FW
The total cotton output in 31 autonomous regions and municipalities in China came down by 4.6 per cent or 260,000 tons in 2016 compared to that in 2015. The decrease that included the main cotton producing province of Xinjiang was despite the increase in yield per unit area, according to a bulletin released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
The Bulletin on the National Cotton Output in 2016 is based on the result of nationwide statistical survey in 31 Chinese provinces. The cotton sown area of Xinjiang was acquired through remote sensing survey.
The total cotton sown area in the period stood at 3,376,100 thousand hectares down by 11.1 per cent or a decrease of 420,500 thousand hectares compared to 2015, the Bureau added. However, the cotton yield per unit area amounted to 1,582.5 kg/ha, up by 7.2 per cent or an increase of 106.5 kg/ha compared with 2015. The total cotton output accounted for 5,343,000 tons, down by 4.6 per cent or a decrease of 260,000 tons compared to that in 2015.
"The textiles minister Smriti Zubin Irani unveiled ‘Jute-Smart’ an online portal to facilitate purchase of jute bags from the industry by state procurement agencies, on ‘Good Governance Day’. The launch also included Dashboard for Integrated Skill Development Scheme hosted on the NIC Cloud with access to public; and Bunkar Mitra – a Helpline for handholding of handloom weavers."
The textiles minister Smriti Zubin Irani unveiled ‘Jute-Smart’ an online portal to facilitate purchase of jute bags from the industry by state procurement agencies, on ‘Good Governance Day’. The launch also included Dashboard for Integrated Skill Development Scheme hosted on the NIC Cloud with access to public; and Bunkar Mitra – a Helpline for handholding of handloom weavers.
Jute-Smart’ aims to provide an integrated platform for stakeholders for easy access to information, transparency and ease of doing business. B-Twill Supply Management & Requisition Tool, in short, Jute-Smart’ is a web-based application that facilitates end to end transactions relating to procurement of B-Twill sacking. It is designed to integrate the process of indenting of B-Twill by SPAs; remit the required fund by )State Procurement Agencies) SPAs into their respective bank accounts; allocate Production Control cum Supply Order (PCSO) by the Jute Commissioner, etc.
Policy Change
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) decided to transfer operation of purchase and supply of B-Twill sacking by the SPAs from the Directorate General of Supplies & Disposal (DGS&D) to the Office of Jute Commissioner, Kolkata with effect from November 1, 2016. Annually about Rs 5,500 crores worth of jute sacking is procured through support by the government to support the Indian jute workers and farmers.
Previous system relied mostly on paper and there were bottlenecks to information sharing between the stakeholders, mainly SPAs, the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, Jute Mills, Inspecting Agency, Loaders, Consignees, Pay and Accounts Office etc. Since B-Twill sacking is an essential requirement for procurement of foodgrains, the entire operation is time-bound and needs to be closely monitored. In addition, the system provides for automated transactions through banks to reduce cost to the State Procurement Agencies on account of loss of interest in their funds. Necessary training has been provided to the State Procurement Agencies, Banks, Inspection Agencies and supplying jute millers for using this system.
ISDS Initiative
Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS), the flagship demand driven placement linked skilling program of the Ministry is an initiative towards this direction. The Ministry is partnering state government agencies, industry, major textile training institutions, Textile Research Organizations and industry associations for implementing the scheme. Out of the 12th Plan target of 15 lakh persons under the scheme, the Ministry has so far trained a total of 8.82 lakh persons.
Bunkar Mitra — Handloom Helpline Centre
Currently 28 Weavers’ Service Centres (WSCs) are functioning across the country to provide technical assistance to handloom weavers in improving their skills. For seeking assistance, weavers have to personally visit the WSCs. As on date, there is no single point of contact where weavers can seek solutions for their technical issues/problems.
In order to enable poor weavers to overcome these problems, the Central Government has decided to establish a ‘Bunkar Mitra-Handloom Helpline Centre’ where professional queries of weavers will be answered by the experts in the field. This helpline will function from 10.00 am to 6 pm and initially it will be provided in 6 languages viz., Hindi, English and 4 other regional languages (Telugu, Tamil, Bengali & Assamese).
As the local crop is estimated to be not more than 11.25 million bales this year, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) of the Sindh-Balochistan Zone has appealed to the National Government to remove 4 per cent import duty on raw cotton whereas the requirement of Pakistan’s industry is not less than 14.5 million bales at the moment.
APTMA-SB Zone also mentioned that a removal of import duty was also demanded two months ago against which the relevant Ministry had said that it was too early to remove this duty and the government wanted to wait till the major portion of the local crop was sold and of the hands of the farmers. As it stands today, the situation is that 80 to 82 per cent of the crop has been absorbed by the textile industry. Therefore, the objective as stated by the ministry has been achieved. APTMA Sind Baluchistan also said that it is misleading to state that the Ginners and TCPs have sufficient stock of cotton lint to fulfill the needs of the industry.
Since it is clear that the local crop is short of the requirements of the industry, it is necessary that timely action may be taken so that the exports of the country do not suffer any further. It is not possible for the Pakistan Textile Industry to bear the additional burden of 4 percent import duty and compete in the export market against countries which have a lower cost of raw cotton due to local availability without import incidentals.
Fluctuating material prices and comparatively lower foreign direct investment have hit Vietnam’s exports. Vietnam’s total exports of garment and textile products till December 15 of the current year showed a year on year growth of 4.8 per cent.
This is the lowest in the last ten years. Britain’s exit from the European Union has resulted in falling orders from importers. Shoe exports during the period had a growth rate of 8.1 per cent, lower than 16.3 per cent of 2015 and 22.9 per cent of 2014.
The country is the world’s fifth largest garment exporter. It has maintained double-digit growth, ranging on average from 10 per cent to 36 per cent, since 2001. Garment exporters are also faced with increasingly intense competition from outsourcing hubs Cambodia and Bangladesh, which get tariff preferences in the US market. Market access for Vietnam’s clothing in the US is limited by an average tariff of about 11.1 per cent, with tariffs on some textile and apparel products nearing 30 per cent.
However, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, which will become effective in 2018, will prepare importers, customers and investors for better growth in future. Moreover, there are other free trade agreements as well – such as the one with the Eurasian Economic Union, which Vietnamese shoe and apparel exporters can exploit yet to boost exports.
Knitwear exports from Tirupur grew by 12 per cent in 2015-16 compared to the previous year. The share of Tirupur knitwear exports in India’s total garment exports is 20 per cent. Exporters want a one-time long term initiative to be undertaken to uplift the skill proficiency of existing laborers in order to increase productivity at par with competing countries and at the same time reduce waste.
Limping back on a slow-but-promising western order recovery and robust domestic consumption, Tirupur is pursuing another growth cycle. The cluster sees protective wear, sports garments and defense-related businesses as obvious lines, given its huge spinning capacities.
Entrepreneurs want to wean themselves away from the fickle western apparel market to focus more on avenues of sustainable business like technical textiles or medical textiles and specialised products such as car upholstery.
The cluster was recently the beneficiary of a Rs 6000-crore textile package, manufacturing parks, and private water supply for entrepreneurs. Now entrepreneurs feel they deserve to have a knitwear board, on the lines of the one for jute in Kolkata, so that policies are framed to favor them. They also want sponsors to conduct training programs.
The industry has been through booms and lulls and prolonged slackness in export orders, besides troubles closer home with hundreds of dyeing units found to have improper effluent treatment mechanisms forced to shut down.
The growing issue of ethical fashion has thrown a spotlight on the sustainability of fast fashion and in turn guided the fashion industry down a road toward a more sustainable fiber use. Fast fashion is a term coined to the quick turnaround times between runway, manufacture and retail which can be as short as ten days.
Fifty years ago designers used to do two collections a year, spring/summer, autumn/winter. The average fashion designer now creates anything between 18 to 25 collections a year.
The top end of fashion’s pyramid had also responded to the rise of fast fashion by emulating a similar model with collections, pre-collections and pre-pre-collections.
In the 1960s, households in Australia spent on an average 20 per cent of the family income on clothing. Currently people spend on an average less than four per cent but are purchasing 60 per cent more clothes.
The speed culture of fast fashion means far too many clothes are being produced. The industry now from concept to delivery into retail store churns out ideas in less than ten days – there is no time for reflection and review.
Designers today need to understand how to respect quality – true manufacture. Designers need to think about the way they design.
The fashion world in the US is bracing for big changes. Donald Trump will probably call for a withdrawal from the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. The countries that agreed to the TPP in 2015 were the US, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam.
But several footwear and apparel organizations — including the Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America and the American Apparel & Footwear Association — as well as footwear brands such as Nike have been vocal proponents of TPP, which promised to eliminate more than 18,000 taxes and other trade barriers, strengthen ties among member countries and increase economic growth.
Trump has also hinted that hefty tariffs could hit major importers, including fashion firms, in 2017. Apparel and footwear associations feel consumers would ultimately pay the consequences for Trump’s punitive tariffs and they predict far-reaching implications for innovation and growth at US firms in 2017. They say a tariff would hurt US companies and their workers to the extent that those tariffs get absorbed as extra costs in the supply chain. This will deny the ability of companies to invest in research and development or to expand and hire more workers. Trade experts fear that Trump’s trade policies could set the US up for a trade war.
In a step taken pursuant to the approval of the committee of the Board the company, Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company has entered into an agreement for sale of MIDC Land & Building and some specific utility machineries of its Ranjangaon unit situated at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra, at an aggregate value of Rs 174.45 crores. The company has also entered into an agreement for sale of a company owned flat at Beach Towers, Prabhadevi, Mumbai at a value of Rs 9.4 crores. Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company is a holding company that is engaged in finishing of cotton and blended cotton textiles; manufacturing of bedding, quilts, pillows and sleeping bags; real estate activities, and manufacturing of polyester Staple Fiber.
According to industry data compiled by the Korean International Trade Association (KITA), the South Korean textile sector may suffer trade deficit for the second time in the row due to the cheap Chinese products flooding the market. As per the data, the textile industry witnessed a decrease of 4.8 per cent year-on-year in the first 11 months of the year to make US $ 12.4 billion and imports of clothing and textiles dearer by one per cent. The imports in the country reached US $ 13.52 billion over the period of January to November in 2016.
If the scenario continues to remain the same in the last month of the gone-by year, imports may exceed the earlier record of US $ 14.65 billion in 2014. The textile industry of South Korea has already logged a trade deficit of US $ 1.09 billion exceeding last year’s deficit of US $ 157 million by a huge margin. High labour costs and competition from foreign countries like China affected the industry’s profitability.
If TPP is implemented, Vietnam’s textile & garment export turnover to the US would increase by 30-40 per cent in the first year of the agreement and would increase two-fold after three to four years, according to analysts. The US consumes 50 per cent of Vietnam’s total textile & garment export turnover.
In October 2016 alone, Vietnam exported $9.476 billion worth of textile & garment products to the US. This means that export turnover would reach $16 billion by 2018, an increase of $3 billion and to $20 billion by 2020.
However, the figures may be unattainable after Donald Trump, who takes office as the 45th US President on January 20, is against the TPP because of concern about jobs for US citizens as the domestic industry will have to compete with imports from TPP countries.
Truong Van Cam, Vitas’ secretary general however maintained that Vietnam will still see its textile & garment exports to the US increasing with or without TPP. In recent years, the export turnover to the market has been growing steadily by 12-13 per cent per annum, while the US import turnover has been growing by 3 per cent only. Vietnam’s products just account for 9 per cent of the US total textile & garment imports.
According to Le Quoc An, a textile & garment expert and former chair of Vitas, there are three possible scenarios for Vietnam. First, TPP could take effect, but the content of the agreement would change. If so, Vietnam’s export turnover to the US would be 50 per cent lower than initially designed. Second, TPP fails. If so, Vietnam’s exports to the US will still enjoy MFN like other WTO members. In this case, exports would depend on US economic performance. Third, there is no TPP, and the Trump administration imposes a monitoring scheme and anti-dumping duties on imports from Asia, including Vietnam. If so, Vietnam’s exports would decrease.
