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The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) has launched the Rhode Island Textile Innovation Network (RITIN) at the Slater Mill Museum in Pawtucket. RITIN unveiled its new website and held an expo featuring local manufacturers. The activities supplemented NCTO’s We Make Amazing campaign that promotes the US textile industry. The network fosters collaboration among textile industry leaders, designers, academia and government with a mission to make Rhode Island a leader in advanced textile manufacturing and to develop solutions to recruit and train the sector’s future workforce.
Created in late 2016 by US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and the University of Rhode Island Business Engagement Center, RITIN operates with planning grants received in late 2017 from Real Jobs RI and the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. Polaris MEP, an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP) provides RITIN’s program management.
Maroc will be held in Morocco, October 11 to 12, 2018. Around 200 exhibitors will be present representing fast fashion, denim, knitting, tailoring, lingerie, work wear, leather goods, shoes and accessories. The Circular Denim Cluster, a joint project by Hallotex, Textil Santanderina, Vich Industrial and Lenzing, will present actions to ensure sustainability along the complete production chain.
A textile cluster is being planned for Morocco. This is a project for the development of sustainable production. Planned are inter alia a spinning mill that processes recycled fibers and a recycling plant that is expected to recycle over one million kilograms of textile waste per year.
Stable macroeconomic factors and a favorable investment climate make Morocco an interesting and innovative production and sourcing location for the Mediterranean and North Africa. The clothing and textile industry in Morocco accounts for 24 per cent of Morocco’s total exports.
The country is at a favorable geostrategic location at the crossroads of three continents. Fast fashion, denim, knit, technical textiles and knitwear are Morocco’s competence. A striking advantage of Moroccan production is the proximity to Europe and the many years of experience in production for the world’s largest fashion brands and retailers. Moroccan producers can react quickly to new trends, implement and deliver them.
Uniqlo, a subsidiary of Japanese retail holding company Fast Retailing – plans to form a joint venture with three Pakistani companies, to boost textile exports. The brand will outsource textile garments for its more than 3,000 outlets worldwide. Uniqlo initially selected five textile companies in Lahore, Faisalabad, and Karachi and sent its two member team to meet their representatives and assess the potential.
Pakistan’s textile exports rose around 9 percent to $13.53 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, which account for more than 60 per cent of the country’s total exports. Yet, Pakistan has lost its textile export share in the world market to 1.7 per cent from 2.2 per cent over the last decade.
In February, Spanish Inditex Group, the world’s biggest clothes retailer and owner of fast fashion brand Zara, opened its maiden branch office in Pakistan to double its imports from the country. Other key foreign buying houses in the country include IKEA, Walmart Global Procurement, Li and Fung Pakistan, Target and JC Penny.
New York Denim Days was held September 22 to 23. It served a strong denim style with a side of education about the industry’s progress toward sustainability. The B-2-C event was an opportunity for leaders in the denim supply chain to share their stories with consumers.
Artistic Milliners teamed up with Los Angeles-based denim brand Rising Sun for a line of men’s denim and duffle bags exclusive to Denim Days. The products were made with a recipe of sustainable alternative fibers including Tencel, Repreve and Cordura, and using the mill’s cleanest indigo dyeing technology. The hydro-free dye process is designed to leave clean and recyclable water effluent without any salt by-products and uses 70 per cent less chemicals.
Artistic Milliners also introduced a collection of stuffed denim sea creatures and nautical-themed pillows to stress the importance of ocean conservation. The toys were made with Crystal Clear technology and were filled with sliver collected from its own facility.
Tencel showcased how its fibers are derived from sustainably harvested trees. The narrative continued with a shop-in-shop that highlighted the soft hand feel and performance attributes the fiber brings to denim. Visitors were also encouraged to take selfies with a tree covered in patchwork Tencel denim.
"As per Washington-based National Council of Textile Organisations figures, US textiles and apparels exports was worth $28.6 billion in 2017. In fact, exports helped the country pull out of global recession. No wonder many small and medium sized textile companies in the US are boosting their bottomline by targeting consumers living outside the United States. Around 95 per cent of consumers of US textile reside outside, enabling them to sell their wares across the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) areas, as well as in Asian and European markets."
As per Washington-based National Council of Textile Organisations figures, US textiles and apparels exports was worth $28.6 billion in 2017. In fact, exports helped the country pull out of global recession. No wonder many small and medium sized textile companies in the US are boosting their bottomline by targeting consumers living outside the United States. Around 95 per cent of consumers of US textile reside outside, enabling them to sell their wares across the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) areas, as well as in Asian and European markets.
Many small businesses and corporate executives perceive exporting to be too burdensome or risky. They either do not sell overseas or sell in just a few markets that they are comfortable in. One of the primary reasons for this is customers sometimes fail to pay for the goods they receive.
Benefits of export credit insurance policy
An excellent solution to this is the Export-Import Bank (EXIM). EXIM, is a US federal government agency that
enables domestic companies to compete abroad and increase global sales. The bank’s export credit insurance policy protects foreign accounts receivables generated by the sale of goods and services from US-based companies to international customers. The policy covers up to 95 per cent of sales invoice against nonpayment due to commercial — bankruptcy and protracted default for example such as war or insurgency — risks.
Export credit insurance policy also improves the competitiveness of textile companies in the world market. While American exporters resort to cash in advance to avoid nonpayment risk, most foreign competitors offer open account credit terms. They expect credit terms and companies that are unable to extend credit to lose out on valuable opportunities.
Export credit insurance empowers US businesses to negotiate credit terms — typically in 30, 60 or 90 days — with foreign buyers up front, which is a powerful marketing tool and gives a competitive edge that wins deals. EXIM can cover a company’s entire portfolio of customers or a single buyer. In addition to reducing the risk of nonpayment and offering open account credit terms to foreign buyers, EXIM’s export credit insurance can enhance a company’s borrowing capacity by assigning now secured foreign receivables to a lender, improving liquidity and easing cash flow constraints.
Small players benefit
Between 2015 and 2017, EXIM supported with over $253 million to US textiles and apparel exporters. Small businesses comprised 91 per cent of EXIM’s total authorisations.
Export credit has gone a long way to boost the country’s exports and there by overall revenues.
US agriculture has become too dependent on China and needs to diversify and build demand with many different markets. The TPP is seen as opening new markets for US farmers. The American feeling is re-entering the TPP would be good for agriculture and that the Japanese market, in particular, would make up some of the losses the US is having with China.
The TPP trade deal would have given US farmers lower tariffs and great market access to all the nations in Asia and the South Pacific, but strong opposition by labor unions forced the US to abandon the deal. Now tariffs against China are causing major problems for US agriculture and hence the rethink. The US intends to renegotiate the trade pact and sign revised free trade agreements with Japan, South Korea and Canada.
TPP was proposed in 2010. As a multilateral trade framework outside the World Trade Organization, the TPP intends to further reduce tariff barriers and enhance unified market rules including intellectual property protection. The US is likely to sign trade pacts with other trading partners, including Japan, South Korea, and Canada. In this way, the US hopes to force China to make more concessions in lowering tariffs, reducing subsidies, opening up markets, and enhancing intellectual property rights protection.
As per BGMEA data, Bangladesh’s apparel export to India saw an increase of 111 per cent (on a point-to-point basis) in this time period. In monetary terms, the total apparel export amounted to $218 million, it was $97 million at the same time last year. And as per Bangladesh’s Export Promotion Bureau, between July and December last year, garment shipments to India increased 5.99 per cent year-on-year to fetch $111.33 million.
Global retail giants like H&M and Walmart have already started sourcing from Bangladesh to cater to Indian consumers. With a host of retailers increasing their footprints in the country, sourcing from Bangladesh is set to get a further boost. M&S and GAP are planning to open another 50 stores in India in the next two years, while Adidas has outlined plans to open around 30-40 big flagship stores across Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, by 2020, which in turn has prompted many more to enter the lucrative Indian market. Only recently, Uniqlo announced its first store to open in Delhi in 2019. Aeropostale, an American teen fashion retailer, has chosen to enter India over China, and expects India to be among its top three markets over the next four years with revenue target of US $ 74.12 million.
IKEA has already opened its first store in Hyderabad while future stores are reportedly planned in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Surat, and Ahmedabad.
Clean Clothes Campaign has branded the newly announced minimum wage for Bangladeshi garment workers as outrageous. The NGO claims that the wage is nowhere near a living wage. The Bangladesh Minimum Wage Board for readymade garment workers set Tk8,000 (US$95) as the new minimum monthly salary. Employees will start receiving the new level in December 2018. The rise represents a 53 per cent increase, albeit the last rise in wages workers received was five years ago.
IndustriALL Bangladesh Council (IBC) had clearly communicated to the Minimum Wage Board, and requested for an immediate review. Clean Clothes Campaign has supported the board’s call for a review of the announced amount, in light of the demand of workers’ unions for the new minimum wage to be set at 16,000 tk.
As a result of the tariff wars, US companies like Walmart, Samsonite and Gap have already expressed plans to raise prices. Walmart and its suppliers will pay the cost of increased duties, which are simply taxes levied on products at the border. As a result, either consumers will pay more, suppliers will receive less, retail margins will be lower, or consumers will buy fewer products or forego purchases altogether.
American business, American workers and American families will be negatively impacted by the decision of their country to impose tariffs. Also, the fact that the tariffs will start at ten per cent now and will rise to 25 per cent in January will create additional chaos in the fashion industry’s supply chains, which will have a wide-ranging negative impact on consumers, companies, and jobs in the United States.
American industry feels these tariffs on imports of textiles, apparel and accessories do little to punish China for its intellectual property and technology transfer prices but do a lot to harm American fashion brands and retailers as well as consumers of their products.
The latest list of tariffs did remove some textile items like rayon fiber, some dyes and certain chemicals. Had US textile manufacturers been forced to pay higher duties on the excluded items, it would have raised costs for manufacturers making goods that must compete with like Chinese products.
The Lifestyle Agency® along with, the Turkish Apparel Center (TAC) recently launched a trade event of a New York-based luxury designer. This event unites international Turkish designers and garment manufacturers with US based retail buyers, merchandisers, stylists, fashion trade journalists and other fashion insiders to foster economic opportunities that inspire commerce with the fashion capital with Europe and Africa.
This initiative will create a two-way path for innovative opportunities in international retail distribution and commerce for emerging fashion professionals, starting here in New York and fashion markets abroad. The event will be held at the TAC Showroom, New York. Its curated pool of international designers will interact with attendees of this invite-only event on Tuesday, September 25, 2018. It has invited various retailers including buyers from JCPenney, Against All Odds (AAO), Lord and Taylor, Jimmy Jazz, South Pole, Porta Bella men's stores, Ilys, etc.
