COLZATE, Italy and DHAKA, Bangladesh — December 20, 2018 — Itema, the leading Italian manufacturer of best-in-class weaving machines, spare parts and integrated services, is exhibiting at DTG Dhaka (Hall 7 / 510) from January 9th – 12th at BICC – Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in a joint booth with its sole agent in the country Pacific Associates.

The Italian based Company will showcase its absolute worldwide best-seller, the Itema rapier machine R9500. The R9500 on show, courtesy of the Itema Customer Well Group based in Chittagong, will exhibit a shirting fabric which represents one of the most produced in the Bangladeshi weaving mills. The Itema target is to demonstrate to the industry the textile superiority, the real production performances and the excellent efficiency of the R9500 when it comes to weaving the widest range of fabrics, including shirting, apparel, bed sheeting.

DTG is for Itema the perfect stage to allow the Bangladeshi weavers to experience first-hand the advanced weaving technology and the worldwide Itema references, in what is defined as one of the future leading countries in the woven fabric production.

In fact, despite garmenting is a major industry in Bangladesh the biggest amount of fabric required is still imported from other countries. In this landscape, the future development of the weaving industry represents one of the main potential sectors for growth of the Bangladeshi textile industry.

Itema positions itself as a reliable partner – and not only a simple supplier – for textile companies, providing best-in-class, made in Italy weaving machines along with a real-time after-sales service, highly professional trainings for the weavers and integrated textile consultancy.

Itema is uniquely positioned in the market to offer textile manufacturers the top three weft insertion technologies – rapier, airjet and projectile, OEM spare parts, upgrade kits and a the dedicated online shop MyItema for the historic brands now part of Itema – Somet, Sulzer and Vamatex, plus highly professional trainings in 6 worldwide locations.

Itema, as a customer-oriented Company, wants to give to the Bangladeshi textile entrepreneurs a valuable option in the market and features a solid organization in the country, relying on a trained and professional locally based team of technicians.

The Italian representatives of the Company along with the Bangladeshi Itema dedicated team will be at DTG to meet the industry players, to listen to their needs and to show to them the multiple possibilities and advantages that they could get by dealing with Itema.

To learn more about Itema’s technological innovations, visit the Joint ITEMA & PACIFIC ASSOCIATES booth in Hall 7 Stand 510.

Picanol will participate in DTG 2019. This event will take place from January 9-12, 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Picanol will be present at the booth of its agent, Spintex Technology (Booth 7-126).

Bangladesh has been an important market for Picanol over the last decade. Picanol has become one of the leading weaving machinery suppliers to the market, due to its complete and competitive product portfolio and top class service.

Bangladesh textile industry is investing mainly in in denim, bottomweights, shirting and bedsheeting fabrics. Picanol offers both rapier (OptiMax-i, TerryMax-i) and airjet weaving machines (OMNIplusSummum and TERRYplusSummum) for these applications.

For a number of years, Picanol has been represented in the region by Spintex Technology, which ensures excellent local service via a pool of trained technicians and an excellent after market service for spare parts and Weave-Up packages. At least once a year, all of the technicians travel to the Picanol headquarters in Belgium in order to receive training on all of the latest developments.

Picanol expects the Bangladesh market to continue its growth story in fabric manufacturing.

35 000 visitors and more than 880 exhibitioners: the Dhaka International Textile & Garment Machinery exhibition (DTG) is the perfect opportunity for Mahlo GmbH + Co. KG to make its products even more known in Bangladesh. From 9 to 12 January, the German machine builder Mahlo will showcase its measurement and control solutions for textile production at booth 820, located in the International Convention City Bashundhara.

Mahlo Modular straightening and process control system. Figure: Mahlo Modular straightening and process control system.“Bangladesh is the second biggest exporter for Ready Made Garment in the world, and thus one of the most important markets in the textile branch”, says Mahlo’s Area Sales Manager Adnan Andac.

Together with service partner Tootal Quality Resources Ltd., Adnan Andac is ready for questions and issues of the expert audience. In order for Bangladesh to keep its current market position, a shift to higher-quality goods is much needed. Bangladesh is the second biggest exporter for Ready Made Garment in the world, and thus one of the most important markets in the textile branch.

ADNAN ANDAC, AREA SALES MANAGER, MAHLO

Andac also added, “And that’s why Mahlo is the ideal partner for local textile producers.”

The world market leader’s weft straightener, for example, provides straight goods reliably. Based on the experience that goes back to 1945 the machine impresses with the latest technology in distortion correction. The modular straightening and process control system ensures a straight-thread product before and after the drying or fixing process and optimizes the processes all around the stenter. This increases quality and saves resources and energy. With the help of the process control system, Optipac VMC-15 textile producers can measure and control critical parameters such as dwell time, thread density or residual moisture.

For everyone who wants to optimize the production process and increase the product quality at the same time, should come to booth 820, operated by Mahlo and Tootal. The experts will work out the perfect solution for individual challenges.

The challenges for the textile machinery sector are likely to manifold in 2019, said VDMA, Germany's mechanical engineering industry association. The political and economic framework conditions have deteriorated, incoming orders in main markets are difficult to predict. Hence, markets that have so far been less in focus have to be worked on more intensively.

At the same time, the recruitment and retention of both academic and industrial junior staff is becoming a permanent task for companies, VDMA said in a statement at the turn of the year 2018-19. Recruitment of new talent is a long runner. Competition from other technology sectors is fierce. In 2019, the VDMA’s Walter Reiners Foundation will continue the tried and tested instruments of recruiting young people, at the same time breaking new ground and developing answers with its member companies to the question of how engineers can be enthusiastic about I4.0 tasks in the industry. At the ITMA in Barcelona, the VDMA will once again give students the opportunity to visit the leading trade fair as part of an excursion group.

In April, the creativity awards of the foundation will be presented for the first time in a 'young environment' at the recruiting fair MG Zieht An - Go Textile. This year, the awards ceremony of the Walter Reiners Foundation took place in the Digital Capability Center in Aachen. (RR)

With favorable news on China-US trade war in early December, sales of polyester yarn turned better, promoting the inventory to decline from 14 days to 7 days. Some polyester yarn mills are even short of supply. Accordingly, recycled polyester yarn mills are also affected. As the relevance between virgin PSF and recycled one gets closer, recycled polyester yarn mills pay more attention to virgin PSF and polyester yarn price trend.

With the fourth quarter coming to an end, stable price is favorable for downstream to consume stockpiles, alleviating the weakness on market. Differences exist among spinners in North China and in South China. In South China, polyester yarn is sold quickly while in North China, polyester yarn mills are burdened with high inventory yet polyester yarn made of close virgin PSF performs well.

Currently, downstream demand stays bearish despite slight improvement. Market players still hold cautious attitude to the demand recovery before and after Spring Festival. If downstream demand does not restor e actually, sales of polyester yarn will face large pressure and the favorable factors brought by eased China-US trade war will not last long. As things standing, polyester yarn market seems stable on the whole in the fourth quarter. Most spinners sell actively to lower inventory, and they generally keep cautious to the market outlook in the first quarter of 2019. In terms of restocking and holiday plans, polyester yarn market will stay bearish in Q1 2019.

China is set to overtake the US as the world’s largest economy by 2032. In 2003, the world’s five largest economies were the US, Japan and three European countries. Thirty years later three out of the top five economies will be Asian (India third and Japan fourth) and only one will be European (Germany).

This year, the feel-good factor in global economy has largely dispersed being replaced by volatility and uncertainty. Trade tensions have come to the fore, with the US and China imposing substantial tariffs on each other’s export sectors.

So far, the US economy seems undeterred and 2018 has been another year of strong growth. This is in part due to the tax reform package passed in 2017, which has brought forward growth. However, it leaves a serious budget deficit problem that is likely to balloon over time. This means that in the case of an economic downturn, the US will have less fiscal headroom to use in order to avoid a recession.

China, on the other hand, has had more problems as the trade conflict weighs on an economy already under strain. In 2018, China finally seemed to be making progress in weaning its economy off the large volumes of debt that had been used to prop up growth after the financial crisis.

Tukatech and Lefty Production have collaborated to open a design center in the US. The facility offers complete pattern-making, grading and marker-making using TUKAcad and SMARTmark, virtual sampling using TUAK3D (eliminating physical samples), sample cutting with the TUKAcut laser cutter, production cutting and sewing, and cloud collaboration and asset management with TUKAcloud.

The center will allow smaller manufactures, independent fashion designers, freelance pattern-makers, graders, marker-makers or anyone else who wants to design clothes to walk in and allow fashion industry experts to assist and guide the way.

Tukatech is a global apparel technology solutions provider. The company aims to revolutionise the small and medium sector in the apparel industry. Its latest innovation aims to increase efficiency in product development, thereby reducing the time and cost in developing new samples and enabling effective global communications and faster sample approvals through TUKA Cloud.

Lefty Production is a top full package service provider. Lefty is a one-stop shop design house, apparel and accessories manufacturer. It works with designers, fashion brands, and retailers of all varieties and sizes. With this partnership, Lefty’s priority is to ensure its clients get the best possible products and the best possible service on time.

Going virtual has allowed apparel manufacturers to reduce their product development time considerably, and increase their first-sample acceptance rate.

As per Chinese Economy Blue Book 2019, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the ongoing trade war between China and the US may be the biggest external risk for the Chinese economy in 2019, but it could also help the country further deepen reform and open-up.

According to Lou Feng, Director of the Economic Modeling Team at the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics under CASS, the biggest external impact on the Chinese economy next year will be the trade war. He urged both China and the US to strengthen consultation and avoid further escalation of the trade war.

Lou also called for deeper reforms to boost China's manufacturing transformation and upgrading. Many Chinese analysts have argued that the trade war could prompt China to carry out new reform and opening-up measures, which is a good thing, in theory. But others cautioned that China shouldn't be driven off its intended course under pressure.

More and more Americans are moving towards US-made products to support domestic companies. In recent years, there’s been growing demand for wool yarn that's completely produced in the United States, from sheep to skin. One reason could be that consumers are turning back to wool because of the environmental risks of microplastics in garments made from synthetics such as acrylic, nylon and polyester. The microplastics are released into waterways when the synthetic garments are washed.

Locally sourced yarn helps not only the environment but local businesses too. Shopping local is allowing farmers to raise and keep their animals on the farm. The farm-to-table movement of eating local, shopping local -- basically the major slow food movement -- laid the ground work for the knitting industry. Business is growing for fiber artists and companies that focus on producing high-quality, ethically sourced yarn with attention to their environmental impact.

Yarn company Brooklyn Tweed was founded in 2010 to preserve, support and sustain American textile production by doing business with sheep farmers, fiber mills and dyers across the United States. Most garments worn in the United States in the first half of the 20th century were American-made, but the decline of the American textile industry began after World War II.

PRGMEA chairman Mubassar Naseer Butt has urged the adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industries and Production and Investments Abdul Razak Dawood to rationalise duty structures and minimise taxes and duties on import of raw materials in the RMG sector. The ministry should also discourage export of raw material and encourage export of value-added items. He reiterated the request of value-added textile exporters to the State Bank of Pakistan to facilitate exporters' authorised dealer to make import advance payments against irrevocable Letters of Credit (L/C) up to 100 percent of the value of the goods and up to $10,000 per invoice for the import of all eligible items without the requirement of L/C or Bank Guarantee from the supplier abroad.

Expressing concern over extreme cash flow crunch, Mubassar Butt asked the government to announce a clear policy to finally clear all the pending refund claims within stipulated time. Government should also clear old duty drawback claims of exporter for the period 2009-2012 as these claims are pending since long. The PRGMEA chairman requested the bank to support the exporters in a way that first they ensure 50 per cent banking compliances in 2019 and a further 25 per cent may ensure in the next year and so on. Butt also extended an assurance on behalf the value-added textile industry by supporting the government in achieving its target of economic growth and overcoming the unprecedented trade deficit.