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The textile industry in Pakistan has got a revival package. Results are expected in six months and to give a boost to the country’s dwindling exports. Import of cotton and man-made fiber will be exempt from duty and sales tax. Duty drawbacks on exports include four per cent on yarns/grey fabric, five per cent on processed fabrics, six per cent on home textiles/made-ups and seven per cent on garments, seven per cent for sports goods, leather and footwear and five per cent for carpets and tents.
A network of roads, highways and motorways will be laid, integrating different regions of the country. Interest rates have been lowered and investors are being facilitated. The zero-rated facility has been given to five export sectors in the budget.
Exporters are given incentives and will be liable to increase exports by five per cent from January to June 2017 and then by a further 10 per cent in financial year 2017-18. Dozens of power plants are being installed under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. The objective is to ensure availability of cheaper electricity on a sustainable basis. The plan is that 10,000 megawatts of electricity would be added to the system by next year and 30,000 megawatts within the next few years.
With the end of economic sanctions and an investment boom, abundance of low-cost labor, Myanmar's emerging manufacturing industries is set for major growth. In a gap of less than two years, Japanese clothing retailer Honeys has increased the number of production lines at its second factory in Myanmar from five to 34.
The workforce at Yangon plant that produces shirts and jackets destined for Japan has also increased to around 2,600 from about 300 since it started operating in spring of 2015. Moreover, skill levels within the workforce have risen markedly.
In the early 2000s, Honeys began outsourcing production to China on a large scale. As labour costs began to rise, the company decided to shift part of its production to Myanmar where wages were less than one quarter of the level than that in China.
In 2012, Honeys became the first Japanese manufacturer to start production in Myanmar. It now operates two plants in the country churning out around 18,000 pieces of clothing a day. This accounts for 20-30 per cent of the company's sales in its home market. The company is now considering the construction of a third plant in Myanmar.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is finally moving ahead. The new deal, to be signed in March in Chile will be called TPP-11. The move by the remaining 11 members of the TPP agreement indicates their commitment to free and fair trade. The agreement opens up the markets of the 11 countries to duty-free, quota-free trading within the bloc. The members of TPP now include: Australia, Brunie, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The 11 countries in the deal represent 13.5 per cent of global gross domestic product - including the US would bring that total to 38 per cent. The deal has the potential to expand members which could include Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK in future negotiations. The US President, reportedly stated that US would consider joining the group if the terms of the deal are more favourable to its economy. The Japanese PM is of the view that the deal would spur growth and reform in Japan.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the agreement the ‘right deal’. The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the new agreement would leave the door open for eventual US participation. But, will the new TPP-11 boost the textile and apparel business? TPP-11 appears a damp squib for Vietnamese as none of the other countries in the block have any desire for Vietnamese apparel as much as the US. Having said this, Vietnam's textile and apparel industry will still get a small boost from the deal. Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore depend largely on imported apparel mainly from China. Vietnam's duty-free access will give it an edge over its competitors in these markets.
The Indian government is focusing on its textiles and plastics industries that are already substantial contributors to both the country’s economy and to the world. Details of the performance of these industries and future prospects are some of this week’s featured stories on BizVibe, a B2B marketpalce that allows users to connect with over seven million companies around the globe.
The Indian textile and garment industry contributes almost 5 per cent to the $1.8 trillion Indian economy, and makes up 13 per cent of Indian exports. India is the second-largest exporter of textile and garment goods with a global trade share of approximately 5 per cent.
India’s technical textile industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country that is expected to grow by over 20 per cent annually to reach $30 billion by 2020. Demand for technical textile products for medical, industrial, agricultural, and other uses is booming and India is one of the biggest technical textile markets in the world.
However, technical textiles in India are import-intensive products, which has led the Indian government to push new policies and strategies to shift industrial priorities. It has launched a scheme for promoting the usage of agro textiles in the Northeast region with an investment of over Rs 55 crores, while another scheme for promoting the sage of geotextiles with a financial outlay of Rs 427 crores is in the pipeline.
The European apparel and textile confederation, Euratex, has highlighted the need for European Commission to tackle trade barriers in China. It has asked the Commission to address sector-specific topics such as overcapacities in the man-made fibres and yarns production. The textile confederation has reiterated that China does not meet the five criteria required to qualify as a market economy.
Euratex has welcomed the reflection process carried out by the European Commission in the last few months to address the needs of the European industry and to tackle unfair trade practices. It has released its position paper on the Commission’s proposal to change anti-dumping and anti-subsidy legislation.
European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström in January 2016, Euratex has reiterated that China does not meet the five criteria required to qualify as a market economy, in its position paper. However, it adds that it is aware that the Commission has made efforts to tackle overcapacities and to strive for preservation of European jobs by proposing to change the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy legislation.
A research by New Danish has estimated that industry-wide environmental and social compliance in Bangladeshi readymade garment (RMG) industry would cost $2-3 billion. This work was undertaken as a part of the Bangladesh Priorities project in collaboration with Copenhagen Consensus Center and BRAC Research and Evaluation Department.
Carried out by a team of Bangladeshi economists led by Wasel Bin Shadat, Lecturer at the University of Manchester. They examined investments that will improve Bangladesh's RMG sector. Ensuring that companies comply with safety regulations is important not only for worker safety, but also to increase opportunities to export. The researchers claimed carrying out such investments could boost garment exports by around 10 per cent and help ensure the country reaches its export target of $50 bn. Better compliance across the RMG industry would require initial investments to improve physical infrastructure and fire protection, as well as funding for operations costs to maintain high levels of compliance from year-to-year, the report says.
The research evaluated current plans to create a new RMG Palli (Village) suited for garment production. The area would be an industrial park, with significant infrastructure for factories. The paper adds that a separate RMG zone would allow factories to form a cluster in a single geographic location which would reduce production costs, allow for simple transfer of knowledge and technologies, make pollution mitigation easier, and promote other positive spill-over effects. A Chinese firm has already performed feasibility and environmental studies for the 530-acre palli zone for Bangladesh that would include utility services, medical facilities, pollution treatment plants, daycare centres, and other similar infrastructure. The zone would employ an estimated 300,000 people at more than 250 factories. The research analysis estimates that a RMG zone in Palli would lead to additional 142 factories over the next three years, when compared to the long-run growth of the industry.
The sharp rise in cotton prices has hurt the prospects of Indian exporters. They are unable to make new export commitments. Prices have surged by about Rs 2,500 a candy within a short span of a week to touch Rs 42,500. And this has happened at a time when the country has had a bountiful harvest.
Exporters feel speculators are responsible for the artificial rally in the crop. During the days following November 8, farmers were not unloading the crop because of the lack of liquidity. But now when conditions have improved, arrivals haven’t. And amid surging cotton prices, farmers anticipate higher return for the crop. The view is that many farmers anticipate realisations to further go up, and hence have held back the crop, causing an artificial rally.
Cotton prices in India were on a strong downtrend in the second half of 2016. After being stuck in a narrow range all through December, cotton prices began the New Year with a bang. Along with restricted arrivals, the Cotton Corporation of India’s decision to purchase at market price from various parts of the country has also aided this price reversal. Traders with a medium-term perspective can make use of dips to go long near Rs 20,000.
After a considerable wait, the Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif has announced a Rs 180 billion package for the textile industry that he had promised to earlier. The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has welcomed the announcement. Chairman Aamir Fayyaz has welcomed the package.
Fayyaz said he had held four meetings with the prime minister over the last four months and apprised him of the state of affairs in the textile industry due to high cost of doing business. The prime minister showed his concern over the decline in exports and increase in trade deficit which has reached $14 billion during first half of the current fiscal. APTMA explained the high cost of doing business that had impacted export sector viability and also apprised the government of the support extended by competing countries like India, Bangladesh and Vietnam to their export industries.
The APTMA chief appreciated the PM for taking a bold decision for export sector of Pakistan, which includes tax-free import of cotton and man-made fibre besides offering duty drawback on exports, including 4 per cent on greige fabric, 5 per cent on processed fabric, 6 per cent on home textile made-up and 7 per cent on garments against realisation of import proceeds. APTMA Punjab Chairman Syed Ali Ahsan expressed the hope the package would boost exports and positive results would be in the offing within the next six months with the availability of a fighting chance against competitors.
"Texprocess, to be held from May 9-12, 2017, has reported the highest number of registrations in its history and thus continues its pattern of growth. Texprocess is the leading international trade fair for processing textile and flexible materials. “It is well worth our while continually developing Texprocess further, with regard to the technologies and processes on display, the hall layout and the complementary programme."
Texprocess, to be held from May 9-12, 2017, has reported the highest number of registrations in its history and thus continues its pattern of growth. Texprocess is the leading international trade fair for processing textile and flexible materials. “It is well worth our while continually developing Texprocess further, with regard to the technologies and processes on display, the hall layout and the complementary programme. With the fourth edition, Texprocess is now firmly established in the marketplace and attracting other market leaders in the sector to Frankfurt,” says Olaf Schmidt, VP – Textiles & Textile Technologies, Messe Frankfurt. The range of products at Texprocess covers all stages in the value-creation chain for textile goods, from design, IT, cutting out, sewing, seaming, embroidery and knitting to finishing, textile printing and logistics.
CAD/CAM companies gaining ground
Texprocess reports growing numbers of companies signing up, particularly in the CAD/CAM and Cutting, Making, Trimming (CMT) product groups. Technologies and material for Sewing, Joining and Fastening are growing steadily, too. To make the profiles of Techtextil and Texprocess sharper, the bonding and separating technology, CMT (Cutting, Making, Trimming), CAD/CAM and printing product segments will be concentrated together at Texprocess in hall 4.0.Visitors will find Techtextil exhibitors from these segments at Texprocess. These product groups will be deleted from the Techtextil nomenclature. Apart from this change, the overall concept behind the halls at the previous event will be retained.
Space travel textile processing in focus
Texprocess this year, has a rather special experience: under 'Living in Space', Techtextil will be showcasing a wide variety of applications for technical textiles in space travel, together with the processing involved. This is a cooperative venture between Techtextil, The European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). Close to the location for, amongst others, exhibitors of functional apparel textiles in Hall 6.1, and based on the areas of application for technical textiles, a special, interactive area is to be built to display, with the help of four thematic sections, the high-tech textiles and textile processing technologies that have emerged from and for space travel. The highlight of this area is a virtual-reality experience where Techtextil and Texprocess get to go on a virtual journey through the universe, where they will learn about the application of technical textiles in space travel and the processing required to make them.
Digital printing highlight
Complementary program with focus on Digital Printing and international Innovative Apparel Show Digital Printing will be one the thematic focuses of the Texprocess complimentary program. The sector's information service, the World Textile Information Network (WtiN) will, for the first time, be organising European Digital Textile Conference at Texprocess. The conference will centre round technologies for digital printing on textiles and will be held on Wednesday 10 May in the Saal Europa in hall 4.0.
Digital printing on textiles will also be a topic in a dedicated series of lectures part of the Texprocess Forum. The forum offers expert lectures on current issues in the sector, on all days of the trade fair.
Innovative apparel show
Following on from the success of its first edition, the Innovative Apparel Show is to be continued and set on an international footing. For the first time, there will be, a German university, three European universities/colleges from outside Germany, showcasing, their fashion designs from functional textiles and the processing stages that go into making them.
Texprocess innovation award
With the Texprocess Innovation Award, Messe Frankfurt seeks, to honour the best new technological developments in the field. Submissions for the award may be made up until 20 February. The competition is open both to exhibitors at Texprocess 2017 and to other companies, institutes, universities, colleges and private individuals, who are not otherwise exhibiting at the fair. The awards in the various categories will be presented during the joint opening ceremony for Texprocess und Techtextil, on May 9, 2017. At the same time, there will be a special display area in Hall 4.0, showcasing all the prize-winning products at Texprocess.
The Australian government, along with Cotton Australia and Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), has forged a partnership to support training of around 225,000 Pakistani cotton farmers commencing with the 2017 cotton-sowing season. The partnership has been established to support Pakistan’s ability to compete in premium international cotton markets.
The Australian High Commission’s a statement said this partnership will deliver practical tools and latest environmental and cutting-edge management practices aligned with internationally recognised quality assurance for sustainable cotton production. Farmers will be trained in techniques for growing cotton with focus on improved environmental, social and economic benefits in line with the Better Cotton Standard System. Cotton is an important export earner for Pakistan that is supposed to be the fourth largest producer of cotton in the world.
The Australian government has committed AU$500,000 to this project, which will be supported through the Australian aid programme’s Business Partnerships Platform. Australia’s contribution will be matched by AU$2.4m from the BCI Growth and Innovation Fund. The matching funds come from the BCI Retailer and Brand members, such as Adidas, IKEA, H&M, Levi Strauss & Co, Marks & Spencer, Cotton On, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Tommy Hilfiger and Nike.
