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Bangladesh will host an apparel summit from December 7 to 9, 2014. The idea is to send out the right message to global partners in the apparel market. Bangladesh also wants to sketch out a sustainable roadmap on building responsible supply chains in the textile and garment sectors. The country is aiming for garment exports worth to $f 50 billion dollars by 2021.
The summit will discuss the present business and investment trends, global sourcing dynamics and potential for Bangladesh, priority issues to support the growth potential, compliance issues, prudent commercial diplomacy and political stability, supportive policies and coordination between different government agencies, product and market diversification.
Part of the discussion will also focus on market diversification strategy and dynamics in global tariff structure. A session will look at the questions of environmentally sustainable economic growth in a densely populated country like Bangladesh and examine how the readymade garment sector can meet the standards required.
The discussions will focus on devising a strategic action plan to overcome the existing challenges and tap the potential. The summit will also discuss how important physical infrastructure, power, gas and energy are to secure the Vision 2021 set for Bangladesh.
There has been a lot of progress in the country over the last year that overcame some recent challenges faced by the industry relating to workplace safety issues.
A textiles innovation laboratory in Mexico is working to develop an apparel fiber based on agave. Agave is the plant ingredient used to make tequila and agave liquors.
The facility, Innlab, hopes to make an apparel fiber from the agave bagasse. The laboratory opened only last August and its mandate is to help make garments from intelligent textiles and nano fibers.
Innlab will sell the fiber to Mexican apparel firms. It hopes to help Mexican apparel makers as they prepare for a possible rise in domestic sourcing from new fast fashion brands entering the market.
Agave fiber has unique characteristics. It’s dimensionally stable, has low moisture absorption and a lower specific gravity than minerals. It has an unique swirl look and excellent chemical and mold resistance. Several kinds of agave plants contain distinct varieties of fibers. Agave can grow in drought-tolerant environments and it thrives in dry, sterile soils. The fiber is used to manufacture textiles, industrial fillers, paper, filters, mattresses, carpets and a variety of ropes and twines.
Traditionally, indigenous people, including the American Indians, used agave fiber to make twine. Today manufacturers commonly use agave fiber in the textile industry. Other applications for agave fiber include wall coverings and yarns made for specialty products such as durable carpets and rugs.
China, Japan, Hong Kong are investing in Vietnam’s textile industry in a big way. Hong Kong’s TAL Group will build a fiber production, knitting and fabric dyeing factory. A Chinese company is investing in a fiber-weaving-dyeing project. Japanese trading firm Itochu will invest in the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex). Vinatex is Vietnam’s largest state-owned textile company. It operates about 200 factories around the country, of which about 30 are involved in sewing garments for Itochu under a contract.
Itochu currently does business with about 100 Vietnamese textile companies. It deals in everything, from the procurement of raw materials to sewing, and supplies suits, shirts and other products to Japan, the United States and Europe. It is the largest Japanese firm in the country's textile industry.
In the past 10 months alone Vietnam has approved almost 20 new FDI projects. Apart from building factories, many foreign corporations have bought shares or cooperated with Vietnamese partners. In south Vietnam, many corporations of Taiwan and Hong Kong have also strengthened their investment in the textile and garment industries.
Vietnam sees the inflow of foreign capital as an opportunity for homegrown enterprises to develop their technology and buy materials at low prices.
Pakistan's textile exports to countries other than EU fell by nine per cent this year. But textile exports to the European Union registered an increase of 19 per cent during the first nine months of the current year. This is mainly due to the GSP Plus status the EU gives Pakistan.
The country’s overall textile exports increased 3.95 per cent in the last fiscal mainly due to the increase in exports to the EU after getting the GSP Plus status. However, GSP Plus has not led to any significant rise in Pakistan’s textile exports. Textile exports to EU were expected to rise by a billion dollars a year after getting the GSP Plus status. But that hasn’t happened. Several challenges remain, including fluctuations in the prices of raw materials, energy shortages and stiff competition.
The government is working to prepare a five-year plan to provide incentives mainly to the value-added textile sectors. Under the new proposed textile policy (2014-19) the value-added textile sector would be incentivized. Textile exports would be increased to 26 billion dollars in the next five years, besides creating job opportunities.
Cotton textiles and apparel historically have been the focus of Pakistan’s textile industry, mainly because of the large amount of cotton grown in the country. Cotton and cotton products represent 61 per cent of Pakistan’s export earnings.
J. Crew Brands will extend its participation in Cotton Incorporated’s denim recycling drive, Blue Jeans Go Green, at its J.Crew and Madewell retail stores. During the denim drive, J.Crew and Madewell customers are encouraged to bring their pairs of old jeans to a participating store to receive $20 towards a new pair of jeans. The collected jeans are then recycled into UltraTouch Denim Insulation as part of the Blue Jeans Go Green project.
J.Crew will continue to host the program until December 31, 2014 while Madewell will host until January 31, 2015. The retailers have been participating in the drive since August, with 269 participating J.Crew stores and 74 Madewell stores.
The Blue Jeans Go Green program began in 2006 to help benefit local communities across America. More than one million denim pieces have been collected to date. The insulation created by the jeans has been distributed to organizations like Habitat for Humanity and used to build houses. Roughly 2,50,000 sq. ft. of insulation is distributed each year, while the project has diverted more than 600 tons of waste from landfills since its birth.
Customers probably feel great about participating in the denim drive—they will be helping the environment and their communities while supporting their favorite stores.
Swaziland is desperate not to be removed from the list of AGOA beneficiaries. It has appealed to the US government to extend the grace period for the kingdom to meet the stipulated benchmarks.
Swaziland will lose its AGOA membership from January 2015. Thousands of textile workers are in danger of losing their jobs. Employees of institutions whose main business was to export to the US courtesy of AGOA will be the major losers. Approved by Congress in 2000, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, provides duty-free access to the US market for qualifying apparel exports from Africa. It’s designed to stimulate light manufacturing in Africa in order to contribute to job creation, poverty reduction and greater industrialization. It is a step towards increasing African countries’ exports and strengthening their integration into the global economy.
To qualify for AGOA a country must have a market-based economy and the rule of law. Trade barriers should be eliminated, and workers’ rights should be protected. In the case of Swaziland, the US is not convinced it has put in place sufficient protections for workers’ rights, human rights or security.
US imports of synthetic apparel this year have overtaken cotton garments for the first time in decades. Fears cotton is losing the battle to manmade fibers have come true. Of 19.43 billion sq. mt. equivalents (sme) of apparel shipped to the United States through September, 9.87 billion was clothing made primarily of synthetic fibers like polyester and viscose. Some 9.16 billion sq. sme was made primarily of cotton.
It’s the first time since 1991 that cotton apparel imports in the world’s largest market were lower than those made of synthetic fibers. Volumes of cotton apparel imported during the first nine months of the year were down two per cent from the same period in 2013, even as overall apparel import demand rose. Synthetic imports were up nearly 9 per cent from September 2013.
Yarn mills have switched spindles to polyester and it’s like due to years of high cotton prices and improving synthetic technology. Falling polyester prices have dashed hopes that lower cotton prices will renew demand. Cotton prices have plunged 30 per cent year-to-date. Global cotton stocks are ballooning. World inventories are expected to reach a whopping amount by the end of July 2015, enough to satisfy demand for nearly a full year.
A seminar on denim will be held on November 12 and 13 in Mexico. Various aspects of denim fabric and jeans and other denim garment manufacturing, technical fashion trends and commercial will be discussed. Among the topics are high tech washes, denim finishing, problems in jeans manufacturing, denim for the 21st century, fabric management and retail trends in Mexico and Canada.
Panel speakers will include senior executives from denim companies, denim professionals, global suppliers of fibers, fabrics, chemicals, machinery. Attendees will include retailers, apparel brands, representatives from denim mills, jeans manufacturers and others in the denim supply chain.
Global companies will talk about state-of-the-art technologies in fibers, textiles, fabrics and garment finishes. The seminar will have an exhibition of fabrics and supplies for apparel manufacturers. It will showcase Spring/Summer ’15 trends and the latest market trends in jeans consumption for the retail market.
Mexico is popular with garment firms because it is close to the United States, meaning a quick turnaround on fast-changing fashion lines. Jeans factories have given jobs to thousands in the city of Tehuacan, the heartland of Mexico's denim industry. The country's sizable and youthful population makes Mexico a prime target for retail brands favored by the young.
Some brands like Benetton have not money into a UN compensation fund for Bangladeshi garment workers injured in a building collapse that killed more than 1,000 of their colleagues. Instead Benetton has teamed up with a Bangladeshi NGO, with a separate scheme that it says provides assistance to 280 victims, first, with their immediate medical needs, then with a long-term set of activities designed to support their long-term needs. Benetton is among the 27 global brands whose garments were being manufactured in the building.
The Rana Plaza factory complex in Dhaka’s suburb collapsed on April 24 2013. Many of those who died were producing clothes for sale in western stores. Nearly all those who died or injured were garment workers. Many had been ordered back into the unsafe building by factory owners despite the building being evacuated the day before when giant cracks appeared in the walls.
This led over 150 companies to sign the Accord on Fire and Safety in Bangladesh, a legally binding and independent agreement designed to make all garment factories in Bangladesh safe workplaces. Benetton says it’s one of the first signatories to the accord. Other companies, such as Primark, which has contributed $1 million to the fund in addition to distributing $2 million through its own short-term assistance program, have been praised for their proactive approach. But the general feeling is that no brand has really made a significant contribution.
China will subsidise its cotton-growing farmers. The aim is to prevent a fall in cotton production and to curb demand for imports. The country has abandoned its stock piling program that had reduced supply to the market and bolstered global prices. An end to buying and the switch to subsidies has seen US prices drop over market fears of weaker demand from China amid plentiful global supplies.
Cotton growing in China has already declined significantly in provinces outside Xinjiang in recent years as farmers seek higher wages in cities or turn to less labor-intensive crops such as wheat. China’s total cotton acreage declined nearly 7 per cent in 2013 from the year before. The country’s cotton imports in 2014-15 are expected to fall to a 10-year low of 1.3 million tons, less than half the previous year’s total.
China views the financial support of its 700 million farmers as crucial for both its food supply and political stability, particularly in regions with large ethnic minorities such as Xinjiang. The country still holds nearly 12 million tons of fiber in state reserves. That is around 60 per cent of global stocks.
Beijing is determined to keep cotton output in Xinjiang at stable levels as it seeks to turn the province into a major textile hub, attracting more garment makers to boost local employment.
