FW
Trade union representatives from Coimbatore have urged the Union textile minister Smriti Irani to resolve the payment issues faced by National Textile Corporation (NTC) mill workers. The seven NTC mills in Tamil Nadu employ around 1,400 regular workers. On May 31, 2018, the four-year wage agreement of these workers had expired. NTC workers recently sent a wage hike demand to its Southern Region office seeking a 50 per cent increase in basic wages and finalising the employment of workers who had worked for 480 days. It also sought Rs. 421 a day for casual workers.
The management had neither invited them for proper talks nor arrived at a solution, forcing the workers to hold demand meetings and wear demand cards to the mills. On August 7, a group of trade union leaders met the Union textile minister and sought her intervention. The minister assured them that necessary steps would be taken.
Net sales of Suryalakshmi Cotton Mills during the three month period ended June 30, 2018, was Rs 183.60 crores as compared to Rs 174.95 crores during the three month period ended June 30, 2017. Net profit, was Rs 0.54 crores as against Rs 0.52 crores for the three month period ended June 30, 2017.
Suryalakshmi has a denim fabric manufacturing capacity of 40 million meters a year. The company has launched new variants from the Amravati spinning unit to be used in manufacturing high-end denim fabrics. It has a capacity of 25,000 spindles for the manufacture of high quality value added and fancy yarns like stretch, slub and Elitwist yarns.
Suryalakshmi Cotton is one of India’s leading integrated premium yarn-to-denim-to-garment manufacturing companies. It has become the Original Denim Manufacturer to leading global and domestic brands with a dominant market share in the premium denim sector.
With cutting-edge designs, the latest spinning technology and end-to-end manufacturing plants, Suryalakshmi creates the finest yarns, premium denims and garments for leading private labels, fashion brands and retail chains in 31 countries across the globe.
As per a survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM), shipment delays and late presentation of documents to Bangladesh's authorities are among the most critical challenges faced by the country's garment sector. The survey revealed around 66 per cent of exports could not be delivered on time while late presentation of documents, which poses a money laundering risk, occurred 53 per cent of the time. The main culprit was inadequate knowledge of domestic and international regulations.
The survey also dealt with the increasing amount of overdue export bills: 48 per cent against letters of credit (LCs) and 53 per cent against contracts. The bills increased sevenfold to $119.63 million last year from $16.23 million the year before. Around 42 per cent of export proceeds were found to have been non-repatriated against contracts.
BIBM study revealed the findings of the “Trade Facilitations in RMG by Banks: Risks and Mitigation Techniques” survey at a workshop.
The Philippines expects garment and textile exports to increase 10 to 20 per cent this year. Luxury bags brand Coach is expanding its existing four sourcing groups from the Philippines.
The US accounts for 67 per cent of the Philippines’ apparel exports including leather goods. In addition, the US also accounts for 27 per cent of the country’s textile, fiber and fabric exports.
What’s also helping Philippines is that some orders are being shifted from China to the Philippines to avoid the high tariffs imposed by the US on Chinese goods, including garments and textiles. One of the major hurdles Philippine exporters face is the Rules of Origin in Europe because even as the country enjoys EU GSP Plus, its textiles and fabrics are sourced elsewhere and are therefore slapped with higher taxes. EU GSP Plus, however, is expected to lead to more garment and textile investments in the country.
In addition, least developed countries enjoy zero duty when they export to the US as against the Philippines, which faces a 33 per cent duty on its garments, making Philippine garments more expensive than those from other countries.
Blouses from the Philippines have a tax of 12 per cent going to the US. Suits and blazers are at 33 per cent. The same products from LDC countries face zero duty.
Orissa aims to produce 25 per cent more textile and handloom products than last year. While 16 districts are producing textile and handloom products, 34,086 looms out of 40,164 are active. Since only 21,760 looms were operating last year, 3,000 more looms will be activated to achieve the target for the year.
Producing zones are: Boudh, Bargarh, Cuttack, Athagarh, Khurda, Sonepur, Nayagarh, Koraput, among others. Last year none of the zones made 100 per cent achievements except Baripada while Bargarh and Balasore zones achieved more than 90 per cent of their target. Athagarh, Khurda, Patnagarh, Dhenkanal, Sundargarh, Kalahandi and Koraput could produce less than 60 per cent of the target.
Of the 90.55 lakh sq mt target set last year, achievement was nearly 71.54 per cent. The number of working looms came down from 22,824 to 21,760. Several welfare schemes have been formulated for socio-economic development of weavers. Strategies will be formulated to strengthen the production system and provide regular employment to weavers working under the cooperative fold.
Boudh zone has been asked to activate 400 looms and Athagarh, Bargarh and Sonepur zones have been directed to operate 300 looms more to help achieve the overall target.
Ludhiana businessmen, at a recent meeting of with Yogendra Garg, Additional Director General (ADG), GST, demanded that their GST numbers be transferred to the central GST Commissionerate from state taxation department as they are not getting refunds. The meeting was attended by several other high officials of both central and state taxation departments including Ashutosh Baranwal, Central GST Commissioner, Ludhiana and Pawan Garg, Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner, State Taxation Department.
The meeting was conducted at the GST commissionerate Rishi Nagar. Its main motive was to know the problems being faced by the textile industry and reasons for delay in processing of GST refunds. Bobby Jindal, President, Punjab Dyers Association informed that they were being apprised by ADG that the GST refunds are being expedited on timely basis and the assesses registered with the centre’s GST commissionerate are getting their refunds on time and there are no refunds pending.
Centre Stage will be held in Hong Kong from September 5 to 8. This is Asia's premier fashion event and provides an ideal launch and promotion platform for Asian and international fashion brands and designer labels.
Building on the legacy of previous editions, the 2018 event will host over 220 sought-after brands from around the world, and feature some 40 spectacular events. Seminars will bring a star-studded line-up of international style masters and industry experts to share their perspectives on industry trends and the future of fashion.
Anupreet Bhui, Senior Editor of Global Street Style at WGSN will discuss what is next for the fashion industry and offer her expert advice. She will explore key items, colors and macro trends that will determine the mood, feel and socio-cultural movements for the season ahead. The style guru will also address the rising influence of street wear among Gen Z (the generation born since the millennium) consumers and share her thoughts on how the trend will continue to evolve.
Fashion designer Martine Rose will share anecdotes from her career. Leading academics, key industry players, decision makers and leaders from various disciplines and geographical locations will exchange insights on how to make the fashion industry more sustainable.
India may apply anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese nylon filament yarn for five years. This move follows complaints from domestic textile enterprises about cheap imports of such yarn from Vietnam.
However, manufacturers of nylon fabric in India have opposed the anti-dumping duty on nylon yarn, saying it will allow Indian yarn makers to monopolize prices. They say yarns and fibers, including nylon filament yarn made in Vietnam and the EU, are 20 per cent cheaper than the ones made by domestic firms. And just five or six nylon yarn manufacturers in the country are in favor of duties but the thousands of weavers and workers who are attached to the industry are not in its favour. A final decision on this matter is yet to be taken.
India’s nylon filament yarn production increased 2.4 per cent. This makes up just three per cent of total filament yarn production in India. In the second quarter, nylon filament yarn production increased by 1.7 per cent year-on-year, down from 8.8 per cent in the first quarter of the 2017 calendar year. Indian imports of nylon filament yarn increased to 13,799 tons from October 2015 until March 2017, as opposed to 7,201 tons from 2013 to 2014.
Fashion Summit HK 2018, set to be Asia’s largest sustainable fashion conference, will focus on the theme of ‘Circular Economy’. It will provide a platform for participants to exchange insights, connect companies with different perspectives in order to catalyse industry collaboration and raise public understanding on the role of global fashion industry in sustainable development.
In addition to hundreds of attendees, the second installment of the annual summit will host over 50 international policymakers, fashion leaders and representatives from academic and non-profit organisations who will discuss sustainable fashion through a variety of platforms including roundtables, keynote speeches, and panel discussions.
The summit is being organised collectively by seven organisations including: Clothing Industry Training Authority; the Office of the Honourable Felix Chung Kwok-pan, member of the Legislative Council (Textile and Garment Sector); Hong Kong Design Institute; The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel; Redress; Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium; and WWF-HK.
Speakers include industry stalwarts like: Jill Dumain of Bluesign Technologies, Christina Raab from the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals), Katrin Ley of Fashion for Good and co-founder of Fashion Revolution Orsola de Castro.
China is exporting textiles to India through Bangladesh, undermining India’s efforts to support local manufacturers. Textile raw material from China comes to India via Bangladesh, which has a free-trade agreement with India. Duty free fabric from China goes to Bangladesh, gets converted and lands into India at zero duty.
Trade bodies, which expect textile imports from Bangladesh to rise further, want India to introduce a rule of origin for duty free imports. Competition from China is forcing some businesses, such as polyester production facilities, to run idle, leading to job losses.
Import of clothing accessories and apparel from Bangladesh -- the world's second largest exporter of readymade garments -- rose over 43 per cent during the year ended March 2018. And almost 50 per cent of the garments were made with Chinese fiber.
This development is ironic considering that India until recently had been a net exporter of textile products to China. India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are among the signatories of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) that created a free trade zone in the South Asian region. Under this, only those goods should be exempt from custom duty whose raw material is also manufactured by one of the SAFTA countries. And China clearly isn’t.
