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Woolmark and Adidas have launched the Woolmark Performance Challenge. This is a global competition for 2018-19, offering the chance to uncover and nurture innovative young minds from across the globe. It is a new annual competition for tertiary students aimed at pushing the limits of product innovation. It provides them an opportunity to develop innovative new product applications within the sports and performance market, by applying the science and natural performance benefits of Australian merino wool.
The winner will be awarded a cash prize as and career development and commercial opportunities including a three-month internship with Adidas. Taking advantage of the explosive growth in demand for sportswear and active wear, wool’s position as a technical fiber allows it to meet increasingly demanding consumer needs for comfort and performance. Wool is recognised by leading sportswear brands and manufacturers for its technical benefits including resistance to odor, superb breathability and moisture management capabilities.
The Woolmark Performance Challenge is a new phase of Woolmark’s product development program. It provides an opportunity for young talent to find a place for their exciting innovation on the international stage, while pushing the infinite possibilities of merino wool into unchartered territories.
Adidas is a leading sports brand. Woolmark Performance Challenge was launched in January 2018.
Texhub will be held in Turkey from November 7 to 9, 2018. This is a comprehensive business platform for exhibiting superior garment fabrics and accessories. The exhibition will see Turkish and foreign participants, including well-known companies from the Chinese and the Indian textile industry, and many European participants, especially the UK.
Around 180 companies will exhibit their products. The event will provide significant opportunities for new business connections. Turkey imported 658 circular knitting machines in the first four months of 2018 – almost three times as many as in the first four months of 2017. The 658 circular knitting machines imported so far this year came from eight countries - three European countries and five countries in the Far East.
Turkey is one of the world's leading manufacturers of knitted fabrics. As Turkey’s textile exports grow, the country’s textile manufacturing companies will have to upgrade their machinery, parts and components, as well as the manufacturing processes. Turkish textile companies are also being encouraged to consider technical collaboration with foreign partners.
There is a strong textile market in Turkey and a strong garment manufacturing market. Because of the small distances people choose to do both in the same place to save transport costs, and lots of mills now are also manufacturers.
Textile Export Promotion Council of India (Texprocil) has urged the government to allow accumulated input tax credits on fabrics available with the weavers as on July 31 to be adjusted to GST payment on outward supplies in both domestic and export markets. GST Council has allowed refund of unutilised input tax credit to taxpayers in the textiles sector in the last meeting. Then, in a notification, the Central Bureau of Indirect Taxes and Customs has said the accumulated credit lying unutilised as on July 31 would gap.
Ujwal Lahoti, Chairman, the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, stated cancellation of unutilised credits will lead to serious problem in the textiles sector and push up the cost of inventory. Further, manmade fibre textiles and yarn attract 18 per cent and 12 per cent GST respectively. Whereas, the GST rate on fabrics is only 5 per cent leading to accumulation of input tax credit due to inverted duty structure. Most of the dyes and chemicals and packing materials used in the textiles sector attract 12 per cent and 18 per cent GST.
As per the Central GST Act, Section 54 allows refund of unutilised input tax credit shall be allowed where the accumulation is due to inverted duty structure. While the intention of the government is to provide refund of accumulated input tax credit due to inverted duty structure and bring down the cost of products, such bifurcation the input credit accumulated before July 31 and after August 1 for the purpose of refunds has led to serious concern.
Fabrics manufacturers have waged GST on all their inward provisions both goods and services and have legitimate input tax credit and therefore it is not proper on government to let it lapse.
CPM Moscow will be held from September 4 to 7, 2018. The number-one tradeshow platform for the fashion business in Russia brings together market participants in the import and export sector and keeps visitors informed about the latest fashion trends and industry developments.
The show will feature brands from children’s, accessories, shoes, body, beach and eveningwear segments. The largest share of brands comes from Germany. Trend agencies such as WGSN from London and Fashion Snoops from New York will provide insights into the latest trends and tendencies, along with the numerous designer shows, multi-label fashion shows and trend zones. Designers and buyers will be briefed on the new spring/summer 2019 ordering season.
Italy will showcase brands like Dvroma, Elisa Cavaletti and Ferrante. Collections by Aron, Climber, Dosso Dossi, Fimka, Gemko and Perspective will be presented at the booths in Turkey’s country pavilion. Designers from Indonesia will present individually made one-off pieces with lots of attention to detail.
French companies from the high-end sector will present themselves with a stylish, consistent and appealing booth concept. In a new daily fashion show the spotlight will be on French brands. The show’s plan is to launch and implement several new projects aimed at new target groups of the trade fair audience.
As per the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) the government has notified Panipat as Town of Export Excellence for carpets, other textile floor coverings and bed linen. Panipat is a major cluster for carpet manufacturers in Haryana with about 200 units in the micro, small and medium enterprises. Haryana is one of the four major carpet producing belts.
The Panipat offers direct employment to over 10,000 people. Besides exports, it supplies carpets worth Rs 1,000 crore in the domestic market. Haryana alone exports carpets worth over Rs 3,000 crore. The GST Council, after demands from the Panipat Carpet industry, had slashed GST rate from 12 per cent to 5 per cent to make Indian carpets competitive.
Panipat’s handmade carpet industry gave a sigh of relief after the rate cut as it was unable to face competition from Turkish imports.
Marks & Spencer has teamed up with technology education specialist Decoded to create the world’s first retail data academy. Marks & Spencer will offer over 1,000 staff members from every function of retail from store managers to finance the opportunity to develop their digital skills.
The leadership team will also embark on a Data Leadership programme enabling the opportunity to get hands-on with technology such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to become the most data-literate leadership team in retail.
Employees will be encouraged to enroll in The Data Fellowship, an 18-month data science skills programme, where they will learn to harness cutting-edge data analytics tools such as R and Python and adopt technologies such as machine learning. Learners who finish this programme will get a data analytics qualification accredited by the British Computing Society.
Steve Rowe, Chief Executive stated this is our biggest digital investment in people to date and the creation of the M&S Data Academy will upskill colleagues and provide them with an in-depth level of digital literacy as well as a Data Analytics qualification.
Hohenstein Institute, a leading accredited German certification provider, has launched two labs in Dhaka and Chittagong to offer a wide range of chemical and textile technology testing and results analysis. The institute has been providing such certification at its labs in Bangladesh since 2005, albeit informally. In Bangladesh it services 100 companies a year and tests 2,000 samples a day.
Garment exporters and textile producers could also get their goods tested at Hohenstein's labs in Hong Kong and Germany but it is time-consuming and expensive. The firm also provides consulting, research and development. It applies internationally recognised standards to ensure transparency in performance tests, quality controls and inspections for textile manufacturers, brands and retailers.
The services provided by the company include analytical testing, tests for harmful substances, preparation of expert reports in case of damage, physical testing for color fastness, pilling, fineness of fibers, determination of fiber composition and behavior measurement during care processes.
The European Union increased its imports of women’s garments by 16.30 per cent volume-wise from January to April 2018 period. EU imported 72.43 million kg of garments worth € 363.31 million worldwide noting 3.26 per cent surge in value-terms. UVR in the first four months of 2017 was € 26.59 per kg of women’s garments whereas in the same period this year it registered a remarkable fall of € 24.58 per kg of women’s garments. The fall in unit prices boosted the growth in the segment.
India exported € 269.16 million worth of garments to the EU marking a 10.40 per cent growth on yearly basis, while shipment in volume-terms went up 12.08 per cent during the period. Bangladesh, which was lagging behind India in exports to EU in the same period last year, surpassed this year to ship 11.09 million kg of garments among the 28-nations bloc, growing 29.84 per cent. On the other hand, its values jumped 14.17 per cent and Bangladesh exported €152.90 million worth of dresses to EU in the review period.
As per an analysis of Textile Beacon’s Fibre to Yarn Trade Statistics – India’s exports of polyester and its blended yarns, over the past five months, have recorded year on year increase of over 50 per cent in value terms. Growth had almost doubled in March this year.
The average price realisation of spun yarns between June 2017 and June 2018 increased almost US cents 10 a kg, from $2.74 a kg to $2.83 a kg. The highest US cents 15 was in case of 100 per cent polyester yarn, US cents 11 in poly-cotton and US cents 7 in poly-viscose yarns.
In June, India exported 100 per cent polyester yarns worth $11.5 million to 49 countries at average unit price of $2.49 a kg with volume at 4.6 million kg. During the month, 9.8 million kg of PC yarns was exported worth $27 million while 4.7 million kg of PV yarns were exported worth $14 million. Globally, Turkey is the largest importer of polyester yarn, followed by Brazil and US. Bangladesh, Colombia and Egypt are the largest importers of PC yarn from India while Turkey is the single largest importer of PV yarns from India followed distantly by Pakistan.
Vietnam’s exports of garments and textiles are predicted to reach $18.5 billion in the second half of the year, bringing the country’s total export turnover to $35 billion. This strong performance can be attributed to the slew of bulk orders stretching to the end of the year. The total garment and textile export turnover in the first half of the year surged 16.49 per cent to $16.5 billion against the same period last year.
The sector also recorded high growth in exports to key markets such as the US, EU, Republic of Korea, China, ASEAN and member states of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Some businesses reported strong export performance including Tinh Loi (Regent Garment), Viet Tien Garment Joint Stock Corporation, Regina Miracle, and Worldon Vietnam.
To achieve double digit growth, the sector should focus on increasing labour productivity, reducing delivery times, and building an efficient logistics network, while investing in advanced technologies to improve the quality and design of products to conquer the local market and penetrate foreign markets.
