FW
Tracing the trend in recent years, export proportion of cotton blended yarn in total cotton yarn exports increased in the first half of year but declined in the second half. Exports of cotton blended yarn were rising on the whole in recent years except for some months in 2013. Proportion of cotton blended yarn in total cotton yarn exports reached 25.9 per cent in 2013, around 29.2 per cent in 2014, 36.4 per cent in 2015 and around 34.6 per cent in Jan-Apr, 2016, and market share in Jan-Apr, 2015 was around 31.5 per cent.
Low-count variety was mainly cotton blended yarn exported, and exports of carded descriptions were bigger than combed one, but exports tended to high-count descriptions. Exports of carded cotton blended yarn below 8.2S declined by 5 per cent compared with the same period of last year, and proportion of combed 8.2-25S/1 and 8.2-25S/2 increased by 2 per cent and 3 per cent respectively. As for combed cotton blended yarn, proportion of combed 25-30.4S and 30.4-46.6S both increased by 1 per cent, while that of combed 8.2-25S/2 declined by 1 per cent.
Recently, major German retailer KiK met Kyrgyz apparel companies to discuss opportunities with European buyers. The meeting was part of the Apparel Innovation Club supported by the United States through USAID’s Business Growth Initiative to strengthen the Kyrgyz textile industry, according to the US Embassy in Bishkek.
In the meeting, KiK International Sourcing Director Stefanie Artmann presented the firm’s global sourcing strategy and opportunities for Kyrgyz producers to supply apparel to this €2.2 billion retailer, which has more than 3,300 stores in nine European countries. Kyrgyz producers learned about buyer requirements for KIK’s global suppliers, with a particular emphasis on corporate social responsibility.
According to Artmann, Kyrgyzstan is well-positioned to benefit from apparel making. The European Union’s recent award of duty-free status for Kyrgyz apparel imports (GSP+) will also boost the market. The meeting was part of USAID’s ongoing efforts to connect Kyrgyz textile manufacturers with international markets. These efforts have already generated $1 million in orders for Kyrgyz apparel producers.
For the wrong reasons, textile units in Tamil Nadu have grabbed headlines several times in the past. Non-governmental organisations, including international organisations, have alleged that child workers are employed in many textile mills and that some units that employ young women do not provide adequate facilities for those who stay in hostels within the mill premises.
The problem seems to persist in an industry that employs about 50 lakh workers directly in the state, though employment of children has reduced drastically in the last few years and there are only ‘rare instances’ now. Says A Aloysius, Founder of Social Awareness and Voluntary Education, an NGO in Tirupur, it is due to the mandatory audits and pressure on industry to comply with norms from western buyers, child labour is almost nil in the garment sector. Still, there are instances of children employed in medium-sized textile mills in areas such as Udumalpet, Dharapuram, Vellakoil, etc., he says.
Further, several north Indian workers have moved to Tirupur for work, with their families, and live in specific localities. Their families do handwork, such as stitching buttons, and there are cases where they involve the children at home for this work rather than sending them to school. Though these children do not go to factories for work, they work out of home. This is a development in the last two or three years, he says.
According to Aloysius, the State needs to have proper monitoring mechanisms to identify employment of children in such work. Officials, textile management sources, and voluntary organisations say that one reason for employment of children in some of the textile mills is labour shortage.
Saying that Tirupur does not have proper amenities for medical treatment, exporters want an ESI hospital with the necessary facilities to cater to patients with various major health problems. They want funds to build women’s hostels and labor quarters.
More than five lakh workers, mainly women, are employed in the sector directly and indirectly. About 65 per cent of the 3.5 lakh workers are women from a rural background. About 44 per cent of its 8.78 lakh population is employed in the knitwear and stakeholder units. Exporters also want a Rs 200 crores central grant to set up effluent plants.
The Tirupur knitwear trade contributes a revenue of Rs 33,000 crores a year, both from exports and the domestic market. Now, it wants comparative advantages its counterpart cities have, mainly in infrastructure and other business facilities like the smart city tag. Tirupur has been included in the list of smart cities but nothing further has been done. The city wants further action on this front and some movement in that direction as that would directly help increase exports from that town and upgrade the quality of life.
Among 506 cities and towns of India that provide employment, Tirupur occupies a premier position.
Teijin has developed a new aramid fiber fabric suited for use in high-visibility protective apparel thanks to its extra-vivid coloring and resistance to fading. The new aramid fabric is expected to meet growing demands for safety clothing that offers comfort and maneuverability as well as high visibility.
The new aramid fabric is fully compliant with international standards for high-visibility clothing that enables others to see the wearer in a variety of lighting conditions. Over the decades, Teijin’s durable, heat-resistant, flame-retardant aramid fibers have contributed to the advancement of safety and protective apparel, providing police, firefighters and chemical-plant workers with high-performance clothing favored for their high-visibility, flame-retardant and flame-proof properties.
Teijin is strengthening its leading position in the Japanese market for protective apparel, putting forward new hybrid safety solutions that combine various high-performance materials to meet diverse customer demands.
Teijin is a global group operating in the fields of advanced fibers and composites, electric materials and performance polymer products, nylon, acetate, aramid, and polyvinyl chloride for apparel and industrial materials, healthcare and fiber. Teijin also makes polyester films used in advanced magnetic media and electronics equipment, pharmaceuticals, medical products, and information systems equipment.
The company’s global development initiatives are expected to boost sales in the global market for safety and protection.
A state-of-the-art textile processing and power loom weaving cluster is coming up in Gujarat, near Surat. It’s planned on 50 lakh sq. mt. of coastal land. However, allotment is awaited. The cluster is for those who want to produce fabric in bulk quantities. Barring a few big process houses and weaving units, most factories produce fabric in smaller volumes. But importers prefer suppliers who produce goods in bulk quantity.
The textile processing units will be connected with a common boiler system thereby discouraging the use of chimneys emitting pollution. There will be wind power and solar power generation, common drainage, CETP plant, tertiary treatment plant etc.
The plan is to have only processing and weaving at the cluster, and also garment units. So investors from Trichy, the garmenting hub, who are looking for expansion will be invited to explore prospects and opportunities.
If everything goes well, textile processing and power loom weaving units in Surat would be induced to shift to the planned cluster. The project has been planned by the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the South Gujarat Textile Processors' Association.
Meanwhile, around 50 textile processing houses in China are willing to set up units in Surat. A delegation will soon visit China to explore possibilities.
The textile industry says it’s entitled to dues worth Rs 3,000 crores under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme. But it is unlikely these dues will be released. That means, liabilities related to the blackout or left out period cases will be given a silent burial.
The blackout period (June 20, 2010 to April 27, 2011) refers to a time when subsidy payments under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme were halted temporarily. The aim was to change the contours of the scheme from an open-ended scheme to a closed-ended one. The revised scheme came in April 2011.
Those who had invested during those 10 months of the blackout period, and were awaiting a decision on the eligibility of TUFS on the blackout period, have now got their answer. They are disappointed the funds are not going to be released. And the reason given is that there is a paucity of funds.
These textile units say they have continuously been under severe stress since April 2014 due to the non disbursal of committed liabilities under the TUFS scheme. Several hundreds of spinning mills are facing closure as they are likely to become non-performing assets.
So the textile industry has made a representation that the committed liabilities under TUFS scheme be disbursed and that cotton yarn be extended export benefits like Merchandise Exports from India Scheme on par with other textile products.
Pakistans’s garment, textile machinery and accessories exhibition Igatex will be held next April. The event is known to not only introduce the newest expertise but also improvise trade benefits and increase foreign investments and spending through business visits by international delegates.
As the largest textile and garment machinery show in Pakistan, it gathers more than 550 exhibitors from around 35 countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, USA etc with a number of innovative and versatile machinery models to be debuted at the fair.
Igatex Pakistan has played a pivotal role in the development of the textile industry by introducing efficient machinery to local manufacturers. It is becoming an increasingly significant textile and garment event with its scale setting new records year by year.
The event showcases products from apparel and clothing, plant, machinery and equipment, textiles, fabrics and yarns, business services, automation systems, embroidery and circular knitting machines, bleaching and washing machines, knitting and stitching industries.
Attendees are industry experts, scientists and executives of the fur, fabrics, clothing, textiles and fashion areas. This includes CEOs, distributors, importers, technical managers.
India’s exports of cotton-based readymade goods dropped by two per cent in 2015-16, while exports of cotton fabrics declined a little more than four per cent. The high price of domestic cotton, coupled with heavy duties on import of cheaper Chinese varieties, have hampered production of cotton goods.
This was part of a larger trend of a fall in merchandise exports, down for a seventeenth continuous month in April. Apart from cotton, manmade yarn also registered a major decline in export, of 11 per cent.
High export demand has pushed up prices. Also, high dependence on exports to China and the sensitivity of India's shipments to China's policy on a reserve cotton stock are a factor for the fall in cotton-based exports. India is likely to produce 34.1 million bales in the 2015-16 season, which ends on September 30. This is down from last year's 38.3 million bales. Successive droughts have reduced the supply from India, traditionally world leader in cotton production.
Textile exports are 13 per cent of all exports in terms of revenue earned. But a fall in FY ’16 is expected. This is because the rate of growth was a marginal 0.5 per cent in 2014-15, down from a significant rise of 12.4 per cent the year before.
"Industry leaders behind Rational Denim are hoping their collaborative project around responsibly produced denim will help pave the path for others to follow. Major players like Archroma, Garmon, Lenzing and Royo, each an expert in its respective area of supply chain, share the same belief that denim garments can be made in a more responsible way. And that’s exactly what the four set out to prove when they decided to team up."
Industry leaders behind Rational Denim are hoping their collaborative project around responsibly produced denim will help pave the path for others to follow. Major players like Archroma, Garmon, Lenzing and Royo, each an expert in its respective area of supply chain, share the same belief that denim garments can be made in a more responsible way. And that’s exactly what the four set out to prove when they decided to team up.
Sharing innovations
The ‘Roadmap to Rational Denim,’ to give the project its full title, debuted at Kingpins in Amsterdam recently, showcasing a prototype collection produced with the most efficient use of resources - particularly water - from fiber to finish. According to Alberto De Conti, Chief Marketing Officer at Garmon, they were drawn to the idea of being part of a group of companies that’s truly science-driven; a pool of industrial realities bringing to the table results that are rooted in sound research and development. Rational Denim takes a respectful distance from a number of so-called ‘sustainable’ market initiatives that are superficial, if not artificial. It is about delivering a pragmatic, highly responsible, very credible approach to denim product innovation and making it available to the creative minds throughout the world. As per Archroma’s estimates, nearly two trillion liters of water are consumed monthly in the production of 167 million pairs of jeans.
Each company contributed its expertise in a particular part of the denim manufacturing pipeline, to that end: Lenzing brought its class-leading fiber Tencel to the table; Archroma offered its Advanced Denim dyeing technology for indigo alternatives; Royo, with its years of experience using Tencel, produced the fabrics, both 100 per cent Tencel and cotton blends; and Garmon’s Green Screen-approved products simplified the finishing process.
An exhibition space was set up so that designers in search of inspiration could discuss their projects and ideas with representatives from the participating companies at Kingpins.
Flexibility and scope
The impression the denim players received was that a denim article produced in a fully sustainable way, cotton to final garment, and would not be attractive enough, with a totally different look to what is considered conventional denim. The stakeholders wanted to prove that this perception did not have a rational and that it was actually the other way round points out Miguel Sanchez, Head of Archroma. Not only could Rational Denim offer the same type of looks expected in conventional denim, but it could also widen the scope of colors, effects and final looks that are expected in a continuously evolving article like jeans.
Sanchez added that the most important aspect of the project is that the Rational Denim concept allows this flexibility, all within a production model where water and other resources are saved in each single step along the line. Andrew Olah, Founder and organizer of Kingpins, adds the project showed that sustainability is not a boundary. It is a source of inspiration and desire for fashion with soul and care.
Nevertheless, something is still holding denim mills back from integrating more sustainable practices, while a technology such as Archroma’s Advanced Denim is said to cut water consumption by 92 per cent, as well as energy usage by 30 per cent and waste by 87 per cent.
Suggested De Conti that fabric mills find themselves squeezed between the marginal, premium price they have to pay for responsible innovation in fibers, dyes and chemicals, and the reluctance shown by some of their brand and retail customers to take part of that burden onboard. As the Rational Denim tagline puts it, creativity without sustainability no longer makes sense.
Sanchez opined that brands are the connection between two dimensions - the end consumer and production - and brands should play an active role in informing end consumers about what it takes to make the jeans and the implications for the environment, so that everything isn’t about look and price.
