FW
Political unrest is making Bangladesh's readymade garment exporters worried. They fear losing orders. International buyers usually place most of their orders at this part of the year. A country-wide blockade has been launched by the opposition party. Exporters feel such a blockade will disrupt supply chain of imported raw materials and hamper production and cause shipment delays.
Because of the turmoil, workers have not been able to readymade garment factories, especially those located in the capital. Political unrest led buyers to cancel orders worth in 21 days of December 2013. Several factory owners have urged the ruling party as well as other political parties to shun confrontational politics to let the economy grow at the desired rate needed for becoming a middle income country by 2021.
In the meanwhile a decision has been taken to transport outbound readymade garment products to Chittagong port under police escort during the countrywide blockade to ensure timely shipment, and to bring raw materials from the port city. At one time, before the blockade, the increasing numbers of international orders, boosted by ebbing worries on regulatory incompliance and a stable political front, promised a rewarding 2015 for garment makers.
But now hopes are dimming again. Other challenges facing the industry are an inadequate supply of gas and power and poor infrastructure.
Futex 2015 will take place in France, January 21 to 22, 2015. This is a convention on European technical textiles. It brings together technical managers, CEOs, R&D managers, sales managers, engineers, research scientists, heads of department, professors and purchase managers.
It will discuss the means of managing, producing, harvesting, transferring, and storing energy through textile materials. Textile chemistry, new fibers, textile constructions, combinations of textile and non-textile technologies will be offered as innovative perspectives to transport or store these energies. Leading figures of the energy sector and key players in the textile industry will meet to discuss these issues, find solutions and discover the latest innovations.
It’s held every two years. Since 2005, Futex has been a major meeting point for the European technical textile sector with an ever-growing attendance. The event will have 220 participants, representing more than 10 countries. Futex presents a showcase of what currently exists in a theme chosen by the organizing committee representing all figures in the textile industry. The event will include conferences, booths for manufacturers and partners, exhibitions, workshops on innovation and a competition for students. <br/>
Participants can explore three ways to carry out the development of an innovative product. These workshops will be held at a center dedicated to the development of added value in textile products.
www.clubtex.com/en/news/futex.php
American cotton producers will reduce cotton acreage by more than 10 per cent in the 2015 growing season. The main reason is fluctuating cotton prices. Water and prices will be the main driving factors in determining acreage across Texas. Arizona, New Mexico and California may plant not more than 3,62,000 cotton acres combined in 2015, enough to account for little more than three per cent of the national total.
The US is the third largest producer of cotton. China is the largest producer but uses most of its production at home. Texas is the leading cotton-producing state in the US. About two thirds of the harvested crop is composed of the seed, which is crushed to separate its three products–oil, meal and hulls. Cotton seed oil is a common component of many food items, used primarily as a cooking oil, shortening and salad dressing. The oil is used extensively in the preparation of such snack foods as crackers, cookies and chips. The meal and hulls are used as livestock, poultry and fish feed and as fertilizer.
Cotton is grown in 17 states stretching across the southern half of the United States. It is produced on about 18,600 farms in the country. Planting begins as early as February 1 in South Texas and as late as June 1 in northern areas of the cotton belt.
About 99 per cent of the US upland crop is planted in transgenic varieties –genetically engineered varieties resistant to worms, herbicides, or both.
The Cotton Corporation of India will start selling cotton from January 15, 2015.CCI is mandated to procure cotton at the minimum support price. It has so far purchased 40 lakh bales and plans to offload 10,000 bales every day and measures would be taken to ensure there is no fluctuation in prices.
The corporation has so far purchased 70 to 80 per cent of the arrivals in southern states and 10 to 15 per cent in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Traders are active in these two states, and are purchasing cotton at more than the minimum support price. Total purchases by the corporation in the season October 2014 to September 2015 at minimum support price are expected to go up to 100 lakh bales.
Arrivals have picked up, and over two lakh bales of cotton are arriving in the market every day. Though there are no quality issues, export demand is almost nil and domestic mills are buying only limited stocks. CCI extends marketing support to cotton growers in selling their produce at competitive prices in various market yards in all cotton growing states through intervention – beginning from day one of the arrivals till the end of season. Procurement operations are spread over more than 225 market yards in the country.
cotcorp.gov.in/
The European Commission has started consultation process for the revision of its Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for textiles. The main purpose of the new process is to evaluate current GPP criteria and determine whether it is still relevant and what needs to be revised, restructured or removed based on the EU Ecolabel textile criteria from June 2014. Ecolabel is a voluntary performance certificate awarded to products and services assessed from creation to use and disposal, and determined to be eco-friendly.
Following this, the EC has turned its attention to updating its GPP criteria for textiles, which was last published in early 2012. The revision of the criteria addresses key environmental impacts. The two main focus areas for environmental improvement were origin of the textile fiber and chemicals used in textile production.
The EC feels the need to focus on specific products including work wear, emergency services, and healthcare along with the need to identify specific GPP related products and end-uses such as for work wear cleaning services or decoration.
As for chemical management, the EC elaborates that this would mean the implementation of a chemical restricted substance list, including communication of the list to dyeing, printing and finishing sites, monitoring of the compliance of production sites and monitoring of the compliance of final products, including laboratory testing.
Bangladesh garment exports last year rose 5.78 per cent year-on-year. Reason: Retailers are increasingly willing to shift orders from China. The latest numbers come as a boost for the sector, which in the past couple of years has been subject to a degree of backlash over its working conditions and labor rights following the twin disasters of Tazreen fire and Rana Plaza and subsequently some order diversions.
However, the recent clean chit given to more than 98 per cent of garment factories by two foreign inspection agencies, Alliance and Accord has reassured buyers, who are placing orders in bulk once again with confidence. Overall exports grew 4.33 per cent in December. Some $24.6 billion worth of garment products were exported in 2014 in contrast to $23.5 billion the year before. Garment exporters hope to enjoy the benefit of improved safety measures in 2015.
However, the re-emergence of political turmoil does not bode well for the sector. Factories need raw materials from home and abroad and supply is being cut off due to blockade. Shipments too are affected. Also, many small and medium factories, housed in shared buildings, are struggling for orders due to retailers’ new improved criteria for workplace safety.
Apparel imports into the US fell 1.16 per cent in November following strong gains in September and October. US imports of goods and services fell 2.2 per cent month-on-month in November, yet imports of consumer goods rose 7.8 per cent. While shipments from China, the largest supplier of apparel to the US, with a 42.5 per cent share of the market, slipped 0.16 per cent in November, shipment from its nearest rival, Vietnam climbed 9.3 per cent.
However, shipments from both countries were significantly lower than the previous month, with China tumbling 30.6 per cent and Vietnam falling 24.6 per cent. Vietnam was the only country in the list of top eight apparel suppliers to the US to see import gains during November. Vietnam continues to benefit as both producers and buyers diversify their supply chains. The country's apparel business is also being buoyed by the expected benefits of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade treaty with countries including Canada and the US.
Imports from Indonesia were down 8.02 per cent, Honduras down 9.2 per cent, Cambodia down 3.6 per cent, India down 1.7 per cent, Mexico down 1.85 per cent and Pakistan down 17.2 per cent. Imports into the US from Bangladesh declined 15.1 per cent as buyers relocate orders elsewhere in response to factory safety issues.
The Bangladesh government is likely to demand duty-free market access for its garments eports to the US, as local businesses have to pay exorbitant duty for exporting apparel items to America. The authorities are preparing the agenda to be placed at the 2nd meeting of Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA) to be held in Washington in the month of May. TICFA is a platform to resolve trade-related disputes between the two countries through discussions.
Senior secretary in the commerce ministry, Hedayetullah Al Mamoon has informed that his country will start preparing the agenda for the meeting from next month. The aim is to increase exports to the US. Bangladesh is one of the top duty payers for garments to the US, it pays 15.61 per cent duty compared to competitors such as China (3.08 per cent), Vietnam (8.38 per cent), India (2.29 per cent), Turkey (3.57 per cent) and Indonesia (6.30 per cent).
As per Mamoon, his country will also highlight the progress made for ensuring workplace safety that was demanded by the US. As per commerce ministry statistics, Bangladesh exported goods worth $5.59 billion to the US in fiscal 2013-14.
Pakistan's yarn merchants want a better deal. They say unless economic conditions improve, overall business stability, exports and industrial progress will remain elusive. China’s reversal of cotton policy has hit Pakistan’s yarn production and export. Cotton yarn production also started falling in the country, reflecting the slowing down of demand from China.
Import of cheaper yarn from India at zero tariff lowered the demand for domestic cotton yarn and kept market prices down. This again hit production. More than 75 per cent of the textile industry is engaged in yarn making. Much of Pakistan’s cotton yarn goes to domestic production of socks, towels and home textile products. Other yarn buyers are velvet, carpet, tent, canvas, blanket, sewing thread and embroidery thread manufacturing units.
The government has no clear-cut policy on yarn exports. Exporting cotton and cotton yarn at less than international prices creates a shortage of raw material for the local industry. A simple solution would be to address the grievances of cotton growers in the country as that will ensure a bumper crop.
Improved quality of raw cotton will not only reduce the cost of production and waste production but will enable spinners to produce cotton yarn of higher counts to fetch more foreign exchange.
Japan's apparel industry will place a special tag on genuine Japanese clothing. Companies will be allowed to put the ‘J Quality’ tag on suits, shirts and sweaters if three processes -- weaving fabric, dyeing and sewing -- are carried out in Japan. Raw materials such as threads may include those imported from abroad.
The project has come into force for Autumn/Winter this year. So far, clothing with the ‘Made in Japan’ label included products that use foreign-made fabric and sewn in Japan. Imported items account for about 97 per cent of clothing sales in Japan. The purpose of the tag is to acknowledge the skills of Japan's apparel industry workers and counter the competition from cheaper Chinese-made products.
The companies will be able to apply to a fashion industry group in February to be allowed to put the tag on their products. Shoes and bags will not be included. After two decades of decline, Japan’s apparel market looks set for an era of growth and relatively stability. The categories trending in the Japanese apparel markets are women’s outerwear, sportswear, and children’s wear.
The country is an excellent balance of traditional textiles and modern fashion entwined together.
