FW
Cambodian garments and textile exports grew 9 per cent in the first three months of the year. Cambodia exported $1.17 billion worth of garments and textiles between January and March this year compared to $1.08 billion in the same period a year ago.
During the first quarter, the US was the number one export market for Cambodian garments and textiles, followed by the European Union, Canada and Japan. While Cambodia’s garment industry has been the beneficiary of sourcing shifts from more expensive countries, including China in recent years, it has also been shaken in recent months by lapses in factory safety and large-scale labor unrest. Some denim giants have reduced their sourcing from Cambodian garment factories in a bid to minimise supply-chain risk and ensure delivery amid ongoing unrest in the country.
The garment sector accounts for more than 80 per cent of Cambodia's exports, and is a lynchpin of the country’s economy. Cambodia began exporting garments in the 1990s. Low wages and an abundant workforce, powered mainly by the country’s rural population, have drawn major clothing brand names to the country. Today, the industry has almost 550 factories, mostly owned by Taiwanese, Korean, Chinese, Hong Kong and Singaporean companies.
Lectra hosted a seminar in France focusing on the use of 3D technologies in the fashion product development process. The two day event brought together over 40 delegates from around the world. It centered on how fashion companies can benefit from integrated 3D technology to optimize and streamline the end-to-end collection development process to improve competitiveness.
Emphasis was placed on the growing need for companies to assess the relevance of their business models in a reset economy and to meet the growing demand for innovation from consumers across the world. Special focus was placed on the importance of linking design and product development to stand out in a market that is increasingly plagued by uniformity.
Customers were given demonstration of Lectra’s lean cutting room, developed to support operational excellence at the production stage. Lectra 3D technology allows garment manufacturers to reduce prototypes by 20 per cent and deliver to clients faster and with less waste. It allows a 3D image of the product before sampling. That allow manufacturers to develop better, more consistent, products especially in terms of sizing and grading. Using Lectra 3D, it’s possible to visualize prints.
Lectra is the world leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to industries using soft materials—fabrics, leather, technical textiles and composite materials.
www.lectra.com/
Crypton has introduced C Zero, a non-fluorinated performance fabric offering protection from water-based spills as well as liquids such as sodas, coffee and wine. Crypton is a producer of eco-friendly performance fabrics featuring stain, water, odor and microbe-repelling technology. C Zero is an environmentally friendly, non-fluorinated fabric option. The fabric does not use fluorinated chemistry, allowing it to have a minimal impact on the environment. C Zero is a factory-applied process.
The repellent technology has been incorporated into the fabric via a factory-applied process whereby the entire fabric is immersed, treating every fiber. The chemistry is cross-linked for durability using high-temperature and industrial dyeing.
Crypton is based in Michigan. It is the only textile solution in the world creating a new generation of stylish fabrics that are moisture-resistant and easy-to-clean, yet soft, comfortable and breathable. Crypton opened in 1993. By offering a fabric – not a vinyl or plastic – that was capable of resisting stains, moisture, odors and bacteria, Crypton proved to be the perfect solution for the health care market. Following this initial success, Crypton solutions rapidly expanded into some of the finest restaurants, hotels, cruise ships around the world, as well as government complexes, schools and health care facilities. There are more than 20,000 patterns of Crypton fabric available today.
www.cryptonfabric.com/
Manufacturers of traditional items like jamdani in Bangladesh want the government to take immediate steps for ensuring the country’s ownership and patent rights. They say jamdani is solely a Bangladeshi item and not a generic one. Registering ownership of traditional items, is considered crucial in the era of globalisation.
According to the Geographical Indication (GI) rules, the real producer of any particular goods in an area will get the absolute rights of the registered products. GI is a name or sign used on certain products to certify that they possess certain qualities, as they are made according to traditional methods or enjoy a certain reputation due to their geographical origins. These rules help protect the ownership of traditional items.
If jamdani sari is registered locally under the law, no other country will export any clothing item with the name jamdani to Bangladesh. Jamdani has its roots in Bangladesh. It is a hand-woven, fine cotton fabric deftly embellished with intricate motifs that are expertly woven into the fabric. Jamdani was traditionally done using mill cotton thread, resham silk thread, muga silk and tussar silk thread. It is a specialty weaving style, where patterns are woven into the fabric.
Ancient Paracas textiles which were smuggled out by a Swedish diplomat are returning to Peru after 80 years. The items were handed back to the country following an agreement with museum authorities in Gothenburg last year. The rest of the Paracas textiles will return to Peru over the next seven years. Among the highlights are a 2000-year-old intricately colored shroud, measuring 41 inches by 21 inches, and 88 other textiles.
The so-called shroud of Gothenburg is uniquely complex. It includes some 80 different color tones and subtones such as blue, green, yellow, red and orange. It is divided into 32 frames decorated with items resembling condors, frogs, cats, corn, and human-like figures. Some researchers believe the shroud may be a sort of calendar related to the tracking of farming seasons. Experts still do not fully understand how the shroud’s creators achieved the combination of sewing techniques and pigments.
Textiles are very fragile. There are very few countries in the world that have conserved fabrics. Peru is one of them. These textile fragments are made from camelid wool (probably llama or alpaca) and plant fibers (identified as cotton). The bright colors include indigo, green, browns, pink and white. These were all produced using natural dyes and would have been particularly striking against the sandy beige colors of the surrounding landscape.
The Shandong Ruyi Technology Group is investing $2 billion to set up a cotton spinning facility in Pakistan. It has already bought 1,036 acres of land out of the total area of 4,500 acres in an industrial zone operated by the Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC). Shandong is China’s fifth largest textile company.
The Shandong Ruyi textile park will have an annual capacity to produce 1,57,000 tons of yarn, 500 million meters of Batik fabric, 100 million meters of denim fabric and 10 million pieces of jeans. The project will be implemented in two phases. In the first phase, it will set up the largest textile mill and in the second phase workshops and equipment, vending and packing units will be established over an area of 536 acres.
The project is estimated to generate job opportunities for more than 35,000 persons. Shandong Ruyi owns cotton fields in Australia and Vietnam from where it will import cotton to feed the spinning mill. The company will install a 135-mw coal-based power plant to avoid disruption of work. After meeting its requirements, surplus energy will be sold to other industrial units. The company will provide a combined effluent treatment plant to reduce the cost of production.
www.chinaruyi.com/doce/about/about.asp
Steiger has launched a new flat knitting machine which incorporates new technologies. Steiger is a Chinese-owned Swiss flat knitting machine builder. The Steiger C2.185.SCP uses the company’s recently developed compound needle and a new yarn feeder with both horizontal and vertical control.
The new compound needle, which has a split slider element is able to transfer stitches to and from both slider and hook, thus enabling stitch transfer whilst knitting all needles. The technology is particularly suited to complete or seamless garment knitting and in this gauge allows the knitting of 3 and 5 gauge look seamless garment. Steiger has used motorised feeders for some years now but has now introduced a new feeder with a controllable vertical movement.
The Steiger company is based in Switzerland. In the early 70s Steiger launched the first machines for producing elastic stockings and tubular articles for orthopedic uses. In 1980 to 1990, the company presented the Electra series of flat knitting machines for producing shaped knitwear. In 2005, Steiger presented a new concept of knitting machine, the Gemini. In 2008, came the Libra. This machine was created to bring the concept of high quality intarsia machine to a perfect quality and price relation. The machine is available with three systems and 16 motorized yarn-guides.
www.steiger-textil.ch/
Bangladesh's exports rose 7.22 per cent in May, from a year earlier, boosted by stronger clothing sales. In the first 11 months of this financial year, exports rose 12.56 per cent from a year earlier. Garment exports surged nearly 15 per cent in July-May 2013. The garment industry, which supplies to many western brands, has been in the spotlight after a string of fatal factory accidents.
Garments are a vital sector for the south Asian nation, whose low wages and duty-free access to western markets have helped make it the world's largest apparel exporter after China. The readymade garment industry in Bangladesh employs four million people. It has been looking for government support to buy land and relocate factories in unsafe buildings to a planned industrial park. The 2014-15 budget removed import duties on raw materials to make pre-fabricated buildings and abolished taxes on safety equipment such as fire-resistant doors and emergency lights. Global buyers have stopped giving orders to around 30 per cent of garment factories that are housed in unsafe, shared buildings.
Late last year, the government raised the minimum wage for garment workers by 77 per cent and amended its labor law to boost worker rights, including the freedom to form trade unions.
Australia's wool clip is expected to shrink further in the coming year. However, prices will rise by 6 per cent. The wool market was galloping along until February when demand from China slackened and the Australian dollar appreciated in value. Producers responded by withholding wool, leading to smaller offerings at auctions.
Declining growth in Chinese retail garment sales and the ongoing shift to synthetic fiber apparel in major developed economies are expected to constrain demand for finer wool. In the 10 months to April, Australian wool exports to China fell 3 per cent year-on-year. Demand for wool apparels in the US and the EU has been sliding since 2010, reflecting below-average economic growth and an ongoing shift to synthetic fibers.
Demand for Australian wool has also been weak during the June quarter to date, constrained by tighter access to credit for Chinese textile manufacturers. Australian wool exports declined by an estimated 2 per cent in 2013–14 to 430,000 ton greasy with shipments of superfine greasy wool (19 microns and less) jumping by about 15 per cent and exports of broader wool falling by around 20 per cent. Further reductions in shorn wool production are expected to reduce wool exports by 7 per cent in 2014–15.
The ongoing ITMA Asia + CITME being held from June 16 to 20 at Shanghai New International Exhibition Centre, China is about 15 per cent bigger than the previous edition held in 2012. It is spread over 1,52,200 sq. mt. of exhibition space. It has opened with the largest presentation of textile machinery since the series made its debut in 2008. Some 1,600 exhibitors from 28 countries are taking part. The show has emerged as the ideal platform to market cost-effective solutions to the huge Chinese market.
The show has the participation of many Chinese and international textile machinery brands. Many of the exhibitiors are showcasing advanced automation, energy efficient and environmental-friendly solutions. In terms of exhibitor number, Chinese mainland fields the biggest contingent. The other top participators are Italy, Germany, Chinese Taiwan and Japan.
Exhibits are organised into sectors based on manufacturing processes. The spinning sector occupies the largest exhibit area, followed by the washing/dyeing/bleaching/printing/finishing sectors, knitting and weaving. ITMA Asia + CITME 2014 is organized by Beijing Textile Machinery International Exhibition and co-organized by MP Expositions. Japan Textile Machinery is a special partner association of the show.
The next ITMA Asia + CITME exhibition will be at Shanghai, October 24 to 28, 2016.
www.itmaasia.com/
