FW
For 2015 the US cotton crop is projected at 18 per cent below the 2014 crop. During the previous two decades, the October estimate has been below final cotton production 11 times and above it 8 times.
Upland cotton production is forecast to decrease in each of the cotton belt regions this season. In the southwest, the upland crop is estimated at six million bales. Beneficial rainfall at planting time has reduced expected abandonment to only six per cent, the lowest in five seasons.
In the southeast, the 2015 cotton crop is forecast at 4.3 million bales, the lowest in six seasons as reduced area accounted for most of the decline. Past differences between the October estimate and final production indicate that chances are two out of three that the 2015 US upland cotton crop will range between 12.2 and 13.5 million bales.
US upland cotton crop is forecast at 12.9 million bales, below both last season and the five-year average. Total 2015 US cotton harvested area is estimated at nearly 8.2 million acres, compared with 9.3 million acres last season, and national yield is forecast at 784 pounds per harvested acre. In the Delta, the cotton crop is projected at 2.2 million bales, the lowest since 1983.
Eclat Textile, a major Taiwanese technology-based textile company, which is a fabric producer of professional functional and flexible knitwear and apparel manufacturer, is to enhance its production capacity in Vietnam, to gain benefits from Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact.
The company, which has clients such Nike and Adidas is to invest $50.5 million to upgrade two factories. Of this, $40 million will go to a factory in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province and $10.5 million to a plant in Dong Nai province and construction will begin early next year. The expanded capacity will top 5 million pieces of clothing per month.
To obtain maximum yield to satisfy customer demands, Eclat uses the most professional manpower, has the swiftest response and most competitive cost.
The first garment factory was opened by Eclat Textile Co., Ltd (Vietnam), in 2005 in Vietnam. The company has three garment factories in Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding area and it opened its own fabric mill in Ho Chi Minh City in 2008.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which has been done by 11 countries and Vietnam, promises to eliminate all tariffs on Vietnamese seafood and apparel exports to large markets such as the US and Japan.
www.eclat.com.tw
Expotextil is on at Peru, October 22 to 25. Participants from over 20 countries will attend with the aim of offering their products and services such as equipment, textiles, supplies, tools, apparel, software and several accessories.
Exhibits include fiber preparation machines, knitting machines, spinning machines, testing equipment, weaving machines, non-woven and industrial machines, knitted and elastic textile fabrics, fancy yarn, wool, hemp and cotton yarn. garment yarn, decorative yarn, blended yarn, elastic yarn, special fiber yarn. The exhibition includes machinery and equipment for the clothing and textile industries, equipment for textile finishing, cutting and laser engraving, industrial sewing machines and more.
The fair will gather 220 exhibitors, who belong to companies from Peru, Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain and the United States.
The fair brings together manufacturers and suppliers for the textile and apparel industry. The event is an opportunity to develop business relationships with companies, buyers, sales representatives and strategic partners, both domestic and international.
A total of 18 lectures will be given by national and international experts, who will put the latest textile industry developments on display. Visitors will be able to appreciate the newest garments produced by entrepreneurs and designers.
expotextilperu.com
Between 2009 and 2014 Sri Lanka’s clothing exports grew by over 51 per cent. And further growth is possible. The industry has built up a reputation for quality and delivery among buyers in the markets of developed countries.
Also, the industry has been a pioneer in adopting environmentally friendly manufacturing and waste management methods, something other countries in the region have yet to make progress on.
The country has created an environment conducive to business and provided tax incentives to encourage foreign direct investment. The clothing industry hopes to secure higher exports to the European Union through the restoration of GSP Plus concessions. Such restoration would provide exports from Sri Lanka with tariff-free access to EU markets and could lead to a sizeable increase in clothing shipments.
However there is a possibility Sri Lanka’s competitive position in the crucial US market will be threatened by the Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty, which is expected to favor Vietnam and Malaysia.
Also if GSP Plus status in the EU market is not restored, Sri Lanka’s clothing producers would remain at a long-term disadvantage in the face of competitors from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Cambodia who do benefit from duty-free access to the EU.
The PPP government in Sindh was slammed by the value-added textile manufacturers-cum-exporters recently, for letting industries suffer with decaying infrastructure, dwindling water and power supplies.
Abdul Rasheed, Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PHMA), while speaking at a meeting with Sindh Industries Minister Muhammad Ali Malkani at PHMA House, said that Karachi was being ignored by the PPP government and not included in its development plans. This was despite the city providing more than 63 per cent revenue to the national economy.
Rasheed said that political governments are busy catering to their vote banks and meanwhile the industries were suffering from the broken infrastructure despite being vital to the national exchequer. He added that Karachi was treated as an orphan; however, the situation had improved quite a lot since the last few months.
Rasheed said that the provincial taxes needed a consolidation to help facilitate the industrial taxpayers and were uncounted. He also blamed the government for numerous taxes and stated that the manifold taxation system had been kept intact just to protect the bureaucracy. Besides, he mentioned that the social security audit was just harassment to the exporters by the government.
Javed Bilwani, Chief Coordinator, PHMA, feels that the government should allow 10 other power distributing companies in the city to end the K-Electric monopoly. He even urged the government to introduce an incentive package for the industrial growth and that it should build a circular railway network for people to end the transportation woes.
Moreover, Bilwani termed the federal government's imposition of 10 per cent, regularity duty on cotton yarn import and said that it was an illegal imposition in line with international laws.
www.phmaonline.com
Pakistan’s textile industry exports have dropped both in quantity and value terms in the month of September 2015.
One of the major reasons is the high cost of energy, both gas and electricity. This has hindered the industry’s capacity to produce an exportable surplus. Once uninterrupted energy is available the industry is confident it can make up for the shortfall by bringing its dormant and impaired capacities back on production track.
The fall in basic textile exports has been more steep than the fall in apparel exports in quantity terms. Yarn exports dropped by 14.5 per cent. Cloth exports fell by 22.43 per cent, yarn other than cotton yarn by 11.9 per cent, bed wear by nine per cent, tents and canvas by 79 per cent, and art, silk and synthetic textiles by 67 per cent in quantity terms. Apparel exports were down by 11.49 per cent in readymade garments and 4.3 per cent in knitwear in spite of the GSP Plus facility.
About 70 per cent of Pakistan’s textile industry is located in the province of Punjab. The industry has been facing an unprecedented declining trend in exports over the last one year. It wants measures to be implemented by the government that will help it become viable.
The Union Ministry of Textiles has been urged to facilitate opening of common selling offices or facilitation centres in China by the Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF).
D Prabhu Dhamodharan Federation Secretary, in a memorandum to the Ministry Secretary S K Panda, said that in recent times, the Chinese yarn buyers and traders, collectively, have been crushing the Indian yarn manufacturers, making this move necessary.
Indian spinners could open and operate common selling offices or facilitation centres in China to counter the Chinese onslaught. This would encourage close interaction among Indian industrialists and prevent buyers from exploiting them. Besides, this would strengthen the Indian buyers’ position with constant market intelligence.
The Ministry only needs to facilitate it as industry stakeholders would bear all expenses. Dhamodharan feels that the Ministry should initiate textile-specific agreements quickly for untapped markets instead of waiting for mega trade agreements to be signed. He also said that a strong recommendation to the Commerce Ministry is necessary to speed up the process.
Rationalisation of duties on man-made fibre for Indian products to compete in the international market is another point mentioned in the memorandum. Dhamodharan believes that this was the only way to achieve the targeted growth in the export market. Continuous decrease in export of MMF goods and increase in imports of MMF-based products clearly indicate international trends. Intervention on duty rationalisation cannot be delayed any further, he stated.
Dhamodharan averred that interest subvention for export of yarn and fabrics will boost exports and support the domestic market.
www.itf.org.in
For the September quarter Welspun India’s profits rose by 32.7 per cent. Welspun India is the world's third largest home textile manufacturer.
The debt-equity ratio has been brought down to 1.8:1. The company wants to bring this down to 1.4:1 by the end of this fiscal year. Retail sales grew 35 per cent. Net sales rose 6.3 per cent. The lower sales were the result of high base effect in the year ago period, when it had the best sales turnover.
The company hopes to maintain a revenue guidance of 15 per cent rise and a profit guidance of over 22 per cent for the rest of the fiscal year. The ongoing vertical integration at the company’s Vapi and Anjar plants are expected to result in better realisations and margins.
Welspun India targets to reach an annual turnover of 2.5 billion dollars, more than double the current figure, by the turn of the decade. The company has a current capacity of 50,000 tons of towels per annum, 60,000 million meters of sheets, 15,000 tons of rugs and carpets per annum.
Welspun is a contract manufacturer for some of the world’s largest retailers and nets more than 65 per cent of its revenue from the US market.
www.welspunindia.com
All the apparel production units and stalls/sales outlets selling apparels have been asked by Mariam Baldev, Joint Commissioner of Commercial Tax to compulsorily obtain the registration certificate.
While interacting with the apparel manufacturers and traders recently, Baldev said that if at all any units do not have it, the officials in their department could assist them to get the registration certificates within 48 hours. However, this would be only if they have the requisite documents in their possession.
There was some minor friction between the commercial tax officials and the apparel manufacturers after the officials conducted inspections at units and sales outlets. This is when the discussions gained significance. The manufacturers alleged that the officials were asking for levy of extra/excessive amount from them and also harassing them.
Baldev said that anybody who had any kind of complaint could approach her in person and the grievances would be addressed on its merit. No one would stop the vehicles for a prolonged period, said the tax officials; however, this would be the case only when apparel manufacturers would keep all the papers ready while transporting the garments to the buyers’ destination.
India’s share in the global apparel trade is unlikely to increase significantly over the long term. Structural challenges which constrain the industry need to be addressed.
The fragmented nature of the industry, low levels of modernisation, high costs of production and a limited presence in man-made fiber apparels are the main factors which have constrained the growth in India’s apparel exports.
The share of India in the global apparel trade is just four per cent despite the fact that India is one of the world’s largest cotton producers with the world’s second largest spinning and weaving capacity. Countries with benefits of economies of scale and abundant availability of cheap labor, such as China, Bangladesh and Vietnam, have been able to garner a larger share in global apparel exports over the last decade.
India is the world’s sixth largest apparel exporter after China, Bangladesh, Italy, Germany and Vietnam. Downstream sectors in the textile industry like weaving, processing and garmenting have not been able to derive benefits from the government’s Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme.
When it comes to yarn, most spinning mills are facing a working capital crunch since they have yet to get subsidies and incentives under the focus market scheme have been withdrawn.
