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In the first six months of this financial year, cotton yarn exports from India declined ten per cent. Withdrawal of export incentives for cotton yarn has reduced India’s competitive edge by increasing prices to the tune of five or six per cent.
The country exports almost 20 per cent of its cotton produced. In 2013-14, spinning mills took advantage of the two per cent incremental export incentive, two per cent interest subvention, and three per cent focus market incentive. In 2014, these incentives were withdrawn and cotton yarn exports in 2016-17 registered a 26 per cent decline in value terms.
During the current cotton season, prices might touch minimum support price levels as production is expected to be high.
The textile industry has one of the highest levels of non-performing assets. When exports benefits such as Merchandise Exports from India Scheme and Interest Equalisation Scheme were introduced, all segments of the textile value chain were covered except cotton yarn. Thus cotton yarn exports to China dropped.
The three per cent IES benefit is essential to maintain six to nine months’ cotton inventory and to ensure consistency in quality of yarn supplied. The industry has asked for restoration of MEIS and IES benefits for cotton yarn.
Basic customs duty on manmade fabrics has been increased from ten per cent to 25 per cent.
Import of fabrics, especially from China, has seen a sharp increase post-GST at almost 30 per cent. But the manmade fabric and yarn industry in India is affected by cheaper imports from China, Indonesia, Thailand and North Korea, where the fabric industry is subsidized substantially to increase their share of fabric in the world textile trade. Moreover, Indian fabric manufacturers have no protection from FTA countries that have been importing fabrics from China, Indonesia and Pakistan and selling garments made from such fabrics to India.
Over Rs 5,000 crores worth of undervalued fabrics are imported from China and other countries to India per annum. The import of cheap and undervalued fabrics has resulted in the closure of 40 per cent of power looms in the textile hubs of Surat, Itchalkaranji, Malegaon, Bhiwandi, Burhanpur, Varanasi, Salem and Erode. The situation of Banarasi weavers is very pitiable as imported silk fabric is quite cheap than what is manufactured by Banarasi weavers.
Surat’s power loom weavers manufacture four crore meters of fabrics per day, which has been reduced to 1.5 crore meters a day post-GST. Around 95,000 power loom machines have been sold in scrap and more than 50,000 textile workers rendered jobless.
The Japanese brand Evisu for spring/summer 2018 launches the Evisukuro line, a trendy collection combining fashion and athleisure David Pun, founder and CEO, Evisu Group discloses that their spring/summer 2018 season will see Evisu incorporating more streetwear-inspired elements, blurring the line between grown-ups and young people.
Pun enumerates, high-end tops will complement high-street jeans for a fun style that’s easy and carefree and fashion will become sportier. Denim will move into a more contemporary mood with items such as sweatshirts and T-shirts. “Denim items will lean towards 1990s nostalgia, while bomber jackets will be infused with East-Asian intricacy.”
The brand’s founder is of the view that athleisure isn’t going anywhere any time soon. This season, the Evisukuro collection features a mix of dressing styles where premium meets casual and sports meets fashion to sport a contemporary urban look. “It’s all about labelling, repetitive bold logos and symbolic signs,” he adds.
Over the past 16 years, Evisu has expanded from denim products to other fashion and lifestyle categories, including eyewear and crossover items with brands such as Zippo, KTZ and Champion.
Pun attributes Evisu’s success to its strong brand equity. “The brand DNA is all about ‘irreverent coolness, craftsmanship and tongue-in-cheek twist’. We focus on these three elements and embody them into the design of our products and marketing campaigns.” The brand’s founder shares insights, “irreverent coolness” refers to the true Evisu spirit – daring to move away from traditional ideas and to be bold with its own style, without compromising on quality and design.
Discussing “craftsmanship” he notes that, Evisu jeans are made of selvedge denim using original methods and authentic details in every part of the production process. “The key of ‘tongue-in-cheek’ is how we collaborate with iconic brands or [adopt] trends to create some fun, just like the jokes about McDonald’sand Ikea on social media lately. We apply our own touch of humour,” he adds.
“What we offer our customers is individuality, identity and lifestyle. This also helps differentiate us because not every brand is this bold and colourful. We are unique and we will continue to stay,” he adds.
H&M has reported the biggest drop in quarterly sales in at least a decade.
Fewer customers are visiting its flagship locations, leading the company to pare expansion plans and consider closures. The stock fell as much as 16 per cent, the steepest intraday decline since March 2001.
Sales excluding value-added tax fell four per cent in the three months through November. Sales have declined in only three quarters in the past ten years.
Almost 15 per cent of H&M’s free float -- the shares that are readily available to trade -- has been shorted. In a short sale, investors borrow shares and sell them in the hope that they decline, allowing them to repurchase them more cheaply and pocket the price difference as profit.
H&M’s supply chain lacks reactivity, which is one of the group’s structural issues in front of abrupt changes in fashion. The company aims to accelerate a transformation plan to better integrate physical and digital stores.
H&M had planned a net addition of 385 stores this year, which includes 90 closures. The company had also aimed at having online sales in 43 markets by year-end.
A crisis that’s shuttered shopping malls in the US is spreading to other parts of the world, hitting H&M’s earnings and forcing the retailer to cut prices to clear out inventory.
Over the last three months Ethiopia’s earnings from textile and garment exports have been growing.
The growth of the textile industries has triggered the expansion of cotton farming by public, private sector and small scale farmers. Currently, cotton is being farmed on a total of 42,000 hectares of land.
Foreign investment is flowing in thanks to the prevalence of peace and stability, availability of abundant cheap labor, plenty of cheap energy from hydro power and flourishing industrial parks all over the country.
Thanks to the enabling investment environment foreign companies are injecting their money, technology, experience as well as skills into the sector. In addition, foreign investors are encouraged through the provision of various incentives including tax holidays, tax free capital goods imports, custom services provision on the spot and easy access to financial credit.
The world number one US textile industry known as HDM has installed its factory in Hawassa Industrial Park creating 10,000 jobs and expected to create many more jobs in the coming years. Most graduates from technical colleges would benefit from these job opportunities.
Cotton traders at Enumamula Market yard in Warangal on Friday protested against the reverse charge mechanism (RCM) on cotton under the GST regime. They pressurised officials to discuss the issue at the next GST Council meeting on December 21 or they would intensified protests.
To this effect, they called for a ‘bandh’ at the market following a directive given by cotton associations across the country. Traders questioned why cotton was chosen despite it being a non-edible commodity that can be traced till its last form of existence for realisation of taxes, unlike edible commodities.
The traders said the instant notification has been issued without proper assessment of its working results and its effects on the cotton trade. They urged the government to consider the reactions to the introduction of GST act over the past two months and various issues, sweeping changes brought about that never seen in history over the implementation of any other fiscal system or policy in the country.
B Ravinder Reddy, President of the Telangana cotton millers and traders welfare association averred,“A move to introduce a fresh point of levy does not go well, as can be seen from the protests going on in different parts of the county. The displeasure is exhibited with ‘bandh’ calls. In this case, it will hit the farmers as the price of cotton will be affected. The government and the trading community must work together to keep the farmers’ interests at the forefront and keep them on a happy pedestal, but with limitations.
“The move to levy tax on purchase will block working capital of trader, in the first instance and later even if he is eligible for possible refund, when export is made, it does not help him as it is a time-tested factor that refunds do not come at a proper time stated or mentioned but has to cross various unsavory hurdles,” he added.
The traders sent a letter to the Finance Minister, Etela Rajender asking him to intervene in the present situation and resolve issues amicably.
Official forecasts of US and world cotton ending stocks have got tighter. A 3,40,000 month-over-month increase in foreign consumption, most of which was in India, reinforced the tightening of the world balance sheet. The bottom line was a large 2.88 million bale reduction in 2017-18 world ending stocks. Such an adjustment would be price supportive.
The December revisions to 2017-18 US cotton continued a trend of modest adjustments to US production and ending stocks. On the supply side, the all-cotton national average yield was raised slightly to a record 902 pounds per acre. This resulted in a 63,000 bale net increase in US production.
US exports were raised 3,00,000 bales month-over-month, presumably to jibe with the historically fast pace of total export commitments of US cotton. The upward revision of US exports made up for the downward adjustments in foreign production. After slightly adjusting the unaccounted fudge factor, projected US ending stocks declined from 6.1 to 5.8 million bales, month over month.
The reduction in supply on the Indian subcontinent is in keeping with recent news reports and speculation about lower production there, so this outcome was probably expected by many traders and analysts.
The holidays are generally not known for tightening. Wallets get lighter. Beltlines get wider.
Bangladesh has called for investments from Indian entrepreneurs to give a boost to its growing readymade garment manufacturing sector. The country wants to utilise the market share vacated by China with proper investment inflow. This is where the opportunity for Indian investors lies.
With a friendly political and commercial environment, an over 4000 km common boundary and well set immigration as well as communication facilities, Bangladesh is seen as a favorable land for Indian entrepreneurs. The similar social environment between the two countries is another positive factor. While Indian entrepreneurs can gain out of their investment in the sector in Bangladesh, more number of workers from Bangladesh can have employment.
While the global clothing products market has gone down to 444 billion dollars in 2016 from 450 billion dollars in 2015, Bangladesh could have increased its share in global apparel exports up to 6.4 per cent from 5.9 per cent during the period to maintain its second position in the sector. But the share of China, the undisputed first, has gone down from 39.3 per cent to 36.4 per cent while the other close competitors, Vietnam, India, Turkey and Cambodia, recorded a share of 5.5 per cent, four per cent, 3.4 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.
The latest volume of the AATCC Technical Manual will be available beginning January 1, 2018. Each year, the manual includes new test methods, revisions and updates of existing methods and evaluation procedures for textiles.
AATCC, provides test method development, quality control materials, and professional networking for members in about 50 countries worldwide There are two new methods and there are 18 revised standards appearing for the first time in the 2018 volume .
AATCC is known worldwide for its test methods and evaluation procedures, particularly those related to chemistry, colourfastness, laundering, moisture management, and water resistance. Each document is reviewed and approved by a committee of industry experts before publication. All are welcome to participate in the committees. Varied perspectives are valued, and every submitted comment is considered in the development or revision of a method. AATCC believes this consensus approach creates the best, most robust test methods to serve a diverse modern textile industry.
The 2018 volume of the AATCC Technical Manual contains all 150+ current AATCC test methods, evaluation procedures, and monographs. The hard- bound black and gold book is a staple reference in many textile laboratories. The PDF version offers the added convenience of a search function and hyperlinks among cross-referenced methods. The newest version of either is critical for meeting current testing requirements and specifications.
The hard-bound 2018 Technical Manual and searchable PDF version will be available from January 1, 2018.
"In the race to reach customers first and offer them trendy clothes, fashion industry is increasingly ignoring the alarming signs of eco-concerns. As the year end draws closer, the industry must step up to the challenge and redeem their terrible track record by reducing carbon emissions. While leading companies’ CEOs continue to delay the climate commitment process, denim supply chains are continuing the harmful emissions into the atmosphere without any alternative."
In the race to reach customers first and offer them trendy clothes, fashion industry is increasingly ignoring the alarming signs of eco-concerns. As the year end draws closer, the industry must step up to the challenge and redeem their terrible track record by reducing carbon emissions. While leading companies’ CEOs continue to delay the climate commitment process, denim supply chains are continuing the harmful emissions into the atmosphere without any alternative.
Creating small quantities is a characteristic inherent in the handloom industry. For handloom to imitate machineA report by Carbon Disclosure Project reveals, companies within the fashion sector might be ignoring as much as 90 per cent of the climate pollution they generate. The fashion industry is attempting to solve the problem of its own emissions by outsourcing production to contractors in countries with less strict emissions regulations, namely China or Bangladesh. But the problem seems to get worse with time. The industry generates about 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, roughly equal to the pollution created by putting 163 million new passenger cars on the road. A study by a leading clothing company concluded that one pair of denim jeans produces 44 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to driving a car almost 48 miles or burning over 21 pounds of coal. Manufacturing a single pair of denim jeans produces 44 pounds of CO2, roughly equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from driving a passenger car nearly 50 miles.
Time to clean up the act
Companies need to step away from climate commitments that are a partial solution to its role in the climate crisis. There must also be significant reductions across the fashion industry’s entire supply chain, including calling on overseas producers to hold themselves to higher standards than may often be the case. The bulk of fashion’s climate pollution (an estimated 60-90 per cent on average) comes from material sourcing, garment production and transport. Yet, some companies’ climate commitments leave out this basic part of their pollution footprint. There are numerous tools and technologies available for companies to make major reductions in these stages—even from independently owned factories overseas.
As a start, they first need to demonstrate farsightedness, engaging with climate issues in a long-term, sustained way. Second, they must pledge full transparency in their efforts to bring down emissions. Currently, only H&M and Kering provide full transparency on greenhouse gases in their supply chain. Real climate action requires fashion companies to assess, track and disclose their full climate pollution footprint and reductions over time. While there are social campaigns running, the impact still needs to be weighed upon.
