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Cotton futures finished with a triple-digit gain in spot December Friday, to close above highs of the previous five sessions. December settled up an even 100 points to 63.32 cents, its highest close since October 21, 2015 and near the high of the session’s 108-point range from 62.36 to 63.44 cents. It gained 56 points for the week and 288 points or 4.8 per cent for the month. March closed up 79 points to 63 cents.
Experts feel that concerns about the cumulative effects of rains on open cotton in the West Texas Plains may have contributed to the advance. Most of the Texas cotton remaining on the stalk is in the high and rolling plains. Volume increased to an estimated 25,600 lots from 22,457 lots the previous session when spreads accounted for 12,463 lots or 56 per cent, EFS 1,000 lots and EFP 70 lots. Options volume totalled 2,654 calls and 2,079 puts. Index fund rolling from December has begun, with the Goldman Sachs roll scheduled to begin next Friday. First notice day for December deliveries is November 23, 2015.
US upland cotton classing increased to 904,417 running bales during the week ended Thursday from 805,581 bales the previous week to boost the total for the season to 2,918,943 RB, compared with 3,900,444 RB a year ago, according to the latest USDA figures. The total amounted to about 23 per cent of USDAʼs upland crop estimate. Tenderable cotton improved to 59 per cent from 57.5 per cent the previous week and rose to 58.1 per cent for the season from 57.7 per cent. A year ago, 73.6 per cent classed for the season met tenderable standards.
Pima classing of 1,602 bales boosted the extra-long staple total for the season to 32,169 bales, down from 59,701 bales graded through the corresponding period last year. On the competitive-pricing front, the average of the five lowest-priced world growths for the Far East fell 123 points to 66.89 cents during the week ended Thursday, according to USDA calculations, while the lowest-quoted US cotton landed there slipped 110 points to 73.30 cents.
The spread thus narrowed 13 points to 6.41 cents. The adjusted world price for the program week ahead is 47.14 cents, down from this weekʼs 48.37 cents, USDA announced, resulting in the marketing loan gain rising to 4.86 cents from 3.63 cents. The fine count adjustment for qualities better than 31-3-35 is 96 points. Meanwhile, unfixed on-call positions based in December declined 808 lots to 12,705 on the mill side and 606 lots to 7,990 on the producer side last week, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.
The net call difference declined 202 lots to 4,715, which was 4.01 per cent of the declining December open interest. The unfixed mill position outweighed that of producers by a ratio of 1.59:1. Mills added 1,246 lots in March and producers added 165 lots. As reported by Dow Jones Newswires, trading in the Intercontinental Exchangeʼs new world cotton futures contract will begin Sunday night alongside its U.S. cotton No. 2 contract. The world contract will trade under the symbol WCT. An ICE announcement said the world contract is not likely to replace the US contract but will have a “smaller, complementary role.”
www.usda.gov
After tasting success in the international markets since 1970, Jayanita Exports launched Deco Window in 2008 to cater to the domestic market. Elaborating on the concept, Vaibhav Jain, CEO, Deco Window says, “The success of the company's products in international markets and prospects of the Indian market encouraged us to launch a brand of decorative curtain hardware collection. In the recent years not only have we cemented our position in the curtain hardware market, but also catered to the soft goods requirements such as curtains, tiebacks and cushions.”
Window solutions for Indian households
In collaboration with more than 600 stores spread all over the country, Deco Window offers wide range of window solutions for Indian homes. The range includes classic to modern profiles. Each piece is engineered for durability, functionality and aesthetics, together with state of the art hardware and custom and automation solutions. “Our commitment to provide ‘complete window solutions’ lies in our expertise to decorate your windows in an affordable and user‐friendly manner, meeting the highest quality standards,” avers Jain.
Window segment is one of the categories, the company enjoys maximum expertise and specialisation in. At the time of the brand launch, 70 per cent of its products revolved around windows and 30 per cent was home décor. So Deco Window was by default the first brand that wanted to be dedicated to the products it had expertise in. “So while designing the brand, we kept the complete window category in mind and that’s why our tag line says ‘complete window solution’. The second focus area was pricing because pricing has to be affordable for the customers. The third area was the quality and the specification since at that point in time, the market wasn’t that matured about product quality. So we wanted to set a benchmark for the best quality available,” asserts Jain.
Jain is not averse to competition since he feels that there are no brands in the market that are selling the same quality at the price offered by Deco Window. “If you say competition in Delhi or Mumbai, yes there are a couple of brands but when you look at competition across India, there are so many places one can venture into,” he states.
Sub-brands to cater to different segments
The company has divided its brands into three segments. Earlier it had Deco Window but now it has launched a brand called Deco Window Essential and would soon be launching a brand called Deco Window Tailor-made. Deco Window Essential is a brand which is one level below Deco Window in price and specification. Deco Window Tailor- made is a brand which is a level above Deco Window in terms of price and specification. “So by dividing our offering under three segments, we would be able to push the matured customers into Deco Window Tailor-made, upcoming customers into Deco Window and completely price conscious or less matured customers into Deco Window Essential. We want to cater to the every section of the society with differentiated brand services to suit their needs,” explains Jain.
One of the biggest challenges in the Indian market, according to Jain is that there is nothing standard about window size. Worldwide the height of the window is pretty good. “But when we look at the windows in India, they vary in sizes. So now we are coming up with program called customisation and make curtains according to the window dimension and size. People who cannot use standard products can customize the curtains according to the size of their windows. Right now the program is only limited to couple of stores. We are planning to expand this program to other stores in the coming years. By 2018, we expect about thousand stores across India and across all partner website and our website to follow this concept,” he informs.
The brand is available in 12 states. Now the company is looking at expanding its footprint all over the world under its own brand-name. Explaining, Jain says, “Targeting 120 per cent annual growth, we are looking at different levels of marketing, different levels of sales like you have mass retail, e-commerce, organised retail and we are also looking at creating partners in every society who would sell our products locally. We are branching into institutional sales like window requirement for hotel industry or other institutions like hostels, hospitals and offices.”
www.decowindow.in
After inaugurating the National Textile Conference-2015 (NTC) on ‘Make In India: Destination Textiles’ organised by The Textile Association (India), Textile Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar assured the attendees that he would look into the problems faced by the industry and advised the organisers to forward the outcome of the deliberations of two days conference.
The Textile Association (India) - Delhi had organised the ‘National Textile Conference – 2015’ on October 26 and 27, 2015 at PHD House, New Delhi. Sunaina Tomar, Jt. Secretary (Textiles) and Geeta Narain, Jt. Secretary (Textiles) were also present during the inaugural session. Industry leaders like Shekhar Agarwal, Vice Chairman, LNJ Bhilwara Group, V.K. Ladia, Founder Chairman, Shri Rajasthan Syntex Group, Sanjay Jain, Managing Director, TT Limited, Anil Jain, Managing Director, Jain Textile Industries, Shantanu Agarwal, Executive Director, BMD, VK Indrayan and several other industry professionals also attended the conference.
Tomar in her address focused on various issues faced by the textile industry that were subsequently taken up for discussion during the conference sessions. A panel discussion titled ‘Industry Speaks’ was organised, which saw Agarwal, Ladia, Jain, express their views. The panel discussion was moderated by Vikas Bhargava, Organising Secretary of NTC’15.
Closing ceremony on the second day witnessed SK Panda, Secretary Textiles as Chief Guest, who assured complete attention of the Government to the outcome of the conference. He emphasised on the optimised use of the Technology Up-gradation Fund. He also suggested the industry to utilise the funds and schemes launched by the various state governments. Kavita Gupta encouraged the industry to work on research and development to make newer products and also talked about the unique fabrics that India produced during its glorious history.
Ranbir K. Vij, the Chairman of the conference delivered the welcome address, while Anil Gupta, the Trustee of TA(I) Delhi and past president talked about TA(I)’s various functions and activities. Sudhish Aggarwala, President, TA(I)-Delhi in his address summarised the reasons for holding the conference, the situation faced by the textile industry today and its capability of contributing to wealth and employment generation and the vision of the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ campaign. Dignitaries such as RC Jain, Chairman, TT Limited, RP Soni, Chairman, Sangam Group Industries, Balwant Rai, S. K. Khandelia, President Sutluj Group were honored with lifetime achievement awards. Apart from this, scholarships worth INR 1,00,000 were also awarded to some meritorious students.
On the occasion, young designers from Fashion Department of the Amity University, Ginni Devi Girls College ( Modinagar) and TIT&S showcased their wearable designs that were modern yet inspired by India.
www.textileassociationindia.org
While companies around the world have been unveiling innovative textiles with the use of latest textile technology, experts feel that the trend has also made it extremely difficult for consumers to identify the fabric quality while shopping. They feel that it must be mandatory for the companies to use textile labelling for the consumers to make an informed choice.
Most of the countries around the world do have mandatory textile labelling policies. In Canada, for example, the Textile Labelling Act not only ensures complete label information on a wide range of textiles and textile products, but also provides specific provisions to protect consumers from misleading advertising. In the United States, on the other hand, the Federal Trade Commission enforces a similar law and in the United Kingdom, the Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations protect the interests of textile consumers.
While India also had a regulation in place mandating labelling of textiles, ignorance by the union government in 2007 made sure that no one bothered about it. The Textile (Consumer Protection) Regulation 1988 made label information mandatory on all textiles. This not only helped consumers make the right choice in respect of the fabric, but also protected them from misrepresentation on quality and manipulation of price at the retail level. The Regulation prohibited incorrect, misleading, illegible or spurious markings. However, in 2002, the consumer affairs ministry removed textiles made of silk, man-made cellulosic and non-cellulosic spun fibres and man-made cellulosic and non-cellulosic filament yarns.
Later another amendment to the Essential Commodities Act in 2006 (that came into effect from February 2007) removed cotton and woollen textiles too from the Act, which entirely put a full-stop to labelling requirement. However, experts are of the opinion, the law needs to be enforced in the country again for the benefit of the consumers.
Textilescommittee.nic.in
The Italian denim industry has triumphed at the second edition of the Global Denim Awards in Amsterdam. A jury of international denim experts selected Sartoria Diletto and Italian mill Candiani Denim as the winning collaboration for this year’s best collection.
Over 750 denim professionals from around the globe were present at the runway show, while eight selected designers were linked to eight denim mills to showcase capsule collections. The teams combined their combined craftsmanship, original designs, and denim innovation.
Denim mill Berto Industria Tessile won the honorary best fabric award as a recognition for its innovative denim fabrics. Mariette Hoitink of HTNK Fashion Recruitment & Consultancy expressed the uniqueness of having the world of denim, which included visitors from Japan, Colombia, India, United States and many other countries– gathering together to preview the future of denim.
The winning collection will be exhibited during the Kingpins shows in Amsterdam, New York and Hong Kong as well as during Amsterdam Denim Days. The collections were judged by an international jury of denim industry experts comprising Pierre Morisset (head designer of G-Star RAW), Menno van Meurs (co-founder of Red Wing Shoes Amsterdam and Tenue de Nîmes), Amy Leverton (author of the book Denim Dudes) and Adriano Goldschmied (denim expert and founder of Diesel, Replay and Gap 1969 and founder of Goldsign). Unique design, innovation, craftsmanship and sustainability were the key factors behind selecting the winning capsule collection.
Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nike, the best-selling sportswear brand in China’s saw sales grow 30 percent for the three months ending August from the previous year. Similarly, Anta Sports Products, the largest local player, clocked a 24 percent y-o-y rise in sales during the first half of the year, while its smaller peer, Xtep International garnered 12 percent.
Now, more Chinese consumers are paying attention to health and sports. According to CLSA, between 2011 and 2014, the number of marathons and marathon participants has more than doubled. Morgan Stanley reports that there were more viewers a game for basketball as the Chinese Basketball Association’s finals saw 50 percent rise this year than the last. Besides, China even won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Around the time China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, sportswear sales were booming. However, this quickly turned into a bust for sportswear makers because they over-invested, thus they in 20132 and 2013 they closed stores. According to HSBC, the store count today is 18 percent below its 2011 peak for six Hong Kong-listed sportswear firms. Even the small, unlisted players shut shop.
However, a combination of fresh demand and disciplined supply has again led to a rise in sales and profit. Xtep, for example is upgrading to higher-margin footwear in which consumers can actually run marathons, compared to shoes earlier, which only looked sporty. As per Morgan Stanley, since petrochemicals make up roughly a quarter of raw-material costs, low oil prices too help. Consumers in China now are showing an interest in sports by not just watching them, but playing them too, which is a great opportunity for investors.
Pakistan has introduced some measures for improving the textile industry. These include: imposition of 10 per cent regulatory duty on the import of yarn and fabric, especially from India, provision of long term financing to the ginning and spinning sectors and a reduction in long term financing and export financing by one per cent.
Yarn rates have risen only slightly in the domestic market but the off take remains mostly low. Thus only moderate enquiries for yarns are being received by mills. There are reports that considerable quantities of seed cotton from Sindh are being sold in Punjab due to the higher rates there.
Though yarn prices have increased moderately, cotton prices have risen further this week. Cotton rates have gone up because mills desire to produce a higher quality of yarns and textile products for the export market.
In Karachi nearly 1.4 million bales during the current season have been booked for imports till now and may total about 2.5 million bales during the current season. Quality damage has also been reported in the current domestic crop leading mills to go for imported cottons.
Domestic mills have also reportedly covered more cotton recently due to problems of lower quality of lint which may persist in the local cotton for the remainder of the season.
Messe Frankfurt (HK)’s Senior General Manager, Wendy Wen, said, “While this has been our biggest autumn edition to date in terms of the number of exhibitors, what has been more pleasing is the success, fair participants have had over the three days. The increase in internationalism of exhibitors and buyers has benefited both groups, while the country pavilions and product zones, most of which grew in size this year, have proved a great success in terms of facilitating business, and have also helped to provide a focus to the fair as it grows bigger.”
Specialised country pavilions and product zones
A lot of efforts were taken by the organisers to ensure that, as the fair expands in size, exhibitors and buyers can still do business effectively and efficiently. “This year the fair featured 11 country and region pavilions, 11 group pavilions and six product zones which created an impression of having smaller, specialised fairs under one roof, which really benefited both exhibitors and buyers,” Wen explained.
Exhibitors such as Lanificio F.lli Cerruti in Italy’s Milano Unica Pavilion were just one of those to profit from this. “It’s important to have the Milano Unica Pavilion as being here is really good for our brand image,” Daniele Sanzeni, CEO and Managing Director explained, adding, “The buyers coming here already know our brand and know that we provide top quality products, and are more willing to purchase here. The visitor flow of the first two days was incredible, and we met a lot of customers not only from China, but also from overseas including Japan, Korea, Thailand and the Middle East.”
The advantages of these areas got extended to buyers too. As Domenic Colaianni, Product Developer at Berkeley Apparel from Australia said, “The pavilions and product zones benefit us as instead of going to Europe we come here to select our fabrics, either at the European pavilions or from Chinese mills, so we can do both here. It gives us a variety of styles, products and fabric choices to choose from.”
Global touch attracts exhibitors and buyers
As the fair has developed over the years, it has increasingly become a meeting point for the global industry, rather than just the Chinese market, this was felt strongly by many of this year’s participants. “I found many good international and local brands that I might consider working with. It is just the first day, but I have already placed orders with Korean and Chinese companies,” Michel Baron, from Kazar Trade Co, Brazil said.
Taiwanese exhibitor Far Eastern New Century Corp’s Eric Hu, President, Textile Industry said, “Intertextile is an international fair for sure. The visitor flow has been fantastic, and on the second day we met customers from Switzerland, India, the UK and the US, just from half an hour of my observation.”
Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Autumn Edition 2015 was co-organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK); the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Textile Information Centre.
Milano Unica World concluded its cycle for 2015 following the success of the Shanghai VIII edition. Numerous projects for New Year are already in the making, increasing the spotlight on Milano Unica exhibitors. New textile/accessories trends will provide inspiration and substance to the production and serve as guidelines for designers regarding fabric choices. Meanwhile, the organisers say that a sort of synergy has developed between supply and demand, transforming matter and then consolidating it into shape.
“It is the law of elective visions that links the northern and southern parts of the world, making up the DNA of the S/S ‘17 trends” explains Stefano Fadda, Art Director of Milano Unica.
Trend research remains fundamental for Ercole Botto Poala, new President of Milano Unica, who says, “Despite social influence that winks to seasonless and genderless, colour and fabric trends, blend and research inspiration and important events that inspire collections, have always and will always exist.”
Firms are often influenced by the rapid and superficial rhythm of production, while the concept that only a profound creative process can invent solid and long-lasting ideas for the future remains constant. “Ideas are consolidated in the Trend Area of Milano Unica, an essential section in the heart of the tradeshow, where economic and creative efforts are formulated to provide clients with optimum service,” asserts Massimo Mosiello, General Manager of Milano Unica.
Four themes are proposed which can either coexist in one unique, intricate interpretation or evolve separately with the aim of satisfying creative and business demands for all sector operators. They are - Abyss - Depth as an inspiration, Nature and Artifice - A mosaic of real and artificial geometric landscapes, Africa Punk - Primitive and natural urban fabric and Pycho Bit - A hallucinatory trip into arithmetic progression.
www.milanounica.it
Mimaki a leading manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers and cutting machines for the graphics, textile, apparel and industrial markets has come out with a new direct-to-textile inkjet printer, the TX 300P-1800. Mimaki offers wide format printers, large format printers, cutting plotters.
The latest printer is designed to meet the demand for smaller lot sizes, faster delivery times and the ability to quickly produce samples. It is available with a variety of ink types.
The eight-color inkjet printer features a new print head that ejects ink droplets at high speed to ensure accurate ink droplet placement with a high head gap. This makes the printer ideal for printing high quality images on all types of fabrics, including thicker and textured materials. It has been made to suit the distributed model of textile printing.
Other features include print speeds that are more than twice as fast as those of a conventional printer; stable textile transport that maintains optimum tension; a choice of sublimation dye, disperse dye, pigment, reactive dye and acid dye inks to meet a wide range of application needs; uninterrupted printing with automatic detection and cleaning of clogged nozzles; and the production of large, seamless patterns from a single image.
eng.mimaki.co.jp/
