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Lenzing – Lenzing Group, the world market leader in specialty cellulosic fibers and Duratex, the largest producer of industrialised wood panels of the Southern Hemisphere, have agreed on the terms and conditions to form a joint venture to build the largest single line dissolving wood pulp (DWP) plant in Minas Gerais, Brazil. This decision supports the backward integration and the growth in specialty fibers, defined in Lenzing’s corporate strategy sCore TEN.
Lenzing will hold 51 per cent in this joint venture which involves the construction of the largest single line dissolving wood pulp plant in the world. The plant will house FSC® certified plantation ON 43,000 hectare. The joint venture has started the basic engineering and permitting process. The decision on final investment in the plant will be taken after assessing the outcome of the basic engineering in 2019.
The sixth annual Source Africa Textile and Apparel Show showcased the continent’s creativity, fashion sense, and business opportunities it opened at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on June 20th featuring 140 exhibitions by textile, shoe and clothing producers, suppliers and service providers from across Africa.
The show aimed to promote African-made products to national and international buyers and manufacturers and encourage intra-regional trade between African countries.
Source Africa is owned by the global exhibition firm Messe Frankfurt. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub continues to encourage buyers and producers to take advantage of business opportunities available through the U.S. African Growth and Opportunities Act, known as AGOA. The trade preference program offers duty-free access to the U.S. market for some 6,500 African product lines.
USAID Southern Africa Mission Director John Groarke opened the 2018 event, he stated that Source Africa offers a model for private sector-led economic development in Africa, where untapped sourcing and export opportunities abound. Source Africa brings together industry leaders and decision-makers from across Africa, Europe and the United States, providing opportunities for buyers, manufacturers, suppliers and service providers to network and find new business opportunities.
The USAID Southern Africa Trade Hub advances enterprise-driven solutions to unlock Africa’s growing markets. Through innovative public-private sector partnerships, the Hub promotes trade and investment to drive international commercial expansion and encourages resilient economic growth.
The committee of creditors for Alok Industries has approved a joint resolution plan submitted by Reliance Industries and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction valued at around Rs 5,000 crore, the resolution will use 4,000 crore to repay financial creditors. As per the claims admitted by the resolution professional in the case, financial creditors have submitted claims worth over Rs 29,000 crore.
Seventy-two per cent of creditors by value of loans voted in favour of the resolution plan. After a recent amendment to the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 66 percent of creditors by value now need to approve a resolution plan for it to go through, as against 75 percent earlier.
Alok Industries is one of the 12 large companies to have been sent to the National Company Law Tribunal for insolvency proceedings after the Reserve Bank of India shortlisted them in June 2017. These companies together accounted for Rs 2.77 lakh crore worth of bad loans in the banking system.
As per PwC, Hong Kong retail sector is poised to grow at an annual growth rate of 8 per cent to reach HK$484 billion (US$61.7 billion) this year and surpass its 2013 peak of HK$494 billion (US$63 billion) by 2020. Total retail sales for the first four months of 2018 surged by 14 per cent, with all sectors recording positive growth.
Luxury goods, especially jewelry and watches, along with consumer durable products remain the best-performing areas propelling further recovery this year and onwards. In addition, changing consumer behaviors and preferences have led to the rise of new shopping experiences and e-commerce in Hong Kong.
The upward trend in electronic payment is promoting a wider adoption of mobile retail payments However, challenges including the Sino-US trade dispute, strong US dollar against Renminbi, a global interest rate hike, and the imminent end of QE in Europe and Japan is likely to impact consumption.
Global luxury group, Kering plans to hand over the Christopher Kane brand back to the designer. Both the designer and Kering wish to collaborate to achieve a gradual and harmonious transition. As a consequence, the group will apply for IFRS 5, non-current assets held for sale and discontinued operations to this asset in its half-yearly accounts to June 30, 2018, which will be published on July 26. The brand is currently consolidated according to the full consolidation method. In 2013, Kering had acquired 51 per cent of the brand created by Christopher Kane.
Label Christopher Kane was launched in 2006. The designer is acknowledged as the powerhouse of British fashion with one of the biggest international profiles. Developing his playful signatures of constant innovation, rebellious femininity and extraordinary skill, his clothes continue to surprise and seduce with their ineffable sense of chic.
Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Maisons in fashion, leather goods, jewellery and watchmaking: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Christopher Kane, Tomas Maier, Boucheron, Pomellato etc. Kering enables its Maisons to set new limits in terms of their creative expression while crafting future luxury in a sustainable and responsible way.
The US retail industry plans to fight back against the negative impacts of the tariff wars. And they want consumers to understand the implications of tariffs as they did with the border-adjustment tax. What retailers hope to make clear to the general consumer is that they can expect prices to increase at some of the places they shop. Retailers like Target that import much of their inventory from China will be paying higher prices to bring those products with new tariffs attached to them.
For now, the first $50 billion in tariffs on China could add a 25 per cent tariff to a handful of machinery used for apparel and footwear manufacturing, though there’s no direct target on apparel or footwear finished goods. The newly proposed additional $200 billion tariffs on China, however, could still include apparel and footwear products, though there’s been no mention yet of the potential product targets for the tariffs.
It is estimated the first set of $50 billion tariffs alone could reduce US GDP by nearly $3 billion and cost the country 1,34,000 jobs. Imposing an additional $100 billion in tariffs could be a $49 billion hit to GDP and lead to the loss of 4,55,000 jobs.
More than 50 Inditex textile and garment suppliers in India gathered in Bangalore and Delhi to ensure effective implementation of IndustriALL’s Global Framework Agreements (GFAs). Representatives of Inditex, which is the world’s biggest fashion retailer, joined the meetings for the sessions on improving social dialogue, industrial relations and sustainability along the supply chains. The first meeting took place in Bangalore on June 11 and the second meeting was held on June 13 in Delhi.
The meeting was intended to help to protect and promote workers’ conditions throughout Inditex’s supply chain. IndustriALL is strengthening industrial relations and social dialogue in the textile and garment industries. Industry-wide GFAs have the capacity to ensure living wages and decent conditions for workers in the industry. The active involvement of suppliers in the process would help IndustriALL to build a stronger social dialogue and powerful industrial relations.
Apoorva Kaiwar, IndustriALL South Asia Regional Secretary, addressed the meeting to talk about textile and garment workers’ conditions and rights in India, the importance of being a union member and being paid living wages and the benefits of GFAs.
Javier Díaz Pena, Inditex Social Sustainability Manager, gave a presentation on the commitment of the global brand by signing the GFA with IndustriALL Global Union.
Many global apparel buyers, including Hermes Otto, Newlook, Colveta, Near East Manufacturing and Varnern, plan to increase their orders from Turkey by about 20 per cent. Apparel exports of $17 billion from the country would increase to $18 billion this year, reaching around $25 billion in five years.
For example, Colveta plans to purchase products worth €40 million from Turkey every year and increase the figure to €65 million within five years. Similarly Newlook Turkey plans to increase purchases by 20 per cent while Hermes Otto aims to increase to over €100 million in 2018 , registering a 7 per cent growth. Verner, one of the major buyers, would also increase its apparel order from Turkey, currently €55 million, by 5 to 10 per cent this year. Near East Manufacturing, on the other hand, is planning to increase its $100 million order by 10 per cent.
The Uster Tensojet 5 is acknowledged not only as the industry’s ultimate Tensile tester but also a key element in the growth of a spinning mill’s profitability. With the launch of Uster Tensojet 5, the concept of Tensile testing is extended to provide a total package: precise measurement of a yarn’s strength, combined with reliable protection against quality claims based on accurate forecasts of performance in later processes.
For yarn producers both quality and performance are essential if they are to meet the continually rising demands of their customers in the weaving and knitting mills. Yarns must have the look, feel and functionality to satisfy these requirements.
Uster is committed to meeting the industry’s need for increasingly effective and accurate Tensile testing. For decades, Uster laboratory instruments have set the global standards for strength and elongation measurement of staple as well as filament, yarns. In 2018, a new generation has been launched. The Uster Tensorapid 5, the go-to tensile tester providing precise data, was introduced in March.
Minimum strength and elongation properties are needed to prevent a yarn breaking or being damaged in downstream operations as well as avoiding blemishes on end-products in weaving. Therefore, accurate Tensile-strength values are important, particularly for warp yarns, which are placed under tremendous stress.
Since the third quarter of last year, foreign investments in Vietnam’s textile and apparel sector have increased due to domestic textile-garment enterprises’ high-quality products and short delivery times. Vietnam’s apparel sector has attracted a large volume of FDI. Some 137 projects were approved in 2014 with a total registered capital of nearly $1.75 billion.
Early last year, when the United States, the largest buyer of Vietnam's textiles and garments, withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, FDI capital injected into the local textile-garment sector dipped and tended to flow to other markets with a lower-cost workforce and lower import duties, such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Vietnam has inked 16 bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements, including CPTPP and EVFTA, which will take effect in the near future, creating numerous opportunities for local textile-garment producers.
Import duties of the European Union, Vietnam’s second largest importer, currently ranging from ten per cent to 12 per cent, will be cut to zero when EVFTA comes into force. South Korea may overtake Taiwan to become the largest investor in Vietnam’s textile-garment sector in the near future as this country has clinched a two-way FTA with Vietnam and a cooperation agreement with the European Union.
