FW
Rajashree Birla, one of the promoters of the Aditya Birla group has joined the Century Textiles board as a Promoter Director, after Aditya Birla group companies decided to increase their stake in Century Textiles to 50 per cent from 45 per cent after conversion of a preferential offer of shares issued to the promoters in July 2014. The step could be a sign of future announcement regarding the B K Birla group companies, Century Textiles and Kesoram Industries, consolidating operations with Aditya Birla group companies.
The board position fell vacant after Sarala Birla, wife of B K Birla, died last month. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla group, Rajashree Birla's son and B K Birla’s grandson, chairs board meetings at Century Textiles. The Century Textiles stock has shot up 35 per cent since January on merger reports. Century Textiles also announced a net profit of Rs 11 crores in the March 2014 quarter against a loss of Rs 4.9 crore in the same period last year. For 2014-15, the company reported Rs 7,559 crores of revenue and Rs 15 crores profit.
Birla companies Pilani Investments and Kesoram Industries own 36.78 per cent and 2.95 per cent in Century respectively. The total promoter ownership will rise to 50.21 per cent from 40.23 per cent after the conversion. Sources say that the price of conversion will be fixed according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) formula of the 26-week average trading price or two-week average price. At the current six-month average price, Kumar Mangalam Birla will have to pay Rs 600 crores to convert these warrants into equity.
www.centurytextind.com
Spun yarns made from man-made fibres reported a sharp decline in exports both in terms of volume and value. During March, a total of 6.85 million kg of man-made spun yarn were exported, comprising three million kg of polyester yarn, 2.1 million kg of viscose yarn and 1.7 million kg of acrylic yarn. Polyester yarn exports were down 31 per cent in value while viscose yarn export was down 16 per cent during the month. Unit price realisation was down 10 cents for viscose and 27 cents for polyester from a year ago. Acrylic yarn export jumped 12 per cent in volume while unit price realization fell 19 cents to $3.02 per kg.
Viscose yarn reached out to buyers in 25 countries in March with exports valued at $6.46 million and volume at 2.13 million kg, implying average unit price realization of $3.04 per kg. This was 18 cents higher than February and 10 cents lesser than a year ago. Belgium continued to be the single largest importer of viscose yarn followed by Egypt.
Algeria, Indonesia, Mexico, Japan and Thailand were the new markets for viscose yarns in March 2015, together importing yarn worth $0.63 million with volumes at 178,000 kg. Meanwhile 12 other countries did not import any viscose yarns this March. Belgium, Portugal, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh cut their import from India compared to last year.
Polyester spun yarns were exported to 49 countries in March aggregating $7.08 million with a unit price realisation averaging $2.36 a kg. A total of three million kg was exported, of which, 34 per cent was only to Egypt and US. Nigeria, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Tanzania were the new markets of polyester yarns in March. Blended spun yarn exports aggregated $38.6 million in March with volumes at 13.3 million kg. Egypt was the largest importer of PC yarn from India followed by Bangladesh, amongst the 49 countries that imported PC yarn from India in March. While Ecuador, Vietnam, Lebanon and Peru were the fastest growing markets for PC yarns, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Djibouti, Honduras and Iran did not import any.
Meanwhile, Pakistan, Mexico, Venezuela, Algeria and Israel significantly cut their imports of PC yarns from India. Among new markets Latvia was the major one in March 2015. Turkey remained the largest importer of Indian PV yarns in March with volumes at 2.65 million kg worth $7.3 million, followed by Iran and Pakistan.
After the Centre announced its decision of withdrawing the marketing incentive scheme, it has made a negative impact on the weavers in Krishna district, since it has led to decline in sale of handloom products resulting in piling of inventories.
The weavers feel decline in sales are driven by the withdrawal of rebate on the products. Handloom products worth nearly Rs 9 crore to Rs 10 crores are piled up in godowns and the 36 cooperative societies operating in the district were said to be holding up stocks worth more than Rs 11 crores up to March 31 this year. With the APCO making some purchases and marginal sales in retail market, the total stocks have now reduced to Rs 9 crore to Rs10 crores.
The Central government discontinued the scheme in 2012-13 fiscal year. Earlier, under the scheme, the Centre used to offer a rebate of 20 per cent on retail sale of handloom cloth to help weavers’ cooperative societies improve sale and get continuous employment to the members. Apart from the impact of scheme withdrawal, even pending dues are adding to the woes of the weavers. The government is yet to disseminate dues for the 2010-11and 2011-12 years under the market incentive scheme, which has touched Rs 1.51 crore.
Islamic Fashion and Design Council (IFDC) is taking various initiatives to promote works of designers in effective ways. The organisation boosts talent from the fashion industry by providing them exposure on a global platform. IDFC is inviting submissions from designers make the most out of this opportunity.
Various steps, IFDC is launching include buyer initiatives, wherein retail buyers from department stores to boutiques have joined hands with IFDC to create growth opportunities for designers. The organisation is also teaming up with high-traffic events and media initiatives worldwide focusing on creating brand awareness and organizing private buyer viewings and select audience. It has been forming marketing collaborations in cities around the world including New York, London, Paris, Milan, Jakarta, Istanbul, Shanghai, and Kuala Lampur to further establish connections between the designers and global fashion industry.
Selected designers’ works would also be promoted through media, social media, and high-end publications. Also iFash and mainstream consumer awareness plans are being launched to provide increased exposure to designers.
Islamicfashiondesigncouncil.org
Turkey is Europe’s largest textile manufacturing and supplying hub. Major textile brands source their clothing from Turkey. These textile exports have propelled Turkey to become the fourth largest clothing manufacturer in the world and number one in Europe.
With the removal of international trade barriers for China, the Turkish textile sector started losing its labour cost advantage and in order to maintain its competitiveness, producers moved toward new designs, fashions and quality labels, targeting higher income clients.
Huge amounts of raw cotton are available in Turkey. The country is one of the biggest in the world in terms of cotton yarn production capacity. Similarly the Turkish man-made textile sector is also well-developed with a very strong presence in all kinds of synthetic fibers and yarn production and processing.
The apparel sector constitutes nearly 30 per cent of Turkey’s net exports while textile has a share of nearly 23 per cent. Thus these two sub-sectors that are complementing each other have a share of 53 per cent in net exports. Of late, Turkey’s yarn imports from India have been sluggish and have started declining since January 2015. India’s exports of spun yarns in March 2015 were down 46 per cent year on year.
The Techtextil Innovation Award 2015 has picked winners. An international jury of experts selected eight projects. They include printers for three-dimensional woven structures, embroidered electrodes for long-term ECGs, algae-based snow, an artificial womb, and maritime textile for cultivating kelp.
One of the winners in the new technology category is Sosa Fresh for its 3DWeaver, a 3D printer that can produce three-dimensional woven structures step-by-step. The other winner in this category is Emil Stutznäcker for its high-performance sewing technology with automatic handling in the sewing area.
Two companies have been singled out for the award in the new concept category: Switch Embassy for a washable LED screen that can be used in many areas of application, from clothing to interior furnishings, and the ITV Denkendorf Research Institute for BioGlizz, a biological alternative to artificial snow, which is based on an algae-covered textile layer.
The Techtextil Innovation Award in the new product category goes to the Empa Research Institute for an embroidered electrode that can be used for long-term ECGs and thus takes account of the growing demand for textiles in medical applications.
In the new material category, the jury gave the award to Sioen Industries for developing a maritime textile that makes it possible to cultivate kelp and alternative sustainable biomasses.
techtextil.messefrankfurt.com/.../en/.../techtextil-innovation-award.html
Bangladesh is pulling up its socks on quality check for RMG exports. Ispahani Summit Alliance Terminals a new company has set up a quality control center to ensure export of quality apparel products. The company will offer pick and pack services and work as an agent of foreign buyers. Buyers will pay the charges and fees against the services provided by the quality control company.
There are some 20 such companies in Bangladesh. The first quality control company, Koheni Negali, came up in 1998. Apparel exporters, however, fear there would be hidden costs that buyers would pass on to exporters. They also claim that the lead time of exports will be reduced and cost of export products would go up following the latest decision. They fear disputes may arise with foreign buyers over the issue of a private quality control center and affect the export trade.
The entire issue of a private quality control mechanism for export of apparels may be reviewed soon to make it more exporter-friendly. Buyers sometimes are wary of sending foreign quality control experts due to the political turmoil and security reasons. Currently quality control representatives of foreign buyers check quality of products inside factories and hand those over for shipments after packing.
After the Indian government announced export incentives package under the latest foreign trade policy (FTP), the US, a major importer has accused India of providing incentives against the global trade rules. India, on its part has defended itself saying that it has three more years to remove all subsidies, while a number of schemes in the textile sector have already been removed.
Criticising the new sops for the textiles sector at a recent meeting of the WTO’s committee on safeguards and countervailing measures in Geneva, the US representative said providing new incentives to the sector is a step backwards as India is supposed to remove all textile export subsidies this year. However, both the countries feel that their differences could be amicably sorted out through bilateral meetings.
The five-year FTP announced last month came up with a new incentive scheme for goods exports — the Merchandise Export Incentive Scheme — under which most textiles and garments sectors have been entitled to sops worth 2 per cent of their exports, which is lower than the 3 per cent or higher sops that the sector received under the older schemes.
According to WTO rules, India has become export competitive in the textile sector as it has already accounted for more than 3.25 per cent of share in world trade for two consecutive years and needs to phase out export subsidies to the sector in eight years. Whereas, the US says that India became competitive in 2007 and should thus remove all subsidies in 2015.
www.wto.org
Denim is breaking away from its casual image. Popularity has been bolstered in part by the advanced technologies of Japanese textile manufacturers, who have turned out such products as soft, flexible denim. Many denim textiles used by luxurious brands are products of Japanese textile manufacturers.
Designers are turning out sophisticated denim fashions that overturn the fabric’s casual image. Underlying this trend is the development of new technologies and materials. Gucci used bleached denim for a military-style jacket accentuated with gold buttons and wide-leg pants with turned-up bottoms, while Fendi presented a three-piece suit using denim. Michael Kors combined a short jacket with creased pants, both using navy denim in a fetching combination.
The denim used for luxury brand clothing is a result of advanced technologies, which have led to soft, flexible denim textiles. They are comfortable to wear and create a flattering silhouette. These technologies have also added subtle hues and delicate textures to denim, making it possible to meet the increasingly diverse requests of designers.
A new long dress by Bottega Veneta used a soft denim manufactured in Japan and had elegant drapes. A jacket by Etro used a thin denim that was decorated with geometric motifs. Denim is being used for shoes and bags, too. Some denim textiles are valuable for their rarity, as they can only be manufactured on old-fashioned weaving machinery.
After falling by almost 2 percent in March, cotton prices reversed direction and rose by more than 4 percent in April, according to the latest data from the Agriculture Department. The seven-market US average cotton spot price increase by 2.65 cents per pound, to $0.644.
However, it is unclear why prices rose, since estimates for supply and demand were nearly unchanged in the month, which means the increase might be short-lived. World cotton stocks are projected to increase 8.2 per cent to 110.1 million bales in the current season. Global cotton mill use for 2014-2015, on the other hand, is forecast to rise by less than 2 per cent above last year, to 111 million bales. Although China has started to release large portions of the cotton reserves it stockpiled during the buying program in place for several years to support prices, the expected increase in demand for cotton by Chinese mills has not yet materialized. The country is expected to import 7.3 million bales of cotton in the current crop year, a little over half last-year’s level.
India, the world’s second largest exporter after the US, is expected be on par with China in cotton production this season. India’s acreage plans for 2015/2016 will have significant impact on global production and prices given its limited warehousing capabilities. The USDA estimates that, in response to continuing low prices, global consumption will exceed production in the 2015/2016 season, leading to a reduction in global stocks for the first time in six years, though stocks will still remain near historic highs and most of the stock drawdown will occur in China.
www.usda.gov
