned centre is currently utilised by Big Concepts Foundation and Unit-3 by a local company called Ningthibee Collections for high quality apparel production.

The three units can produce large number of apparels and garments. After accessing the production unit, the state will sign an MoU with a Mauritian company to supply about one lakh pieces of various apparels per month. The state is planning to sign a MoU with the two local private companies within a week to work together in this regard in public-private partnership model. Around 10 trainers from Delhi will train around 1,000 state youths to start large scale production of apparels, and the centre has machineries for around 350 workers.

As per Federal Custom Service of Russia figures, in the first half of 2018, Russia imported 28.9 million pair of leather footwear, an increase of 20.9 per cent compared to the same period of 2017. Imports in value terms increased 24.2 per cent to $778.7 million. June, leather footwear import stood at 4.6 million pairs, 91.7 per cent growth compared to May. For six month in 2018, Russia’s apparel import touched $3.2 billion over 11.8 per cent compared to the first half of 2017).

From January to June, 2018 cotton fabric import volume has decreased 5.8 per cent to 116 million sq. mt. while its import value has grown 13.7 per cent to $78.6 million. Russia’s cotton fabric export amounted to more than 42 million sq. mt. and increased by 1.4 per cent compared to the first half of 2017. Export revenues have increased 3.8 per cent and reached $24.3 million.

Pure London 2019’s Festival of Fashion will launch a new campaign ‘Redefining Disruption’ for the fashion community. The three-day seasonal show will help attendees navigate global issues in the industry. The event for women’s wear, menswear, accessories, and young fashion will be held from February 10-12, 2019.

Pure London will focus on key points of the campaign namely: ‘Be Bold, Be Brave, Take a Stand, Embrace the change, Challenge the Status Quo, and Join the Power of One’. Bold creative campaign imagery featuring graffiti spray paint effects are inspired by the overarching idea of disruption, according to a press release.

Pure London will continue to evolve and build on the progress made towards creating a more sustainable future for fashion, driving the industry to continue to make their pledges and join the Power of One campaign. Visitors will continue to see over 700 women’s and menswear brands offering ready to wear and premium collections, footwear and accessories as well as the recently re-branded Gen Z section.

Mimaki has integrated workflow solutions for creative UV-LED printing on plastic. These include the compact, state-of-the art UV-LED direct printing system UJF-7151plus, the UJF-3042 MkII for high-performance small-format UV-LED printing, the compact flat bed cutting machine CFL-605RT, the ideal multifunctional solution for the production of samples and short runs and the systems solution RasterLink 6.

The UJF-7151 plus uses a robotic arm. The printer is loaded and unloaded automatically via an interface solution. This reduces machine make-ready times and further increases the efficiency levels of Mimaki’s systems.

Mimaki aims at helping customers connect their printing systems to achieve unmanned on-demand production and mass personalisation by integrating robots, conveyor belts, testing technologies, sensors and other peripherals with production lines. Customers can simplify and streamline their processes, since printers, which were typically deployed on a standalone basis, are now connected to their peripherals.

Mimaki is a leading manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers and cutting machines for the sign/graphics, industrial and textile/apparel markets. It develops the complete product range for each group, hardware, software and the associated consumable items, such as inks and cutting blades. The company excels in offering innovative, high quality and high reliability products, based upon its aqueous, latex, solvent and UV-curable inkjet technology.

Levi Strauss & Co. has undertaken a series of leadership moves designed to streamline decision-making and consolidate accountability for core business growth drivers. The company has established a new strategy and analytics organization, elevating the importance of data and analytics and pairing it with strategy to shape the future. This reflects the company’s belief that it has an untapped competitive advantage in unleashing the power of data and analytics. The company is currently recruiting for an executive to lead this organization.

Expansion of its retail network along with the emergence of digital has increasingly given the company a direct relationship with consumers — one that did not exist when the company was exclusively a wholesaler. A consolidated product, innovation and supply chain organization has been created. This new organization combines the key product functions of design, merchandising, product development and planning into a single team and integrates supply chain into the consumer journey.

Over the past six years, the company has returned to profitable growth through a strategic focus on building brand energy, driving product innovation and establishing market solutions around the world. Its brands are more relevant and are more connected to popular culture than they have been in decades.

The Woolmark Company TexSelect Award will be presented on September 20, 2018 at Première Vision Designs, Paris. The awards will be judged by Natasha Lenart, Fabric and Knitwear Development Manager at Victoria Beckham, and Eda Karadogan, International Luxury Fabrics Manufacturer, Ipeki. Established in 2011, The Woolmark Company TexSelect Award recognises design excellence in fabrics created with 60 per cent or more Merino wool, whether presented as printed, woven, knitted and/or mixed media fabric.

The award will be presented at the TexSelect village. The winner will receive £1,000, in addition to ongoing support from The Woolmark Company and opportunities to learn about developments, innovations and the supply chain for wool. In addition, The Woolmark Company will sponsor a dedicated presence for the winner at Intertextile Shanghai on September 27-29, 2018.

Spain’s Inditex SA plans to sell Zara and other brands online anywhere in the world within two years. The goal implies doubling Inditex’s global footprint, as it now has stores in 96 countries and e-commerce in about half of those. The retailer is setting the goal amid growing investor concern about stronger competition from upstart rivals and as web sales threatens to erode profit margins. Morgan Stanley analysts have warned the company that its rankings have dropped from great to good while Credit Suisse stated its growing shift to online sales isn’t as beneficial as traditional store expansion. Inditex shares have dropped 14 percent this year. E-commerce is the source of 10 percent of its sales, having grown more than 40 percent last year.

Hennes & Mauritz AB, Inditex’s ailing rival, aims to add online sales in all its brick-and-mortar markets eventually, and expand in other countries as well. The H&M chain has e-commerce in about 50 markets and stores in about 70.

India’s imports of readymade garments from Bangladesh grew 56 per cent during July-November 2017 over the same period previous year. Knitted apparel imports from Bangladesh rose 69 per cent, while women’s apparel imports grew 51 per cent.

In the pre-GST era, import of garments from Bangladesh attracted a countervailing duty and education cess. However, in the post-GST scenario, there is no cost of import of garments from Bangladesh. This unilateral duty-free market access given to Bangladesh facilitates the entry of Chinese textiles into India. Textile raw material from China comes to India via Bangladesh, which has a free-trade agreement with India. Duty free fabric from China goes to Bangladesh, gets converted and lands into India at zero duty.

China is said to be selling organic fibers. The industry in India wants to develop and promote its cotton fiber as green fiber which is manufactured through environment friendly methods and zero discharge processes. Trade bodies, which expect textile imports from Bangladesh to rise further, want India to introduce a rule of origin for duty free imports. Competition from China is forcing some businesses, such as polyester production facilities, to run idle, leading to job losses.

Almost 50 per cent clothing accessories and apparel made in Bangladesh are made with Chinese fibers.

Hyosung hopes to have a bigger presence of its spandex brand Creora in the global denim market. The Korean company has introduced a collection of denim-use functional fabric applying Creora eco-soft, Creora Fit2 (denim spandex with high power), MIPAN aqua-X (cool touch functional yarn), and askin (cool touch polyester yarn) technologies.

Hyosung is a Korean fiber and yarn company. Hyosung is the largest elastane producer in the world and first developed its own process for manufacturing spandex in 1992. The company has a partnership with French textile mill Sofileta. This mill has the capability to integrate fabric and fiber technology to develop leading edge products. And Hyosung can strengthen its presence in the European market.

Hyosung offers a broad range of high quality, competitively-priced fiber technologies throughout the global apparel value chain. The spandex range includes Creora dyeable spandex, Creora black spandex and Creora fresh spandex. The company has a global network of more than 36 subsidiaries and international offices around the world. Creora is produced in facilities around the world, including Korea, China, Vietnam, Turkey and Brazil. The company is also investing in testing and analysis, which include capabilities in circular and warp knitting, weaving, core spinning and yarn covering.