FW
Chinese clothing and yarn production giant Luthai Textile Company plans to make India the hub for its OTC (over the counter) business, as it explores more markets for high end luxury yarn around the world. The company manufactures spin yarn, yarn-dyed fabric and piece-dyed fabric, apart from its own range of high quality shirts, at its facility in Zibo, Shandong province.
Its dyed cotton fabrics are exported to 30 countries in North America, Europe and the Far East, and sold to leading fashion labels. The company, which has traditionally been involved in B2B (business-to-business) operations, will for the first time explore a B2C (business-to-consumer) domain. Since OTC is big business in India, Luthai has joined hands with fabric trading company Blue Blends to set up a subsidiary, Luthai India, from where it will sell its luxury yarn dyed supima cotton fabric.
Around eight distributors have been appointed in India, besides one each in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh through which the company will retail its products via 4,000 dealers. Luthai’s Zibo facility has a monthly capacity of manufacturing 17 million meters of yarn dyed fabric, besides seven million meters of piece dyed fabric and 1.7 million shirts. The company is also eyeing a manufacturing facility in India in future.
www.lttc.com.cn/e/about%20us.html
Fed up with financial losses due to the ongoing country-wide blockade, owners of textile factories in Bangladesh have decided to observe a seven-hour token hunger strike on February 14. The decision was taken at an emergency joint meeting organized by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) BKMEA and BTMA at BGMEA in Dhaka. The program will continue until 6:00 pm beginning from 11:00 am on the day in front of the BGMEA building in Dhaka.
President of Exporter Association Bangladesh (EAB), Abdus Salam Murshedy, former president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), Asif Ibrahim, and president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), Tapan Chowdhury, were present at the meeting attended by a large number of members.
Atiqul Islam, President, BGMEA, said that the sector had suffered a direct loss of Tk 6,710 crores in January due to the political deadlock. On the other hand, a discount of Tk 5,000 crores was made for delayed shipment at that time. He claimed garment orders worth Tk10,000 crores have been cancelled during this time.
Invista's Cordura brand has debuted its new fabrics for active lifestyles at the Winter Outdoor Retailer Show that took place in Salt Lake City, Utah, US. While durability will always remain at the core of Cordura’s fabric offerings many of its new brand adoptions showcase the fashionable, functional side of Cordura fabrics as well.
Cordura ballistic fabrics are targeted as bags, packs and luggage applications, based on Invista’s highest tenacity nylon 6,6 airbag technology fibers combined with a classic ballistic weave construction. Cordura’s canvas are fabrics based on an intimate blend of Invista’s T420 nylon 6,6 fiber with cotton offering durable, stylish options for outdoor urban apparel, including lightweight shirting fabrics.
Cordura combat wool fabrics include durable double face weaves with rugged nylon face and 100 per cent merino wool next-of-skin options. Also featured are stylish, sophisticated nylon or wool knits and wovens that combine both fashion and functionality.
Latest fabric innovations include, durable denims with thermoregulation functionality to enhance warmth or cooling properties when needed. These denim fabrics contain fibers with a cross-section that helps move moisture away from the body when the wearer is hot as well as hollow core fibers to help provide insulation for added comfort on colder days.
www.cordura.com/
Pakistan's new textile policy (2014-19) has not enthused the industry. One refrain is that the government has failed to ensure uninterrupted supply of utilities including power and gas under the new policy.
Stakeholders have urged authorities to review the policy and prioritise export sector with respect to provision of utilities as well as incorporating the industry's proposals to make them more competitive internationally. They further emphasise on the need to implement the policy in letter and spirit if the required targets are to be achieved including a 100 per cent increase in value addition over the next five years. Small and medium enterprises, which account for 97 per cent of the entire industry, say they have been totally ignored in the new policy.
The policy has come after a delay of over seven months and it has no aggressive marketing plans to attract foreign buyers. Schemes like a drawback of local taxes and levies announced in the new policy were also part of the previous policy.
Textile mills say there is no protection of raw material in the policy. They say the government must give more incentives with respect to subsidies and utilities to make it more competitive in the region.
The next edition of Yarn expo will be held in China from March 18 to 20, 2015. This is a fair for fiber and yarn products. There will be a bio fiber zone. This will promote the use of biochemical fibers. Biochemical fiber will be the next big product in China. Developing renewable materials is a major focus in the country’s 13th five-year plan that runs from 2016 to 2020.
Besides bio fiber zone, more renewable fibers from nine exhibitors can be found in the renewable and recycled zone. The products shown in the bio fiber zone are made have low energy consumption and carbon emission during production process. Several other special zones in the pavilion will showcase different innovative fibers and yarns. The cotton polyester fiber zone will feature newly developed super imitation cotton fibers that can be used in sportswear and denim fabrics. These products score in terms of moisture absorption, softness and pilling resistance.
Visitors can find carbon fibers, heat-resistant para-aramid fibers and polyamide fibers as well as other functional fibers which are flame retardant and odor eliminating. Other than synthetic fibers, overseas exhibitors will bring new collections of natural yarns to the fair. Exhibitors in the Indian Pavilion and the Pakistani zone will also display high count cotton yarn featuring advanced technologies.
Texworld USA showcased a record 280 exhibitors representing 18 countries from around the globe. The show saw 3,580 verified visitors representing 44 countries including the United States, Canada and Mexico. Featured pavilions included exhibitors from Taiwan and show partner Lenzing Innovation, covering 12 product categories offering buyers an extensive array of apparel textiles, accessories and finished goods.
Texworld USA is a vital apparel textile sourcing event for the North American market. It presented a sold out show floor and welcomed visitors from large brands such as Macy’s, Ralph Lauren, Nautica and Coach. The international apparel sourcing show was once again featured at the winter edition of Texworld USA providing visitors access to 82 suppliers for finished apparel representing 11 countries including the United States, Colombia, China, Peru and Portugal. This show is not only for garments, but fabric sourcing.
The trend forum gave color forecast and direction for Spring/Summer 2016 season. Four color stories were included: Subversive Analogy, Subtle Amorphia, Alter Echo and Inescapable Hazards. Visitors were also provided a trend book for future reference.
www.texworldusa.com/
Cambodia garment exports are up but its reports steep decline in percentage share. Cambodia’s garment exports increased around 4 percent year-on-year in 2014 to $5.75 billion, but its much less compared to the 20 per cent jump in the previous year. However, rise in exports is a positive sign since the industry was expecting a decline.
While the figures revealed by the Commerce Ministry’s import-export inspection department, did not break down exports by destination, most of the garment exports from Cambodia are to the US and Europe. Quarterly export figures started out strong last year but gradually slowed as the impact of falling orders from international brands began to hit factories. Many buyers started looking at other sourcing destinations after labour unrest over low wages that ended in military police killing few protesting workers.
According to a Kurt Salmon Global Sourcing Reference report, Cambodia is showing strong double-digit growth in six out of 10 product categories, but its market share remains relatively small. And CSR is not the only challenge for low-cost sourcing centers or those countries aspiring to be; many still lack the required infrastructure as well as the supply chain and production capabilities needed to offer volumes similar to those of China.
www.moc.gov.kh
The fourth conference by sustainable textiles company Bluesign Technologies will be held in Switzerland on July 13 and 14. For the first time, the conference is not invitation only. Bluesign has opened up registration for delegates throughout the textile production, chemicals, and supply chain management industries.
Bluesign is an emerging standard for environmental health and safety in manufacturing textiles. It provides independent auditing of textile mills, examining manufacturing processes from raw materials and energy inputs to water and air emissions outputs. Each component is assessed based on its eco toxicological impact. Bluesign ranks its audit findings in order of concern, and suggests ways to reduce consumption while recommending alternatives to harmful chemicals or processes where applicable.
Eco-aware consumers can feel confident purchasing clothing items with the Bluesign label that they are buying the most environmentally friendly, socially conscious version of the jacket, shirt, sweater, pants, hat or gloves in question. Given the push for greener products of every kind, Bluesign has gained serious traction in the last few years among some of the leading brands in the outdoor clothing and gear business.
Textile mills that commit to verifiably adopting Bluesign’s recommendations can attract business from a wide range of brands and retailers around the world looking for greener vendors.
www.bluesign.com/
The 13th edition of the Knit-Tech, a knitting technology trade fair organised by Hi-tech International Trade Fair under the India Trade Promotion Organisation concluded on February 9. More than 200 companies from India and abroad exhibited state-of-the-art machinery related to knitwear production which included circular knitting machines, dyeing and finishing machines, knit printing appliances, computerised flat knitting machines, yarn conditioning machines, sewing machines and fabric dyeing machines.
Apart from these, textile printing inks, air treatment solutions, spares of embroidery machines, knitting accessories, stripped fabrics, air compressors and needles used for production of hosiery items were also displayed. Since the exhibition was approved by the India Trade Promotion Organisation, foreign exhibitors were able to bring in instruments without paying import duty for display.
The organisers had also organised fashion shows and seminars to give value addition to the exhibition. A vintage apparel machinery museum was set up. It took visitors through a journey of transformation which apparel machinery has undergone in the last three centuries.
Some of the attractions at the museum included models of the 18th century Swiss Box Iron, which used a heated metal piece placed inside the hollow of the iron to press the fabrics without scorching the cloth, and a multi-system hosiery circular knitting machine used more than a century ago, paving the way for the production of high quality socks. A model of a power embroidery machine used during the Industrial Revolution was also a huge attraction.
Apparel imports from Vietnam to the US increased fastest compared to its counterparts in 2014, reveals data released by the Commerce Department’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA). For the entire year, the country gained the greatest share of US apparel imports, owing to currency fluctuations in China, which saw its dollar share of US apparel imports fall from over 37 percent in 2013 to 36 percent in 2014.
The value of total apparel imports increased 2.5 per cent in 2014 to $81.8 billion. Total unit volume, measured on a sq. mt. equivalent (SME) basis, increased by 3.3 percent, driving down the average cost per SME by 0.7 percent. Rise in apparel exports from Vietnam was clearly led by China’s loss last year due to rapidly rising labour costs that made many US apparel brands move sourcing requirements to lower cost countries.
China suffered the biggest share loss so far in 2014, dropping from 37.3 percent to 36.4 percent of total US apparel imports. Total apparel imports from China were $29.8 billion in 2014. Imports from China fell marginally in December to $2 billion from $2.1 billion in December 2013. November units from China (on an SME basis) were up slightly, to 773 SME, and rose 4 percent in the full-year period, to 10.8 billion.
Vietnam’s share of total US apparel imports grew from 10.1 percent of the total in 2013 to 11.3 percent in 2014, a 1.2 percentage point gain. Between 2012 and 2013, the country gained only .9 percentage points of share, and the year before that, .7 percentage points. In 2014, U.S. apparel imports from Vietnam totaled a record $9.2 billion, up 14 percent from 2013 and SMEs from Vietnam rose by 13.2 percent.
Otexa.ita.doc.gov
