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Czech textile and clothing companies last year showcased their best results in the past 12 years. Data from a survey carried out by the Czech Association of Textile, Clothing and Leather Industries (ATOK) 2017 records companies sold fibres, textiles and clothing valued at 55.3 billion crowns. This was largely due to the fast growing economy and focus on technical textiles, which are used in the automobile industry, agriculture, health care and aviation. The head of the Czech Association of Textile, Clothing and Leather Industries, Jiří Česal points out. The growth suggests a close interconnection between the textile industry and other fields. It is clearly driven by the auto industry which uses textiles for the production of many of its components.
Currently, technical textiles make up two thirds of global textile production and experts say their significance will continue to grow. Česal says seven out of the country’s top 10 textile producers manufacture technical textile. The Czech Republic’s leading producer is Juta, which produces unwoven textiles for the building industry and agriculture, followed by nappies producer Pegas Nonwovens.
As per a study by Czech Association of Textile, Clothing and Leather Industry, Textile and Clothing Associations last year recruited new employees and increased their salaries. Wages increased by over seven per cent, with workers in textile companies achieving an average wage of 24,000 crowns.
Just like in other fields, however, Czech textile and clothing companies are facing a serious lack of workers. Earlier, Czechoslovakia was a textile and clothing industry power, but in the 1990s many of the country’s companies went bankrupt following cheap imports from Asia.
Circle Economy has officially launched the Fibersort Project which uses innovative technology to automatically sort large volumes of mixed post-consumer textiles based on fibre composition. Along with project partners Valvan Baling Systems, Reshare, Procotex, Worn Again and Smart Fibersorting, the organisation will soon undertake testing on the sorted materials and the results will be disclosed in future Fibersort reports. A ‘Demo Day’ has been scheduled for March 14th to showcase Fibersort’s technology at work and to share performance information with the industry for the first time. The event will also have project partners host workshops to gain an in-depth understanding of systemic issues around recycled textiles.
The project partners give out figures which show of all textiles discarded in Northwest Europe, only 30 per cent are collected and almost half of the collected items are only fit to be downcycled, landfilled or incinerated. The Fibersort Project hopes to give them a chance to become inputs for textile-to-textile recycling.
The Fibersort technology, funded by Interreg NWE, is now in operation and the first Fibersorted materials are now commercially available. The project aims to reduce the need for virgin textile materials by providing feedstock more efficiently for textile-to-textile recycling and creating additional market value by making it economically feasible to sort textile waste. Cyndi Rhoades, CEO, Worn Again explains, Fibersort will enable suppliers of post-consumer textiles to meet the feedstock specification for our process more efficiently than today’s sorting methods. The results of the Fibersort are looking promising.
The Brazilian office of C&A Foundation, Instituto C&A, is launching a “call for proposals” to find innovative initiatives to bring about systematic change in working conditions in Brazil’s fashion industry. C&A said as consumers become increasingly aware of the conditions in which fashion is made, demand for greater transparency has increased. Numerous brands and industry groups have begun to publicly disclose information such as the names and locations of suppliers they work with, working conditions and related safety information.
Giuliana Ortega, Executive Director of Instituto C&A announced, “We are looking for innovative ways to improve working conditions in the fashion industry in Brazil. Transparency can contribute a great deal by disseminating reliable and publicly accessible information and by encouraging accountability, making working conditions a priority in the sector.”
Transparency will only contribute to improving working conditions when publicly disclosed information is used to encourage accountability, C&A further said. With access to relevant data and information, stakeholders at all stages in the value chain can make choices that will improve conditions for garment workers.
The initial budget available for the call for proposals is $4,00,000, with a maximum of about $1,80,000 for each proposal, with up to three proposals to be chosen. Instituto C&A said a complex maze of production units, subcontracted factories and sourcing agents has emerged across various countries, including Brazil. Multiple stages between material sourcing, production and retail make the apparel supply chain opaque and leads to a complex international apparel industry where monitoring and tracing is challenged at all levels of production from the fields of cotton fields through to retail outlets.
The lack of transparency in the system has contributed to persistently poor working conditions and weak systems of accountability. Brands, buyers, governments and consumers are often unaware of how materials are sourced and the conditions under which items are produced. To address transparency in the fashion industry supply chain, the initiatives presented should develop or implement projects that give out public, accurate and credible sources of information and data on issues that directly or indirectly affect working conditions.
Fespa will be held in Germany from May 15 to 18. This is a wide format, screen printing and textile printing event. Visitors will see printed interior decor applications including furniture, wall coverings, flooring, window graphics and soft furnishings.
This year’s event will have an entire hall dedicated to substrates and will also feature the largest textile zone of any Fespa event to date to reflect the market’s growing interest in soft signage, fashion and decorative textiles.
New this year is Print Make Wear, an interactive visitor feature designed to replicate a fast fashion factory. Focused exclusively on fashion textiles, garments and printed accessories, this feature takes the form of a live production environment and will highlight every step in the screen and digital printing production process, from initial design to finished product.
Also new for 2018 is the Digital Corrugated Experience, which is an educational and experiential area that will showcase the commercial and production advantages of digital print for corrugated packaging and retail display applications. This feature aims to highlight to packaging converters and box-makers the benefits of integrating digital technology into their production mix.
The show will be co-located once again with European Sign Expo, Fespa’s dedicated event for non-printed signage.
Vietnam is signing a free trade agreement with the EU this year. When implemented, it would become one of the most ambitious and comprehensive investment agreements to be signed between the European Union and a developing country. Vietnamese enterprises can get access to a market with a population of more than 500 million people and a GDP which accounts for 22 per cent of global GDP. In return, EU investors can explore a market that has the most rapid economic growth in the region with a population of more than 90 million people. The FTA will contribute about 2.5 per cent to Vietnam’s GDP in 2020 and 4.6 per cent in 2025.
Vietnam is now a benchmark for the other Asean countries that are willing to engage in FTA negotiations with the EU. Vietnam’s exports of textiles and garments rose 10 per cent this year compared to last year. In 2017, its exports of garment products to the US were 9.4 per cent higher than in 2016.
Meanwhile a denim and sportswear supply chain show will be held in Vietnam, June 27 to 28, 2018. This is the third edition of the show.
Knitwear industrialists from Tirupur have been invited to invest in a textile cluster to be formed in UP. As a part of two-day program, Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, Secretary to UP chief minister, and Sunil Yadav, Assistant Director, Handloom and Textiles, visited garment manufacturing units at Nethaji apparel park in New Tirupur and other places. Ahead of the UP Investors Summit, to be held on February 21-22, the representatives presented their offers to interested industrialists.
Uttar Pradesh is the seventh state to send its representatives. Earlier, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Odisha have sent their representatives to woo the industrialists.
UP’s offers support in capital and machinery investments and transportation expenditures, tax benefits, employee provident fund and employee state insurance were found to be attractive. The UP government team said they have planned to have special purpose vehicle (SPV) and textile parks to establish needed infrastructure, says Shashi Agarwal, joint secretary of Sihma.
Industrialists have been invited to participate in their state’s investors’ summit. They may even have further visits here, if needed. Since Tirupur has attained saturation point in the knitwear business is facing labour shortage and other issues, the industrialists may look for investment options in states like UP. However, industrialists have admitted there is no significant migration of such investments in any of the states which were trying to attract the textile sector investments from Tamil Nadu.
S Govindappan, VP, Sihma says even if those states provide attractive investment offers, it would not be more difficult to get either skilled labour force or raw materials or processing units there. For instance, the Karnataka government was trying to lure industrialists to set up units in an industrial estate in Chamarajanagar district on Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border, there were no takers.
Bangladesh’s sweater exports to the western world are rising because of competitive prices and longer winters due to climate change. Exports in fiscal 2016-17 were up 5.64 per cent year-on-year. Three years ago, the window for sweater sales was at the most four months, from November to February. However, now, the window opens in October and continues until March.
The shift of work orders from China to Bangladesh is also another factor for the higher shipment, which exports nearly three million pieces a year. Knitwear is no longer confined to winter and is worn year round.
Given the higher demand, most factories have started automating their production line to boost output and cope with strict lead times. Recently, Vietnam and Cambodia have become major competitors due to their shorter lead times. The lead time from Bangladesh is around 40 days, whereas it is 20 days from the other two Asian nations. Bangladesh has more than 500 sweater factories in operation and nearly 60 per cent of these have switched over to automation to ramp up productivity. Prices of sweaters dropped and customers placed more orders in the jacquard category. An automated jacquard machine is not only able to produce diversified and fashionable products, but can also fabricate critical designs.
Première Vision has launched a new website, whose predominant color is white, and will enable users to search for fabrics using 13 different criteria: their textile components, certification, color, weight etc. The site will be initially limited to the ordering of fabric samples, with the placement of production orders a possibility at a later stage.
There will be an affordable subscription fee to access the site's tools. This is the initial economic model. In the longer term, it will be possible to place orders through the site, which will be able to offer more than just samples. The marketplace will be gradually deployed for fabrics, yarns, leather, accessories and sourcing. It will also include editorial content, akin to PV's trend forums, featuring specific insights on the range of products offered on the website by the show’s exhibitors.
Première Vision Digital, the wholly-owned subsidiary of PV which runs the marketplace, has set itself an initial target of 1,500 companies joining the marketplace, offering a range of about 70,000 products in the textiles, apparel, leather, accessories and textile design categories.
Exhibitors will be able to limit and control access to their products. On the buyers’ side, Première Vision intends to tap its database of 2,50,000 international buyers.
Nandan Denim’s net profit for the third quarter rose 61 per cent. Net sales were higher by 54 per cent over the previous fiscal’s same quarter net sales. The company reported healthy ebitda and pat margins at 16 per cent and 3.83 per cent respectively. Earnings per share for the third quarter stood at Rs 2.86.
For the nine months ended December 2017, the company’s net profit rose 14 per cent. Net sales in the nine months were higher by 43 per cent compared to the same period in the previous fiscal. For the nine months of fiscal year 2017-18, the ebitda margin stood at 15.51 per cent and pat margin at 3.87 per cent.
The company was able to maintain a good balance between revenue growth and profitability while delivering greater efficiency. The benefits of optimising business post expansion are beginning to emerge. It expects to get the full realisation and synergies of the expansion plans in the next few years and expects to see better profit margins going forward. Nandan Denim is India’s largest denim fabric manufacturer. From a year-on-year perspective, Nandan has completed capacity expansions at the denim fabric, shirting fabric, and yarn manufacturing units.
Japanese textile companies have emerged as significant suppliers to the US automotive industry. The success of Japanese automotive textile suppliers reflects dramatic changes in the shape of the US automotive sector itself as the share of US producers has fallen and that of Japanese producers has risen. In general, the dominance of the traditional Big Three automotive manufacturers—namely General Motors Ford and DaimlerChrysler—has waned while Japanese car producers such as Toyota Motor and others have enjoyed rapid and considerable growth in the US market.
There is a growing demand for environmentally-friendly products in the global automotive interiors market. Changes in attitudes towards ecological and environmental concerns are reflected in vehicle designs as well as automotive interiors.
Other future trends include the substitution of polyurethane foam in upholstery composites by three-dimensional polyester nonwovens, multi-knits and spacer fabrics which can be recycled; the increased use of efficient, longer life nonwoven filters to meet requirements for longer maintenance periods; the use of optical fibers in textile linings to illuminate certain parts of the car interior—such as the floor, door handles, and other areas; and the use of conductive textiles for heating and electromagnetic shielding, and for the collection or transmission of signals.
