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Far East Knitting and Dyeing Industries is a leading composite textile company in Bangladesh, with integrated, knitting, high end dyeing, finishing (tubular and open width), and state of the art printing, pigment dyeing and garment washing. The company supplies finished goods to renowned apparel brands Walmart, Primark, New Look and Bershka. Its major products are knitwear such as T-shirts, tank tops and vests and jackets.
The production capacity of finished garments is approximately 1.5 million pieces per month in basic T-shirts. Far East Knitting has floated 25 million ordinary shares. Of the total shares, sponsors or directors owned most of the shares, 78.45 per cent, the public held 19.39 per cent while institutions owned only 2.15 per cent shares. The company is now planning to expand and increase production capacity of finished garments by approximately one million pieces per month in basic T-shirts.
Far East expects its exports will double after completion of the new project. The project is expected to be completed by March 2016. The company has 1,400 sewing machines. The machinery include a variety of automatic and manual machines (plane, overlock, flat-bed, cylinder bed, two needle etc.) The daily sewing capacity on an average is 50,000 to 60,000 pieces a day for basic items and about 45,000 pieces a day for more sophisticated garments.
www.fareastknit.com/
India is the second largest producer of cotton, cotton yarn, cotton fabric and silk after China and far ahead of Bangladesh and Vietnam.
The country leads the world in jute production accounting for 52.3 per cent of the total production followed by Bangladesh with 42.5 per cent.
India’s readymade garment exports amounted to 42.85 per cent of the total exports vis-a-vis 94.2 per cent for Bangladesh, 80.63 per cent for Vietnam and 60.31 per cent for China.
The country has as many as 72 textile parks in various stages of implementation. Once operational, the textile parks will attract investments to the tune of Rs 30,000 crores and generate employment to nearly 4.5 lakh people.
The Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks was launched in 2005 to provide the textile industry with state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities for setting up their textile units.
India’s textile sector contributes 11 per cent to the country’s total export basket. The field is extremely varied, with a handspun and hand woven sector at one end of the spectrum and a capital intensive sophisticated mill sector at the other.
The industry has the capacity to produce a variety of products suitable to different market segments, both within and outside the country.
Garment units of Bangladesh want to set up warehouses and sales centers in Gujarat. India has responded positively to the investment proposal. This will enable Bangladeshi garment makers to sell and distribute their products directly in India. They see India as a large marketplace with a growing middle class customer base.
A five-member business delegation is set to visit India. During the three-day tour from August 23 to 25, members of the delegation will visit industrial plots and meet the state chief minister. The plan is to set up warehouses in 50 acres of land in Gujarat and to set up a thousand sales centers across India. Since India has permitted well-known brands to do business in its marketplace, Bangladesh’s garment makers feel having warehouses in Gujarat will allow them to provide items of clothing to these brands. Bangladesh wants to enhance its yearly item of clothing exports to the Indian market to a billion dollars in three years from around a100 million dollars now.
India presents duty-free and quota-free market entry for all Bangladeshi products, excluding alcohol and drugs. However, Bangladesh’s garment makers want India’s countervailing duty removed so that they can export more.
Amity School of Fashion Technology (ASFT) organised an industry interaction to welcome the students of 2015 batch. As a part of industry interaction, a large number of expert speakers from reputed fashion retail/brand companies, apparel export organisations as well as fashion communication & fashion designing experts visited the campus to address the new batch of under graduate and post graduate students. The topic covered was: ‘Expectations of the Fashion Industry from Young Professionals’.
The distinguished speakers included Roopak Vasishtha, CEO and Managing Director, Apparel Made-Ups & Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council; Ashvinder Singh, Managing Director, Uni Style Image; Ashok Raman, Vice President- Marketing, Shahi Exports; Stuti Jalan, MD, Crosshairs Communication; Shalini Ahuja, Accessory Designer, Shalini Arts and Nida Mahmood, Fashion Designer.
Pradeep Joshi, Director General, Amity Directorate of Applied Arts, Fine Arts, Performing Arts & Visual Arts welcomed the experts and requested industry veterans to guide the students by sharing their invaluable experiences. He also emphasised the need for greater industry-academic partnership thereby asking for continuous support and guidance from industry.
The drive to maintain set standards of safety for workers in readymade garment (RMG) factories, undertaken by International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the government in the aftermath of Rana Plaza building collapse, will continue for another three months. More than 300 units are yet to be inspected. The safety campaign, which was started in February, last year, had December 2014 as its deadline, which due to incompletion of task was extended to July 31. Again in the light of the same problem, it was extended to another three months.
Shedding light on the matter, Bangladesh labour secretary Mikail Shiper said, the deadline extension has been due to factory-owners’ demand for more time to complete fire, electricity and other safety parameters. They have time now until October 31 to get the work done at their premises.
He also stated that they had shortlisted 13 engineering firms for the purpose of assessment, and seeing that only two were in the job of inspection now, they have allowed factory owners to choose any listed firm on their own for this purpose. Questions were being raised by factory owners over the activities of field resource, wherein field resources people alleged to have been involved in provoking workers outside of the factories.
Far East Knitting and Dyeing Industries is a leading composite textile company in Bangladesh, with integrated, knitting, high end dyeing, finishing (tubular and open width), and state of the art printing, pigment dyeing and garment washing. The company supplies finished goods to renowned apparel brands Walmart, Primark, New Look and Bershka. Its major products are knitwear such as T-shirts, tank tops and vests and jackets.
The production capacity of finished garments is approximately 1.5 million pieces per month in basic T-shirts. Far East Knitting has floated 25 million ordinary shares. Of the total shares, sponsors or directors owned most of the shares, 78.45 per cent, the public held 19.39 per cent while institutions owned only 2.15 per cent shares. The company is now planning to expand and increase production capacity of finished garments by approximately one million pieces per month in basic T-shirts.
Far East expects its exports will double after completion of the new project. The project is expected to be completed by March 2016. The company has 1,400 sewing machines. The machinery include a variety of automatic and manual machines (plane, overlock, flat-bed, cylinder bed, two needle etc.) The daily sewing capacity on an average is 50,000 to 60,000 pieces a day for basic items and about 45,000 pieces a day for more sophisticated garments.
www.fareastknit.com/
Indonesia's garment and textiles industry has seen good sales growth as consumers loosen their purse strings. Moreover, the country is doing well, partly due to weaker rupiah. However, the sector is facing major challenges amidst rising competition in the ASEAN region. Indonesia needs to strengthen capital, technology and know-how, to help meet quality and quantity of goods in the growing apparel industry. This is a challenge to attain and also an opportunity for investors.
Upstream investment in Indonesia’s textile industry is because of the healthy downstream business as garment manufacturers capitalise on rising domestic and foreign demand. Indonesian government is set to increase the value of exported textiles and garments to $75 billion by 2030, contributing 5 per cent to global exports.
Upstream business hurdles
Indonesia leads in textile manufacturing due to strong upstream and downstream business. Major local garment makers want to take advantage of this and have also upped their capital to acquire assets, which would help them streamline their supply chains. The upstream side though, has been struggling to keep up. As per Indonesian Synthetic Fiber Producers Association (APSyFI), imports of fibre doubled to around 600,000 tonnes from 300,000 in 2008. As downstream businesses keep sourcing their input materials from abroad, the domestic upstream industry has been failing to benefit from rising consumer expenditure.
The output of upstream textile products has grown through the years, but costs have gone up faster, thus straining businesses. The imperfect condition of upstream business also reflects in the industrial production index for the textile industry. This has been declining since 2010, which is in contrast to most other industries. Large and medium-sized textile businesses have declined in numbers. Trade data shows that the country’s upstream business is increasingly becoming dependent on imports, while exports grew only moderately over the past five years.
Imports of both yarn and fabrics have increased and in manmade fibre products, imports of yarn and woven fabric have outpaced exports over the past five years. Also, the imports of manmade filaments and staple fibres have grown rapidly, as the garment industry demand increased. Thus, Indonesia's upstream textile industry is struggling to ward off foreign competition.
Factors affecting upstream business
Lack of competitiveness in Indonesia’s textile industry can be put down to several factors. The use of inefficient technology, underdeveloped transportation system, power infrastructure and rising energy costs are some of them. Labour, of course, is the garment producers’ biggest worry, but not as much for the capital intensive upstream business. Indonesia also falls behind in higher-value products where local producers are concerned.
Government incentives to help textile companies have been insufficient so far and even government-sponsored training programmes and industry clusters aimed at generating local know-how and fostering integration are not that successful. Besides, the upstream business lacks competitiveness. So, since government measure so hardly effect, hopes are pinned on the private sector and foreign investors. Exporters of spinning and weaving machinery, consulting and staff-training too have an opportunity here.
The International Cotton Association (ICA) and the Beijing Cotton Outlook Consulting, are jointly organising a three-day interactive training course to focus on the key areas of China’s international cotton trade and global cotton market. The programme is scheduled for September 21, 2015. There will be a series of training modules, conducted in Chinese by industry expert. The modulus would cover topics such as: Fundamental knowledge (world cotton market and import/export, major cotton export countries and their characteristics); major cotton export countries and their characteristics); trading rules (dispute resolution, international trading rules, arbitration agreements, arbitration procedures and arbitrator training); and trading issues (risk management, contract making, futures and options, cotton controlling and testing).
The program also includes a series of elements, presented by top experts. These include: Basics (world cotton market, import and export, the main cotton exporters and their characteristics); trade rules (to resolve disputes, international trade rules, the arbitration agreement, the arbitration proceedings and the arbitrators training); and trade issues (risk control, contract making, hedging, cotton inspection and testing).
This trade training programme is especially developed for the Chinese cotton industry, is conducted in Chinese and meant for all age groups from all sectors of the cotton industry. The three day program slated for September 21 to24 will be held at the Shenzhen Silver Lake Resort Hotel in Shenzhen, China.
The issue of compliance to safety rules in RMGs has taken centre stage in Bangladesh. This was visible in a recent meeting organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue, involving union representatives, industry stakeholders and business leaders to brainstorm on compliance matters and how to maintain basic standards of safety in RMGs. The stakeholders are now keen to install safety equipments in their premises irrespective of cost and investment it may incur for them.
Experts feel safety issues may have taken precedence over others in Bangladesh, however, the matter is so crucial that it should not be ignored by other countries as well. This can help them to grow in manufacturing since the investment costs in countries other than Bangladesh is low, owing to factors such as developed infrastructure, lower interest rates, financial incentives and low cost of materials. The redressal of safety issues will give a competitive edge to companies involved in this segment and will assist everyone in the industry one way or another.
They also felt the whole exercise should not be a one sided affair and reforms should be the responsibility of both, the government and the industry.
Euromonitor International predicts the global market for Islamic fashion clothing is set to almost double its annual growth in the future. Natalia Gorzawski, Euromonitor International’s research analyst says that in the short-term it may be more beneficial for a manufacturer to invest in existing local brands or together with a Muslim fashion designer to create a new label.
Intensive research in the local markets and financial resources to develop a manufacturing process and a supply chain that can guarantee compliance with widely accepted halal standards is what a new brands needs to do, she said. Besides, Gorzawski explained that manufacturers would need to create an affordable clothing line that could meet the demand of the mass market and not just a small minority of upscale consumers if they want to exploit the full potential of this underserved consumer segment. She believes that these are the reasons why multinational companies still struggle to enter the market.
Gorzawski also feels that Islamic fashion has tremendous long-term potential. In 2013, the 57 countries that belong to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) accounted for 7 per cent of total value sales of apparel and footwear. Euromonitor International forecasts this figure to increase over 9 per cent by 2018.
According to Euromonitor’s estimates 7.9 per cent of the fashion market accounted for OIC countries in 2014, and this year their share will go up to 8.1 per cent. In 2016, it would go up to 8.4 per cent, in 2017 it would be 8.8 per cent, and in 2018 it would be 9.1 per cent.
