Outlook India, a leading platform for key nonwoven professionals in the personal care and hygiene products, closed in India on a very successful note. Outlook India was the first ever platform of this scale and took place in India from 12-13 February in the Leela Ambience Hotel in Delhi NCR. The participants learnt and shared insights on the exciting market potential of India, whilst taking this unique opportunity for networking and doing business.

Organised by Edana and BCH, who have been partners for 12 years, Outlook India 2019 was the first ever edition of Edana’s flagship conference, which has so far been organised 17 times in Europe, three times in South-East Asia and twice in Latin America.

More than 320 delegates from over 152 companies were in attendance for the opening keynote presentation made by the Unicharm President and CEO Takahisa Takahara on Ideas for circular hygiene products for now and the future.

The second day opened with a keynote speech from Ashish Jajoo, Global Sales and Marketing Head at Birla Cellulose Nonwovens Division, on Bio based solution for wipes and the hygiene industry. Other sessions featured expert insights on market trends and presentations on the latest innovations and technologies pertaining to the absorbent hygiene industry.

India’s exports to Africa increased from 7.5 per cent in 2009-10 to eight per cent in 2017-18.
Of the 54 African countries, there was significant trade with 47. Many of these countries rank high in terms of ease of business.

For Indian exporters, Africa presents an almost unlimited market.

The country’s biggest market on the African continent is South Africa. South African chain store buyers, independent retailers, boutique owners, home textile and soft furnishing buyers, agents, wholesalers, importers and other industry professionals are interested in Indian products particularly fashion garments, embroidery, sequins, beadwork and the hand washes that India is famous for.

India has set up an apparel training centre in Nigeria. This will rebuild the cotton and textile value chain of Nigeria.

India is South Africa’s second-largest clothing import source market. It is recognised as one of the best sourcing destinations for garments, textiles, footwear and leather. India is the largest producer of jute, the second largest producer of cotton, silk and cellulosic fiber, the third largest producer of raw cotton and the fourth largest producer of synthetic fiber.

There is growing investment by Indian companies in Africa in a range of sectors including textiles and such as telecommunications, hydrocarbons, agriculture, manufacturing and IT.

According to the global research firm Jefferies, most e-commerce portals were forced to take down thousands of products from their portals to meet new government regulations.

Online retailers went soft in February with no key discounting or promotional events. This is in contrast to the sharp discounting they carried out in January to clear inventory and align with the new e-commerce rules. The new rules bar online retailers from engaging in price wars and deep discounting, among other things. On Feb. 23, the Narendra Modi government released a draft national e-commerce policy that proposed stringent norms for data storage and combating counterfeit goods.

Already, ratings agency CRISIL has estimated that in fiscal year 2020, online sales worth between Rs35,000 crore and Rs40,000 crore could be impacted due to the challenging regulatory environment. On the flip side, physical retailers will gain as their revenues will jump by a between whopping Rs10,000 and Rs12,000 crore in the same time period.

Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) in a recently concluded study observed that India is lagging behind in cotton exports to major markets. The situation has been created because of the duty disadvantage India is faced with as against Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan. These countries enjoy duty free access.

The study observed that a whopping 25 per cent slump in Indian exports has occurred in the past five years to markets in EU and China. Citing figures CITI stated that Indian cotton yarn exports fell from USD 4.5 billion in 2013-14 to USD 3.4 billion in 2017-18.

Earlier India was the biggest exporter of cotton yarn to China. Now China has replaced India with Vietnam and Indonesia. These countries have duty free access to the Chinese markets whereas Indian yarn comes with 3.5 per cent duty. The study also pointed out that fabric export from India has fallen by 7 per cent.

A new report, “Exports to Jobs: Boosting the Gains from Trade in South Asia”, was presented in New Delhi, shows that increasing exports would boost average wages. The biggest beneficiaries of the wage gains would be the high-skilled, urban, more experienced, and mainly male workers. For low-skilled workers, the shift would result in an increase in formal jobs.

The report, jointly produced by the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation, breaks new ground in examining the impact of exports on local labor markets in South Asia. It uses an innovative approach, analysing the effect on local employment and wages of changes in exports by combining disaggregated data from household-level or worker-level surveys with trade data from India and Sri Lanka. The approach builds on a new wave of research looking at how globalisation might contribute to local jobs and wages, but, unlike previous studies, it focuses on exports.

The report provides options on how to expand and widely share the benefits of higher exports. Improving workers’ skills, getting women and youth into more jobs, and addressing distortions that make labor mobility costly are some of the recommended policy actions.

Earlier this year, global fibre producers Lenzing and Hyosung jointly developed a new sustainable fabric collection, which they presented at ISPO Munich in February. The new collection showcases the sustainable benefits of the two companies’ leading brands: Tencel Modal from Lenzing and creora elastane from Hyosung.

The collection comprises three fabric categories, starting with Lenzing Ecovero with creora eco-soft for a softer touch, whiter whites and low heat settable for reduced energy consumption. The second fabric line is Tencel Modal and creora PowerFit for a smooth, natural feel with superior shaping and compression, and the third is Tencel Modal and creora black for breathable, softer touch and deeper black with no grin through. The third collection marries functionality and aesthetics. It has a nylon product that it refers to as Aqua-x. The Aqua-x fabrics are cool to the touch, thanks to their large surface area coupled with minerals that have higher conductivity.

During fiscal 2017-18, Bangladesh’s apparel export to Germany amounted to US $5.89 billion – a major surge of over 7.5 per cent gain. Bangladesh fetched over 16 per cent of its total apparel export revenue from Germany during the period.

The main exported item was knitwear products which fetched US $3.2 billion, followed chronologically by woven garments at over US $2.3 billion, and home textiles at US $83 million.

During the July-January 2019 period, Bangladesh’s apparel exports to Germany amounted to US $3.51 billion – an increase of 9.6 per cent from the same time previous year.

Knitwear fetched US $2.03 billion and woven garment US $1.48 billion. During the same period previous year, knitwear fetched US $1.9 billion and woven US $1.3 billion.

Ghana has decided on zero-rate value-added tax for the textile industry.
This is aimed at reviving the industry, making it competitive, reducing the cost of operation and will be valid for a period of three years.

The value added tax was bleeding textile companies. The tax component meant the cost was passed on to the depots, wholesalers, retailers and ultimately customers, who had to pay higher prices.

The textile industry in Ghana has been struggling to meet the demands of the market due to the smuggling in of unregistered and cheap textiles from other countries. The high operational cost has also led to the shutdown of some of the textile companies, which has robbed many Ghanaians of their jobs. The textile sector which had a workforce of nearly 30,000 barely has 3,000 now.

The textile industry in Ghana is facing serious difficulties. Workers are being laid-off because of the pace of smuggling of cheap and fake prints from China. The market is flooded with counterfeit textiles. The tax stamp on fabrics will set up a task force to arrest those selling pirated materials. Togo and Ivory Coast are often the entry point for smugglers, with some Ghanaian market traders even travelling to China to collect designs. The borders are very porous with only a few of them manned by security people, making it very easy for these counterfeiters to pass through.

Coats’ sustainability report, ‘Pioneering a sustainable future’, launches a sustainability strategy which sets out seven ambitious targets for 2022 across five priority areas in order to accelerate the company’s progress towards a more sustainable future.

The five priority areas are water, energy, effluent and emissions, social and living sustainably. Having identified the five priority areas, Coats has set seven ambitious targets to be achieved by 2022. These include 40 per cent reduction in water used in litres/kg thread produced, 7 per cent reduction in energy used in kwh/kg thread produced, source renewable energy where feasible, zero discharge of hazardous chemicals effluent standards, great place to work’ or equivalent awards for all key sites, all employees involved in community activities, 25 per cent reduction in waste

There is also an additional target of manufacturing 100 per cent recycled premium polyester threads by 2024. All reductions are against the 2018 baseline.

Coats’ yearly revenue has grown four per cent. Pre-tax profits slipped as lower demand for zips dented apparel and footwear revenue.

The benefits from the turnaround program, connecting for growth, was realised faster than initially anticipated, with net benefits delivered in 2018.

Revenues from apparel and footwear were largely unchanged from last year. Growth in the segment was impacted by slower demand for zips due to certain fashion trends, and a 15 per cent decline in Latin America Craft sales.

The full year dividend per share was increased by 15 per cent.

The company enters 2019 in a strong position, with continued positive momentum in its core apparel and footwear and hi-tech performance materials businesses. The exit of its non-core North American Crafts business will ensure complete focus on growing the remaining businesses organically and identifying further value-add bolt-on acquisitions.

Coats sold North America Crafts to Spinrite. Coats has had a crafts heritage in North America and a long association with crafters but decided to sell North America Crafts since the crafting market has evolved in the past decade and requires a higher degree of specialisation, scale, innovation and digital capabilities to succeed. Coats will use proceeds from the sale to make further value accretive acquisitions.