FW
Hyosung Group chairman Cho Hyun-jun is expanding the group’s presence in Chinese clothing market. At the recent Intertextile Shanghai 2018 fair in Shanghai from September 27-29, 2018, he met officials from Chinese lingerie maker Maniform, Chinese Sportswear Company Anta and Chinese clothing brand Yishion during the event to discuss measures to expand cooperation.
year, Cho has been strengthening on-site management of the group's global operations. In February, he met with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to discuss ways to bolster business and cooperation. He revealed plans to construct a spandex factory in India during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In August, Cho sat down with Zhejiang Gov. Yuan Jiajin to examine ways to achieve mutual growth.
China’s clothing market was valued at 1.8 trillion yuan, ($261.09 billion), as of 2016. The market has been growing at over 5 per cent every year. Hyosung took part in the event with 21 global clients, including China's textile company Ya Tai and Vietnam’s Hung Yen Knitting & Dyeing Co., and helped their sales activities and consultations.
Synthetic fibers from washed clothes are linked to ocean microplastics. About 35 per cent of microplastics released into the world’s oceans come from synthetic textiles. Three-fifths of all clothing is discarded within a year of being produced, either sent to landfill or incinerated.
The industry is rethinking the way clothes are manufactured, right down to the fibers that are used. The garment industry is one of many industries that have a threefold impact with emissions to air, water, and large amounts of waste produced for landfill and incineration. Water pollution and energy use from the fashion industry is significant. The industry’s emission of carbon dioxide is more than that of international flights and maritime shipping combined.
The industry is investing in new environmentally-friendly materials. Garments could be created so they don’t fall apart at the seams and so that they can be recycled after they have been worn for many years. Fabrics should be designed not to shed microfibers when washed and industry needs to look at how efficiencies can be made in the cutting process, which currently sees huge amounts of material discarded on factory floors each year.
To reduce a garment’s carbon footprint, people are encouraged to wash their clothes at a lower temperature, use mesh laundry bags to catch threads, use tumble dryers less often, and install filters on washing machine waste pipes.
Heimtextil will take place in Frankfurt from January 8 to 11, 2019. This is a trade fair for home and contract textiles. Over 400 manufacturers will display upholstery and decorative fabrics as well as artificial leather. Manufacturers of fibers and yarns will be exhibiting at Heimtextil, spread across various product segments. The range extends from traditional materials and eco-certified yarns to high-tech fibers for use in highly specialised areas. Among the 20 producers are pioneering companies such as Dralon from Germany, Lenzing from Austria, Reliance from India, and Torcitura Lei Tsu from Italy.
Trevira will also be presenting a trend area especially for the contract market, where visitors – in particular interior designers, designers and furnishers – can find out about innovative textiles and color trends. Healthy living and working remains one of the top themes in the interior textile sector. Furniture and decorative fabrics also make a contribution: they are able to optimise rooms climatically and acoustically and decisively improve the feel-good factor. In this respect, the on-trend fabrics are certified organic, waterproof and/or flame-retardant. At the same time, the textiles – despite all their high-tech – have a very natural appearance. This also applies to outdoor fabrics in linen, flannel or woven looks. When it comes to soft feel-good textiles for indoors, high quality wool is exploited to the full.
Marks & Spencer, Eileen Fisher and Arket – the lifestyle concept store from H&M, recently launched the first ever commercial garments labeled with the voluntary Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) from Textile Exchange. H&M has committed to only using RWS or recycled wool in all of its products by 2023.
RWS is a voluntary global standard that addresses the welfare of sheep and the deals with the environmental impact of the land that they graze on in a bid to ‘improve best practice’ among woolgrowers. Launched in 2016, the RWS has since been adopted by the Argentinian wool industry and also been backed by a number of other brands including Patagonia, which has also adopted the standard.
Eileen Fisher’s recently released RWS certified garments were made of wool from New Zealand and Argentina, while the M&S certified range can trace its roots back to Wools of New Zealand, including Palliser Ridge.
Yet although there are RWS certified wool farms in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, Argentina and Uruguay, the standard has been met with some resistance among woolgrowers – particularly in Australia, which is by far the world’s largest producer of merino wool for clothing.
Apparel shipments from Bangladesh rose 15.9 per cent in July 2018 compared to July 2017. This was the fifth consecutive month of a double-digit increase in Bangladeshi apparel exports. The country has benefited from its low labor costs, by contrast with the jump of production costs experienced in other Asian countries. Duty-free access to the European Union is another decisive advantage for Bangladesh. Sales to the EU have therefore surged in the first half, especially in knit clothing categories where rules of origin are more easily met for benefiting from the duty-free access.
The development of a strong yarn industry in Bangladesh is favoring duty-free sales to European countries. Exports to Germany have for instance gained 14.3 per cent in the last fiscal year in knit clothing categories. Shipments to the UK or Spain are also experiencing a double-digit growth.
Exports to the United States have also rebounded in the second quarter this year, thanks to a return of US buyers to cotton apparel. The recent jump of polyester prices in China, along with the loss of competitiveness of Chinese exporters, is another advantage for Bangladesh. The sharp rise of minimum wages as of next December in Bangladesh could however result in higher export prices and a lower export growth.
Luxury shoppers in the US, and China, are in for a rough ride. The tariffs on Chinese goods will affect mink furs, crocodile handbags, leather accessories, silk, handmade lace, gold leaf, and fabrics used specifically for ballet, opera and theater sets.
Fur garments made in China and sold in the US are subject to both import and export tariffs. Retail prices for mink coats in the US could soar by as much as 45 per cent. Prices will also go up for Chinese shoppers. That’s bad news for American mink farmers since 80 per cent of their market is now Chinese consumers. Price hikes as a result of the tariffs probably will happen in the middle of 2019.
Steeper prices on fancy products will also affect shoppers of modest means who buy products that look like luxury but are not. These include leather flat goods — items like key holders and wallets. Those accessories help a consumer get the feeling of being in the big league. Leather coats are another example. A cowhide version of a coat costs 20 times as much as a pigskin version. A 25 per cent tariff on a pigskin will eliminate that product from the market and take that choice away from the middle-income customer.
The US trade deficit ballooned in August to its highest level in six months. Trade deficit so far this year has risen 8.6 per cent over the same period in 2017. Businesses rushed to import goods before tariffs hit on China in late August and September, including importing products needed in stores for the holiday shopping season, driving up the trade gap.
Exports of tariff-targeted goods fell while American consumers snapped up imported cars and mobile phones. Retaliatory tariffs imposed by China have continued to whipsaw American farmers. Ironically Republicans who are in power traditionally count on farmers for political support.
The unexpectedly poor trade numbers could slow economic growth in the third quarter. Even adjusting for price changes, it looks like the trade deficit widened significantly in the third quarter, greatly slowing growth. The gap in goods trade with China rose to $38.6 billion for August and with Mexico hit $8.7 billion both the highest monthly totals ever. At $31.1 billion, imports from Mexico also were the highest ever.
While factory safety has greatly improved in Bangladesh over the last five years, accidents still happen. Since the Rana Plaza collapse, over 540 workers have been killed and injured in factory incidents in Bangladesh. There is no national employment injury insurance scheme that would cover all workers in Bangladesh.
Current proposals to address compensation for workers injured in the workplace do not bring Bangladesh any closer to international standards in the field of workplace injury. These standards are enshrined in ILO Convention 121 on employment injury benefits, which Bangladesh has not ratified. Doing so would be a welcome step.
The implementation of an employment injury insurance scheme for workers of the garment industry should bring them and eventually all workers up to internationally accepted levels of social protection.
Over 130 countries in the world cover employment injury as part of their social security system, but Bangladesh is not one of them, although the scheme is affordable. Contribution to a national employment injury insurance scheme would amount to about 0.005 per cent of the retail price of a garment. Employers would have to contribute about 0.3 per cent of the wage sum. Less than the price of a basic T-shirt per year could insure a worker against insecurity and the worst forms of poverty after a workplace tragedy.
Independent product labels such as the Standard 100 by Oeko-Tex or Made in Green by Oeko-Tex make buying decisions easier and prove that children’s clothing can be fashionable, child-friendly and sustainable, this was confirmed by a recent Oeko-Tex study ‘The Key to Confidence’. Transparency, product stewardship, and trust go hand-in-hand when parents shop for textiles, the study said.
Oeko-Tex is an independent textile testing institute working for enhanced product safety and sustainable production in the textile value chain. The Oeko-Tex system can support brands, manufacturers, and retailers as they implement product responsibility strategies and build more sustainable supply chains.
The range of Oeko-Tex products in testing, certification and product labeling has increased significantly. Globally harmonised standards like those in the Oeko-Tex system set the bar for defining and measuring textile safety and sustainability. From raw materials through to the final product, third party certifications help brands and retailers reassure consumers that products are made in environmentally and socially responsible ways and are safe for people to use.
Oeko-Tex helps companies throughout the global supply chain easily test their organic cotton products for GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Parents represent the most demanding consumer segment of all with regard to product safety and responsible production of textiles.
Clothing and textile products that are harmless to health and manufactured in an environmentally friendly and socially acceptable manner are much more in demand.
A surge is likely in India’s cotton yarn exports. There was a 56 per cent year on year growth in cotton yarn exports. The strong revival in export demand augurs well for profitability of domestic spinners as it has enabled them to pass on the increase in raw material costs, unlike last year. In addition they have access to low-cost cotton from the previous harvest season.
The strong year on year growth in cotton yarn exports has been driven by a more than two-fold increase in exports to China and also by competitive Indian cotton and yarn prices. Indian cotton prices increased at a relatively slower pace vis-a-vis international prices during the seven-month period ended May 2018, with a six per cent increase in dollar terms vis-a-vis a 20 per cent increase in international cotton prices during the same period.
However, in spite of the healthy demand prospects in export markets in the near term, the spike in growth rate of exports witnessed is likely to be moderate with the arbitrage opportunity as well as base effect fading out. Other factors apart, competitive pressures from Vietnam and China’s focus on improving cotton availability situation are also expected to moderate the export demand for India’s cotton yarn going forward.
