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A new activator developed by Chinese researchers for hydrogen peroxide used to bleach cotton fabrics halves the amount of energy needed for the process. Traditional cotton bleaching techniques used in industry require temperatures in excess of 98°C and high alkalinity to produce the desired whiteness. The process uses large amounts of energy, degrades the cotton fabric so it loses weight and thickness and produces waste water with a high chemical oxygen component.
The team used a spectrophotometer to measure the whiteness index of the cotton treated with its method and found that it was comparable to that of cotton bleached using the traditional method. The cotton loses less weight during the new process, and retains some of its natural waxes, resulting in a softer fabric. The fabric can be dyed to virtually the same color depth as fabric bleached traditionally. The process not only uses less energy, but saves time in water heating, and uses less water, as the traditional process has an extra cooling step.
The only downside of the process is that more hydrogen peroxide is needed than in traditional methods to ensure the same rate of oxidative reactions at the lower temperature. However, this does not significantly affect the strength of the fabric.
Pakistan's exports of readymade garments increased by 9.36 per cent for the first time in Q3 of this year as compared to the same period last year. The readymade garment industry has emerged an important small scale industry as its products have a large demand both at home and abroad.
The local requirements of readymade garments are almost met by this industry. The garment industry is also a good source of employment to a large number of people at a low capital investment. The industry mainly uses locally produced raw materials. Most of the manufacturing machines used by this industry are imported or locally made and assembled.
Production of garments depends on export orders. These orders have somewhat risen in terms of value, but have been fluctuating widely in terms of quantity. One problem is that while the European Union has opened up its markets to duty-free imports from Pakistan, the country’s garment industry is not really able to grab the opportunity. Garment manufacturers claim the government’s restrictive import policies are blocking access to new raw materials, which they require to diversify their product lines to take full advantage of the duty-free access.
Americhem will lead a technical seminar on color and performance additives for specialty fibers at ITMA Asia + CITME from June 16 to June 20 in Shanghai, China. Americhem is a leading provider of custom color and additive solutions for synthetic fibers. It will demonstrate more light stable pigments for outdoor use. These products are also excellent for automotive upholstery, including colors that easily hide yellowing of recycled PET. There will also be a discussion of additives that enhance product performance, including flame retardants, antimicrobials and UV stabilisers.
Americhem will also display custom colors and additives designed for use in many high-performance textile applications. While promoting the company’s theme of ‘Living a Green & Colorful Life’, Americhem will display solution-dyed products in three key categories: awnings and outdoor fabrics, automotive fabrics and high performance apparel.
Americhem manufactures custom color and additive solutions for polymeric products. The company’s products include custom color and additive master batches, single pigment dispersion, high-performance blacks and whites, and custom compounding solutions. It serves nonwovens, turf, textiles, and carpet synthetic fiber markets and building products, transportation, packaging and containers, engineered materials, film and sheet, and other specialties markets. The company was founded in 1941 and is based in Ohio.
People need no longer worry about soaking wet trunks after emerging from a swim. A Toronto-based entrepreneur has come up with a range of swim trunks made from hydrophobic material -- a fabric that repels water. It looks like ordinary swimwear from the outside, but when it is covered in liquid, the garment instantly repels water.
It’s a polyester-blend hydrophobic nanomaterial technology. The technology is thought to work by bonding billions of nanoparticles to individual fibers on a microscopic level. When water-based liquids hit the surface of this material they form a 150-degree sphere and roll off. This fabric has proven to drastically reduce dry-times by up to 95 per cent in contrast to regular 100 per cent polyester swim shorts.
Similarly a student has invented a T-shirt that is impossible to stain. The top can resist any spills and splashes including Coca-Cola, tomato ketchup, mustard, milkshakes, beer, ink and even red wine. The clothing is made from polyester, which has been infused with a combination of chemicals that makes it resistant to water.
The fabric is layered with billions of silica particles. Water-based liquids will form a 150 degree sphere and roll right off. Most liquid molecules will not be able to touch the fabric because of a microscopic layer of air that forms between the liquid and the fabric.
The 13th edition of Maredimoda will be held from November 11 to 13 in Cannes. This is an international trade fair dedicated to lingerie and beachwear textiles and accessories. Nearly 100 exhibitors, representing the highest quality standards of Made in Europe in terms of creativity, research, quality and reliability would be in attendance.
Maredimoda acts as a bridge between the world of semi-finished products and garment-making and the world of outsourcing. By connecting the two worlds it offers retailers a top-class supply chain that represents a quality trademark.
Maredimoda is the top event for beachwear and lingerie fabrics and accessories boasting the presence of international exhibitors and visitors whose numbers continue to grow year after year. As a result, it is a key event for professionals in terms of contacts, exchanges and business, old and new. The event stresses on European quality and excellence. It focuses on traceability in the production chain, consumer protection, European creativity promotion and defense of the European textile culture.
The 2016 summer collections by most qualified European companies will be playing a starring role and will be supported by a delegation of fast-fashion garment makers from the Euro-Mediterranean area.
Apparel giant Gap has become the first leading US retailer to source garments produced in Myanmar. Myanmar now expects more international investments to follow. The San Francisco-based company placed an order earlier this year for jackets and vests to be made at two factories in Yangon, for its Old Navy and Banana Republic Factory brands. The range will be shipped to the United States in June and available for sale in stores later this summer.
After consulting with US Customs and conducting two focus groups, the garments manufactured in Yangon region will carry ‘Made in Myanmar (Burma)’ tags. Though the American company has not directly invested in Myanmar, it will source from factories owned by a South Korean company. The company is keen to pursue its sourcing needs as the manufacturing industry in Myanmar matures.
Gap is the first high-profile entry into Myanmar’s garment industry since reforms under taken by President U Thein Sein encouraged the US and the EU to ease sanctions. Through the 1990s and early 2000s the garment industry was one of the Myanmar’s fastest-growing sectors and one of the major employment generation industries. From 1990 to 2001 garment exports grew 69-fold and by 2000 accounted for 39.5 per cent of Myanmar’s total exports, up from just 2.5pc a decade earlier.
In 2013 export revenues hit nearly $1 billion, according to the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA), the industry’s largest trade organisation and employment in the industry has jumped from 80,000 people to 250,000 over the past three to four years. The number of garment factories has also grown to more than 200, up from 181 in November 2012, according to MGMA numbers. The group has forecast that exports for the 2013-14 fiscal year could hit 1.5 billion dollars.
Five new denim factories will open in Bangladesh within a year. Bangladesh exports denim fabrics and denim-made garments worth more than $600 million a year. Currently, the number of denim factories in the country is 25 and they produce 20 million yards of fabrics a month. Bangladesh is the second largest denim exporter to Europe and the third largest to the US.
Bangladesh Denim Expo will be held November 11 to 12. The first such denim show was held in March, where 11 foreign companies participated. For the November expo, participants from Italy, Turkey, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are expected. There will be 30 stalls for domestic and international exhibitors. World famous designers will participate while seminars on latest denim technologies will be held on the sidelines.
The expo aims to make Bangladesh the largest denim exporter globally. It is performing below its capacity due to domestic problems while neighboring countries are bagging higher orders. The country will go for high-end denim products to grab a bigger market share. Raw material is a problem. Bangladesh produces only 40 per cent of the denim fabrics it needs. The rest is met through imports.
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With labour and production costs on the rise, the Chinese clothing industry is set to suffer along with its export growth. Increasing production costs is forcing many western apparel brands and retailers divert their sourcing needs from the country to other sourcing destinations. On the other hand, the Chinese government is pursuing a policy of encouraging growth in the domestic clothing market in order to take up slack in its manufacturing sector caused by this apparent loss in competitiveness.
The rise in costs is due to an increase in fuel and shipping costs. Also, wage rates have risen to the point where they are higher than in many other Asian countries. Moreover, wage costs are set to increase further, given the Chinese government's commitment to raising minimum wage rates by an average of 13 per cent, per annum during 2011-15.
The recent shift in apparel manufacturing is evident in the import figures of EU and US clothing trends. In 2013 China's share of EU clothing imports from all sources in value terms fell from 41.7 per cent to 40.1 per cent, having fallen sharply in the previous year. China's share of US clothing imports from all sources fell from 37.8 per cent to 37.3 per cent. In most cases, the companies which are cutting back on having their apparel produced in China are relocating manufacturing processes to other low cost countries in Asia.
One of the biggest opportunities in Chinese retailing lies in e-commerce. This is expanding rapidly in western markets and Japan. Online stores have already been established in China by Burberry, Cherokee, Coach, Hugo Boss, Kering, Levi's, Neiman Marcus, Uniqlo and Zara, to name only a few.
One of the major trends in the global textile machinery market is the growing number of technological innovations. For example, knitting machines with reduced environmental impact have been in huge demand in Europe for the past few years. This demand has been driven by the number of environmental pollution control norms implemented in recent years. Also, various machines have been developed with higher output efficiency compared to the older and more traditional machines. The emergence of these innovations is a major trend that could have a positive impact on the market over the next few years.
According to a report by Sandler Research, the global textile machinery market will grow at a CAGR 14.02 per cent over 2013-18. One of the major drivers in this market is the growth in the automotive and residential construction industries as textiles are mainly used in the manufacture of upholstery in homes and vehicles.
It can be divided into four segments: spinning machinery, weaving machinery, texturing machinery, and knitting machinery. The report has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers Asia, Europe, and the ROW; and the global textile machinery market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years.
Garment exports from Thailand saw a slump to most major markets in the first quarter of the year. This shows how much damage the ongoing political unrest in the country has caused. Exports edged up just 0.73 per cent in the three months from January to March. But shipments in March declined 2.24 per cent in comparison with the same period last year.
The US remained the biggest export market in the three-month period, accounting for 34 per cent of the total. But exports fell 3.6 per cent on the year before. Likewise, exports to the EU and ASEAN regions saw negative growth of 6.1 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively. However, exports to Japan, Thailand’s third largest customer, rose by 6.94 per cent.
In addition, the country's textile shipments fell 2.43 per cent during the January to March period. Thai garment makers face a problem apart from the unrest in their country. Their country lost access to the EU when it was removed from the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). Thailand was deemed too wealthy to be included in the program. GSP grants low or duty-free access to EU markets for many developing countries.
