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Bangladesh is seen as a top sourcing destination but Africa looks likely to emerge as a serious competitor. Right now sub-Saharan Africa has only a 0.56 per cent share of the total global capacity of apparel exports. A significant proportion of buyers are preparing to reduce their sourcing from China, where in recent years, production costs have gone up because of rising labor costs. They are glancing at Ethiopia and Kenya as potential choices. Some 40 per cent of buyers say sub-Saharan Africa will become more significant to the clothing business in the next five years in contrast to 24 per cent who said this in 2013.
Sourcing from sub-Saharan Africa is expected to rise almost tenfold by 2020, from 0.3 per cent to 2.8 per cent. As of now, Bangladesh is the second biggest apparel exporter after China. Bangladesh has a five per cent share in world apparel exports but China has a 39 per cent share. Bangladesh feels that African countries will take time to pose competition as they have yet to make a serious beginning. In the meantime the country is building on its strengths. Apparently the retailers’ groupings Accord and Alliance have certified more than 98 per cent of factories in Bangladesh as safe and capable of continuing operations.
Following the European Union’s (EU) decision not to suspend Pakistan’s ‘Generalised Scheme of Preferences plus’ (GSP+), status despite concerns about its human rights record Pakistan’s textile producers will continue to benefit from EU preferential tariffs. GSP+ has been beneficial to Pakistan’s textile industry - textiles and clothing account for around 75 per cent of Pakistan’s exports to the EU. The GSP+ benefits allow 80 per cent of Pakistani textile and clothing imports to enter the EU at preferential tariffs. Items include table and bed linen, as well as many fabric lines and clothing products.
There were concerns that the country could lose its EU trading privileges after the EU ambassador to Pakistan, Jean-Francois Cautain, was quoted last year as saying such a move could not be ruled out. Countries enjoying GSP+ status must comply with 27 international conventions, covering human and labour rights, environmental protection and good governance.
Fashion is staying in the realm of nostalgia, with denim the must-have trend of the new season. It’s not just the enviable street stylers of Instagram who are showcasing the veteran fabric. From Prada to Victoria Beckham, denim is having its moment on the catwalk. During the past few seasons the blue siren has been sneaking in through the trends of dungarees, double denim and the forever sibling rivalry of skinny jean versus boyfriend, girlfriend and flares.
This season, however, denim which is potent symbol of youth and rebellion is all grown up by making a move away from the distressed feel of the grunge era. It’s time to take the perennial trend seriously. Meanwhile, designers tap into our love of all things nostalgic, they have reinvented this most hardworking of fabrics making it fresh for the 21st century.
Giving denim the ultra seal of fashion approval is the socialite, street style star and all round uber fashionista Olivia Palermo. In keeping with the seasons fresh approach, Palermo’s collection gives the traditionally casual material a more formal feel, she used it to create a high-waisted midi skirt with a centre slit, a tailored jumpsuit, aka dungarees, and a pair of wide-legged cropped pants with a braided waistband.
Cotton not only accounts for roughly a third of the world’s textile consumption but is also in danger of becoming a scarce resource as the world’s increasing population needs more land for food production. European brands have taken to making garments made entirely from recycled cotton. The technology allows them to recycle all materials that contain cellulose.
Old cotton clothes are brought to a factory and shredded and then turned into a porridge-like substance. After non-recyclable pieces like zippers and buttons have been removed, the porridge is broken down to the molecule level and turned into a fiber substance to be used for thread, resulting in rayon fabric. It is possible to recycle fabrics that contain a mix of cotton and other materials but the best results are got when recycling pure cotton.
From a sustainability perspective, cotton recycling scores particularly well as it uses no new ingredients other than timber, whose cellulose fibers can be added to the existing cotton ones.
But recycling of fabric often involves dangerous materials such as heavy metals. And because rayon is much harder to recycle than cotton, the recycling doesn’t go full circle. A better approach would be to compost the clothes. Valuable nutrients could be added to clothes, which would benefit the soil when they are composted.
The Turkish textile and ready-made clothing sectors are set to make up for their losses, since bilateral political relations were strained with Russia, by opening up to Iranian and African markets. With signals of financial weakening in Russia, as importers did not purchase enough goods in the beginning of the new season, Turkish textile exporters have planned road shows in Iran, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria in March.
According to Giyasettin Eyüpkoca, President, Laleli Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (LASİAD), economic recession is being experienced not only in Russia but also in other countries such as Italy, France and the United Kingdom. He stressed that road shows bring more advantages than fairs to the ready-made clothing sector. Eyüpkoca added that Pure London and Magic Show fashion events, which were recently held in the UK and the United States, respectively, were not efficient enough.
Said Hikmet Eraslan, Dosso Dossi Holding Chairman, the sector has failed to increase its turnover despite reducing prices by 30 percent in the Laleli and Osmanbey shopping areas, which are popular shopping spots for Russian tourists in Istanbul. He underscored how essential it is to find alternative markets.
China’s sportswear market will surpass luxury goods market by 2020. It see double digit growth each year compared with the luxury market's single digit growth in the same period. The sports sector contributes 0.67 per cent of China’s total gross domestic product compared with 2.2 per cent in the European Union and 3.5 per cent in the United States.
Extreme sports apparel and expensive active wear are in vogue ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. The market is also forecast to grow with the country’s decision to relax its one-child policy after 36 years, and companies from the US and Canada are lining up to cash in. Some Chinese come to weddings in active wear. A growing fitness craze saw 134 marathon and road-running races held across the country last year up 160 per cent from 2014. It’s estimated that by 2025, more than 9,00,000 stadiums and gyms will have been built across the country.
China’s slowest economic growth in 25 years has forced China's elite to change their spending habits. Some of the money once spent on French wine and Italian leather now appears to be flowing into high-end heart-rate monitors and running shoes.
Cotton farmers in Pakistan are in distress and want a bailout package. They say if this is not provided on time they will switch to other crops, and this will reduce the area under cotton cultivation by 20 per cent and bring down production. The main reason behind the cotton collapse has been due to substandard imported seeds. These came under pest attacks. There was no spray available to kill the pink bollworm, which destroyed 60 per cent of the crop.
Reduced cotton prices at home and on the international market have proved to be another disincentive for the millions of farmers depending on cotton crop as they continue to pay heavy input prices. Persistent rains this season, restricted the use of pesticides resulting in a sharp fall in output.
Cotton is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy. A shortage of cotton is expected to hit the textile sector which in turn will be forced to import cotton by drawing on forex reserves. Textile and cotton exports help Pakistan earn $12 billion a year and provide jobs to a huge section of the population.
Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of cotton in the world and has the third largest spinning capacity in Asia (after China and India) with thousands of ginning and spinning units producing textile products from cotton.
Ludhian is hosting GMMSA from Feb 19 to 22, 2016. This brings garment machinery manufacturers and suppliers under one roof and gives them a platform to showcase their products to brands and garment makers. The objective of this expo is to provide latest technology and knowhow to the garment manufacturing industry and help it compete in the domestic as well as in the global market.
Over 400 leading brands of the world have showcased their machinery collection. There are knitting machines that do not require external cooling and a UPS. They will find a place in the market as they reduce electricity consumption. There are dyeing and washing machines that are eco friendly and use water saving technology. There are machines that save yarn and reduce waste and come with the new cutter and gripper technology aimed at achieving this end.
There are machines with an eye catching look and carrying value added features enhancing productivity as well as quality of the end product significantly. Top names in knitting, dyeing, finishing, and processing have marked their presence with their production and quality control teams.
On the first day more than 5,000 people visited the expo.
www.gmmsaexpo.com/home.php
Indonesia may join the Trans Pacific Partnership in the coming years. The country’s textile industry is ready for the partnership as it is already structured from its upstream to downstream. Indonesia feels the TPP could more than double its textile exports in a decade as the US is one of its major markets.
However, the yarn-forward clause in TPP is making them wary. This provision in the TPP will cut tariffs only for garment products made using materials sourced from member countries. In other words, textile and apparel products made using TPP members’ yarns and fabrics will qualify for zero-tariff in trade among the member countries.
However, Indonesia still imports a total of $8.6 billion in the form of fiber, yarn, fabric, garments, tapestry and other textile products, with a big chunk estimated to come from China, which is not a TPP member. Vietnam, which is one of the TPP signatories, has raised concerns about the yarn-forward rule of origin as it still imports some types of fabric from China.
The TPP currently has 12 signatory countries, namely Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the US.
UK’s Langholm-based clothing retailer Edinburgh Woollen Mill, is facing charges for labeling scarves as “100 per cent cashmere” while being allegedly mixed with other material. The retailer, which has 265 high-street stores, is embroiled in a trial with growing concerns that cashmere is being blended with sheep's and yak's wool and synthetic products. The company outsources its cashmere, but insists it is subject to "robust independent testing" by experts in order to ensure its authenticness.
In fact, fake or mixed cashmere has been the bane of fashion industry for quite some time. Luxury cashmere jumpers may not be what they seem with evidence of fraud and fake. Cheap alternative materials - even rat fur, in one case - are being woven into garments. Some mills label scarves as 100 per cent cashmere while they are actually a mix of cashmere and other materials.
Two years ago a million items of cashmere clothing seized from Chinese-run firms in Italy were found to be a mixture of acrylic, viscose and fur from rats and other animals. Global cashmere production is about 7.5 million kg. However, sales of products carrying the name are much higher. There are not enough cashmere goats in the world to produce the amount of cashmere that is on sale.
The more basic cheats use acrylic or polyester in the blend. A lot of the blends will have 50 per cent or 60 per cent cashmere and 50 per cent or 40 per cent modified sheep or yak wool. Much of the cashmere that is on sale and sold as 100 per cent cashmere has a percentage of modified wool. Cashmere factories in China use a wool stretching machine, which can be used to make finer wool fibers. These are then blended with cashmere, which is sold as 100 per cent cashmere.
