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Aditya Birla Group’s Birla Cellulose, is participating in Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics, from October 13-15, 2015 in Shanghai. The company is showcasing its Liva A/W 2016/17 collection along with two other group companies and six value chain partners. The company has a wide range of specialty manmade cellulose fibres (MMCF) in their basket such as Birla Viscose, Birla Modal, Birla Excel and Birla Spunshades.
Liva has made a niche for itself in the Indian domestic fashion space and foresees huge potential in the knitwear segment. Aditya Birla Yarns is displaying yarn innovations with unique blends and special features mainly leveraging viscose and Modal. Liva A/W 2016/17 has inspired two lines—Canvas and Gallery.
Art and craftsmanship is the focus of the Canvas collection, which is inspired by the art movement. The range tried to find out the new expressions of art using eco-sensitive materials. Fabrics in the collection include Liva Spunshade Mélanges which offer eco-friendly spun dyed fibre, unfading colours and uniformity, and fabrics made from Liva Modal Amicor, which offers antibacterial properties with lasting hygiene and fresh feel. The garment is treated as a canvas in the Gallery collection adding intricate details to it.
www.adityabirla.com
Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) got a new Chairman, Shaikh Mohammad Shafiq, who was elected unopposed. South zone (Sindh-Balochistan zone) Chairman, Irfan Ali was also elected unopposed for the year 2015/16.
This was announced at the general meeting held recently to elect new members of the Central Managing Committee (CMC) and Zonal Managing Committee. Irfan Ali and M Jawed Chinoy are the newly elected CMC members.
The elected Chairmen vowed to promote the association and take it to new heights while addressing the AGM. They thanked the members for reposing confidence in them to lead the committees. Sajid Shahnawaz, Arshad Aziz, Idress Shafiq, Amir Lakhani, Mohammad Owais, M Naqi Bari and M Jawed Chinoy are the elected zonal managing committee members.
In his report, Jawed Suleman, outgoing chairman (SZ) highlighted the achievements made during 2014/2015. He also expressed his hope about the new team. He hoped that the team will continue the great work in the best interest of the association and its members.
www.prgmea.org
Even though countries such as India and China have been projected as doing quite well when compared to other developed economies, the latest International Monetary Fund report has warned of a global slowdown of economic growth to 3.1 per cent.
Sandra Polaski, International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Deputy Direction General (Policy) said that increasing wages through state intervention will help India protect its workers and also shield its economy from the ripple effects of slow growth globally, in this global context.
Polaski said that a few successful economies such as China’s growth during the last 15 years has been due to a hike in wages under government control, and providing social protection systems. However, she said, in India this is not the case and wages have been falling. She suggested that India should follow China’s example of boosting domestic demand by raising wages at home and not banking on export-led growth. She added that this is particularly so, as the export-led growth has become unsustainable as demand for goods is falling in rich countries since the global financial crisis.
Polaski also said that this would help India grow and warned that in the absence of such measures, the country’s growth prospects could slowdown in the long run. The Narendra Modi government’s labour reform policies, where measures are being taken to make it easy to hire and fire workers, with a focus on foreign investors likely to invest in the country under the ‘Make in India’ programme, said Polaski, would not guarantee better Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
www.ilo.org
For its inaction to restrain increase in the numbers of default cases in the textile markets, the Federation of Gujarat Weavers Association (FOGWA) has taken a tough stand against Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA).
If fly-by-night operators are not eliminated, FOGWA office-bearers have threatened to stop delivering grey fabrics. A textile trader had defaulted on Rs 10 crore payments to over 80 power loom weavers some days ago and hence the tough stand.
FOSTTA had set guidelines for renting shops to traders in the markets according to FOGWA office-bearers and as per those, the traders have to deposit Rs 500 in FOSTTA office and fill out their personal details. The fly-by-night operators were successful in cheating the weavers and disappearing despite this.
In over 160 textile markets located at Ring Road, Rs 40 crores worth of unfinished fabric manufactured by the weavers is dumped on a daily basis. In a year, about Rs 300 crores worth of defaults take place in the market.
Ashok Jirawala, President, FOGWA said that it was the responsibility of FOSTTA to ensure that the racket of the fly-by-night operators gets removed, to create a healthy business environment. If not, he said, the weavers will stop delivering grey fabrics for an indefinite period. Most of the weavers are dealing through the agents, who are working in the industry for many years.
FOGWA plans to approach the state government to demand some guidelines to be issued to the police in tackling the economic offences being reported in the textile markets, added Jirawala. He also believes that the defaults are also due to FOSTTA office-bearers.
www.fostta.com
Bangladesh’s apparel exports to the US grew slightly during July-September in the current fiscal. Bangladesh fetched $1.55 billion from readymade garment exports to the US during July-September the current fiscal, up from $1.343 billion during the same period last year.
The US is the biggest customer for Bangladesh’s apparel products. That country suspended the GSP facility for Bangladesh in June 2013 after the Rana Plaza collapse.
Since that incident the readymade garment sector in Bangladesh faced massive scrutiny regarding workers’ safety and compliance issues. But the sector has made efforts to ensure worker safety and meet compliance standards.
This progress has helped the garment sector regain the trust of foreign buyers, which was severely hampered by the collapse and some fore tragedies. The country’s garment sector is getting greater appreciation from international buyers.
Bangladesh used to enjoy the GSP facility from the US for a handful of products but apparel items were not among them. And it can’t be said that withdrawal of GSP affected Bangladesh’s exports to the US in any significant way.
The China International Nonwovens Expo is being held from October 14 to 16, 2015. The three-day event will feature products including machinery and ancillaries for nonwovens, nonwovens and nonwoven products, raw materials and chemicals for nonwovens, and industry-related services.
Nearly 100 exhibitors are taking part across an exhibition area of 6,000 sq. meters. The increasing demand for nonwovens in medicine and hygiene, environmental filtration, infrastructure construction and new energy sectors in China over the last two years has led to this wide range of products being exhibited.
Exhibitors from mainland China are showcasing an extensive range of nonwovens. A number of these are prominent in overseas markets, such as Europe, North America and Southeast Asia, and produce high quality goods which are compliant with international standards. They are demonstrating their nonwovens in various fields, including medicine, hygiene, construction, biomedical, aerospace, radiation protection and more.
The concurrent forum will address the latest issues, both China-specific and global, in the nonwovens industry through seminars conducted by industry experts. Topics that will be covered include: development of the Chinese nonwovens industry and its position in the global market; development of the Chinese disposable hygiene products market and its consumption trends; the development and forecast of high temperature flue gas filtration materials.
Cine-shanghai.hk.messefrankfurt.com
India’s textile industry wants an extension of the three per cent interest subvention to all textile products so as to enhance exports. Textile products from India attract very high tariff rates in all major markets like China, EU, USA, Canada and Australia. In comparison, those from Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, South Korea, Indonesia or Cambodia either attract a very low tariff or have duty free access.
To offset this and boost exports, the industry wants low tariffs or duty free access. Bangladesh has a duty on Indian cotton yarn. Cotton yarn imports are subject to a customs duty of over 36 per cent in Bangladesh.
The industry wants the government to reduce the central excise duty from 12.5 per cent to six per cent. It wants anti-dumping duties withdrawn, and the excise duty on shuttle less looms like projectiles, air jet looms, rapier looms and water jet looms and on spares and accessories to be scrapped. It wants MEIS scheme benefits to be extended to cotton.
The textile industry in India which had been performing well till the end of 2013 started facing problems as competing nations like Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea and Bangladesh started getting larger benefits and an open window market access.
Anna Mitchell has been appointed as Managing Director of Coats Group’s UK Crafts business. The company is the world’s leading industrial thread and consumer textile crafts business.
Mitchell was Group Director of Communications, earlier, which also included overseeing investor relations and has been with Coats since 2013. By developing and implementing UK Crafts’ business strategy and activities, including financial and commercial metrics, customer and supplier relations, sales, marketing and distribution, Mitchell will be responsible for ensuring the profitable and successful operation of its business.
With the sale of the EMEA Crafts business to the Aurelius Group, recently, the Coats Crafts business has undergone change. The deal, which was announced in February and completed in July, excluded the UK Crafts business, which remains part of Coats, as does the Americas Crafts business.
CEO Crafts, Coats plc, Michael Schofer said that the UK is an important sales and distribution market for some of the best known textile craft brands and that they have strong relationships with large retail chains, online players, independent retailers and some exceptional designers. He added that Mitchell be a great asset to their business as they build and develop it further in this key market.
www.coats.com
Since India adopted genetically modified cotton in 2002, two states have been suffering the first major pest infestation since. This has raised concerns over the vulnerability of the lab-grown seeds that yield almost all the cotton in the world's top producer.
According to local officials and experts, in the states of Punjab and Haryana, damage from whitefly attack on the Bt cotton variety is likely to be extensive and has even been blamed for farmer suicides.
There’s debate over the usage of GM crops, though the country’s overall crop losses are expected to be low as the states are not major producing centres. At Monsanto, Bt cotton was tweaked by scientists to produce its own insecticide to kill pests such as bollworms. However, two years of drought have encouraged the spread of whitefly against which the strain has no resistance. The leaves of the cotton plant are damaged by the winged pest by sucking out fluid.
A spokesman for Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) said that Bt technology is effective only against specific type of bollworms that are known to cause maximum yield loss and economic damage to the cotton crop. To counter the infestation of whiteflies, at present there are no approved agriculture biotechnology solutions and farmers are recommended to spray approved pesticides as a solution.
Older cotton strains are cheaper than Bt seeds and these have to be bought new each year by farmers. Companies marketing GM cotton say that growers are better off as they get higher yields and save money on pesticide. However, some farmer groups are concerned about the growing dependency on the new varieties.
www.monsanto.com
The leading multinational conglomerate of Korea, Hyosung Corporation is introducing some trend right fabric concepts using specialty creora spandex at Interfilière Shanghai.
The new fabrics are thus—creora eco-soft low heat settable spandex with nylon for intimate apparels with fine gauge and light weight, creora Color+ dyeable spandex with MIPAN Aqua-X for cool touch for sports bras, creora Color+ for lace in colourful and delicate fabrics for moulded bras and shapewear, creora Black dope dyed black spandex for interesting effects, such as stripe and two-tone, and creora highclo super chlorine resistant spandex in 20,30 denier for lighter weight fabrics and 55 denier for more compressive performance.
Hyun-Joon Cho, President, said that Hyosung has a competitive advantage in its ability to develop new fabric concepts using their technical development centre in Jiaxing. He added that they could leverage innovations in creora spandex, combined with new Mipan nylon and Hyosung polyester fibres, to support their customers in new business development.
The company will be conducting customised business development workshops to help its creora partners growth their business at the Shanghai Interfiliere trade show, Cho explained.
www.hyosung.com
