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The inclusion of a variety of knitted fabrics in an export incentive scheme has boosted knit production in India. Cotton fabric exports went up by about 10 per cent, this year because of the inclusion of the fabric when it was sold to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This was noted in the introduction of a new list on the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), which rewards producers with a financial incentive equivalent to two per cent of the total amount of exports.
As R K Dalmia, Chairman, The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil) and senior president, Century Textiles points out that Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were two main destinations for India’s cotton fabrics, which get converted into garments and are then exported to Europe and the US. Due to the lack of the conversion value, cotton fabrics are not exported from India directly to Europe and the US. Thus, inclusion of cotton fabric into MEIS would increase India’s competitiveness in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, in comparison to other countries, which also includes China, he added.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, according to latest figure, hold 28 per cent of India’s cotton fabric shipments. Exports to Bangladesh rose by 11.2 per cent to $440 million last year, while those to Sri Lanka increased by 0.2 per cent to $245 million for the same period. However, India’s total exports of cotton fabric, soared by 16.3 per cent to reach $2.46 billion in 2014.
UBM may acquire Mexico's leading textiles and apparel fair, Intermoda Fashion Group SA, fully or partially, by September this year. One of the fair’s five owners, on condition of anonymity said that they were holding talks and exploring three options: a partial or full sale, a 50/50 joint venture company or a marketing alliance.
There were three companies in race for the acquisition, though UBM was leading since the global firm is expected to complete due diligence in 10 days. The firms in dialogue, other than UBM, were Reed Exhibitions and Messe Frankfurt. The final deal will rely on which UBM offer matches shareholders’ expectations. As per reports, UBM has sent its executives from its Advanstar fashion division to conduct the due diligence in Guadalajara, which is the second largest city of Mexico.
Also, it has been said that though Intermoda’s five owners are open to all options, they are in favour of a 50/50 joint venture over an outright sale. There’s speculation that the joint venture would help Intermoda internationalise its base and boost its revenues from $5.2 million currently, to $6.5 million.
Intermoda, a 30-year-old group, in its attempt to move beyond its core area of business, which is apparel sourcing, has added raw material suppliers recently. It accounts for just 10 per cent of the total business.
Lenzing has launched a tencel fiber indigo chambray collection called Tencel 24: Day into Night. New women’s wear collection is a platform to showcase the breadth and beauty of the most recognizable type of fabrics made out of tencel.
Tencel 24: Day into Night is a new chambray indigo fiber mostly aimed at women’s apparel. The modern slants on tencel is in line with Lenzing’s commitment to fiber innovation and environmental responsibility. The Tencel 24: Day into Night collection is a conscious effort to show that adopting new environmentally responsible laundry techniques does not mean sacrificing aesthetic excellence.
To create the collection’s fresh take on classic product, Lenzing partnered with Jeanologia, a leader in sustainable garment processing technologies. Chambray indigo fabrics made with tencel fiber provide the perfect canvas for these cutting-edge finishing techniques and resulted in aesthetics which previously would not have been possible to achieve.
The Tencel 24: Day into Night collection uses complementary fiber blends across five fabrics made out of tencel fibers. The collection showcases a versatile flow of garment styles from bottoms to tops, casual to formal. Lenzing works closely with other brands across the supply chain to effectively create new fabrics and products and get them to market quickly.
www.lenzing.com/
Indonesia recently hiked import duty on a wide range of manufactured goods. This, the government hopes, will boost the domestic industry given the current economic slowdown. Business groups are elated with this decision. The Indonesian Textile Association (API) chairman, Ade Sudrajat, has stated that a rise in tariff would benefit domestic manufacturing, which would allow fairer competition between locally made and foreign goods.
The effort is to try and harmonise tariffs by imposing higher duties on finished goods and less on raw materials and intermediate goods. The textiles industry faces a great amount of production costs. These are due to higher energy costs and labour wages, which in turn, hamper competition with cheaper exports. Manufacturers in the textile industry have felt the impact of higher costs and weak demand too.
In the first quarter, textile industry cut down production by 20 per cent. Throughout the second quarter, it maintained low output, decreasing factory utilisation. Experts feel the duty rise would help revise the inharmonious tariff system. It could even be advantageous to the local industry by pushing up sales and encouraging production, consequently, lowering costs.
Tirupur's Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Canada and Australia has not yet been implemented. Now, exporters, from the region have urged the Centre to expedite the process and to conclude CEPA by September this year as committed earlier. A Sakthivel, President, Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA), and other industry representatives recently met Union commerce minister, Nirmala Sitharaman and requested the government to address export-related issues. Ready-made garments worth $16.82 billion were exported in 2014-15, of which, garments worth $7.23 billion were exported to the EU.
Main competition in this region for India is Bangladesh, which enjoys duty-free market in the region due to its least developed country status. The country exported about $15 billion in 2014-15 to the EU market alone, this was more than double of Indian exports.
For India, its main competitors are Bangladesh and Cambodia as they both enjoy the least developed countries tariff treatment. Pakistan and Vietnam also continue to get benefits under the General Preference Tariff (GPT). However, India imposes normal customs duty, about 20 per cent for exports to Canada. CEPA could help exporters compete with these countries effectively.
TE A also stated that it would help to include European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States, such as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, from country group C to country group A and make them eligible for MEIS reward rate at 2 per cent of FOB value of exports. This would help increase India's competitiveness in these countries.
Since it was established two years ago, Thailand and Vietnam’s strategic partnership is going strong and both the countries noted efficient cooperation. Vietnamese PM, Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit was concluded with a statement of 15 points, along with his counterpart host, Prayut Chan-ocha. Both recently chaired the third meeting of inter-cabinet executives with the participation of the main holders of each country.
The two leaders expressed their common intention that the trade should reach $20 billion by 2020. Dung encouraged Thailand to invest in areas of mutual interest such as maritime tourism, textiles and garments, footwear, agriculture, mechanics and chemistry. Both agreed to strengthen cooperation in labour, culture, sports, education, aquifers, science and technology, and connectivity. They also agreed to open terrestrial and coastal transportation along with Cambodia. Several agreements were signed, including those on recruitment and labour cooperation, and also about bringing together of their respective provinces.
The joint statement also devoted a space towards effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East or South China Sea, the mutual trust there, and the exercise of self-restraint and non-use or threat of force to settle differences.
Darlie Koshy, DG and CEO, ATDC & IAM has been honoured ‘Outstanding Contribution to Education Award 2015’ at the recent World Education Congress (WEC), Mumbai. This award is for knowledge, skill development and leadership for the upliftment of society.
A Doctorate from IIT Delhi in Management and an MBA from CUSAT, Koshy’s ground-breaking contribution to fashion and design education over the past couple of decades has been well-acknowledged by the academia, textile-apparel industry and policy makers. He has many feathers up his cap. Koshy was named twice as one of the 50 educational leaders shaping Indian higher education by ‘Education World’, (in 2006 and 2008). He has been trained at FIT New York in Fashion Management, and is a founding faculty member of NIFT. He was also selected and trained by CBI, Rotterdam, under the ‘Match-maker’ programme on Europe, besides receiving the UNDP Research grant for an International marketing research project on Indian Apparel in the overseas markets.
He has authored a book, ‘Indian Design Edge’, focusing on Indian design. The book traces the evolution of Indian design in the first decade of new millennium and the 21st century, exploring its strong linkages to India’s design heritage, while strategising the need for India to become a ‘creative manufacturer’ to the world.
Human Solutions and the Canadian Apparel Research and Innovation Center Vestechpro, jointly will soon launch a major anthropometric serial measurement survey that will represent many demographic populations in the US and Canada.
There will be 3D body scanners to capture up-to-date body measurements in various postures. This data will eventually be prepared for what the automotive and apparel industry needs. The aim to be inclusive and will include a systematic survey of children aged 6 and above.
‘Size North America’ as the survey is called, is the most extensive serial measurement survey project on the North American continent. The project aims to develop current and representative dimensions for the automotive and apparel industry. People change in body size through the years, and body measurements, proportions and demographic structure have changed quite a bit through decades. This has proved to be a challenge for the apparel industry, which is based on the anthropometric data and standard size tables available at present. Body measurements of children particularly, have been poorly monitored. Size North America aims to capture and document all the changes.
Juveniles too are a focus of this serial measurement survey. Also, a special survey for the age group between 6 and 17 years was never conducted till now in North America. Michael van Genabith, President of Human Solutions of North America, stated that the large-scale survey carried out will not only help them determine the changes in the body measurements and proportions of the North American population, but this data will provide them with relevant information on safety, handling and comfort for product development in the automotive industry.
In a step towards implementing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Common External Tariff (CET), the federal government recently delisted textile materials and other items from its import prohibition.
Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), made this known in Lagos, last month. He said that the textile materials, furniture and other delisted items could now be imported. However, this was subject to the payment of a 35 per cent duty as agreed to by all 16-member countries of the sub-regional body. He added that there was also a provision for an import Adjustment Tax. Dikko was speaking at the launch of the implementation of the CET.
Some adjustments for member countries had to be made with the CET though, said Dikko. There were 97 chapters with the 5,899 tariff headings, but every member country was entitled to three per cent adjustment. This would later translate into 177 tariff headings, which would in turn enable member countries to protect their local industries. The new policy comes into effect in June, as directed by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
A committee has already been set up by the ECOWAS Commission, to monitor the implementation. This would allow it to ensure that there’s adequate compliance so that the provisions are not abused.
Cotton growers in Pakistan are still waiting for the government to decide on the cotton intervention price for the current season. The delay is having a negative impact on them. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Textile Industry and the Ministry for National Food Security and Research had fixed the intervention price of cotton at Rs 3,000 per 40 kg for the financial year 2015-16. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), in the second week of November, intervened in the domestic market and started procurement the commodity to stabilise cotton prices. Less than 1,00,000 bales were procured. However, the late decision was not beneficial for farmers and objections were raised after which, cotton procurement was suspended. However, the TCP is likely to be made bound to procure at least two million cotton bales for this year.
It is possible that the government will procure seed cotton instead of lint cotton on an experimental basis, as per the Indian model of cotton procurement. The cotton price may be fixed in between the import and export parity prices. Lint cotton is exported as well as imported by Pakistan and during this course of business activity a lot of revenue is being spent, which may be avoided through the import of long staple cotton, which is required for fine quality cotton in certain textile sectors.
