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The International Labour Organization (ILO) has developed six action-oriented guidelines to help Asian garment factories navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and build business resilience. These six guidelines deal with six issues of managing cash flow, reducing costs, finding alternative sources of income, establishing an online presence, organizing factories for safer and more efficient operations, and communicating with workers.
On managing cash flow, the guidelines advise factories to first understand their cash flow. They advise manufacturers to reduce costs to ease financial liquidity and cash flow pressures on their factory operations. The guidelines also encourage factory owners to look to alternative sources of income - including emergency relief packages and short term opportunities such as PPE, - to survive the pandemic. They are advised to establish an online presence in order to promote their business and to facilitate communication with buyers.
They also urge manufacturers to reorganize factories to provide better safety measures and improve operational efficiency, and to maintain good internal communications with workers for a more responsive and productive factory environment during the crisis.
Economic Research Service’s Cotton and Wool Outlook report suggests for June 2020, the developing global economic slowdown has significantly reduced world cotton demand for marketing year (MY) 2019 (August 2019-July 2020). Although June’s global mill use forecast is at a 16-year low, the projected year-over-year decrease is nearly 15 percent.
The use of cotton mill across the world has declined more than 5 percent year-over-year in only 10 other years since MY 1920, with most of those reductions associated with global recessions, including the Great Depression. More recently, uncertainty surrounding the global financial crisis significantly limited world cotton demand in MY 2008, while a dramatic run-up in MY 2010 cotton prices to levels not experienced since the U.S. Civil War hampered mill use in MY 2011. While the overall severity of the COVID-19 pandemic remains unknown, the immediate shock to global cotton mill use has been historically significant.
Shengze, home to the largest silk wholesale market known for silk and man-made silk ranks 9th in top thousand Chinese towns for the economic strength. China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) has chosen Shengze as a ‘Pilot Zone’ in its efforts to foster and encourage more mega-class textile and apparel manufacturing clusters across the country.
On June 16, the 7th Jiangsu (Shengze) Textile Expo- Virtual Exhibition Online was launched with the symbol of “Silk in the East, Fashion from Shengze” in ceremonial atmosphere amid rising waves of economic recovery in China. Shengze, a famous town of silk, is in Wujiang District of Suzhou city in Jiangsu province, with about one-hour drive to the most commercially prosperous city of Shanghai, the town ranks the 9th in the top thousand towns for the economic strength in the country.
China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), the largest NGO to represent the voice of the industry in China, is stepping up efforts to foster and encourage more mega-class textile and apparel manufacturing clusters across the country. The mega-class is termed in the notion that there are going to be more textile towns or industrial clusters each with annual turnover for 100 billion Yuan (exchange rate roughly at 1 dollar: 7 Yuan) despite the fact there are hundreds of the designated famous towns of textiles and fashion under this benchmark.
Over 200 towns, cities and industrial bases of textile and apparel, nominated by CNTAC as famous hometowns of the industry in different names by sector, account for over 40 percent of the total output value in the whole textile industry in China with more employees than official figures that only take the data of considerably sized companies into account in the present statistics system.
Shengze stands out as Famous Town of Silk, in a capacity of the manmade fiber silk as it is home to the largest filament weaving (air-jet and water-jet weaving machines in operation) in the country and in the world as well, and also home to the largest silk wholesale market known as Eastern Silk Market China that has 7000 sales booths in house, and Shengze Manmade Silk Market Index is a well-known barometer of the silk business in China.
Mr. Li Ming, head of Wujiang District, said in its opening address that Shengze Fashion Week made its debut amid the 7th Jiangsu (Shengze) Textile Expo to carry out the strategy for integrating silk textiles into the fashion in a value-added industrial chain of portfolios, an important step for building up the world-class high-end textile and fashion cluster.
Mr. Sun Ruize, president of CNTAC, president-elect of International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) headquartered in Zurich of Switzerland, who is to take office in October, attended the opening ceremony with his remarks to reaffirm the stable situation in the basic perspectives of textile economy in China and pointed out the four aspects of focus on future development in parallelism voiced as “focusing on the industrial clusters to forge new systematic advantages, focusing on digital economy to foster new driver, focusing on domestic market to form new industrial circulation and focusing on factors of productivity to construct new ecosystem for value creation”. In this new trend, he predicted that fashion designers, international brands and fashion trend events would soon converge here, and Shengze would evolve into a town of fashion gradually in a clear shape-taking progress.
Mr. Xu Yingxin , vice president of CNTAC announced the decision to jointly build Shengze into the mega-textile town and Mr. Sun Ruize presented a plaque to the town official, with the words reading “ Pilot Zone of the World-class Textile Industry Cluster”.
Contributed by Mr. ZHAO Hong
He is working for CHINA TEXTILE magazine as Editor-in-Chief in addition to being involved in a plethora of activities for the textile industry. He has worked for the Engineering Institute of Ministry of Textile Industry, and for China National Textile Council and continues to serve the industry in the capacity of Deputy Director of China Textile International Exchange Centre, V. President of China Knitting Industry Association, V. President of China Textile Magazine and its Editor-in-Chief for the English Version, Deputy Director of News Centre of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), Deputy Director of International Trade Office, CNTAC, Deputy Director of China Textile Economic Research Centre. He was also elected once ACT Chair of Private Sector Consulting Committee of International Textile and Clothing Bureau (ITCB)
Worn Again, a technology licensing company that is developing polymer recycling processes to enable raw materials in textiles and polyester packaging to be kept in constant circulation, has generated up to €8 million in new equity capital from investors, including follow-on commitments from two of its existing strategic investors, H&M and Sulzer.
This significant financial backing is a vote of confidence in the company’s enhanced recycling technology and proposed circular licensing business model, which promises to be crucial in closing the loop in the end-of-use polyester and polycotton/cellulose textile industry.
The investment provides over two years of operating capital and will be used to accelerate and complete the company’s fundamental technology development through the R and D phase. It will also provide the base financing required in the next phase of bringing the technology to market.
Through these ongoing strategic partnerships with two global industry players, Worn Again Technologies will benefit from the world-leading expertise of H&M Group’s supply chain and consumer-facing business, as well as the advanced manufacturing and industrial capabilities of Sulzer Chemtech.
With essential support from investors and a strong scale-up plan, validation of the company’s innovation is on the horizon, a crucial step towards the industrialisation of this technology.
Fast Retailing, the Japanese operator of the casual clothing chain Uniqlo, has narrowed the gap against Zara, the global apparel leader in market value, as investors applaud the company's major presence in China.
While apparel sales are down sharply in the U.S. and Europe, Zara's main markets, as the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll, the decline is relatively mild in Asia where Fast Retailing is focused on. Their share prices appear to be factoring in this reality.
Fast Retailing had a market capitalization of 6.53 trillion yen ($60.9 billion) last week, data from QUICK FactSet show. This compares with Inditex's market cap of around 9.17 trillion yen.
The market capitalization of Zara parent Inditex was once roughly 300 per cent larger than that of Fast Retailing as recently as summer 2017. Now the gap is about 40 per cent.
Tortona Design & Fashion has launched a new website for the textile and apparel sector. Called Ready to show online, the website has built a buyer/user base over the years via 40 sessions of IntertexMilano and the Ready to Show events in Milan, Italy since 2001. In addition, this list includes 30,000 contacts of prospective buyers worldwide.
The Ready to Show website will also include extensive webinars and events with international speakers and prestigious sponsors are programmed from July 2020. Each participating country will have its own page and all relevant national fashion boards and associations will be involved.
For example, Focus on Italy section will be not only considering Italian fashion brands currently selling globally but will also show the worldwide production partners for Italian Fashion. In the section AREA ITALIA, it will also show made in Italy production partners both for Italian brands and for all top end private labels willing to collaborate with Italian makers for medium-high target of clients, tailoring, MTM, Be-spoke, etc.
The services section will include, Q.C., forwarders, links to special NGOs working on sustainability, innovative tech companies as well as free-lance designers or fashion schools
Completely user-friendly, the site will allow all countries, even the smallest in the fashion business, to have visibility within a dignified presentation not always available during traditional trade shows. Buyers will have the ability to work with ease and without fighting crowds devoting time to searches and exhibitors.
The demand of textile value chain, including yarn, fabric and apparels is likely to contract by 25-35 per cent in the financial year 2021 due to ongoing economic slowdown following lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, finds a study by India Ratings and Research.
The demand of yarn, fabric and apparels is set to remain muted throughout first half of the financial year 2020-21. The FY21 demand growth would typically depend on discretionary spending, and thus a gradual recovery in household income over the second half of the current financial year between October 2020 and March 2021.
Normalcy in revenue across the textile value chain may return by the second half of the financial year 2022, on the back of reopening of the retail space, a normal monsoon, the festive and wedding season. The demand revival will also depend on government measure to incentivise exports, the study forecasts.
Weak demand of value added products like yarn, fabric and apparel is bound to impact raw material prices. The study forecasts a correction in cotton prices over 2QFY21 from the levels of Rs 95 per kg as of May 2020 due to a low demand and high holding levels at Cotton Corporation of India. However, holding stocks could only provide a short-term relief. Some of the inventory is expected to be exported, given the advantage of lower prices and rupee depreciation.
Shein expanded its range with a new collection called Shein Premium. The fashion e-commerce store intends to move upmarket with this collection. Made up of close to 175 items, the collection is designed as an ‘essentials’ line featuring solid colours and neat tailoring.
The retailer launched in 2008 and is known for its low prices, charging on average between €5 and €25 for garments from its main collection. For its new range, prices will range from €20 to €50. Shein says the collection uses “quality materials and refined tailoring”. Product descriptions of the ‘Premium’ products show that polyester is widely used and several garments are made of cotton.
With a strong social media presence, Shein’s target audience is women aged between 16 and 35 and the brand also caters to men and children. The brand follows the main current fashion trends, inspired by fashion shows and international brands.
Manny Chirico, chairman and chief executive officer of PVH Corp said the company is well-positioned to face the future. The company prides itself on its inclusivity and views its more than 40,000 associates as its PVH family. It does everything it can to drive the connectivity of its associate base, especially in a backdrop like this that can feel so isolating.
He explained that the purpose of the corporation is to drive fashion forward for good, and one of the best ways to do that to fight for racial equality within the walls of the company, throughout the industry and in society at large.
For the last several months, PVH has felt the devastating effects of the coronavirus across its business, in every region of the world, said Chirico. The company immediately responded with an action plan that prioritized the health, safety and well-being of its associates across its offices, stores and warehouses. It also implemented measures to protect the health and financial wherewithal of the company, from securing new financing to cutting every expense possible, proactively managing its inventory levels and re-directing resources to its digital channels.
Supima, the non-profit trade association that owns the Supima trademark and promotes 100 percent U.S.-grown American Pima cotton, has become an implementing partner with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) for the upcoming 2020/2021 harvest season.
In partnership with BCI, Supima will help to establish a greater footprint in the market for BCI-licensed Supima cotton, with the goal of attaining BCI licensing for all Supima cotton growers. This initiative will also act as a bridge for the American Pima industry to meet the demand from brands and retailers for Supima cotton with a verified third-party sustainability license.
Supima and BCI both support the U.S. cotton industry’s development of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol program and look forward to an alignment of programs for a unified sustainability platform based on data, impact and authenticity.
Supima president and CEO Marc Lewkowitz said the company continues to strive to lead in the premium natural fibers segment through responsible and authentic efforts such as origin verification for all Supima cotton utilizing forensic sciences with Oritain and support of sustainability efforts through the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol and the Better Cotton Initiative.
Manny Chirico, chairman and chief executive officer of PVH Corp said the company is well-positioned to face the future. The company prides itself on its inclusivity and views its more than 40,000 associates as its PVH family. It does everything it can to drive the connectivity of its associate base, especially in a backdrop like this that can feel so isolating.
He explained that the purpose of the corporation is to drive fashion forward for good, and one of the best ways to do that to fight for racial equality within the walls of the company, throughout the industry and in society at large.
For the last several months, PVH has felt the devastating effects of the coronavirus across its business, in every region of the world, said Chirico. The company immediately responded with an action plan that prioritized the health, safety and well-being of its associates across its offices, stores and warehouses. It also implemented measures to protect the health and financial wherewithal of the company, from securing new financing to cutting every expense possible, proactively managing its inventory levels and re-directing resources to its digital channels.
