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‘Denim - Democracy in Fashion,’ a conference organized by Diagonal Consulting India recently in Ahmedabad recently saw an in-depth presentation of the global denim market and trends by J Berrye Worsham, President & CEO, Cotton Inc. At the conference, denim stalwarts were in agreement that the market has never been as good as the present time. Fashion weeks across the world are highlighting denim as an important trend. In India, denim industry is on a growth trajectory, with many of the major players increasing capacities. Demand for denim apparel is growing the fastest among all apparel segments in the country, with denim fabric makers finding it difficult to keep pace with the demand.
Speaking on the occasion, P R Roy, Chairman, Diagonal Consulting in India said India has witnessed unbridled growth in denim production in the last couple of years. Today, India produces 1.2 billion meters of fabric, this could soon touch 1.5 billion meters. Sharing his experience, S N Modani, Managing Director, Sangam, said his company will reach a production capacity of 60 million metres by the end of 2016, with a strong focus on exports. In a discussion Worsham and Aamir Akhtar, CEO, Lifestyle Fabrics- Denim, Arvind Mills talked about the challenges that the industry faces in terms of consumer preferences: athleisure over denims, sizing and fit concerns in an aging US population, concerns over stretch recovery, the increasing use of manmade fibres in denim, and more. Worsham said the India’s domestic market could well amend any recessionary trend for producers, however, Akhtar, said while the market is growing fast, as it matures, growth will slow down. Moreover, the market is not totally insulated with factors like cotton, forex volatility etc at place. These do not keep a denim manufacturer in the comfort zone for long. The preference away from denim is visible, though to a lesser extent, in the Indian market. Eventually, manufacturers will need to look at innovations and varieties to attract consumers.
Thailand is promoting its textile and garment industry with a focus on added value. The garment and textile industry sees an opportunity to take the next step into high-tech garments.
With new investment in innovation, garment and textile businesses could shift to value-added textiles such as disinfected bed sheets for hospitals and scrubs for personnel. Japanese investors have expressed interest in producing textiles for medical use in Thailand and making the country a regional hub for innovative garments and medical equipment.
Apart from elevating the market, Thailand is also working with Sri Lanka to create new investment in the sector. Some garment companies from Sri Lanka visited Thailand to meet their counterparts and explore investment opportunities. Sri Lankan investors are seeking Thai partners to help expand their business in the country as they see strong potential for Thailand to be the center of Asean, where demand is seeing significant growth.
This year the value of Thailand’s garment exports is expected to grow by at least 10 per cent. Switching to innovative products would help the Thai garment industry enter the upper market which has fewer competitors and a higher added value. Competition at the lower market has intensified with countries that have the advantage of low labor costs, such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
The world's largest conference on sustainability in fashion, Copenhagen Fashion Summit will be held on May 12, 2016. The summit was first held in 2009 and again in spring 2012 and 2014. This year the fashion summit will attract international players from the fashion industry as well as experts, NGOs, opinion makers, media and politicians. It will hold discussions on the evolution of fashion industry in a world where new business models are required to tackle growing sustainability challenges facing the planet and its societies.
The theme of Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2016 is ‘Responsible Innovation’. Since major sustainability challenges face it, it is immensely important for the fashion industry to continuously develop and improve the way it functions and devise new solutions and business models.
With an emphasis on responsible innovation, Copenhagen Fashion Summit aims to be a catalyst for change. By gathering key players from the global fashion industry, who will share their knowledge and ideas on new and sustainable solutions, the hope is to inspire, motivate, and give tools to implement a sustainable mindset and create a brighter future for the fashion industry.
www.copenhagenfashionsummit.com/
Hong Kong and South Korea are jointly working to promote their fashion industries. Textiles will be given attention as they are the first step leading to the fashion industry. More emphasis is being placed on designer brands at the moment but company brands may also be promoted.
Both South Korea and Hong Kong have a strong tradition of manufacturing high quality fabrics. The fashion industries of both countries have the knowhow and experience to produce full lines and set the pace with worldwide fashion trends. Both are attracting a strong core of talented young people.
The joint effort will take responsibility for formulating policies, strategies and initiatives for the development of creative industries. Hong Kong designers will visit South Korea. It is believed these reciprocal trips will facilitate exchanges between the two countries. Cooperation with the Korean fashion industry will continue to increase.
The CEL Venture Complex is one of the latest projects for creative industries in Seoul. The Dongdaemun Design Plaza is the landmark of Korean fashion and design. Hong Kong has a variety of retail outlets--skyscraper malls and cubby-hole stalls, flagship stores and factory outlets, luxury chic and hip boutiques. Local designers such as Vivienne Tam, William Tang, Walter Ma and Lu Lu Cheung produce world-renowned creations.
Nandan Denim manufactures of superior grey cotton fabrics, khakis and denim plans to increase production capacity to 110 million meters per annum by the next quarter and become the country's largest denim producer. At present, it has a denim production capacity of 71 million meters per annum.
Out of a total capital outlay of Rs 612 crores for expansion, Nandan has already spent Rs 400 crores and the remaining Rs 212 crores will be spent in the next four or five months. The expansion program was funded through a debt of Rs 430 crores and internal accruals of Rs 180 crores. Besides denim, capacity, the company is also expanding its spinning and shirting segments. The company is increasing spinning capacity from 54 tons per day to 124 tons a day and yarn dyeing shirting capacity to 10 million meters.
The company exports denim fabric to over 28 countries. Exports will contribute about 30 per cent of the overall business in two years. Nandan Denim commenced operations in 1994 with the textile trading business and forayed into textile manufacturing in 2004. The company hopes to register a turnover of around Rs 1,400 crores in the financial year 2016-17.
www.nandandenim.com/
Proposed changes to Australia's wool selling system have been met with resistance from wool buyers and exporters. It is being discussed as government-and-grower-funded body Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) embarks on a restructure. Long-term AWI staff, including Jimmy Jackson and Rob Langtry, will leave the corporation in the middle of the year.
Review of the wool selling system began by AWI more than a year ago and considered dozens of submissions from wool growers and buyers. It says the aim is to modernise the system and reduce costs to wool growers, while also increasing transparency. AWI is consulting industry about the changes, and said it would bring together a panel of experts by May to drive the digital transformation. Further, a business case will be delivered to the AWI board by November 2016.
According to a wool buyer, Chris Kelly, from the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers said more than 90 per cent of buyers were against change. He said the current open-cry auction was already modern and based on pre-sale wool testing. Wool buyers and growers are also raising concerns about the loss of highly experienced wool industry stalwarts at AWI.
The recently concluded, first 2016 TEPP promotional campaign at ISPO MUNICH was a huge success and the next Taiwan Select will be held at SaigonTex from March 30 to April 2 at the Saigon Exhibition & Convention Center (SECC), in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. On display will be all kinds of textiles sample, including eco-textile, functional and fashion textiles, dyes, and trimmings from Taiwan exhibitors.
The TITAS 2015 saw 15 firms representing ‘Taiwan Textile Associations’. Each one is an integral, planned and coordinated part of the federation. TITAS is a leading trade show for innovation, function and fashion fabrics. The aim is to make textile shopping simplified and focused. Moreover, a program called TEPP (Taiwan Export Promotion Program) started as a four year marketing concept and is now in its 7th year. It brings unique Taiwan textiles and a broad collection of Taiwanese companies to the market. TEPP brings together diverse customers and suppliers together and augments the progress of many facets in the innovative, sustainable textile endeavors that make Taiwan the right place to be. Each year, TEPP grows in value and product diversity.
A subtle part of the value of Taiwan textile industry is its ease of access and communication, and the TTF will help make a business trip as efficient as possible.
The 2nd Global Geosynthetics Summit will be held May 19 to 20, 2016 in New Delhi, India. The summit will highlight the strong focus on infrastructure, which include roads and bridges, railways, and coastal and river protection. Through this program, it will address India’s ambitious infrastructure initiatives, related standards, gaps needing to be filled in regulation, and opportunities for geosynthetics.
The goals of the summit are: take stock of existing guidelines, code provisions, and accreditation processes for adopting geosynthetics in the event’s infrastructure sectors of focus; gather key stakeholders to deliberate on mechanisms for encouraging geosynthetics as an innovative solution; identify the hurdles faced by agencies in adopting geosynthetics solutions and how their concerns can be addressed; review available product specifications, design guidelines, existing publications and the extent of their implementation; discuss how available resources or new guidelines could mandate the implementation of geosynthetics in infrastructure; adapt international guidelines to Indian conditions; develop a larger accredited geosynthetics testing laboratory network in India; encourage life-cycle cost analysis method for evaluating the real economic cost of the project; assess carbon foot print of infrastructure projects; make use of geosynthetics mandatory for all road and railway projects to the extent of a minimum percentage of the total project costs among others.
The previous iteration of the summit was held in September 2014 with the theme ‘Enhancing the Application of Geosynthetics in Infrastructure.’
‘Denim - Democracy in Fashion,’ a conference organized by Diagonal Consulting India recently in Ahmedabad recently saw an in-depth presentation of the global denim market and trends by J Berrye Worsham, President & CEO, Cotton Inc. At the conference, denim stalwarts were in agreement that the market has never been as good as the present time. Fashion weeks across the world are highlighting denim as an important trend. In India, denim industry is on a growth trajectory, with many of the major players increasing capacities. Demand for denim apparel is growing the fastest among all apparel segments in the country, with denim fabric makers finding it difficult to keep pace with the demand.
Speaking on the occasion, P R Roy, Chairman, Diagonal Consulting in India said India has witnessed unbridled growth in denim production in the last couple of years. Today, India produces 1.2 billion meters of fabric, this could soon touch 1.5 billion meters. Sharing his experience, S N Modani, Managing Director, Sangam, said his company will reach a production capacity of 60 million metres by the end of 2016, with a strong focus on exports. In a discussion Worsham and Aamir Akhtar, CEO, Lifestyle Fabrics- Denim, Arvind Mills talked about the challenges that the industry faces in terms of consumer preferences: athleisure over denims, sizing and fit concerns in an aging US population, concerns over stretch recovery, the increasing use of manmade fibres in denim, and more. Worsham said the India’s domestic market could well amend any recessionary trend for producers, however, Akhtar, said while the market is growing fast, as it matures, growth will slow down. Moreover, the market is not totally insulated with factors like cotton, forex volatility etc at place. These do not keep a denim manufacturer in the comfort zone for long. The preference away from denim is visible, though to a lesser extent, in the Indian market. Eventually, manufacturers will need to look at innovations and varieties to attract consumers.
"The latest edition of Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics-Spring Edition took place against the backdrop of uncertainty in global textile markets – indeed, the economy was on everyone’s mind. And while some in the industry are feeling the impact of China’s slowdown, many international exhibitors at the fair reported little or no impact from the economic situation."
The latest edition of Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics-Spring Edition took place against the backdrop of uncertainty in global textile markets – indeed, the economy was on everyone’s mind. And while some in the industry are feeling the impact of China’s slowdown, many international exhibitors at the fair reported little or no impact from the economic situation.
Wendy Wen, Senior General Manager, Messe Frankfurt (HK) explained on Wendy Wen, Senior General Manager, Messe Frankfurt (HK) explainedthe final show day said they expected sentiment to be down somewhat this year but were pleasantly surprised by the relative optimism from exhibitors and buyers. “It is reasonable to say the industry in China is going through a period of change but it is far from in decline, with the development and growth of this fair over the last year a strong indicator of this. We need to keep things in perspective as well: with overall growth remaining above 6 per cent for the foreseeable future, this will still present many opportunities for overseas suppliers in China,” she said.
Optimistic buyers and exhibitors
As further proof that the industry is more resilient than assumed, particularly in China, the visitor figure raised once again, the third consecutive increase since the Spring edition’s move to Shanghai in 2014. The new record set was over 71,000 buyers (which includes buyers from the concurrent Yarn Expo, CHIC and PH Value fairs who also entered the Intertextile Shanghai halls), around 13 per cent increase compared to 2015 (62,649). Wen said they were not expecting such strong growth in buyer figures this year given the macroeconomic climate. However, more than 500 extra exhibitors (3,155 from 27 countries and regions) would have played a part in the increase.
Confident about the future
At the show across various product categories, exhibitors in the International Hall were cautious yet positive about the Chinese and global textile industry in the coming year. Explaining that their regular buyers had already placed orders and they had received many new enquiries as well, Jose Maria Loren from Spain’s Luca Cuccolini, an accessories supplier, commented that the economy will not affect the industry much. This exhibition is good to attract buyers not just from China, but also Asia, so it helps us to sell our products throughout the region, he opined.
French company, Malhia Kent was also optimistic about the future. “The high end of the market will always be resilient here; it’s slowed down recently but it’s not getting worse,” said Aris Arakelian, Commercial Manager. “We received one big order and a few others on the first day of the fair, and our turnover in China has been very good,” he added.
Buyers reiterated the sentiment of exhibitors. As Yuan Hui, a sourcing representative for Chinese apparel brand 15 Hours opined, mid to high range apparel market is the core of their business and is largely unaffected by the economy. Hui also appreciated the organisation of the exhibitors in country and product groupings that allowed him to easily source his target fabrics. “The fair gives me a comprehensive range of products for selection, so despite the size, I can find exactly what I’m looking for,” added Hui.
Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics-Spring Edition 2016 was held at Shanghai, China during March 16 to 18, 2016 and was co-organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Textile Information Centre.
