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The Indian textile industry has flagged concerns about an Environment Ministry move to mandate virtually all textile firms to reduce their effluent discharge to zero. The argument is that such a stipulation goes beyond what the developed world follows and would make Indian firms even more uncompetitive at a time when export orders are shrinking. Accounting for 14 per cent of India’s exports, the textile industry is India’s largest employer after agriculture. But, the industry has recently lost ground to Bangladesh and Vietnam in the global market as the preferred supplier for readymade garments.
The Ministry of Environment and Forest issued a draft notification in late November that proposes new pollution control standards for effluents from the textile industry. It also requires all textile units set up in clusters such as Tirupur in Tamil Nadu to set up common effluent treatment plants to ensure zero liquid discharge, irrespective of their waste water quantity.
According to the ministry, the industry players would be granted 30 months to construct or augment their existing effluent treatment plants to comply with this new regulation under the Environment Protection Act of 1986. No new or existing units will be allowed to operate their factories after that, in the absence of such arrangements.
In this regard, the industry members have raised their apprehensions about the implications of the new norms in a missive sent earlier this week to the ministries of textiles as well as environment and forests, questioning the assumption that textile units discharge effluents without treating them.
According to A Didar Singh, Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), ‘zero discharge’ is not the only solution. The effluent can be treated and reused for various other purposes including discharge in the sea at least in coastal states.
Philippine Exporters are looking to penetrate new overseas markets in a bid to achieve export revenue target of $102 billion in 2016 amid lingering weakness in the global economy. According to Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (PHILEXPORT) President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr exporters are looking at markets to replace the problematic, traditional markets like Europe and China which are not doing very well. We are looking at some countries in Asia and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries. They are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development.
The government data indicated that about 54 per cent of the country’s merchandise exports in November, 2015 went to East Asian countries, while commodities exported to ASEAN member countries comprised 14 per cent. Shrinking global demand and the ASEAN 2015 are identified in the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) as among the opportunities and challenges facing the export sector, noted Ortiz-Luis.
Under the PEDP, the country’s export of goods and services can hit $102 billion this year from last year’s estimated $91 billion, said the PHILEXPORT chief. The sector makes up about 60 percent of the country’s total export trade.
The yarn industry in India is facing a sharp demand drop from China, resulting in excess supply. In December 2015, 88 countries imported spun yarn from India, with China accounting for 27.8 per cent of the total value with imports plunging 32.9 per cent in terms of volume year on year (YoY) and declining 39.5 per cent in value YoY. India’s overall spun yarn exports in December were down by 11.5 per cent YoY in volume terms and declined 18.8 per cent in value term. Unit price realization was up US cent 1 a kg from November 2015 and down US cents 24 a kg from December 2014.
In China, yarn import prices in December were less significantly high in yuan terms, with benchmark 32s cotton being however offered at the same price level than on the domestic and import markets. The fall of the renminbi offered some support to domestic producers after import prices were raised in yuan terms in the last weeks. Since import yarn prices were high and domestic yarn prices were declining, China's yarn imports from India remained extremely depressed in December, by contrast with the surge in the same period a year ago.
Partly due to a Chinese demand increasingly shifting to lower counts and qualities, average import price continued declining in December. Yarn producers were also trying to reduce their inventories before the new year holidays and were ready to negotiate prices.
"China’s economy is facing tough times with the yuan depreciating against other currencies especially US dollar. The slowdown is also affecting China’s denim manufacturing town of Guangdong. What price are you willing to give? This is common question asked by traders in the ‘denim capital’ nowadays as merchants shrug off and walk away from them. Business is getting harder in the International Jeans City mall Guangzhou in China’s Guangdong province."
China’s economy is facing tough times with the yuan depreciating against other currencies especially US dollar. The slowdown is also affecting China’s denim manufacturing town of Guangdong. What price are you willing to give? This is common question asked by traders in the ‘denim capital’ nowadays as merchants shrug off and walk away from them. Business is getting harder in the International Jeans City mall Guangzhou in China’s Guangdong province.
Slow sales dampens business
Visiting merchants are in no rush to seal a deal. Sales staff far outnumber customers at malls and merchants are the only foreign buyers present. Domestic sales are weak and export orders have almost disappeared altogether. The pressure on traders in Xintang is almost palpable. The grimy riverside town has been through a lot, from deadly water pollution to tensions between local and migrant workers that culminated in violent anti-police riots in 2011.
China’s plan to climb the value chain makes the road ahead for Xintang all the more arduous. Even as the country ‘follows the classic path of moving up the value chain’ as Japan, Korea and Hong Kong have done, the risks of getting caught in a middle-income trap are rising, says Stanford University professor Ian Morris.
In the late 19th century, Germany and the United States invented ‘whole new forms of production and management’ to overtake Britain. The question for China was ‘whether it can repeat that achievement in the early 21st century,’ wrote Morris, the author of Why the West Rules – For Now in an email.
China’s GDP growth has slowed to its lowest level in a quarter of a century. Its exports, once a pillar underpinning the country’s economic miracle, declined last year for the first time since 2009. It was the second such annual fall since late leader Deng Xiaoping opened the Chinese economy to the outside world. 
As Wei Jianguo, a former commerce vice-minister whose portfolio covered foreign trade says, exports are facing a dangerous time and exporters are struggling to find enough orders. Wei is now general secretary of a government think tank, the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges.
Orders for China’s low-end products are set to continue falling as costs rise and competitiveness drops. Chinese business owners, in particular those in the Pearl River Delta region, know they can no longer rely on cheap labour and land supply, said Bai Ming, a researcher with the Commerce Ministry.
The rice bowl is not there anymore; business owners have to find a new one from better technology and management. But it can’t be done overnight, Bai said. Even though, it is important for China to maintain the country’s massive job market and social stability, labour-intensive manufacturing is not the future for China’s economy.
During the global financial crisis in 2008 when nearly 20 million migrant workers were laid off, then premier Wen Jiabao was so concerned that he launched a 4-trillion-yuan fiscal stimulus package to boost growth. The move left a pile of unpaid debt and excess industrial capacity.
Perhaps, it is time for China to improve its technology and labour management systems.
Fespa an event about digital and textile printing is taking place in the Netherlands, March 8 to 11, 2016. It will showcase the very latest garment decoration and textile print technologies and applications from global exhibitors. Visitors can discover an inspirational platform to help grow their garment print business.
The show is attended by textile print professionals, retailers, designer labels, clothing brands to see the latest developments from within the industry and stay up-to-date with the hottest trends.
Textile printing is proving to be one of the fastest growing sectors in the digital wide format print industry.
The event will feature wide format digital machinery, consumables and inks, commercial printing machinery, embroidery, promotional products and work wear, T-shirt printing machinery and inks, 3D printing, industrial printing, sublimation and transfer printing, cleaning products, chemicals and adhesives, sign and display systems, digital signage and print and business management software.
The digital textile conference being held will provide printers with information on expanding their textile offering. It will cover topics like the growth and creative development of digital textile markets, fabric printing, smart textiles, and digital prints in fast fashion.
Bruno Basso and Christopher Brooke have pioneered the digital print process in fashion, making history with their ground breaking 100 per cent digitally printed collection.
digital.fespa.com/
China’s import orders for cotton from Australia are slowing down though it continues to need premium grade fiber. With China importing less cotton, the challenge for Australia is to find alternative markets for its exports. At one time China used to consume about 70 per cent of Australia’s typical 3 meter-plus bale cotton crop.
The over-stocked global cotton industry is bracing for stiff competition from synthetic fabrics as 15 months of sliding oil prices have given polyester a selling advantage. Global prices are eroded by synthetics (derived from crude oil) and mountains of stockpiled cotton, mostly in China.
Chinese cotton reserves, currently about 64.5 million bales, are equivalent to almost two years of Chinese domestic consumption. More than 35 million bales are also stockpiled around the world, including at least 3,00,000 bales of Australian carryover from last year.
Prices paid by Chinese textile plants for purified terephtalic acid (PTA), the chemical synthesis of crude oil used to make polyester, fell 25 per cent in the past eight months.
Cotton and PTA outright prices generally contribute about 50 to 60 per cent to a manufactured garment’s final price. Spinning customers are using more man-made fibers in blended yarns.
The sharp fall in the rupee since the start of this year has put a break on cotton imports. The rupee that had appreciated nearly one per cent in December turned its course and has depreciated by 2.8 per cent so far in January, ending the financial viability of imported cotton, which was around three per cent cheaper in terms of landed prices. In fact, with a recovery in world cotton prices this month, the landed price of imported cotton is costlier by Rs 1000 rupees per candy or at a two to three per cent premium over domestic prices.
Meanwhile mills in southern India have resumed purchases of raw material from Gujarat after getting a quality assurance.
In December, mills in South India had temporarily suspended purchasing cotton from Gujarat due to increased instances of mixing cotton waste with cotton. Some mills in the coastal region resorted to imports from Ghana and Sudan, among others.
India is the world's top producer and the second largest exporter of cotton.
The sharp rise in domestic prices in November-December had forced Indian textile mills to source cheaper cotton available in west African countries.But now most mills in south India have resumed their purchases from Gujarat.
The textile industry in Pakistan is facing tough competition from regional competitors including Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China and India.
The interest rate for the textile industry in Pakistan is six per cent against 7.5 per cent in Indonesia, 6.5 per cent in Vietnam, six per cent in Sri Lanka, five per cent in Bangladesh, 4.6 per cent in China and 6.75 per cent in India. There is no investment promotion scheme in Pakistan, which is a common feature of the textile industry in all competing countries.
Pakistan’s share in world textile and clothing exports was 1.6 per cent in 2014 against 2.23 per cent in 2005.
The installed capacity utilisation is 95 per cent in Vietnam, Bangladesh and China, 90 per cent in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India but less than 70 per cent in Pakistan.
From 2011 to 2014 Indonesia registered a 0.43 billion dollar growth followed by 8 billion dollars in Vietnam, 0.75 billion dollars in Sri Lanka, six billion dollars in Bangladesh, 50 billion dollars in China and six billion dollars in India. But Pakistan showed a 0.5 billion dollar decrease.
Technology upgradation in India, China, Bangladesh and Vietnam is 100 per cent of looms with less than 10 years of age against 25 per cent in Pakistan and 22 per cent in Indonesia.
De-Brands, a new digital tool for the denim industry, is addressing the issue of shortage of time and money and help in quicker decision making. The web tool comes as an online fabric show, brought by denimsandjeans.com
Companies keep developing many fabrics and the time taken in arranging them to be sent to the right customers in the desired number of washes and looks is generally long. Often a customer may never get to see a fabric which a mill developed and which he may have wanted for the simple reason that the product was either not sent to him or the right washes or styles could not be sent due to physical limitations.
Often mills have beautiful fabrics which are lying down deep in the heap of the R&D department because the marketing department and the buyers are overwhelmed by many other developments and they themselves lose track of the developments that the company has done earlier.
On the other hand , buyers are looking for new and varied fabrics from mills around the world. However, given time, cost and physical limitations, it is not possible for them to see all the products which would interest them. It is not possible for buyers to explore too many suppliers at one time.
This digital tool aims at providing solutions to some of the predicaments buyers and suppliers face. It helps buyers to browse through denim products of five or more denim mills in over an hour and make a shortlist of the products that interest them.
Laser cutting is relevant to a large cross-section of apparel, accessories, footwear, and home furnishing manufacturers. Even within the category of apparel manufacturers, this technique encompasses a broad spectrum of applications—be it high-fashion women's or kids' wear or high-performance active wear.
Laser-cut designs are now showing up more often on mood boards and fashion ramps around the world.
Laser cutting is a value addition process. It is mostly carried out by dedicated service providers. Going beyond the archetypal georgettes, rayon, and poly blends, unconventional fabrics like denims and suede have entered into the space of laser cutting. Laser cutting felts and velvets is only at its initial stage, but it is still a major requirement with buyers for apparels, home furnishings, gift items, labels, and trims.
The market of laser cutting is expanding every day and this technology is being combined with several others to achieve a unique effect of its kind.
The time taken to furnish a design decides how much a laser-cut design will cost. The time taken is further influenced by the intricacy of the design and the material to be worked upon. For example, thicker fabrics like denim and suede are easy to handle, which brings down the cost, while sheer and fluid fabrics like silk and chiffon demand higher handling and time of operation, hence their higher cost.
