FW
According to Walmart, about 10 of more than six dozen Bangladesh garment factories failed their safety checks in audits it commissioned. The retailer hired Bureau Veritas to check some 200 factories it uses in Bangladesh after the April collapse of Rana Plaza building which killed more than 1,100 people and highlighted often grim conditions in the country's garment industry.
About 75 factories have been audited so far and Walmart said it will release the results for other factories as the inspections are completed. It said factories that failed audits have since made improvements.
Bangladeshi garment makers employ millions of people, mostly women, but safety has been an afterthought amid pressure to fill orders, while enforcement of labour rights and building safety codes is compromised by corruption and thin government resources.
In the aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster, major European clothing retailers signed up to a system of factory inspections in conjunction with labour and activist groups. Recently garment factory owners agreed to a 77 per cent increase in the minimum wage for new unskilled garment workers to Taka 5,300 ($66) a month after Bangladesh's prime minister stepped in to resolve four days of violent clashes over wages.
Bangladesh’s ready-made garment makers are planning to start negotiations with international buyers on enhancement of prices of apparel products. They feel the rise will help the industry implement the proposed new wage structure for workers at factories. Buyers have apparently expressed their willingness to raise apparel product prices by 5 per cent from the existing level, following a 77 per cent pay hike proposed by the wage board.
Buyers’ representatives will be invited to Dhaka this month to discuss ongoing issues. Big factories are able to ensure the enhanced wages, but it will be difficult for small and medium-category units, which mainly depend on buying houses or sub-contracts. Unless buyers or retailers increase the prices of apparel products in line with the wage hike, it would be difficult for many garment factories to properly implement the enhanced wages.
The problem is buyers are very eager about safety measures, including those involving fire and building structures, and also on increasing wages, but their response with regard to raising apparel products’ prices is very slow.
Despite political turmoil, industrial accidents, buyers are placing orders in Bangladesh only because of the competitive rate and quality products. But they have options other than Bangladesh like India, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Mayer has launched HPI (High Productive Interlock) version of its D4-2.2 II machine. The machine is reported to be selling well in India and Turkey, with one buyer in India recently ordering 12 machines. Mayer is a leading circular knitting machine maker from Germany.
The D4-2.2 II produces around 330 kg per day at a 135 gsm fabric weight. It has everything it takes for optimum knitting quality. The D4-2.2 II is basically a 2.2 feeder per inch machine which is suitable for producing high quality rib, interlock and other structures with up to 4 needle tracks in the cylinder and two in the dial. With a conversion kit it is possible to convert the machine into a 4.4 feeder interlock machine. Scope for extension to up to 4 needle tracks lends it an outstanding degree of flexibility.
With all the possibilities opened up by 4 needle tracks, the D4-2.2 II is capable of knitting the whole range of popular double jersey interlock and rib structures. The cylinder and dial can be quickly and reliably removed and exchanged with the company’s Quick Change system.
The machine is equipped with full ceramic yarn carriers and the same needles as Mayer’s OV 3.2 QC, a leading 8-lock machine. Application areas for the D4-2.2 II include outerwear, sport and leisure, technical textiles, underwear and nightwear. Knittable structures include interloop, interlook structure, rib structure and spacer.
www.mayerandcie.com/de/
Following the fatal factory accidents and labour unrest in Bangladesh, a government-appointed panel recommended raising the minimum wage in garment industry. Legal minimum wage for a Bangladeshi garment worker has been increased by 77 per cent to Tk 5,300 or $68. The tripartite board announced this recently amid opposition of the owners' representative. Unions had demanded the minimum wage, be more than doubled to 8,000 taka a month. A six-member committee of government officials, garment manufacturers and union leaders proposed an increase in the minimum pay to 5,300 taka ($68) a month, from the current 3,000 taka.
The wage board's proposal now heads to Bangladesh's Labor Ministry, which must approve it before an increase takes effect. Mikail Shiper, Bangladesh's secretary of labour said there was room for further discussion between factory owners and factory workers.
Exporters also point out that the taka has gained against the US. Dollar and it is currently trading at 77 to the dollar, up from 84 in January, weakening Bangladesh's competitive advantage compared with rivals such as India, where the rupee has fallen sharply. Bangladesh's largest apparel importer, the EU, has also threatened to revoke its preferential treatment of imports from the country if factory working conditions aren't improved. Factory owners, who oppose the increase, say they can't afford to pay significantly more to workers because western consumers have become accustomed to cheap clothing.
Messe Frankfurt has taken up restructuring process of the Texprocess trade fair. Now it has been transferred to ‘Textiles & Textile Technologies’ division from the ‘Technology & Production’. Both Techtextil and Texprocess will remain independent brands, however, the responsibility of the Texprocess brand will now be assumed by Michael Jänecke, who has been in charge of the Techtextil brand since 1993.
Texprocess fair has been held successfully at Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre since 2011. The last edition in June 2013 attracted 330 exhibitors and over 12,100 visitors, an increase of four and 16 per cent respectively over the previous event. Additionally, more than 8,100 visitors from the concurrent Techtextil came to see the range of products and services on offer at Texprocess. Altogether, both the events witnessed 1,652 exhibitors and 40,000 international trade visitors.
The next Texprocess will be held in Frankfurt am Main from May 4 to 7, 2015 concurrently with Techtextil event. The next Texprocess Americas will take place in Atlanta from May 13 to 15, 2014 and run parallel to Techtextil North America.
www.messefrankfurt.com.hk
Owing to the reforms implemented by President Islam Karimov, the Fergana province in eastern Uzbekistan is developing as a textile cluster. Production and exports from the region has risen. The Fergana province is putting in efforts to attract foreign investments by modernising its industries and creating favourable conditions, which has led to a rise in industrial production by about 7.9 per cent over last year. In all, 380 new production facilities have been commissioned in various sectors, including the light industry, in the framework of the government’s policy.
At present, there are 117 enterprises in the Fergana region which have been set up in collaboration with foreign investors. This include a joint venture Indorama Kokand Textile in Kokand city, which has an annual capacity to produce 7,000 tons of high-quality yarn, which is then exported to over 10 countries, including Bangladesh, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Brazil and Argentina. Textile enterprises like the Fargona Turon Textiles, Bulut Tekstil, Margilon Osie Tex and Besharik Tekstil have been reporting more than projected export quantities in the last few months.
Readymade garment (RMG) owners in Bangladesh have tagged three demands with the implementation of the wage board's proposed minimum wage structure for garment workers. The demands are: re-fixation of source tax at 0.2 per cent, introduction of a 3.0 per cent cash incentive to traditional markets like EU, US and Canada and a special exchange rate against US dollar for readymade garment exports.
The leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) raised the demands in a meeting with the labour minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju.
BGMEA President Atiqul Islam and other office bearers, former presidents Abdus Salam Murshedy, Annisul Huq, former vice president Siddiqur Rahman, BKMEA President AKM Salim Osman and office bearers, among others, were present at the meeting. The apparel owners put forward their conditional demands for enhancing the industry's affordability to implement the new wage structure under review.
Italian sock knitting machine producer Busi Giovanni has established a marketing and commercial partnership with Filmar a leading Italian cotton yarn spinner based in the Brescia area of Lombardy near to Busi’s own manufacturing facility.
Filmar produces high quality cotton yarns based on the best qualities of cotton grown along the Nile valley of Egypt in its own production facilities in Alexandria. The processes carried out in both of the company’s plants are oriented to achieving excellent quality in finished products.
The main aim of the partnership is sharing of sales leads and the systematic reciprocal recommendation of services provided by the partner company to all common stakeholders worldwide. Under the new partnership Busi is trying to establish a network of non-competing companies with similar business objectives. Michele Castagna, Marketing Manager at Busi comments, “This might be the first step for a project with greater extent, as we are trying to create a network of companies, all belonging to the same hosiery industrial sector and never in competition with each other, with the aim of providing highly reliable products and services to any sock mills in the world researching superior quality productions.”
Since 1958, Busi Giovanni Srl has specialized in the design and construction of single-cylinder machines with rib needles in the dial for the production of high-quality stockings, socks and tights. Today, Busi is recognized worldwide as one of the most inventive producers of machines for high-performance and high-tech socks.
With fluctuating global cotton prices, a drop in consumer spending due to economic slowdown and high inflation, research agency IBISWorld has updated its report on the Global Apparel Manufacturing industry. The study is however optimistic that increasing population and disposable incomes will push up growth of the industry in the next five years.
The report says, after several years of strong revenue growth, the global apparel manufacturing industry suffered weak demand conditions in 2009. As recession hit, demand for high-priced apparels declined in Europe, the US and Japan. While demand for apparels in emerging markets, such as China, continued to grow during this period, it did little to buffer the industry from the effects of the global recession. As a result, revenue dropped 13.8 per cent in 2009 and has declined at an annualized rate of 0.2 per cent over the five years to 2013. IBISWorld estimates that industry revenue will total $577.5 billion (Rs 36,52,110 crores) by the end of the year.
The report suggests that imports are expected to account for 76.2 per cent of demand and exports are expected to account for 75.4 per cent of industry revenue in 2013. Industry participants are continuously shifting manufacturing operations to low-wage countries or sourcing their products from independent contractors to minimize costs. China is the world's primary source of apparels, it accounts for 38.0 per cent of total industry exports. Other emerging countries, including India and Bangladesh, are growing their presence as key manufacturing regions.
www.ibisworld.com
China's decision to import yarn in bulk may elevate cotton prices internationally, a phenomenon anxiously awaited by Pakistan’s cotton farmers selling their stocks on an average basis prices ranging between Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,100 in Sindh and Punjab. China’s cotton production for 2013-14 is estimated at 6.70 million tons as against 7.3 million tons recorded in 2012-13, a decline of 8 per cent. While consumption shows a fall of 3 per cent, it was estimated at 8.04 million tons in 2013-14 as against 8.29 million tons in previous year. Imports by China are estimated at 3.18 million tons in 2013-14 as against 4.43 million tons in 2012-13.
According to the Cotton Review of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, under the Textile Division of Ministry of Commerce, Sindh has reaped more than 70 per cent of the assessed cotton crop for the year 2013-14. Farmers seem satisfied in terms of Phutti prices. In the meantime, declining trend in international prices has affected seed cotton prices in Pakistan.
Pakistan is likely to produce 11.958 million bales for 2013-14. Production in Punjab stays around 8.70 million bales, followed by 3.150 million bales in Sindh, 0.000433 million bales in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 0.108 million bales in Balochistan.
