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The textile industry in India may be made to buy cotton and jute from farmers at least at the minimum support prices.
The move is part of efforts to ensure a 50 per cent profit to farmers over their cost of production.
The proposal — fraught as it is with serious implementation challenges — could spell trouble for the labor-intensive textile and garment industry.
MSP for cotton will increase by at least 28 per cent in 2018-19 from the current level. Cotton accounts for roughly 60 per cent of yarn costs and yarn makes up for 50 per cent of fabric costs. Fabric, in turn, makes up for 50 per cent of garment costs. So higher cotton prices will push up costs in the entire value chain and jeopardise its competitiveness.
The idea is being mooted at a time when garment production has dropped for 11 months in a row and exports have contracted for a seventh straight month through April, with most units reeling under elevated costs.
Garment production dropped 11 per cent in 2017-18 and exports contracted almost four per cent even though the country’s overall merchandise exports rose 9.8 per cent.
Also, the proposal will potentially render the Cotton Corporation of India irrelevant.
From 2020 to 2040, India will have a large and growing section of its population in the working age, giving it a bigger workforce than China’s.
Deploying this large young workforce in productive areas could potentially create a huge economic output in the long run.
Due to rising labor costs, China is shifting focus to high-end manufacturing. With China vacating this space, a huge opportunity is up for grabs.
To begin with, labor cost in India is less than one-third of that in China. Secondly, the raw material is easily available. India is the world’s second largest cotton producer and no imports would be needed. Synthetic textiles are also manufactured in India. Availability of cotton and synthetic textiles, coupled with low labor cost, offers a huge advantage for apparel manufacturing in India which few other countries could match.
To add to it, more jobs can be created by investing in labor-intensive industries compared to automation-driven industries.
Every 0.1 million of rupees invested in apparel manufacturing is expected to create 24 new jobs compared to only 0.3 in automobiles or 0.1 in steel.
A structured policy on creating large local manufacturers in sectors like leather, apparel and footwear could go a long way in creating high volume jobs in India.
India’s apparel exports fell by 23 per cent in April 2018 compared to April last year.
Reasons include high input costs, delay in GST refunds and stiff competition from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan and China.
Apparel exports have fallen for the seventh month in a row.In rupee terms, exports in April 2018 declined by 21.4 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. In 2016-17, the industry witnessed strong growth, but now exports are in a negative territory since October last year.
In particular India’s apparel exports from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have seen a steep decline. Around 200 exporters in Punjab and Haryana have been affected. Input costs in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are much higher compared to costs in the Tirupur cluster.
The industry has asked for expediting GST refunds and remission on state levies in a time-bound manner.
Due to their poor competitiveness in the international market, many Indian apparel exporters have increased their exposure in the domestic market. However this will not be good in the long run for India, which used to be a dominant player in the international apparel export market.
India’s readymade garment exports in the previous financial year were around 16.71 billion dollars compared to 17.38 billion dollars in 2016-17.
Technical textiles are the new buzz in the Indian textile industry and one of the most emerging and inventive industries in India.
India’s technical textile market is expected to grow at 12 per cent per annum.
With sufficient investments in technology, the industry will grow exponentially.
India comprises four per cent of the global technical textile exports. Demand for technical textiles is expected to stay steady during the period 2017 to 2020 due to a broadening application in end-use industries, such as automotive, construction, healthcare, and sports equipment and so on. To foster research and development in the sector, eight Centers for Excellence have been set up.
Technical textiles offer several advantages in their functional aspects for improving health and safety, cost effectiveness, and durability and strength of textile material. In India, this sector is in its nascent stages while on the global stage it’s a multi-million dollar industry. A large number of technical textile products are consumed by different industries like automotive, healthcare, infrastructure, oil and petroleum, among others.
Indian companies have been introducing several new developments in textile technology. Indian companies are developing products using meta aramid, a textile produced in India which is made from a blend of materials which are environment friendly, lightweight and perform better than asbestos.
AATCC received 50 entries, with 95 students participating from 14 colleges and universities. Students were challenged to showcase their skills in business, marketing, and merchandising by conducting a business model, determining a marketing strategy, and developing merchandising tools and products for an integrated new apparel line focused on and inspired by a specific outdoor or indoor athletic activity (cycling, running, group fitness, hiking, etc.). The new line had to transition from activity to everyday wear and incorporate a use case and supply chain of a realistic technology (e-textiles, chemical technologies, materials technologies, etc).
Among the winners are Impervious Apparel by Hannah Norum and Mylisa Krueger, Oregon State University; Equilibre: A Work to Workout Clothing Line by Megan Singleton and Mallory Hayes, North Carolina State University; and Quick Fix by Mary Lee, Lyndee Johnston, Oksana Topchiy, and Renea Wright, University of Wyoming.
The American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), based in the US, is the world’s leading not-for-profit association serving textile professionals since 1921. It provides test method development, quality control materials, and professional networking for members in about 50 countries throughout the world. It provides scholarships focused on textile design, merchandising, sciences, and engineering.
Kentwool Inc. and American Woolen Company have adopted a vertically-integrated business model that controls the entire production process from yarn spinning to finished product. This has helped the companies to successfully collaborate with premium apparel brands focused on wool, a natural fiber known for its thermal comfort, breathability and ability to be worn across seasons.
Established in 1843 in Pennsylvania, Kentwool owns a 135,000-sq. ft. state-of-the-art wool-based yarn spinning facility in nearby Pickens, which houses approximately 20,000 spindles and produces yarn from 100-percent wool or wool/man-made blends.
American Woolen Company grew to become the world’s largest wool manufacturer in the early 20th century. But the company diminished and become primarily an importer and wholesaler of woolen blankets. Long purchased the brand in 2013, and later had the opportunity to invest in a manufacturing location in the form of historic Stafford Springs, Conn.-based Warren Mill – a cashmere and camel hair woolen fabrics plant with more than 150 years of history.
The US wants Bangladesh to decide on the tenure of the buyers’ initiatives Accord and Alliance. Delays in approving extensions of Accord and Alliance would send a negative signal to buyers and consumers that Bangladesh was not committed to workplace safety. Factory safety and labor rights are a priority for US legislators, civil society, businesses and consumers.
Following the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, European retailers formed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and North American buyers announced the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, which undertook a five-year plan, which set time frames and accountability for inspections and training and workers empowerment programs.
Accord has already obtained conditional extension for six more months as the tenure of the platform is going to end on May 31. The extension of the time frame for Alliance remains under process and the time frame of the platform would end on June 30. Alliance may however, obtain an extension up to December 31 this year.
The United States also wants Bangladesh to resolve the long-standing labor rights concerns so that Bangladesh can focus on preparing for its future as a middle income country and, eventually, a developed country.
Australian technology company Nanollose has developed a sustainable fabric from Nullarbor, a fiber created using natural coconut by-products. This is a first of its kind fabric marking a breakthrough for an industry that is urgently seeking sustainable alternatives to rayon and cotton, both of which cause significant environmental issues. Nullarbor is named from Latin phrase nullus arbor, which means “no trees.”
No trees or plants are impacted by the production of Nanollose’s Nullarbor fiber and fabric, and the process requires very little water. The result is a fiber that can be used to make clothing and textiles, but with a dramatically reduced environmental footprint. The company will initially tap into the established coconut industry to secure pilot-scale supply of the raw material, but when operating on a larger scale, waste streams from bigger industries will be used.
KaHa, a Singapore-based end-to-end smart wearable IoT platform company, has launched a concept smart wearable body and wellness-monitoring T-shirt prototype developed in partnership with SIMTech. KaHa has been working alongside SIMTech technology and supply chain partner for the research institute’s latest Collaborative Industry Project (CIP) on Smart Apparel Innovation. This CIP program, focusing on Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE), aims to accelerate the adoption of advanced technologies to tap the huge potential of smart wearable electronics and promises to help enhance the local smart wearable manufacturing ecosystem The t-shirt is considered to be in a prototype stage that promises to capture body vitals and transmits it to a detachable Smart Module.
According to the company, the global apparel market currently stands at US$3.6 billion (S$4.4 billion), and the latest IDTechEx report forecasts the global wearable tech market to reach US$160 billion by 2025. Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative is acclaimed to develop key pillars of growth, with wearable tech being one of them.
The smart apparel prototype was showcased to over 200 attendees at the CIP’s Kick-off Seminar for the second batch of CIP participants. The event is attended by garment manufacturers for international brands, companies from the electronics, consumer lifestyle, healthcare, hand tools, apparel, textile and fashion industries. The first batch of 10 CIP participating companies started in February 2018.
Co-developed by KaHa and SIMTech, the smart apparel prototype has printed Flexible Hybrid Electronics which claims to capture body vitals and transmits it to a detachable Smart Module on the apparel. The module cleans the data, which is then shared with KaHa’s IoT platform to be analysed. It monitors heart rate and automatically alerts users when their individual maximum prescribed heart rate reaches 80 per cent.
Hyosung is setting up a spandex plant in India by 2019. Hyosung has selected India and Vietnam as the strategic bases for ‘100-year Hyosung. The spandex plant that the company will build in India is expected to lay the foundation for making inroads into the domestic market of the country.
In the first stage, Hyosung plans to invest $100 million for a new spandex plan. It is planning to set up the plant near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, and complete the construction of the plant by 2019. The company will continuously increase investment as market demands and growth are forecast.
The spandex market in India has been growing by more than 16 per cent a year on an average from 2012 to 2017, and it is forecast that it will grow by more than 12 per cent a year, while the market size will reach $200 million by 2020.
Hyosung’s spandex brand ‘creora’ accounts for about 60 per cent of the Indian market. It is focusing on the sale of spandex for Muslim wear like hijab, lingerie, sportswear, denim and diapers. By 2020, Hyosung will begin to concentrate on expanding the high-value-added premium market, after the new plant will become fully operational, also, the company is planning to consolidate its market dominance, creating high profits by increasing its market share to 70 per cent.
The new plant of Hyosung will help related industries such as weaving, knitting, dyeing and sewing to grow and lead to an employment growth, including hiring of competent manpower and invigoration of the overall economy.
