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Bangladesh's garment exports to the US grew 8.51 per cent during January to July 2015. But it’s still lower than those of competing countries. In the same period apparel exports to the by Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka to the US grew by 14.94 per cent, 9.63 per cent and 16.10 per cent respectively. India exported garments worth $2.33 billion against $2.12 billion in the same period of 2014. Chinese apparel exports grew by 2.34 per cent.
The recent industrial accidents in Bangladesh and confrontational politics, have made US buyers wary and they are in a wait and watch situation before placing orders. But the safety initiatives undertaken by Bangladesh and improving political situation helped garment exporters regain buyers’ confidence resulting in a gradual increase in orders in recent times.
Accord and Alliance have completed their initial inspection and remediation work to fix the flaws is going on. The inspection program under the national initiative would end by next month. The US is the single biggest market for garment products made in Bangladesh. Bangladesh apparel exports to the US fell to $4.83 billion in 2014 from $4.94 billion in 2013. And prices of locally-made apparel items did not increase in line with rising production costs.
Readymade garment exports from Bangladesh in volume terms have increased over 58 per cent in the last fiscal year, but the value was affected by retailers’ low price offer and devaluation of euro. Export Promotion Bureau data reveals, the country exported 1.57 billion units of apparel products to global market in FY14/15 with 58.17 per cent rise from 993million units a year ago.
Of the total RMG exports, woven products were 757million units compared 485million in the previous year and knitwear products amounted to 815million units compared to 508.67million units a year ago. The value of total RMG exports last fiscal was $25.49 billion posting 4 per cent surge from the previous year’s $24.49billion.
Knitwear exports were valued at $12.43billion, up 3.13 per cent since the previous fiscal’s $12.05billion and the woven products $13.06 billion with 5 per cent growth over the previous year’s $12.44 billion.
A study by Mark Anner, Associate Professor at Penn State University, prices of men’s and boys’ cotton trousers exported to the US declined by 40.89 per cent over the last 14 years owing to companies cutting down the product prices sourced from Bangladesh. Bangladesh earns 60.28 per cent of its total RMG export figure from the EU market.
www.epb.gov.bd
The Bangladesh government is considering bringing festival allowances of workers including those of readymade garment sector under a legal framework to avoid unrest ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha.
“To ensure two festival allowances in a year for the workers a guideline may be stipulated in the implementation rules under the labour act but it will not be possible to include separate clause for any particular sector as the implementation rules will be applicable for all industry,” state minister for labour Mujibul Haque informed at a press conference held in Dhaka on Sunday.
The state minister also said that the government was considering a fixed amount as festival allowances for RMG workers as per the demands of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA). After the delegation from Bangladesh visited Germany recently, the government plans to start the ‘Social Accident Insurance’ for the garment factory workers on a pilot basis.
www.mole.gov.bd
The Nigerian textile sector is addressing some of the constraints that have held it down from realising the potential in employment generation and capital flow. Adoption of new technology would not only help textile producers in cutting the cost of production, it would also make their products competitive in the global market. It’s imperative for operators in the sector to be innovative since the textile business globally has gone digital. The industry has to be up and doing in terms of embracing new technology.
Investment in new technology is needed. The textile industry has to be cost effective in the short run. New technology will enable textile producers to come up with product samples very quickly, come out with new designs just by operating the computer. A lot of computer-aided designs have gone into textile printing today and that is the challenge facing the industry. While over 1,21,100 jobs have been lost as a result of inactivity in the textile sector, only 39 out of the 143 textile mills across the country are still in operation.
In Nigeria, textile manufacturing is a key local industry, supported by a chain of suppliers such as cotton growers and natural dye makers. Nigerians have a love for naturally dyed fabrics, with many prints based on traditional motifs. However traditional methods of dying fabrics are threatened by cheap imports.
Now anyone can present a paper at the TCL 2016 the International Conference on Textile Coating and Laminating to be held from March 15 -17, 2016 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. TCL is offering this opportunity to anyone with exciting and relevant ideas on textile coating and laminating to present to a high-level international audience. The deadline for receipt of Abstracts is September 9, 2015.
The emphasis should be on work that would impact the industry, whether short or long term. Abstracts submitted for review need to be 300-500 words. Ideas and concepts that emphasise new and significant findings/developments that would impact the coating and laminating industry would be a part of the selection process.
A 50 per cent discount on registration admission fee is applicable to speakers accepted by way of the call for papers. Travel and accommodation expenses have to be borne by speakers themselves. The name, company or other affiliation, telephone number, e-mail address and mailing address of the speaker and/or the person to whom correspondence about the abstract should be directed is mandatory. Only one speaker per presentation will be allowed, though co-authors may be listed. The speaker for the paper should be indicated and all presentations need to be planned to run approximately for 25 minutes. No commercial talks are allowed at TCL; however, some sponsorship packages are available for companies to present their sales message.
This established conference series, which is now in its 25th year, has become one of the most important meeting places for the global textiles coating and laminating industry.
At a time when much of the world’s clothing is being made in Asia, where low cost labor keeps prices down, a lot of textile industry has left the United States. But the state of Michigan has the creativity, industrial space, workforce, manufacturing experience and raw material to make a go at becoming a garment industry hub.
In some cases, it could be more cost effective to manufacture clothes in the US, depending on the price point and the time it takes to manufacture and ship. One way Michigan can find a niche and compete with foreign companies is through its supply chain infrastructure that is already developed, thanks to the auto industry.
For garments that cost $150 to $200, Michigan can actually be competitive based on tax incentives, inexpensive space, and even with the labor costs. And the state’s fiber producers and processors can provide raw materials for textiles, such as alpaca wool and camel hair.
Many US fashion designers have been looking at domestic manufacturing facilities because they can’t continue making all the items in addition to designing, marketing, distributing and everything else associated with a clothing line. They would prefer to partner with a Michigan factory so that they can more easily check on the work and make adjustments.
Bangladesh has emerged the world’s largest importer of denim fabrics, with a large number of global denim brands returning to source denim products from the country. Estimates suggest that the country’s over 60 per cent of denim fabrics demand was met by imports from China.
Manufacturers require a variety of denims fabrics such as regular, knit, jacquard, printed, coloured and coated to produce jeans. Bangladesh is said to be producing 360 million yards of denim fabrics against its demand of 720 million per annum and has to heavily rely upon imports. The global demand for denim fabric is estimated to be 6.5 billion yards. 25 factories in Bangladesh are actively producing denim fabrics and few more are said to be in the process of starting production.
Bangladesh’s share in the world market is divided as 22.88 per cent in EU and 11.35 per cent in US. From FY2009 to ’14, denim exports have witnessed a rise of 11.16 per cent and the country’s denim apparel export is expected to reach $7 billion by 2021.
The Korean textile industry is reorganising its industrial structure with the aim to promote high value added market, such as high performance textiles and fabrics for the high tech industry. The Korean fabric technological level has increased from 75 per cent in 2010 to 79 per cent in 2015. The figure will slightly improve to 85 per cent in 2020. Meanwhile China has steadily seen technological growth in the fabric industry rise from 55 per cent in 2010 to 65 per cent in 2015 aiming to touch 75 per cent in 2020.
Accordingly, the technical gap between Korea and China will be halved in a decade from 20 per cent in 2010 to 10 per cent in 2020. The figure between Japan and Korea will also decrease from 25 per cent in 2010 to 15 per cent in 2020. China’s share in the global textile market as of 2013 was 37.9 per cent, while that of Korea and Japan stood at 2.2 per cent and 1.2 per cent.
Korea has a high percentage of clothing in production and most of them are being supplied to the domestic market with middle and high prices while those for exports are low and middle priced products.
Chinaa's export of spun yarn grew sharply by 35 per cent in volume terms while the rise in value terms was 16 per cent. For second month in a row, China’s imports of Indian spun yarn jumped in July. However, overall unit value realisation continued to inch down.
China was the top importer of Indian spun yarn in July, accounting for 45 per cent of Indian spun yarn exports. Bangladesh, the second largest importer of spun yarns, accounted for close to 11 per cent of all spun yarn exported from India. However, exports to Bangladesh increased two per cent in volumes and fell six per cent in value. Egypt continued to be the third largest importer of spun yarns, with volume and value both down 18 per cent and 25 per cent. These three top importers together accounted for 60 per cent of all spun yarn exported from India in July.
Nigeria, Mexico, Cambodia and Norway were among the fastest growing markets in June, more than doubling their imports from India. However, they together accounted for only 0.5 per cent of total exports. Saudi Arabia, Latvia, Chile, Croatia and Czech Republic almost halved their imports from India compared to their levels a year ago.
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has asked for government’s intervention to free market mechanism, as there is a move to procure seed cotton (phutti) equivalent to one million bales at the support price of Rs 3,000 per 40kg.
The association said that the cost of production for cotton growers was very high, as the price of urea has been increased by Rs 150 per bag and diesel prices have jacked up by 45 per cent. It has put cotton farmers into trouble. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan had procured 90,000 cotton seed last year and incurred a loss of one billion rupees.
Industry body questioned the Corporation’s motive behind repeating the same mistake this year when last year’s procurement is still lying with it. The country’s exports during the outgoing fiscal dropped by 17 per cent and to benefit small growers, it said that the government must procure total production of 14 million bales and supply it to the textile industry at the international price.
Rising production costs are also negatively affecting the cotton farmers, like the textile industry players. The government can assist them by reducing cost of inputs by providing a direct support on electricity and fertilizer.
www.aptma.org.pk
