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The Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL), a Government of India Enterprise has granted Indo Count Industries the silver trophy for the second highest exports of made-ups in ‘Bed Linen / Bed Sheets / Quilts’, under the Category - III for the year 2014/15.
Earlier, the company was at the third position, and now, with this trophy, it has becomes the second largest manufacturer exporter of bed linen, bed sheets and quilts from India.
The company prides itself of being a blend of quality, expertise and technology it adheres to, to create incomparable standards for finest textile trends, product innovation and world class infrastructure. It also has the ability to explore and support the innovation and creation of new textile products and functionalities.
Indo Count delivers products with the fusion of best techniques, technologies and impeccable minds. It has always put in efforts to be updated about the dynamic and ever-demanding needs of the market. Therefore, it has evolved as a diversified manufacturer of world-class bed linen in different qualities and 100 per cent cotton and blended yarn.
www.indocount.com
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh will inspect 100 more garment factories as its signatory brands have provided a fresh list from which they source apparel products.
Over the last couple of months, brands have sent a list of over 100 factories to Accord that have been newly listed and that need to be inspected. The list includes those factories from which Accord signatory brands source clothing products.
Accord, the platform of 190 European retailers, started its inspection of readymade garment factories last year and completed inspection of over 1,300 factories. It is supposed to inspect around 1,600 factories.
During the inspection, Accord found critical failures which are threatening workers’ safety in more than 50 factories. Of the 50 factories 26 were closed while eight were partially closed.
Later on, eleven factories were allowed to resume production on condition of completion of the necessary corrective measures. The outcry over safety issues began after the Rana Plaza factory disaster that killed over 1,135 workers and injured over 2,500 people in April 2013.
After the disaster, Accord made a commitment to provide financial and technical support to improve fire and building safety standard of readymade garment factories from which European retailers source products.
bangladeshaccord.org
A new initiative that seeks to improve working conditions in clothing manufacturing around the globe has been launched by Levi's, H&M, Nike and Adidas, among a group of clothing brands.
Organised by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the project aims to organise various audits and assessments that manufacturers need to comply with into one standardised assessment. This initiative, according to the industry, will greatly curtail expenses on duplicated auditing and invest the same saved to improve social welfare for workers.
In a statement made by SAC, its mentioned that with brands and retailers applying their own slightly different standards, manufacturers are allocating valuable resources to manage a steady stream of audits. This duplication reduces the value of audits and consumes resources that could otherwise be applied to making improvements, along with contributing to ‘audit fatigue’.
SAC called for collaboration among brands to reach a common social assessment standard, method or tool for social and labour performance measurement in apparel and footwear supply chains. It believes that this effort could be applied to other industries afterwards.
SAC also implemented a successful framework on environment, which seeks to provide an answer to calls from the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and a number of European countries for a standardised, global approach to improve the majorly dismal working conditions that persist in many areas of the global apparel supply chain.
www.hm.com
Sri Lanka’s trade deficit saw a marginal improvement in August 2015 thanks to a sharp slowdown in import expenditure. The deficit in the trade account in August 2015 contracted marginally by one per cent. Total earnings from exports declined by a sharp 19.5 per cent, year-on-year, and expenditure on imports declined by 11.7 per cent.
Despite the slowdown in imports during the first eight months of 2015, the cumulative trade deficit at end August 2015 had increased by five per cent, as a result of poor export performance on account of damped global demand.
Export earnings from textiles and garments, which accounted for half of the exports in the month, declined by 6.6 per cent, reflecting a reduction in exports to the EU market for the sixth consecutive month.
On a cumulative basis, export earnings declined by 3.4 per cent, year-on-year, during the first eight months of 2015 largely due to weak global demand. The leading markets for merchandise exports of Sri Lanka during the first eight months of 2015 were the USA, UK, India, Germany and Italy, accounting for about 51 per cent of total exports.
During the period from January to August 2015, Sri Lanka’s main imports were from India, China, Japan, UAE and Singapore, accounting for about 61 per cent of total imports.
The US cotton adjustments in October included a small 90,000 bale decrease in forecasted production, which appeared driven from a five pound cut in average US cotton yield.
The biggest adjustments to yield at the state level included a 160 pound per acre increase in New Mexico, a 107 pound per acre decrease in Mississippi and a 72 pound per acre decrease in South Carolina.
While the 2015 crop got off to a late start, it has apparently matured on schedule. It is no longer a late crop. Cotton boll opening and harvest are on par with five year average trends.
Ending stocks likely will either be lower or little changed, year-over-year, which suggests that prices may continue to trade in their long-standing range. There were no adjustments to US mill use or exports. World cotton numbers showed a month-over-month increase of 8,80,000 bales of carry-in from the 2014 crop.
Month-over-month decreases in projected Chinese, Pakistani, and Brazilian production outweighed a small increase in West African production, resulting in a lowering of world production by 1.36 million bales.
However, projected world consumption was also lowered 1.17 million bales, compared to the September projections, with the cuts concentrated in the top textile manufacturing countries (China, India, and Pakistan).
China now accounts for 70 per cent of global production of chemical fibres. The output for 2015 represents an increase of 49 per cent from the 2010 level.
The Chinese chemical fibre industry produces synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon and acrylics for textiles and apparel and upholstery. Imports of chemical fibre into China have remained at less than a million tons over the past five years and are negligible relative to domestic production.
China has been shoring up its entire chemical fibre supply chain. The country has substantially increased production of the raw materials that go into making chemical fibres. In 2010, 59 per cent of the industry’s raw materials were sourced from within China. That number jumped to 70 per cent in 2015.
It has also increased capacity of high performance fibres. Its bio-based fibre capacity has soared, with an average annual growth rate of more than 100 per cent.
Over the past five years, Chinese chemical fibre companies have had an annual average 3.85 per cent profit margin for bulk chemical fibres and 18.7 per cent for fibres used by the fashion industry. That has driven the enthusiasm of enterprises to develop new products and promoted industrial brand building.
Ahead of a projected increase in the minimum wage of garment workers, Cambodia’s garment manufacturers called for higher productivity in the sector. However, given the industry’s shaky labour relations, some unions questioned their commitment to enhance efficiency.
The Garment Manufacturers Association (GMAC) in Cambodia called for ‘a renewed focus on productivity’, and urged buyers to increase their prices for Cambodian goods, following the announcement this month that 2016’s wage would rise to $140 from the current $128.
Ken Loo, Secretary General, GMAC stated that wages comprise of a massive portion of a factory’s operating costs. Now, they need to see all parties, including the buyers, and focus on improving productivity to help offset rising costs and keep factories economically viable.
Loo also praised the negotiations process to set up the minimum wage, though he criticises the four trade unions that walked out for violating internal rules. His statement, though, did not mention any specific policies to raise productivity.
Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ President, Ath Thorn, welcomed the move to increase productivity, although he said that if did not improve conditions, output won’t change. He felt that employers need to have skilful management, stop discriminating against workers and also stop using short-term contracts. Besides, Thorn said, employer were hardly interested in upgrading outdated machinery or broad skill straining.
However, Loo mentioned that employers were not holding back productivity; workers though, were resisting small changes too, such as moving someone to a different section of the production line, he added. Loo further said that other policies to raise productivity should be left to individual factories, though the GMAC is building a garment training centre slated to open in September 2016.
www.gmac-cambodia.org
The readymade garment sector in Bangladesh faced challenges from January to March this year due to political unrest. Supply of raw materials and accessories was affected due to the blockade in the first quarter of this year. As a result, garment manufacturers could not manufacture products on time and a good number of factory owners missed their shipment dates.
In addition there are pressures on the readymade garment sector, like devaluation of the dollar in the international market. The sector says buyers want low prices when prices of readymade garments of Bangladesh are much lower compared to other competitors’.
Other issues are lack of productivity and efficiency, shortage of skilled manpower, scarcity of land and high interest rates of bank loans. Entrepreneurs have to pay a 13 to 16 per cent interest on bank loans. More than 250 factories have been shut down due to weak gas and electricity connections.
The country’s garment manufacturers and exporters want a ten-year loan rescheduling facility. They want a withdrawal of the tax at source imposed on the manufacturing sector in the proposed national budget for fiscal 2015-16. They say the one per cent export duty imposed on capital machinery will discourage business.
To recruit firms eager to capitalise on the country’s manufacturing momentum, a state-owned Vietnamese industrial park manager is visiting Atlanta.
A North American road show is being put up by the US office of Becamex IDC Corp., which owns 20 industrial parks across Vietnam including a well-known joint venture with the Singaporean government north of Ho Chi Minh City. The road show will make a stop in Atlanta on October 26, 2015.
The informational event is to be held at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. It includes one-on-one meetings with Becamex representatives, who will share about the advantages of using an industrial park to tap into Vietnam’s low labour costs. Besides, testimonials will be provided by local companies about their experiences in the country.
Vietnam’s fortunes are expected to improve further under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-country deal finalised a few weeks ago in Atlanta that still requires approval by all partner nations. Vietnam already has under its belt American brands such as Gap Inc., Intel Corp., and General Electric, among others. The pact would remove tariffs on almost all products shipped between those countries and some would be phased out over time.
Bill Dao, head of Becamex’s Washington state office said that they chose Atlanta as it has a lot of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies. They focus on SMEs as this sector is very active—they’re smart and take action more quickly than the multinationals and big companies, Dao added.
The October 26 event will include garment and shoe, electronics, machinery, home appliances, food and beverage and many more manufacturing industries.
Became.com.vn
Workers’ wellbeing is of prime importance when it comes to manufacturing industries. Workers who have life skills, it has been found, make fewer mistakes, are more productive at work and have lower rates of absenteeism. Besides, if attention is paid to workers’ wellbeing and investment is made thereof, it has several societal benefits, which is the main step in bettering the industry’s work conditions and dealing with the humanitarian crisis of the industry.
Why workers wellbeing is important?
Workers’ wellbeing was promoted by Henry Ford, who was also the first business leader to do this, albeit for business reasons. Costs were rising and production of Model T was being delayed due to worker absences and turnovers. All this was seriously affecting the business’s bottom line. Thus, developing countries that wish to regain their manufacturing competitiveness have to only follow Ford’s example of workers’ wellbeing equals productivity.
Because when their wellbeing is looked into, they feel good about themselves and with their work. And when they’re empowered to become leaders of their own lives, they become motivated to innovate and be creative. Therefore, when workers are equipped with knowledge to develop their emotional and cognitive social skills, along with experiencing life benefits, they become active contributors to their work environments. These skills could range from health, to education, or work.
If a worker, for instance have access to education on civic participation or making financial goals, they become equipped with personal agency, teamwork and leadership skills. If they are in charge of their own health, their mental or reproductive rights, their work and personal lives improve. In totality, all this leads to greater productivity and reduced costs for businesses.
Satisfied worker leads to more productivity
Ileana López, Head of Sustainability at the C&A Foundation, Mexico, wanted to see if Yo Quiero Yo Puedo would be willing to test its life-skills and personal-agency programmes with seamstresses in a dress factory, a few years ago. Mexico is known for its high number of working hours and very low productivity. And at Yo Quiero Yo Puedo (IMIFAP), there are many reports from Mexican businesses of the high rotation of personnel, increasing absenteeism, low worker morale, too many mistakes along the production line, and not enough productivity.
Yo Quiero Yo Puedo, with the C&A’s support, designed and launched the programme—‘Yo quiero, yo puedo… cuidarme y ser productive’ (I want to, I can… take care of myself and be productive).
In this programme, supervisors undergo 40 hours of life skills and knowledge facilitation, and they in turn replicate the programme during 15 minutes a week with their seamstresses. More than 1,200 supervisors and workers have participated and till date 15 companies have been a part of this programme. The programme has made a statistically (and humanly) significant difference in work satisfaction and productivity.
Satisfaction within the workplace increased by 37.5 per cent, reported the participating companies, and the number of supervisors who stated they had a better personal-work life balance tripled. Also, absenteeism dropped by 25 per cent and the number of pieces produced with mistakes was reduced by 60 per cent. Factories improved their efficiency and workers found their power in less than 1,500 minutes of interaction.
Thus, concluding, it is safe to assume the enabling workers’ wellbeing isn’t just limited to the workplace. People recognise they have greater rights and more possibilities, when empowered to direct their own lives and act as agents of change. So, improving workers’ wellbeing should not be transactional (e.g., giving people money, gifts, clothes, etc.) but it must be an intrinsic empowerment.
www.candafoundation.org
