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Growth in India’s factory activity slowed to a four-month low in February as new orders eased and weighed on output after manufacturers raised prices at the fastest pace in a year. This suggests retail inflation could continue to pick up over coming months, pressuring the Reserve Bank of India to raise interest rates despite concerns that tighter policy could weigh on economic growth.
Cost inflation accelerated to the sharpest since February 2017, adding to expectations that inflationary risks will continue over the coming months. While retail inflation eased in January from a 17-month high in the prior month, price rises are still above the RBI’s medium-term target of four per cent on rising energy costs and expectations for an increase in rural spending by the government.
The new orders sub-index, an indicator of domestic and export demand, fell to 52.3, its lowest since October. That is well below the long-run mean average of 57.1 for orders and marked the second consecutive month it has fallen. Export order growth, while pulling back slightly, was still solid.
While firms remain optimistic about future output, the world’s seventh-largest economy has not completely overcome the disruptions to demand from a ban of high-value currency notes in November 2016 and the implementation of GST.
Swedish multinational clothing-retailer H&M, is pushing the boundaries of what we can expect from sustainable fabrics with its seventh eco-friendly conscious exclusive collection. This range is described by H&M as “exquisite, premium pieces that celebrate the new season and showcase the increasing possibilities of sustainable fashion with a focus on development and innovation.” This year they have partnered with, a global producer of nylon yarn, in paying tribute to the Arts and Crafts movement in Sweden and features the new sustainable materials recycled silver and ECONYL, a 100 per cent regenerated fibre from fishnets and other nylon waste.
This partnership marks the first time that the Conscious Exclusive collection features pieces made from ECONYL yarn, Aquafil’s regenerated nylon made also from waste diverted from landfills and oceans. The collection’s release is the beginning of a long-awaited collaboration between two industry leaders with a shared vision for a more sustainable future.
H&M has made a commitment to cleaning up their act. Last year, they unveiled a new sustainability mission, which aims to infuse an eco-ethos into every aspect of the business. The six-piece line of jackets, skirts and pants is made from 20 per cent recycled materials pulled directly from the unwanted clothes customers have been dropping off. The other 80 per cent is comprised of organic cotton from the company's Better Cotton Initiative program.
Turkey-based Gamateks, which specialises in circular knitting has three of its fabrics feature Invista’s Lycra fiber innovations. It has developed a special black circular knitted legging fabric called Soft Comfort 2. Made with Lycra Soft Comfort technology, this fabric delivers exquisite comfort and fit and is meant for premium brands and their consumers. Another fabric called Next400 contains Lycra T400 fiber and Coolmax technology to keep athletes cool and dry. This innovative fabric can be used from ready-to-wear to stretch active wear collections. Wooderer is another fabric with Lycra T400 fiber, offering Coolmax technology benefits. It is a viscose and Lycra T400 pique fabric blend developed primarily for men’s golf and tennis lines.
Invista is a leading integrated producer of polymers and fibers, primarily for nylon, spandex and polyester applications. With a business presence in over 20 countries, Invista has a wide portfolio of some of the most recognized brands and trademarks in their respective industries including: Coolmax, Cordura, Lycra, Polarguard, Solarmax, Supplex, Tactel, and Thermolite.
Gamateks is a vertically integrated fabric and garment producer. It started in 1985 with production and processing of cotton. In 1995, a dyeing-finishing-printing unit was established. Gamateks has an integrated yarn facility.
Bangladesh is the world's largest raw cotton importer as it uses this cotton to manufacture yarn and fabric for the readymade garment (RMG) industry. What is generally forgotten it that it pays a phenomenal $3.0 billion annually as import bill for the natural fibre. It goes without saying that it does a good job of producing quality apparel for the export market; however, what is worrying is the non-availability of huge quantities of domestic cotton required to produce finished RMG. Initially, the problem was very serious as exporters had to depend on imported fabric for both woven and knit apparel.
However, in the last two decades the situation has morphed post the emergence of many composite textile mills to make up for the non-availability of fabric. Currently, domestic production has increased so that about eighty per cent of fabric required for apparel manufacturing is sourced locally.
China still leads the pack as the world’s largest cotton consumer despite its reduced cotton production/import in recent times. As Chinese stock of cotton is being cut back significantly, the price of cotton is increasing. On the other hand, the US, the largest cotton exporting country in the world, is creating an artificial supply shortage by cutting back on the cultivation of the natural fibre.
Today, Bangladesh is the fifth largest cotton consumer in the world and its cotton import is estimated to grow beyond 7.0 million bales in 2017-18. In the year ago period, it was nearly 7.0 million bales. The country’s import bill has thus been skyrocketing and as per recent report in a local daily, it has gone beyond $3.0 billion.
Apparel products made of cotton has been the mainstay of Bangladesh's exports over the decades. Many exporting countries that do not produce enough raw cotton have shifted to manmade fibres such as filament, polyesters and viscose. Following this model, one can see a paradigm shift in international trends in the use of manmade and natural fibres. Following the exponential rise in the use of manmade fibre increasing its ratio to more than 70 per cent internationally, it goes without saying that apparel exporters are forced to diversify their product range by increasing the use of manmade fibre.
After a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Hiroyasu Izumi commerce minister Tofail Ahmed has said Bangladesh does not need Generalised System of Preference (GSP) facility from the United States as the country will soon be elevated to the group of developing nations. The achievements are satisfactory though every year $900 million is given to the US as custom duty.
Referring to Japanese investment, Tofail says Bangladesh has signed many agreements with Japan and the country will make 100 per cent investment in one of the 100 special economic zones of the country.
The US is the single largest export destination for Bangladesh. Of the total exports of the country, 16.78 per cent goods are destined to the American markets, with garment items accounting for 95 per cent of the shipment. Bangladesh would enjoy GSP plus facility to the EU markets even after its graduation from the LDC grouping.
"While leading fast fashion and luxury apparel companies are taking initiatives to go green, the impact still seems to be insignificant. Aiming to reshape the industry with circular economy initiative, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) has teamed up with some fashion brands to help overhaul the business model. It aims to reverse the hyper-consumption that is currently promoted in fashion—an industry on track to consume a quarter of the global carbon supply by 2050—and to recast the whole clothing supply chain into a system based on balanced consumption and less-intensive production methods."
While leading fast fashion and luxury apparel companies are taking initiatives to go green, the impact still seems to be insignificant. Aiming to reshape the industry with circular economy initiative, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) has teamed up with some fashion brands to help overhaul the business model. It aims to reverse the hyper-consumption that is currently promoted in fashion—an industry on track to consume a quarter of the global carbon supply by 2050—and to recast the whole clothing supply chain into a system based on balanced consumption and less-intensive production methods.
The EMF analysis states a ‘circular’ clothing industry would be elegantly balanced: The fashion business model would be reoriented towards reducing consumption and waste at every step, from the cotton field to the storefront window. On the production end, reducing chemical-intensive synthetic fibres would sharply cut pollution. Manufacturers would systematically decrease the pace and intensity of production so that a company’s energy consumption would automatically shrink to fit the reduced resource needs for fewer garments and less overseas exporting. As the carbon footprint downsizes in production, circularity would be encouraged in the retail market as well by designing more durable styles, which could be worn for years, rather than become disposable within a few months. EMF also recommends creating a second shelf life for used clothing by expanding the marketing of resold and rented apparel.
The analysis points out eventually, the value derived from more eco-friendly production and retail would offset the impacts of waste generated by the fashion industry. By stopping or reversing the cycle of environmental degradation, the industry could provide an avenue toward shrinking consumers’ carbon footprints. Industry critics have doubts about the entire landscape and opine that even after assuming that sustainable textile and apparel manufacturing can become less energy-intensive and ‘cleaner’ through improved technology, such material changes would not have major impact.
Being positive about future
Maddy Cobbing from Greenpeace’s Detox My Fashion campaign points out the current rates of excessive production and consumption in the industry as a whole are probably outweighing any gains that are being made on eliminating hazardous chemicals. So comprehensively scaling down production remains the safest way to decrease environmental impacts, and, in the immediate term at least, the industry needs to take a more responsible approach and slow down the flow of materials as the first priority.
Even after surrounding debates, EMF seems to be quite positive about the entire initiative and asserts that a circular economy would be distributive by design, meaning value is circulated among enterprises of all sizes in the industry so that all parts of the value chain can pay workers well and provide them with good working conditions. Experts feel that once that happens, the low-skill factory jobs would be replaced with higher-skill jobs in the ‘green economy’. On this, Greenpeace officials said that better working conditions and opportunities for rewarding work are likely to follow as a result of less exploitation of nature and people. But job loss could be unavoidable, which will require a new type of fashion industry with more balanced workplace governance, and designers cooperating with workers on design and planning. Only if workers are protected from the worst employment impacts of reduced production could they ever really benefit from the environmental dividends of a more environmentally healthy, less toxic system of production.
The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has asked the government to remove Rs 49 royalty on genetically modified (Bt) cotton seeds, using Bollgard-II (BG-II) technology from the US company Monsanto. In a letter to the Joint Secretary (Seeds), Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ashwani Kumar, national co-convenor of the SJM Ashwani Mahaja averred that the BT-II trait for which the government had fixed Rs 49 as trait value or royalty in 2016 and 2017 has become ineffective post 2015. "I request you to correct the mistakes done in the past by removing the trait value (royalty) for BG-II and reduce the MSP of Bt cotton seeds to farmers.
"….. The act of reducing the MSP of Bt cotton seeds would give some relief to the farmers."
He alleged that the trait developers have been misguiding the government on the “magic increase” in cotton productivity which he averred was "false propaganda" put out to cover up for the failure of Bt cotton and was a means to justify the collection of Rs 8000 crore in the form of royalty.
SJM Ashwani Mahaja quotes data, "From the published data of the Ministry of Agriculture, it is very clear that the cotton productivity hovered only between 450 kg to 500 kg in the period starting from 2007 till 2018. The BT cotton area was only 15 per cent of the total cotton planted in 2006 whereas it is 95 per cent over the last 7-8 years.” He also said the government should not encourage monopoly of Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech Limited (MMBL) by keeping the seed value of BG-I seeds low while being fully aware of the fact that the cost of production of BG-I seeds cannot be lower as compared to BG-II seeds. He was of the view that the same seed value should be maintained for both BG-I and BG-II seeds.
"The differential pricing between BG-I and BG-II is encouraging the monopoly of MMBL as nobody would produce BG-I seeds and incur loss. Due to this the farmers are suffering as BG-I seeds are not available in the market and they are compelled to buy only BG-II seeds thereby paying Rs 49 extra and thereby benefitting MMBL."
The 45th edition of IHGF Delhi Fair Spring 2018 concluded successfully at India Expo Centre and Mart, Greater Noida, with business enquiries valued at Rs 2700 crores said O P Prahldka, Chairman, EPCH. Prahladka said the fair played a significant role in exponentially increasing exports of handicrafts from the country where exports during the launch year 1994-95 which was Rs 3,159.62 crore has touched a phenomenal Rs 24,392.39 crore in 2016-17.
Around 5,300 overseas buyers from 111 countries and domestic volume retail buyers visited the show to source home, lifestyle, fashion and textiles products during five days extravaganza. Speaking on the occasion the chief guest Ajay Tamta, Minister of State for Textile praised EPCH for working so hard to increase exports of handicrafts by organising this fair twice a year and also for setting up infrastructures at different craft clusters in the country to provide product and design development facilities, use of technology to produce products in large quantities and also for providing marketing linkages to artisans and crafts persons.
Rakesh Kumar, ED-EPCH was happy with the knowledge seminars that discussed insightful subjects like: Cultural Differences Between East and West and How They Impact Business; How to Export to China with Specific Reference to Gifts, Decoratives and House ware; Symposium on Positioning of J&K handicrafts in Domestic and Overseas Markets; Goods and Service Tax; Intellectual Property Rights; Customs Trade Partnership Agreement Terrorism [C-TPAT]; Verification of Certified Forest Products and Trends and Forecast – Spring Summer 2019.
Buyers from the world’s most prestigious companies/ departmental stores were seen placing orders. These included Apropos International Inc., Anthropologie, Four Hands LLC, Brylane Home, Earthbound Trading, Cost Plus World Market, Imax Corpn, Kalalou, among others.
Walmart will launch four private label clothing brands as a part of a push to make deeper inroads into the apparel space and compete against rival Amazon, which is rapidly gaining market share in the category. The new private brands, which are owned by the retailer, will be available in Walmart stores and online starting March 1.
Walmart has been acquiring small online brands like Shoebuy, Modcloth and Bonobos over the past year to boost growth in the clothing and accessories business, where consumers are increasingly shopping online. Amazon’s apparel category has sharply gained popularity, with footwear and casual clothing proving to be the online retailer’s most popular categories and ease of browsing its biggest draw.
Walmart, which is still the largest clothing retailer in the United States, is upgrading the apparel section in its stores with improved displays, open floor plans and better fitting rooms.
For the second quarter of fiscal 2018 US Walmart’s total revenue rose 2.1 per cent. Comparative sales also increased 1.8 per cent with a traffic growth of 1.3 per cent, marking the 12th consecutive quarter with positive comparable sales. Nine of eleven markets posted positive comparable sales. The company is moving faster and becoming more creative as it strives to make every day easier for busy families.
The Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association Chairman Felix Fernando has asked the Indian government to enhance apparel quota system significantly or remove it completely. This will give the Sri Lankan apparel exporters more confidence in doing business in the Indian subcontinent, he feels. Since quota restrictions have been imposed, Sri Lankan can export only a certain quantity. The existing apparel quota is not sufficient enough for large scale Sri Lankan apparel manufactures to export to the Indian market and it is pertinent to remove these existing impediments to create win opportunities for both countries.
Sri Lankan apparel exports have grown substantially recording a 6 per cent growth over the last six months, the Association Chairman was of the view that the current trend would continue in the coming months. Sri Lanka currently exports fabrics and other materials from several ASEAN countries including China which are not eligible to receive the GSP Plus benefit. There is a need for a methodology to help the country’s manufactures to obtain required fabrics and materials from India rather than importing from several ASEAN Countries.
Special Assignments Minister, Sarath Amunugama pointes out the apparel quota was given not with the idea of restricting, it was given with the idea of stimulating trade. Today, that objective is not necessarily the utmost. Sri Lanka has well and now is ready to compete. Apparel is very sensitive product to India given its own apparel industry, the minister noted adding removing or improving the existing quota wouldn’t affect the extensiveness of the Indian market, but it would certainly be a nice gesture for a country like Sri Lanka.
