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E-commerce in India is opposing the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
This has brought together Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. Portals are becoming increasingly anxious about its implementation. They say if GST is implemented in its original form, the e-commerce industry in India will come to a standstill. They say tax evasion can be avoided by sharing of information, which they are already doing with states.
The bone of contention here is tax collection at source (TCS), which GST has made mandatory for all e-commerce portals. The aim has been to introduce a uniform tax regime for all e-commerce portals.
However, the issue is that TCS has to be collected by e-commerce portals themselves, and this is causing sleepless nights for them. There are lakhs of vendors and sellers on each of these platforms, and their count is increasing every single day. E-commerce portals will be required to spend huge amounts of money, time and resources to monitor the TCS for each of their sellers.
They claim this additional burden will reduce their profits and will slow them down and worsen things for them.
GST laws are being finalised, and most probably an announcement will be made by this month end.
Swedish apparel retailer H&M has expanded its sustainability work in Myanmar.
The company has a local sustainability team working in Myanmar, whose main responsibility is to make sure that every order is placed with the right supplier according to its high standards. The team regularly visits all its suppliers and has meetings with factory management to provide support and follow up on their sustainability performance and competence. Unannounced visits are carried out.
H&M conducts risk analysis to assess both business and sustainability conditions before deciding to source from a particular market. For Myanmar, the analysis included meeting with local civil society, government and industry leaders, visiting factories to gain a better understanding of the working conditions in Myanmar and conducting a thorough internal analysis of opportunities and challenges.
H&M is one of the leading fashion retailers working effectively in the sustainability sector. It has been actively involved in improving working conditions and strengthening workers’ rights in countries where their products are manufactured. It has production in Myanmar as well.
H&M believes its products should be manufactured under good working conditions and with consideration to environment, health and safety. The company has been putting in strong efforts to treat people with respect and to provide workers with good, fair and safe working conditions.
Last year, Vietnam’s total export turnover was 8.6 per cent higher than the previous year. This year the target is to go 6.9 per cent higher than last year.
Garment and textile exports are expected to have a turnover six per cent higher than that of last year. Exports of electronics, computers and spare parts are forecast to achieve an export turnover 19 per cent higher than last year.
Vietnam’s export turnover to its traditional markets including Asia, Europe and the US saw positive growth last year. Export turnover to the US saw the highest growth rate of 13.2 per cent followed by Europe with 11.3 per cent and Asia with 6.9 per cent.
The country believes that in 2017 import-export turnover would continue to increase thanks to the signing of a number of free trade agreements and FDI inflows shifting from other countries to Vietnam. Participation in the Asean economic community would also bring opportunities to the country by expanding its export markets as well as increasing competitiveness.
Last year Vietnam exported 25 products, with a turnover of more than billion dollars each. In 2016, the country reported a trade surplus of 2.68 billion dollars, accounting for 1.52 per cent of its total import-export turnover.
Texworld was held in France, February 6 to 9, 2017.
This is a specialized fabric show and this time the stress was on denim. Out of a total 760 exhibitors, about 60 companies specialized in the indigo blue cloth fabric. There were many customers from jeans brands and chain stores.
Three main trends dominate the market: stretch and bi-stretch qualities, vintage and second-hand looks, and sustainable products that employ less or zero water, less or no chemicals, but also alternative fibers.
Siddiqson developed its techno green selection of fabrics employing recycled polyester and recycled cotton. It also offers fabrics made with bamboo fibers, Crailar, a flax fiber. Also new is a fabric employing Jutacell, a fiber developed by Invista, obtained by employing leftovers from linen fiber manufacturing that would rather be thrown away.
Soorty has new sustainable products such as Zero Water Blue and Herbal Blue. Kassim considers stretch a big topic, together with greater demand for stretch qualities for men’s jeans. Foison concentrates on new products that feature second hand looks, though added with stretch for a comfortable fit.
Austrian lingerie specialist Wolford launched a few prototypes of a newly developed lingerie selection made with materials that can be 100 per cent recycled.
The Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP) hasn’t really been a success.
The intended objective, that of fostering the development of supply chain linkages and reduction in the cost of production by leveraging backward and forward integration in the value chain, is yet to be realised as most of the operational parks are partially functional.
Other problems are lack of coordination among units in a park, inability to attract the right investors, failure to achieve economies of scale and lack of collective approach in raw material sourcing and marketing.
High rentals in some parks, changes in other schemes or regulations, lack of marketing efforts, no special benefits available for investors in parks, poor accessibility and challenges for units in SEZ parks are some of the factors responsible for the scheme’s failing to attain its objectives.
Parks have not yet attained their planned investment levels due to lower occupancy rates. The current investment in 30 functional parks is around Rs 7,628 crores against their planned investment of Rs 16,628 crores.
Similarly textile parks have had a limited impact in bringing scale to the textile industry as most of the parks are of the size from 25 to 75 acres.
About 75 parks have been sanctioned till date, of which 30 are functional, while eight have applied for cancellation and others are at various stages of implementation. The 30 parks that are currently operational employ around 68,000 people, which is only 57 per cent of their planned employment.
Levi Strauss had a net revenue growth of one per cent for the full year and its fourth quarter. While full-year net income grew 40 per cent, fourth quarter net income declined by five per cent. Though the company’s direct-to-consumer sales grew due to Levi Strauss’ current retail and e-commerce performance, investments in the same area hurt net income.
For the full year, net revenue grew the most in Europe at ten per cent, due to strong growth of its retail channels. In Asia, net revenues also grew six per cent, excluding unfavorable currency effects of 18 million dollars. Meanwhile, in the Americas, net revenues remained relatively flat.
This is the fourth consecutive year of profitable constant currency revenue growth behind the strength of the Levi's brand and its global direct-to-consumer business. Given the diversified portfolio, the company remains optimistic about long term prospects for growth.
Gross profit for the fiscal year grew to 2,329 million dollars compared with 2,269 million dollars in 2015. For the three-month-period, gross profit was 659 million dollars compared with 658 million dollars for the same quarter of 2015.
Levi Strauss jeans are used by both workers as well as rock stars. It’s known for the 501 design and now the brand is adding stretch to this line. The move has been prompted by consumer preferences for comfort, which has women especially wearing yoga pants beyond their exercise classes.
Kenya is putting in place a policy to boost textile production.
Measures include allowing textile firms in export promotion zones to sell up to 20 per cent of their produce locally without paying duties. This will allow textile firms to take advantage of the growing demand for apparel products by the growing middle class and hence boost the sector.
The aim is to ensure citizens have access to the same high quality products that are sold to overseas markets. Kenya happens to be a major importer of secondhand clothes. It’s hoped increased local production will make consumers switch from purchasing secondhand clothes.
The Kenyan garment sector remains relatively small, with just 40,000 workers.
In Kenya, like many other African countries, the domestic textile industry has suffered because of the race to the bottom by global brands seeking out low-cost labor. Most artisans are trapped in domestic markets without links to international trade. Now some companies are trying to challenge this norm by sourcing artisans from marginalised communities to produce their fashion lines.
Kenya’s textile and apparel exports grew to 415 million dollars by the end of 2016, accounting for 30 per cent of industrial exports over the past five years.
Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry needs to increase its value addition through developing backward linkages in research and development, training, technology innovation, designing, fashion and by using its own fabrics and machinery.
Overall exports (including garments) rose four per cent in January 2017 compared to January 2016 and exports increased 6.43 per cent from December to January.
In the first seven months of financial year 2017 overall exports reached 20.11 billion dollars, of which garment exports accounted for 80 per cent.
In order for Bangladesh to achieve a readymade garment export target of 50 billion dollars by 2020, it is imperative to address some problems in the energy, labor, infrastructure and financial sectors. To achieve this more than 12.25 per cent export growth is needed every year.
Bangladesh's garment products are facing hard competition with some other Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, India and Sri Lanka. Garment exports to the US, Bangladesh’s biggest market, slid by 1.49 per cent from January to November 2016. The sector also saw a 5.19 per cent drop in exports to the UK, the third largest importer during that time.
A training program has been launched for some eight lakh readymade garment workers in Bangladesh.
Yarn prices in Surat have shot up tremendously. This is badly affecting the fiber industry, which buys yarn from spinners. Surat has India’s biggest manmade fiber industry.
Earlier, because of the currency changes, the industry suffered major losses due to the closure of a huge number of weaving units. Production of polyester fabric fell by almost 75 per cent. At one time there were around 6.5 lakh power loom machines, manufacturing around four crore meters of fabric a year. Post-demonetization, production of fabric reduced to just 1.5 crore meters.
Now, with some spinners setting up a cartel and increasing rates, the industry is staring at huge losses. Weavers wanting to replenish their yarn stock, and preparing for the upcoming marriage season, are in deep trouble with the increase in yarn prices by spinners.
Weavers feel there is no rationale behind such a stiff increase in yarn prices and that spinners are operating a price cartel to pressurize weavers. Weavers want the textile ministry to intervene or lift anti-dumping duty on import of yarns.
The bulk of the workforce is with dyeing and printing units in textile processing houses, with the power loom sector, and with packaging and unloading in the trading sector. Most of the workers employed in this industry are migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
Colombiatex was held January 24 to 26. This is a trade show for fabrics, textiles, findings and trimmings, machinery and chemicals in the clothing and home industry. Colombiatex not only establishes the business agenda for the American continent but also brings together supply and demand from every segment of the industry and every fashion category. It is the scenario where national and international brands can begin their journey of distribution throughout Latin America.
It is meant for textile producers and distributors for garments, footwear and fine leather as well as companies who base their activities on technical and industrial applications, equipment, machinery and supplies for the fashion, home and footwear and fine leather industry.
The three-day event hosted over 21,924 national and international visitors, 5.5 per cent more than last year. It had 510 exhibitors, mainly from Colombia, India, Brazil, Spain and Italy, as well as 1,928 international buyers, nine per cent more than last year.
Close to 41 per cent of the investments were directed towards textile purchases, 23 per cent for machinery and equipment, ten per cent for trims and fittings, seven per cent for chemical products, seven per cent for threads and yarns and 12 per cent registered for other categories.
