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All India Textile Conference was held in Coimbatore organized by TAI on December 15 to 16, 2018. Some 600 delegates representing the entire supply chain of the textile industry participated. Technicians and engineers from the textile industry exhibited a keen interest to learn new developments in the industry.
Facing a threat from the IT sector in attracting highly qualified engineers, a message of optimism was provided to the attendees and the next generation workforce. Improving training, maintaining standard procedures substantiated by documentation and diversification of the textile sector were key points discussed in the two-day event.
An interesting aspect of the conference was a debate on the use of the term technical textiles. One proposal was a simple and new classification of the non-commodity industrial textiles grouped as consumer products; institutional products and government regulated products such as defense textiles.
The conference was held in Coimbatore after 25 years and was meant to boost confidence among textile industry stakeholders. It was organized by the Textile Association of India. TAI, founded in 1939, provides for professional growth of technologists, managers, traders, researchers, teachers, consultants and entrepreneurs. It caters to the needs of all fibers, products and all sectors of the industry. It organizes seminars, conferences, workshops and exhibitions of textiles and allied machines.
The European Commission (EC) has moved to restrict the use of four phthalates in consumer products such as coated fabrics and sport equipment. Phthalates are substances known to have toxic effects on human reproductive health. They can be present in plasticized materials in a variety of everyday products.
Consumers can be exposed to phthalates through oral or skin exposure or by breathing dust particles with such substances. The new ruling complements existing restrictions on three phthalates in toys and other childcare articles. The restriction follows the scientific and technical recommendations of the European Chemicals Agency. It will come into effect as of June 2020.
The chemicals come under the carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction category, and are known to cause cancer and reproductive health problems. The substances include formaldehyde, heavy metals and benzenes, which can sometimes be used as an ingredient in textile coatings or through the production process.
The restriction decision was adopted by amending the EU’s Reach regulation that has already significantly reduced exposure to harmful chemicals over the last ten years. The EC constantly evaluates how to enhance protection of consumers, workers and the environment. The use of chemicals in the fashion industry’s supply chain has a significant impact on the environment.
British brand Burberry is having distribution problems. The company’s supply chain remains weak. The brand’s strategic focus is on igniting brand heat — starting with influencers and key opinion leaders, which will cascade to all consumers. But shifting consumer perception, transitioning product, and transforming the distribution will take time.
Burberry is undergoing a major transformation, with a new designer, a new focus on ultra-luxury, a new logo and a change to the way it drops its product. But while early signs are encouraging, transitioning the product offer, evolving its distribution, changing wider consumer perception and seeing this translate into positive business performance will take time. Most discussions to evolve its wholesale distribution are now complete and the required changes to its third-party distribution network are expected to accelerate,
All regions performed in the first half. The UK and Italy grew, with an improvement in the second quarter, while the Middle East remained weak due to macro factors. But Asia Pacific grew by a mid-single-digit percentage. The company has seen the successful launch of its new go-to-market model. The broader luxury industry faces the prospect of slowing economic growth globally and weak demand from Chinese consumers.
Kiian Digital’s reactive inks are designed for direct printing onto cotton and other cellulosic fibers. Digistar Bellagio is the natural complement of Kiian Digital’s current textile product portfolio. Digistar Bellagio was created with the synergy of highly specialized teams in digital textile printing, MS & JKG, to go beyond the limits of product and process, develop systems able to raise efficiency and maximize results and benefit the market in which Kiian operates. Kiian Digital belongs to the JK group.
Digistar Bellagio’s color selection is done by selecting dyes. This allows the reproduction of the widest color gamut as well as offers outstanding bright and vivid colors. It includes eight colors: CYMK, black and light black and three spot colors, orange, red, and blue. Digistar Bravo disperse ink is compatible with Kyocera printheads for direct printing onto polyester. Digistar Bravo is recognised for the excellent light fastness, high penetration into the fibers, and an extremely deep intensity of the blacks.
Digistar K-Choice pigment inks are compatible with Kyocera printheads for direct digital printing onto fabrics created for fashion and home collection. Digistar K-Choice is recognized for excellent light fastness and good washing resistance and the wide color gamut enables accurate reproduction of fashion and home collection colors.
Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer, has acquired ThreadSol, a cloud-based digital applications provider, which becomes part of Coats Global Services.
ThreadSol’s technology focuses on fabric usage optimisation in apparel manufacturing and helps customers reduce fabric waste and cost, and establish accurate product costing. It uses proprietary algorithms built on artificial neural networks to optimise the purchasing and consumption of fabric by real-time data analytics through IoT devices. This reduces costs and waste through cut-plan process and fabric roll utilisation which helps solve one of the most pressing and complex problems in the apparel supply chain.
ThreadSol’s products provide an excellent fit with Coats existing Fast React Systems and GSD range of Evolve™, Vision™, Align™, Enterprise™ and Quest™. This complementary suite of software solutions for the apparel and footwear industries will enable brands, retailers and manufacturers to drive productivity gains, supply chain control and speed to market.
The acquisition follows the recent announcement by Coats of its strategic investment in Twine, an Israeli based technology start-up which has developed a revolutionary digital thread dyeing system.
"A new business intelligence report by Global Market Insights titled ‘Blended Fibers Market Research Report’ provides comprehensive market analysis with future prospects to 2024. The report predicts the blended fibers market in the Asia Pacific region will be over 9 million ton by 2024. This is driven by growing demand for attractive and corrosion resistant home furnishing products. Surge in demand for handcrafted products coupled with home décor including wall hangings, bed linen products and rugs & carpets will further boost demand."
A new business intelligence report by Global Market Insights titled ‘Blended Fibers Market Research Report’ provides comprehensive market analysis with future prospects to 2024. The report predicts the blended fibers market in the Asia Pacific region will be over 9 million ton by 2024. This is driven by growing demand for attractive and corrosion resistant home furnishing products. Surge in demand for handcrafted products coupled with home décor including wall hangings, bed linen products and rugs & carpets will further boost demand.
Blended Fibers Market in recent years has emerged as a niche business catering to some of most pivotal verticals. The industry encompasses companies attempting to recreate fibers that would have minimal impact on the environment. A recent instance of this is the launch of EcoVero, a viscose fiber with low environment impact.
Reycling, upcyling to eliminate waste
As environmental safety is taking precedence over industrial processes, companies are opting for recycling and upcycling
waste for fabric production. Seaqual, the joint venture formed by three prominent companies, recently announced its debut fiber sale that was generated by upcycling plastic waste. This waste was collected on oceanic grounds and is then extracted with the help of 400 partner fishing boats. In essence, with every kilogram of fiber that Seaqual produces, a kilogram of waste is eliminated from the sea.
Low carbon emission yarns save natural resources
Seaqual's yarns can be used as it is or blended with natural fibers for swimwear, denims, ready-to-wear, and sportswear. Despite the fact that these fibers exhibit properties similar to polyester fibers, they save around 50 per cent energy, have 50 per cent lower carbon emission, and reduces water consumption of 40 per cent
$300 billion textile exports by 2024-25
Driven by its massively growing textile and home furnishings sector, India has been touted to emerge as one of the most promising avenues for blended fibers in forthcoming years. In fact, the market is one of India's largest export contributors with around 13 per cent of overall exports in India credited to the textiles sector. The government plans to launch a new textile policy that aims to accomplish a benchmark of $300 billion worth of textile exports by 2024-025. This would significantly impact the share of the regional blended fibers market.
Major growth drivers
The blended fiber yarn market, last year, witnessed a couple of rather pivotal incidences that would have a commendable influence on future Indian market trends in the years to come. These include:
Sutlej Textiles and Industries (STIL), one of most prominent participants of blended fibers market, recently acquired the design and distribution unit and the brand name of the Pennsylvania-based American Silk Mills (ASM). This acquisition is likely to strengthen Sutlej's home textiles portfolio.
Welspun launched its newest collection at Heimtextil India, including quilts, towels, duvet covers, bed sheets, curtains, carpets, rugs, bedspreads, bathrobes, and bath mats. Welspun's initiative is also expected to influence other leaders in the home textiles and interior decor sectors to launch their fabric collections and conform to latest consumer demands.
As research unearth age-old, conventional as well as newer innovations in fiber technology, blended fibers market outlook is likely to witness a dynamic transformation in the years ahead. Incorporating the environment-friendly factor in textile production will also generate a plethora of opportunities for companies.
Yarn Expo will take place in China from March 12 to 14, 2019. This is a fair for exhibitors to establish their brands, introduce their latest products, and reveal new innovations to their targeted audience. The fair responds to visitor interest by presenting an array of high-quality exhibitors from a variety of countries and regions, including China, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Yarn Expo is recognised for its diversity of suppliers, meaning that visitors can do all of their sourcing needs in one place. With more industry buyers sourcing synthetic, fancy and specialty yarns and chemical fibers, the Fancy Yarn Zone will feature almost 50 prominent yarn suppliers from all around the world.
Countries such as Egypt, India, Turkey and Vietnam will present high-quality natural yarns and fibers, including high-end European linen and cotton, as well as an array of eco-fibers and carbon fibers for visitors seeking sustainable, light-weight materials.
Following a year of fluctuating demands and trends in the textile industry, especially in China and the Asia-Pacific region, it’s more important than ever for suppliers to continuously innovate and produce strong products in order to survive in the uncertainty of the recent economic climate.
There is a search for alternatives to petroleum-derived fibers like polyester and acrylic. Natural fibers like cotton and wool have been losing market share to synthetics for some time but the tide is turning.
Currently two-thirds of new clothing is made from synthetic fibers and washing these clothes is significantly contributing to plastic pollution in oceans, with each polyester garment shedding thousands of microplastic particles adding up to tons of ocean plastic pollution over time.
Microplastic fibers carry chemical endocrine disruptors that influence hormone functions and chronic disease. Microplastics in the oceans predominantly come from machine-washed synthetic textiles. The last two decades have seen an escalation in synthetic fiber production along with fast fashion supply chains driving consumption to double.
Progressive retail fashion businesses are now including sustainability and transparency targets in their strategic planning. A sustainable clothing approach includes the realization that less shopping and washing makes household economic and ecological sense.
Growing concern about plastic in our environment sees natural-fiber industries poised for resurgence if they demonstrate eco-credentials to discerning customers. But while technological recycling solutions are emerging, issues include difficulties in separating blended fibers and downgraded quality of reprocessed natural fibers. As the world’s largest natural fiber industry, cotton carries some historical baggage.
American apparel companies are benefiting from retail revival, as well as from cost savings initiatives and acquisition synergies. The positive outlook for the US retail industry reflects increasing topline growth and operating profits, as companies’ investments in e-commerce and in-store shopping experience continue to gain traction. Growth is also getting a boost from a strong macro-economic environment, which will drive consumer spending.
Retail operating income is expected to grow five per cent to six per cent in 2019. Sales growth is predicted to range from 4.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Reduced inventories and improved lead times have helped stabilize merchandise margins. Air freight demand has slowed as companies have increased lead times on import orders, allowing them to opt for cheaper ocean cargo.
Operating income for discounters and warehouse retailers is forecast to increase about 2.4 per cent in 2019 after a strong gain in 2018. Among apparel firms, nearly all rated companies will show some form of profit growth in 2019, with the majority exceeding six per cent growth. More companies are seeing the benefits of cost-saving initiatives, acquisition synergies, restructurings, reduced inventory and clearance activity.
UK consumers are purchasing new clothing at a faster rate than their counterparts in mainland Europe. The average household generates more than 35 kg waste clothing annually, with 85 per cent being sent to landfill. The Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) was founded in 2012 in a bid to help big-name fashion brands minimise their waste, water and carbon footprints while sourcing more sustainable materials.
More than 80 companies have signed up to the plan to date, including ASOS, Next and Primark. By selecting more sustainably-produced fibers such as cotton and viscose, SCAP signatories have reduced the lifetime water footprint per ton of clothing they produce by 15 per cent. The signatories have also reduced their collective carbon footprint by 11.9 per cent and have made moves to become more resource-efficient, such as redesigning their approach to pattern cutting or donating factory offcuts to be upcycled.
On a global scale, the fashion industry is now estimated to be producing more than 100 billion garments and 20 billion shoes per year. The sector currently accounts for ten per cent of global carbon emissions and employs around one in every seven people worldwide, with the majority of employees being women working in garment factories.
