FW
Congestion in ports has pushed the Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) to weigh the possibility of tapping the New Mangalore Port (NPT) in Karnataka for cotton imports. Members of SIMA, along with those from the South India Spinners Association (SISPA), traders and liners, held talks in this regard with chairman of New Mangalore Port Trust P C Parida and other officials earlier this week.
The predominantly cotton-based textile industry in the south, particularly mills in Tamil Nadu, imports significant volumes of West African cotton to manufacture knitted garments. According to SIMA, NPT offers excellent warehousing facilities, specially for the benefit of small and medium scale spinning mills.
SIMA has sought extension of customs-free bonded warehouse for cotton -- as in Malaysian ports -- so that traders could store the imported cotton and supply to small and medium spinning mills all over southern states. Such a facility would also enable the traders to return the unsold cotton to the original destination without any additional cost. Moreover, port handling charges, wharfage and demurrages are much lower in the case of NPT and authorities have invited them to visit the port.
The Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) has reported a 15.5 per cent rise in revenue at Rs 20,730 crores during the 2014-15 fiscal years against Rs 18,000 crores reported by it, in the previous fiscal. The export figure was arrived at after consolidating the knitwear exports data collected from 38 banks located in Tirupur and surrounding areas.
After reaching a figure of Rs 18,000 crores in 2013–14, the association had announced a target to double the export to Rs 36,000 crores over next three years to the financial year 2016-17.
Apparel, Made ups and Home Furnishing Skill Sector Council (AMHSSC) Chairman A Sakthivel, who is also the President of Tirupur Exporters Association, is also part of Indian skills mission, a high-level trade delegation comprising Chairmen and CEOs from 15 skill sector councils, who are accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the three-nation tour.
www.tea-india.org
While industry bodies like Texprocil are asking the government to direct Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to release of almost 50,000 cotton bales a day to bring down shortage in the domestic market, CCI chairman B K Mishra has said that there is no shortage of cotton bales in domestic market.
“That the market is facing a shortage of cotton is a misnomer. While India is expecting a bumper harvest of 40 million bales in the current year through September, as estimated by the Cotton Advisory Board, exports have crashed due to a slowdown in top buyer China, so there is ample cotton available in the domestic market,” Mishra said.
CCI procures cotton from farmers at the MSP to avoid distress sales by them and sells the stocks in the market. Last week, in a letter to textile minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Confederation Of Indian Textile Industry chairman Prem Malik has said, “In some states like Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and Maharashtra, the CCI has bought large quantities through MSP operations…. There is a shortage of cotton in these states at present and the local mills are forced to get cotton from distant places, incurring additional transportation and other costs.”
“We have urged the government to instruct Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to immediately start releasing at least 50,000 bales per day for a period of 100 days through E-auction directly to the actual users,” Texprocil Chairman R K Dalmia has also said in a statement.
For now, cotton textiles industry is facing issues due to non-availability of adequate quantity of cotton on account of the ‘Stop-Go’ policy of the CCI in spite of holding high level of stock, he added, further stating that CCI has procured 86 lakh bales of cotton under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) during the current season to protect the interest of the farmers. Out of this, CCI has offloaded only three lakh bales of cotton so far and is presently releasing between only 3,000 to 5,000 bales per day as against a stock of around 83 lakh bales, which leading to steep rise in prices besides creating shortage of good quality cotton, which in turn is adversely affecting the exports of yarn, fabrics & made-ups. Cotcorp.gov.in
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman S M Tanveer has said that the industry is incurring an annual loss of around $6 billion due to the presence of second-hand, smuggled textiles and clothing in the domestic market. APTMA chairman urged economic managers to revisit the customs policy and ensure immediate remedial measures to check entry of second hand, smuggled and imported textiles and clothing in the domestic market.
According to Tanveer, export figures for the financial year 2013-14 reveal that the textile industry, while consuming 3 million tons of all kinds of fibres, produced textile goods predominantly meant for exports. Of this, textile products worth 2.5 million tons of fibre were exported while half a million remaining textile fibre was consumed by the domestic market.
He also added that the per capita consumption of all fibres in Pakistan is around 10 kg against an average of 13 kg per capita world over. Of this 10 kg per capita consumption, the textile industry gets a share of only 3kg per capita while rest is grabbed by second hand, smuggled and imported textiles and clothing products that have entered the domestic market. A heavy influx of second-hand smuggled and clothing products is being cleared by the customs for a price as low as for fibre or cotton.
The Apparel, Made ups and Home Furnishing Skill Sector Council (AMHSSC) plans to ink two MoUs with Canadian institutions during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s current visit to Canada. The council aims to sign MoUs with Fanshawe College, Ottawa, a leading institution in fashion and apparel technology, and Canada India Education Council, in the presence of Modi and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper, on April 15.
The MoUs are expected to bring expert trainers in the skill sector, which will ensure the quality of training, leaving a positive impact on the number and quality of manpower being skilled and provided to the AMHSSC, Chairman A Sakthivel said in a release. The MoU with Fanshawe College is aimed at greater cooperation between the Canadian partner and AMHSSC in the field of training of trainers and also enriching the Indian expertise on the skill front in the apparel sector.
Sakthivel is also the President of Tirupur Exporters Association, is also part of Indian skills mission, a high-level trade delegation comprising Chairmen and CEOs from 15 skill sector councils, who are accompanying the Prime Minister on the current tour.
www.sscamh.com
The textile industry in Pakistan has urged the government to appoint a textile minister without delay and has rejected the government decision to merge the textile division into the commerce division. Textile has become an important sector for Pakistan especially after the grant of the GSP Plus status by the EU countries.
Garment manufacturers say major decisions regarding textile policy implementation and the budget preparation exercise for 2015-16 are being delayed. Uncertainty is affecting the whole textile sector and that the experiment of the textile and commerce ministry merger has failed twice in the past. Since regional competitors like India, China and Bangladesh have separate ministries of textile, Pakistan too must follow suit.
Pakistan’s exporters are confident that if the country starts converting 50 per cent of its total cotton of around 14 million bales into value-added products they can earn $42 billion in exports. In case of 100 per cent consumption of raw material, the country can earn $84 billion.
Competitor Bangladesh enjoys duty-free import of every raw material. As a result, Bangladesh value-added textile exports have surged to $26 billion without producing a single bale of cotton while Pakistan has never crossed the garment export figure of $4.5 billion.
Morocco plans to create a fully-integrated textile and garment industry from spinning to final product within 15 years. It would work to create backward linkages supporting a fast fashion segment serving nearby markets of Europe and a Moroccan fashion segment for domestic consumers drawing on strengths in Morocco-based designs and traditions.
Preparatory work and investments would be made until 2020, after which the government and industry would accelerate building a textile and clothing value chain. The aim is to create fashion brands utilising traditional Moroccan and African styles, cuts and sizes. Spain's Inditex Group has been a long-term client for around 150 Moroccan garment producers. A 100 million pieces were made for Inditex in 2014 alone.
Currently the weakest points in Morocco’s value chain are yarns and fabrics. Spain accounts for 40 per cent of Morocco's fast fashion export sales, followed by France, the UK, Germany and Italy. A potential growth market is the US.
Morocco has many attractions for overseas companies. It has tax-free ports for importing materials. Overseas companies are allowed to fully own Morocco-based operations and the country has free trade agreements with the US, EU, Turkey and Africa. Geographic proximity to Europe and direct access to the Atlantic are other pluses.
The World Bank has forecasted continued slowdown in Cambodia's economy over the next three years because of rising local production costs, sluggish global rice prices and other headwinds. It says year-on-year growth rate of Cambodia’s gross domestic product would drop to 6.9 per cent in both 2015 and 2016 and to 6.8 per cent in 2017. A 28 per cent hike in garment workers’ minimum wage, which took effect in January, is also expected to hurt.
The re-entry of Thailand and Burma into the rice market is also expected to keep revenues from Cambodia’s rice exports down. The fiscal deficit is expected to nearly double between 2014 and 2016 as a share of GDP, to 4.9 per cent. The trade deficit is predicted to grow this near and next.
While falling global oil prices have helped to keep inflation down, this is expected to do little for most families. The World Bank’s predictions differ sharply from the forecast of the Asian Development Bank. The ADB said Cambodia’s seven per cent GDP growth rate in 2014 would rise this year and that a less tense political environment at home and rebounding economies in its main trading partners would boost tourist arrivals and garment exports.
Sri Lanka's AOD International Design Campus is teaming up with UK’s Northumbria University School of Design to offer its world renowned fashion and design degrees in the country. “AOD’s vision is to open a South Asian center for international textile design and education. The idea is to work closely with industry so that designers can deliver something unique to Sri Lanka and the rest of the world,” explains Shamlee D’Silva, Head, Public Relations, AOD.
The Northumbria University International Design Degree programs 
offered at AOD International Design Campus are the only British internal design degrees that can be fully completed in Sri Lanka. D’Silva explained further, “We are partnering a lot of universities in the UK and offering their curriculum in Sri Lanka. Fashion designing and fashion marketing are two of our main degrees. We also have courses in graphic, animation and product designing. We guide our designers, students to work closely with the industry. Even before they graduate from the institute, they get a chance to work with future employers and understand industry standards which is very important today,” she opines.
Among the advantages AOD International Design Campus students have is the close network the institute has with design industry in Sri Lanka and international creative industries especially those in the UK and Italy. Through this active network, live projects and competitions are set where students design for clients directly.
Imbibing their cultural heritage
D’Silva points out even though students are working with latest technologies they also go to villages and help artisans and work with them. With hands-on experience they create products that are unique and handmade and accepted in international markets. “Sri Lanka has a vision to become the international gateway to designs in South Asia. We will have internationally educated designers with knowledge of what works anywhere in the world and they have the capacity to enrich our industry and help create something fantastic for the rest of the world,” says D’Silva
AOD international design campus also has ‘Design for Sustainable Development Project’ which is a not-for-profit initiative. It connects the skills of rural artisan communities with designers to upgrade their products for high-end exports. The project results in livelihood development for artisans and an international caliber product for the student. “We are going to work closely with industry. We keep industry and heritage craft in mind. The Sri Lankan government is supportive of what AOD is doing and sees the potential it has for tourism and exports,” she explained.
AOD International Design Campus conceptualises and organises Sri Lanka’s largest and the most prestigious national event in fashion and design, the Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF). In its 5th year, SLDF hosts nearly one 100 top international fashion and design delegates from around the world. The local participation brings together Sri Lanka’s fashion, apparel, advertising, graphic design, publishing, architectural and interior design industries together on a single international platform. “This opens a world of opportunities for AOD’s students. They are at the centre of this design nucleus that generates the future of fashion and design in Sri Lanka with top fashion and design gurus from home and abroad,” D’Silva informs.
Emphasizing on the need for collaboration with neighbouring countries, D’Silve says, “India has a unique design heritage of its own. In terms of education India has done a great job in inducing her designers to protect her heritage and make it up to date. Our relationship with India is quite strong. Our outlook towards design is very global and we have our roots in heritage. It appeals to a buyer from Europe or China. We are very keen to work with Indian talent because what we have is quite different from what India has. We would like to collaborate with Indian designers.”
IAF’s President Rahul Mehta spoke about developments in global apparel sourcing during a panel discussion at the Prime Source Forum (PSF) in Hong Kong, last week. Highlighting the journey of apparel sourcing from the age of finding capacity, to lowering costs, to responsible sourcing, to end up in the current time of fast fashion, he said that the sourcing solutions in 2015 must involve ways to reduce waste created by an inefficient system and taking into account the cost saving by bringing supply closer.
This year’s edition of Prime Source Forum gave a balanced picture of the issues that are crucial to apparel sourcing. Moving production to upcoming lower cost production markets has emerged as a reality. Africa is not a question mark anymore. Many at PSF including Mehta focused on this and agreed to this new phenomenon. However, Mehta also asked the industry to look for other options. What after Africa, was the question, he wants the industry to find answer to.
He said that it is time to start looking at cost of selling instead of just focusing on cost of purchase. PSF 2015 also tackled issues related to functioning of the supply chain and creation of attractive as well as sustainable products. Sourcing, according to experts, is now more than ever a mix of moving and improving production. And the Accord, the Alliance, strong environmental legislation in the US, in Europe and now also in China are creating more necessity for innovation. IAF believes that it’s important to keep talking together about the issues concerning the industry and it will do so at the World Fashion Conference and Istanbul Fashion Conference to be held on October 14 and 15 in Istanbul.
www.iafnet.eu
