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Trade has played a key role in China’s remarkable rise over recent decades, supported by its accession to the WTO in 2001. There is no doubt that trade will remain vital for the country’s continued economic development.
Chinese trade surplus increased slightly by 6.4 per cent year-on-year in June 2016. Exports fell 4.8 per cent year-on-year, worse than market expectations of a 4.1 per cent drop. In the last twelve months exports rose only in March. In yuan-denominated terms, exports grew 1.3 per cent year-on-year in June, following a 1.2 per cent rise in May.
Imports shrank 8.4 per cent, following a 0.4 per cent decline in May and market expectations of a 5 per cent drop. It is the 20th straight month of decline, a likely sign of weaker domestic demand and lower growth prospects.
Since 1995, China has been recording consistent trade surpluses which from 2004 to 2009 have increased ten times. In 2015 as a whole, China’s total trade dropped by 8 per cent, as exports shrank 2.8 per cent and imports fell sharply by 14.1 per cent due to a weaker currency and falling commodity prices.
In 2015, the biggest trade surpluses were recorded with Hong Kong, the US, the Netherlands, India, the UK, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. China recorded trade deficits with Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, Germany, Brazil and South Africa.
Bangladesh is doing all it can to keep its garment industry secure in the face of international concern over terrorism in the country. But, besides security, exporters there also face congestion and delays.
This week, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the country’s home minister met the European retail association ‘Accord’ to assure foreign companies that their supply chains would be provided with security between the factories and the airport. On its part, Accord said that more than 200 of its members would continue to source garments from the country.
However, Bangladesh exporters have, till now, experienced some percentage of orders cut back. It has been reported that a company lost order as much as $3.6 million order last week from French retailer Celio.
To add to the country’s problems, both the port and airport continue to be congested. All ports of entry are now also subject to heightened security as the government attempts to stop arms entering the country.
Australia, the UK and Germany have all restricted air exports from Bangladesh, despite heightened security at its airports. New scanning requirements, in addition to extra exports in advance of Eid, have caused delays.
And shipments to Europe from Chittagong port are also experiencing congestion with delays of up to a week.
Forwarders are using sea-air routes to help importers of Bangladeshi goods. UK forwarder Ligentia is offering FCL or LCL shipments by sea to Colombo taking about 10 to 12 days to be on route cutting 15-20% off air freight costs before it is flown to Europe. A cheaper option via Dubai, saves 30-35% on direct air freight, but has a total transit time of about 18 days.
Edizione, the Benetton family holding company, has acquired a 0.25 per cent stake in the French luxury fashion label Hermès, as well as taken a 0.35 per cent stake in L Brands, the US group that controls, among others, the lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret.
For the Benetton family, this is simply a financial investment, this time in the luxury goods sector which adds to other stakes held in insurance, banking and publishing industries. According to sources, the amount invested is close to €100 million.
Following directions by the Textile Ministry, the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has decided to sell its remaining stock of about 24,000 bales of cotton to small and medium scale mills, informs B K Mishra, CMD, CCI. He claimed that as prices had shot up, these mills were finding it difficult to purchase cotton, so much so that they were mulling to shut down. The mills approached the ministry. It has now been decided that CCI would now sell the bales only to these mills, Mishra remarked.
Significantly, the spot price of the benchmark cotton variety, Sankar-6, was around Rs 33,000 per candy of 355 kg during the first week of April this year and it increased to Rs 42,700 by the end of June. Currently, it is selling at Rs 48,000 per candy. Thus, the price has increased by 45 per cent resulting in an increase of Rs 60 per kg of clean cotton cost used for combed count yarns.
The sudden rise in cotton prices could not be absorbed by the textile industry and spinning mills that were suffering due to surplus spinning capacity due to the reduced demand for yarn exports. High fixed costs make production cuts difficult.
As a result, non-performing assets (NPAs) are increasing and mills are partially or fully closing down. Old and new mills have a cost differential of 10 per cent in an industry which doesn’t even have a consistent net profit margin of 5 per cent.
Interestingly, CCI had purchased 8.4 lakh bales of cotton at minimum support price this year. The Corporation has supplied nearly two lakh bales to the National Textile Corporation and state co-operative mills. It also sold about 1.5 lakh bales a month over the last four months through e-auction. It now has some 24,000 bales which will be sold to small and medium scale mills.
The British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) has launched the new British Wool Premium Label Partnership with manufacturers who want to promote a higher content of British grown wool in their carpets, rugs and other products. This will give quality manufacturers a chance to influence how much wool of genuine British origin is used in the blend of their ranges.
The Premium Label Partnership defines the manufacturer of the product and their supply chain and ensures that the manufacturer is responsible for ensuring the content is sourced and verified according to the criteria that are set-out by the BWMB.
The Gold British Wool label and a pre-existing label named the Platinum label are included in the new Premium Label Partnership. The labels have been created to clearly define a higher level of British Wool content within a product – 70 per cent within the wool blend in the case of the Gold label and 100 per cent in the case of Platinum. The BWMB audits the chain and the product is only awarded if the strict content values of the specific label meets the standards.
The BWMB is owned by sheep farmers of the UK and sits between the wool producer and the textile industry providing wool for sale by auction across the year and promoting it through its Shepherd’s Crook licensed partnership programme.
The upcoming edition of Munich Fabric Start that is scheduled to take place from August 30 to September 1 in Munich, MOC Zentrum, will in a way surprise visitors as it is launching two new pavilions viz the Keyhouse and Catalyzer.
The two new halls will add the show’s exhibiting space an additional space of 2,500 sq. mt. that has been aimed to present a selection of most innovative and pioneering segments and products. The fabric portfolio, additional and services will comprise around 1,700 collections from 1,000 more suppliers.
Keyhouse, the new Hall 5, will host some of most progressive suppliers and global players from a variety of different sectors. The atmospheric industrial setting will occupy over 1,000 sq. meters and will set on show pioneering smart textiles, future fabrics and technologies with a high degree of integration between textile products and high fashion.
Completing the offer of this new pavilion will also be sustainable developments, expert workshops and trend seminars. Main aim of this debuting new area is to become a think tank of technical textile expertise, strategic company cooperation, use of resources and cross-sector technologies.
At Catalyzer, hosted inside the new Hall 6, denim heritage and blueprints would be showcased with a focus on sustainability and innovation. This interplay of key components in product design and presentation will also be conveyed by consciously chosen architecture elements able to make tradition meet with modernity.
The preserved building substance of solid stone walls meets natural light and lightness, thanks to large glass domes and open steel girders. The original spatial layout was intentionally kept intact, thanks to some unique design solutions.
By taking this new path, Munich Fabric Start wants to meet the textile market’s new challenges. As explained by the show’s management, companies are seeking new methods, altered profiles and communication concepts today as the narrative aspect is gaining greater importance and communication and synergies have become indispensable in order to launch innovative products and solutions.
"The government has announced a package of measures for the textiles and the garment industries. The notification says, the package is labour friendly and would promote employment generation, economies of scale and boost exports. The government expects that in the next three years it will generate 10 million jobs in the two industries and lead to a cumulative increase of $30 billion in exports and investment of Rs 74,000 crore. "
The government has announced a package of measures for the textiles and the garment industries. The notification says, the package is labour friendly and would promote employment generation, economies of scale and boost exports. The government expects that in the next three years it will generate 10 million jobs in the two industries and lead to a cumulative increase of $30 billion in exports and investment of Rs 74,000 crore. Official statistics say, 70 per cent of the workers in the garment industry are women and, therefore, the anticipated boost to employment, in the government’s view, will help in social transformation through women’s empowerment.
Exports get a boost
The enhanced duty drawback scheme, which, for the first time, will refund the levies imposed by the state governments as well, is the most important component of this package. Yet another significant component of the package is the increase in subsidy under the Technology Utilisation Fund Scheme (TUFS), which was amended in December 2015. Interestingly, the basis of the increase in subsidy has been changed from input to outcome; in other words, the subsidies will be disbursed only after the expected additional jobs are created. The annual budgetary support required for this new addition to the duty drawback measures is estimated at Rs 6,000 crore, the bulk of which would be expended through the duty drawback scheme. This additional spending would appear minuscule, given that the government expects garment exports to increase annually by more than 60 per cent over their 2015-16 level of more than Rs 1,10,000 crore over the next three years. Besides, the package would augment jobs in an industry that was the third-largest employer among the major industry groups in 2013-14, reports the Annual Survey of Industries.
The justification for supporting the textiles and the garment industries is compelling, and this can be better understood from two perspectives. The first is that this sector was a major foreign-exchange earner for India until the turn of the millennium, accounting for well over a quarter of the country’s export earnings. Over the next decade, the relative importance of the sector declined rapidly, and by 2011, exports of textiles and garments were just 11 per cent of India’s total outgo.
The decline in India’s presence in the global markets is the second perspective. For over the past couple of decades, India has been struggling to retain its place as a major exporter. India was once a key player in the international marketplace, and against its prowess the major economies had progressively imposed, with the full sanction of the multilateral trading system, higher levels of quota restrictions to limit the entry of its products. Alongside the decision to establish the World Trade Organization (WTO), an agreement was also reached to remove the quotas, which were eventually eliminated at the beginning of 2005. There were huge expectations that the quota removal would provide the much-needed incentives for the textiles and the garment sectors to improve their positions.
Mixed results
The textiles sector has seen a definite improvement among the major exporters, but the garments sector’s position has worsened. In the year 2000, India was not even on the list of the 10 largest exporters, having a share of just over 3 per cent of the global trade in textiles, and by 2014, India’s share had increased to almost 6 per cent and it was the third-largest exporter.
On the other hand, India’s garments exports have been lagging behind the country’s major competitors by quite some distance. In 2000, India’s share was 3 per cent and it was the ninth-largest exporter. After nearly a decade and a half, its share was still below 4 per cent. But while India’s share barely moved, Bangladesh and Vietnam were able to enhance their respective positions as suppliers of garments. Bangladesh had doubled its share in the global market, from 2.6 per cent in 2000 to more than 5 per cent in 2014, while Vietnam increased its share from less than 1 per cent to 4 per cent. One other issue that must be considered while making an assessment of the relative position of India is the China factor. Both the textiles and garment markets were overwhelmingly dominated by China. China’s share in textiles exports was nearly 36 per cent in 2014, up from 10 per cent in the year 2000; while its share in garment exports was even higher at 39 per cent, up from 18 per cent.
Focus on revival
The government needs to reflect as to whether the recent package of incentives is adequate for making Indian players more competitive in the global markets, given the huge gulf between India and the other leading players, in both textiles and garments. For quite some time now, there has been evidence aplenty that India’s textiles and garments industries lack the sinews to compete in the global markets. Successive governments have been mindful of this problem and have taken measures.
The government will have to find ways of ensuring that the shop-floor efficiencies of the two industries are taken to distinctly higher levels through concerted efforts of technology infusion, as it is focusing on the revival of the textiles and the garments industries. The capabilities of domestic machinery manufacturers need to be harnessed, for these entities can provide the solutions that the small firms in the textiles and garments sectors need urgently.
The share of Bangladeshi apparel exports globally increased to 5.9 per cent last year from 5.1 per cent in 2014. Bangladesh is the second largest exporter after China, which grabbed a 39.3 per cent of the global market. Competitors Vietnam, India and Cambodia are making faster strides than Bangladesh. Infrastructure is still a major barrier in Bangladesh.
India registered a two per cent growth in readymade garment exports last year and moderately increased its global market share to 4.10 per cent from 3.70 per cent in 2014. The country emerged the fifth largest exporter of clothing followed by Turkey. Turkey faced a negative 8 per cent growth in readymade garment export last year and its share slipped to 3.4 per cent from 3.5 per cent in 2014. Indonesia, Cambodia and the United States are the next three countries in the ranking.
Vietnam’s clothing exports registered a 10 per cent growth last year while Bangladesh registered a moderate six per cent growth. Vietnam is the only country among the top ten global exporters of clothing that registered double digit growth last year. Its share in the global clothing market stood at 4.9 per cent in 2015 from four per cent in 2014.
Taking a cue from the US, the European Union (EU) has launched a new legal challenge at the World Trade Organization over duties and quotas China imposes on its raw materials exports. The EU says, China has been violating WTO rules with restrictions on exports of key materials such as graphite, cobalt, chromium and magnesia which help Chinese industry at the expense of European companies and consumers.
By filing a similar action last week before the WTO, the US government observed that when China joined the WTO in 2001, it agreed to eliminate such export duties but had failed to follow through on the commitment. The US has said that it had expanded its complaint to include all the same materials covered in the European action.
These raw materials are essential for a broad range of industries from aerospace and car manufacturing to electronics and chemicals. In Washington, the US trade representative’s office said China’s export duties ranged from five to 20 per cent, raising prices for overseas buyers while Chinese companies paid much less and had more secure supplies. In addition, the export duties put pressure on non-Chinese manufacturers to shift production, technologies and jobs to China.
South African private equity firm Jacobs Capital has acquired Gelvenor Textiles. This means that Gelvenor is now a 100 per cent South African company. Gelvenor manufactures industrial, technical apparel, outdoor lifestyle, protective and aeronautical fabrics. Even though the two operate under the same parent company, they will continue to operate separately in the market as independent entities.
The new ownership will not result in any material changes in agreements with Gelvenor’s suppliers. Most importantly, the company’s sustained growth means there is no need for staff changes. Instead, the emphasis will be on further innovation and research as part of a drive to position Gelvenor as a global leader in the production of specialist fabrics. In the longer term, this could see the company expand and create further job opportunities.
Plans are in place to grow production of aeronautical textiles by at least 30 per cent in the next year through the production of light and thin fabrics for rescue parachutes as well as capture additional market share in the paragliding market.
The sale is very positive for Gelvenor as Jacobs Capital supports its sustainable business model and its strategy of continuing to place Gelvenor at the forefront of specialty and technical textiles.
