UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) has taken over the management of Textiles Scotland (STLA), following a unanimous vote by STLA members and lengthy discussions between the two organisations. UKFT and STLA have strong historical links and the move provides new opportunities for Scottish companies by being part of a wider network while retaining a national, Scottish focus.

The Textiles Scotland branding will be continued, as will the Scottish focus of the activities, support and government lobbying. From 1 January 2019, existing Textiles Scotland members are transferred to a new company called UKFT Scotland. UKFT Scotland joins the main UKFT board and UKFT CEO Adam Mansell joins the Scottish Industry Leadership Group.

UKFT will work with the industry to develop a new membership offer that will help Textiles Scotland become a self-sustaining organisation, including using its expertise to develop an export strategy and a skills strategy for Scottish members.

UKFT’s members include some of the UK’s most well-known fashion and textile brands, heritage success stories and emerging designer labels, alongside the manufacturers and suppliers.

The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) is organising SITEX, a textile machinery exhibition from January 04-06, 2019 at the Surat International Exhibition and Convention Centre (SIECC) at Surat, India. The exhibition will display spinning, winding, texturing, twisting and auxiliary machinery and accessories and technologies for web formation, bonding and finishing of nonwovens, felting and technical textiles.

There are more than 150 exhibitors showcasing the latest technologies across the entire textile value on more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition area. The fair will see participation from Indian and global textile machinery companies. Machines for weaving preparatory, weaving, tufting, knitting, embroidery, braiding, washing, bleaching, dyeing and printing, drying, finishing will remain centre for attraction. SGCCI is also organising buyer-seller meets to help buyers and sellers interact at the venue.

The annual textile event PromoTex Expo 2019 will be held from January 08-10, 2019 in Düsseldorf. The show will present innovations, bestsellers, smart and sustainable product highlights by sport textiles suppliers. It will host a number of side events as well as the two trade shows held concurrently, viscom and PSI.

Enterprises such as Gildan Activewear, the Falk & Ross Group Europe, Herka, ID Rexholm, Kariban France, Regatta Professional, Maprom and Stormtech Europe will present their latest collections and machinery to textile finishers, promotional products distributors, sign makers, designers, textile experts and agencies.

The centerpiece of the event, Textile Campus will focus on smart textiles and sustainable textiles. The University of Niederrhein, the Competence Centre 4.0 (textil+mode), Lunative, ZSK Stickmaschinen and SmartTex-Netzwerk will demonstrate what state-of-the-art smart textiles can already do today and what will be possible in the near future. In terms of sustainability information on the current requirements and challenges will be provided by the Fair Wear Foundation, TÜV Rheinland, Bremer Baumwollbörse, RK Textil, the Hohenstein Institute and University of Niederrhein.

The seam tapes market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.7 per cent from 2018 to 2023. Growth of the sports and outdoor apparel industry is expected to drive the overall growth of the seam tapes market.

The polyurethane segment is the fastest-growing in the seam tapes market, in terms of value, and is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This growth is attributed to the various benefits of polyurethane in seam tapes compared to polyvinyl chloride, including high abrasion, impact resistance, water resistance, and high flexibility.

Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest market and have the highest growth rate during the forecast period, owing to the presence of huge garment manufacturing hotspots such as China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh in the Asia Pacific region. Cheap labor cost and availability of domestically produced raw material place Asia Pacific as the preferable region to manufacture textile and apparels.

In addition, the growing demand for sports and outdoor apparels in China, Japan, and India driven by the growing health awareness, as well as an increase in consumer spending on value-added apparels attributable to the rising disposable income, is expected to create opportunities for the seam tapes market in the region.

Moral Fiber, an Indian-American startup based in Los Angeles uses science to make fashion everlasting.

The company, previously named Ambercycle, was started in 2015, by co-founders Akshay “Shay” Sethi, a biochemistry and molecular biology graduate from University of California, Davis, and his classmate Moby Ahmed.

While at University, the two youth worked with microbes to break down polyesters, and discovered during the process the three-step chemical process.

The three-step process is being tested in a pilot plant in Los Angeles. The plant is powered by incinerating the material that is left over in the processing, basically forming a sustainable cycle. The founders expect to switch to solar power to run the machinery in the future. But by 2020, Sethi and Ahmed hope to begin sending the shipping container size “box” to countries which have a growing and large middle-class with high consumption levels.

As revealed the by the Textile Ministry, the US is the top export destination for apparel made in India with a share of 17 per cent, followed by the EU, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, UAE, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Brazil and South Korea, respectively

Indian companies face higher trade barriers, compared to other competing countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan, in the US and European Union, Parliament was informed Wednesday.

The average tariff on textile products faced by India in the EU and US is 5.9 per cent and 6.2 per cent, respectively.

In comparison, Pakistan faces zero per cent and 5.3 per cent average tariff in the EU and US, respectively; for Bangladesh it is zero per cent and 3.9 per cent; whereas Vietnam attracted 6.1 per cent and 5.5 per cent tariff.

India’s market share in home textile exports to the US in October has increased one percentage point from the year ago to 33 per cent.This is the second consecutive month of market share gains.

The gains come after a period of business disruption. Transition to the online marketplace and the resultant reorganisation at traditional retailers had led to inventory destocking. This impacted the sales of Indian textile exporters. The impact was accentuated by the reduction in duty drawback rates for most textile product categories under GST.

But heading into 2019, some of these headwinds are already easing. One is the recovery in export volumes. After a weak start in 2018, India’s exports to the US in terry towels and cotton sheets showed a year on year growth of 24.2 per cent and 7.2 per cent in the past three months.

Another is the revision of the duty drawback rates. The increase of duty drawback up to 0.6 percentage points across home textile products and the rupee depreciation are a welcome relief to the textile space.

This will help exporters claim more incentives, strengthening their competitive advantage.

Yet another key variable is cotton prices which began easing. The softening of headwinds should aid companies’ earnings in 2019.

India will boost exports from labor-intensive sectors such as agriculture, textiles, leather, handicrafts and more.
This will be done with incentives amounting to Rs 600 crores. Merchant exporters will be included under the interest equalisation scheme for pre- and post-shipment rupee export credit by allowing them interest equalisation rate of three per cent on such credit for export of products covered under 416 tariff lines identified under the scheme.

The subsidy scheme is expected to increase production and also generate employment in these sectors, which generally are micro, small and medium industries.

There have been challenges for the export sector over a period of time and one big challenge is credit. There has been a sharp decline in credit to the export sector.

Another challenge the export sector is facing is related to GST. A e-wallet mechanism may be introduced to effectively address the woes of exporters who have been complaining of delays in refund of taxes under the GST regime.

To reduce transaction costs for exporters, there may be multi-modal transport, which will help enhance efficiency in the logistics sector. Each logistics company will be rated by a regulatory organisation, which will be created by the industry.

India’s exports grew by a meager 0.80 per cent in November. During April to November, exports rose 11.58 per cent.

India needs to improve its cotton productivity drastically if it is to remain a net cotton exporter. The country’s cotton yield has not increased during the last few years. As against the world average of over 770 kg per hectare, productivity of cotton in India is about 500 kg per hectare.

Since there is hardly any scope for further increase in the acreage under cotton in India, the only way to match the increasing consumption of cotton domestically is to increase productivity.

The day is not far off when consumption of cotton in India will surpass production, and India, which is today a net cotton exporter, will become a net cotton importer.

Cotton is an important cash crop in India, which provides employment to over 60 million farmers and others connected with production, processing and marketing.

India is world leader in terms of the acreage under cotton. Over one-third of the total cotton acreage in the world is in India. India is the largest cotton producer, the second largest exporter next only to US and the second largest consumer next only to China.

India’s huge textile industry is mainly cotton based and there is a huge opportunity of value addition.

According to True Fit, a global data platform for fashion industry that decodes personal style, fit, and size for consumerism Brits amass £32,951 worth of unworn clothing in their wardrobes over a lifetime. This is equivalent to the average cost of a wedding or university fees for undergraduate degree.

Research involved over 2,000 consumers. According to the report, the average British woman will stash £22,140 worth of unworn clothing in their wardrobes - the equivalent to a house deposit for a first-time buyer - while men accumulate on average £10,811 of garments they will never wear.

With British women forecast to spend £29.4 billion on clothing this year alone, nearly half of UK female shoppers (45 per cent) admit to having bought something online that they have never worn or have only worn once (44 per cent) because of difficulties choosing items in the right style, fit, and size for their unique personal characteristics and preferences.

With only 1 in 2 (44 per cent) of the UK's garments fitting them properly, the average Brit admits they only wear three quarters (74 per cent) of the clothing in their wardrobes. When it came to finding clothes they love, and choosing the right style, fit, and size, jeans proved the trickiest item to shop for online for both men (15 per cent) and women (21 per cent), followed by trousers (12 per cent), boots (5 per cent), dresses (4 per cent) and heels (4 per cent).