FW
Bangladesh has some 4,500 readymade garment factories and nearly all of these will be shortly compliant. By next June the process is expected to be complete. Before the Rana Plaza tragedy garment factories focused only on child labor, limiting working hours, wages for overtime duties and on achieving technical compliance like fire extinguishers, gloves, boots, helmets for workers.
However, after the disaster, stakeholders went ahead with structural, fire and electrical safety, which was almost zero in their vision earlier. Factories now use proper electrical cables. Safety standards in the industry as well as the well being of workers are being monitored.
Now factories are inspected jointly by experts supported by ILO and the buyers’ platforms Accord and Alliance. Bangladesh now has 67 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) factories, certified by the United States Green Building Council, of which 13 are platinum. Seven out of world’s top 13 LEED certified factories are in Bangladesh and 280 more are in the pipeline for getting certification.
Meanwhile the labor law was amended in July 2013 and another revision of the law is in progress. A workers’ welfare fund has been created to which the garment industry alone contributed around 10 million dollars last fiscal year.
Cotton farmers in Telangana are demanding a price of Rs 7,000 a quintal. They feel the MSP of Rs 4,320 for the year is not remunerative. They also want the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to open more procurement centers.
A large number of farmers switched to cotton this time as prices of paddy, turmeric, mirchi and red gram fell sharply last year. If farmers get a price lower than that, they expect to be compensated for the difference. The state sowed a record acreage of 46 lakh acres for the fiber crop this year. After witnessing dismal returns in crops such as chillies, turmeric and red gram, farmers returned to cotton in a big way. As against the suggested price of Rs 4,000, a significant number of farmers got Rs 5,000, resulting in an additional acreage of over 10 lakh acres this time.
Though procurement generally takes off after Diwali, some markets have already recorded arrivals of the commodity. The prices being offered are not very encouraging. Farmers in Telangana reduced the cotton acreage in the previous year and went for red gram, whose acreage went up to 11 lakh acres from the normal area of six lakh acres.
In the second quarter global yarn production rose by 11 per cent. The drivers of the growth are: Asia and Brazil. Yarn production decreased by ten percent in the US and 18 per cent in Africa. Global fabric production improved by nine per cent, with the most significant increases in Brazil, Asia, and Africa.
Global yarn stocks decreased by one per cent. Asia, Europe, and Brazil saw their yarn inventories increase, but the world average is driven down by a 12 per cent decrease of yarn stocks in Egypt. But global yarn stocks have improved compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
Global fabric inventories decreased by eight per cent. The strongest decrease is observed in Brazil. Asia and the US are fairly stable and Europe’s stocks rose by seven per cent. Global yarn orders have fallen in all regions in the second quarter. European yarn orders decreased by almost seven per cent. Reductions of six per cent and four per cent were recorded in Brazil and Asia.
Asian and European fabric orders remained stable and rose in Brazil and Africa. In comparison to the second quarter of last year, Asian and Brazilian fabric orders declined significantly while they slightly increased in Europe and Africa.
US cotton continued to be the major supplying source for spinners in Vietnam. Cotton imported from the US made up around 40 per cent of Vietnam’s total cotton imports over the past few years. Australian cotton remained the second largest supplier. Brazilian cotton took the third place. Vietnam’s cotton imports in September 2017 increased 56.09 per cent year on year and 1.55 per cent month on month.
In the first nine months of 2017, cotton imports were up 28.23 per cent from the corresponding period of last year. For September’s imports, the major supplier was the United States, with a proportion of 47.30 per cent.
From January to September 2017, cotton imports of Vietnam were up 28.23 per cent year on year. In September, cotton imports were up 56.09 per cent from a year ago. Vietnam’s cotton consumption has been increasing at an average 22 per cent year on year for the last five years.
In September 2017, textile and garment exports of Vietnam were up 9.76 per cent year on year and down 11.14 per cent month on month. In January-September 2017, export value increased 8.51 per cent from a year ago. The export value decreased somewhat in September.
In the first nine months of the year, exports of Taiwan’s textile products edged up 1.5 per cent from the same period last year. Taiwan’s textile exports are forecast to grow five per cent this year. The growth momentum is expected to extend into the fourth quarter amid improving industry sentiment.
Taiwanese textile suppliers will also benefit from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics over the coming years, as local companies are strong producers of functional wear and high-performance sportswear for athletes. Some US-based e-commerce operators are trying to manufacture low-priced apparel by themselves, but Taiwanese firms still hold niches in the functional and sportswear markets.
The emergence of e-commerce operators has gradually changed the supply chains in the global retailing industry, but that would only have a limited impact on local textile and fabric companies. The Taiwanese textile industry has developed environmentally-friendly concepts and done recycled polymer and polymer blends. From yarns for apparel to industrial and sport accessories, recycled yarns are growing in importance and are a core part of Taiwan’s textile industry.
Mixtures of new technologies and fashion allow new design elements that were hard to imagine in the past. Polymer based yarn developments in polyester, nylon, recycled and blended with natural fibers, lead the way.
Itema has opened a training center in Pakistan. It follows in the footsteps of the original in Italy, inaugurated in 2015. The center will give training on latest-generation weaving equipment from Itema, the innovative airjet and rapier technology, and on how customers as well as students and interested stakeholders can get the most out of their looms.
Itema is the world’s largest privately held provider of advanced weaving solutions, including best-in-class weaving machines, spare parts and integrated services. Itema sees Pakistan as one of the most strategically important markets and a country with a strong potential for continued growth. The concept of the center is that it’s essential for Itema to have a physical presence in a country in order to create a dynamic and positive environment for business. This will enable to bring Itema closer to customers and will enable Itema to serve the Pakistani textile industry with best-in-class, innovative weaving machinery to enable Pakistani mills to produce high quality fabrics and achieve maximum success in the worldwide market.
The center has dedicated training courses for key weaving personnel and fully functional and ergonomic facilities. Itema’s other such centers are in Switzerland, China, India, Japan and the US.
Cashmere World will be held in Hong Kong, March 14 to 16, 2018, along with APLF—Leather and Materials and Fashion Access. Cashmere World specialises in cashmere and fine fibers and will showcase the latest colors and trends in fine fibers fashion. APLF—Leather and Materials is a leather, materials and components trade show. Fashion Access is Asia’s leading fashion accessories trade fair.
All three events will offer excellent business opportunities to the thousands of leather, materials and fashion buyers passing through the fair. Cashmere World will allow manufacturers of cashmere and fine fiber garments and accessories the ideal opportunity to display their fall/winter collections and, at the same time, allow professional buyers to request samples and place orders for their retail outlets on time for delivery for the fall/winter season later in the year.
Leather garments, bags and accessories are perfect complements to cashmere / fine fibers fashion. In addition, both fall into the luxury category of fashion accessories and for this reason there is a natural synergy between Cashmere World and Fashion Access.
Leather and cashmere experience the same evolution in their processes in view of brands and customers' demands for sustainability and traceability. Hence there is mutual synergy not only between Cashmere World and Fashion Access but also between Cashmere World and APLF Leather and Materials.
"Marred with a number of challenges at global and national level, the textile industry in Pakistan is losing its sheen. The industry which used to contribute around 62 per cent towards exports, employing around 40 per cent of total industrial workforce, has been under tremendous stress. As per the Economic Survey of Pakistan, exports of the clothing sector, towels, knitwear, carpets and rugs showed a negative growth rate during 2016-17."
Marred with a number of challenges at global and national level, the textile industry in Pakistan is losing its sheen. The industry which used to contribute around 62 per cent towards exports, employing around 40 per cent of total industrial workforce, has been under tremendous stress. As per the Economic Survey of Pakistan, exports of the clothing sector, towels, knitwear, carpets and rugs showed a negative growth rate during 2016-17.
Exports from subsectors, including cotton yarn and cloth, hosiery, knitwear, bed wear, towel, ready-made garments and synthetic fabrics, are less than their potential. And the total potential for direct exports forgone per annum is $3,602 million. This is a huge loss not only for the textile sector but also for Pakistan as underutilisation would lead to unemployment and shutting down of factories. While Pakistan’s exports registered a negative growth rate of 10 per cent from $3.8 billion to $12.5 billion, countries like India, Bangladesh and Vietnam witnessed their exports growing by 31 per cent, 63 per cent and 107 per cent growth, respectively during 2011-16.
Cause for concern
Energy cost poses a great challenge for the textile sector as spinning, weaving and processing industries heavily rely upon energy consumption. Industrial gas tariff is 100 per cent higher and electricity tariff is almost 50 per cent higher as compared to other regional competitors. The industry is not receiving the desired push from the government as far as sales tax refunds are concerned, leading to financial crisis for exporters. Exchange rate overvaluation is another concern owing to which the exports are expensive in the global market. High level of indirect taxes is also increasing the financial burden for the businesses and making it difficult for them to keep their product price compatible at the international level.
Pakistan also lags behind technological upgradation and not enough investment has been made in technology therefore productive capacity remains stagnant. In 2006, Pakistan made $1 billion investment per annum whereas in 2016-17 this investment reduced to $0.56 billion. Owing to these challenges investors are wary about putting their money. On the contrary, countries like China, India and Bangladesh are providing extensive investment incentives to enhance investment and production activities.
Is there a ray of hope?
Looking at the plight of the industry, the government recently announced an export package, which industry hopes will help in its modernisation and development. The package contains new duty drawback rates on products, including processed fabric, textile and garments, yarn and grey fabric and made-up textile articles. It is required that the government implements the Prime Minister’s export led growth package which will generate millions of jobs and increase the exports.
To get competitive raw materials, exporters also need duty-free import of cotton. The country also needs to look beyond cotton fibre and find newer avenues of growth. The government must pay the pending sales tax refunds to the industry to ease its financial burden. Exchange rate should also be adjusted according to market conditions to avoid any uncertainty in policy measure.
Researchers in Sweden have developed a coded yarn-based tracking system that promises to overcome existing limitations and deliver improved traceability. In the new system, intelligent yarns are fully integrated into textiles during the manufacturing stage to produce traceability tags. The coded yarns contain special optical features and, as a result, create an optical stamp or pattern for traceability on the surface of woven or knitted fabrics. The tags are created by using a combination of coded yarns having different and distinguishable optical features or yarn classes.
Traceability is an ongoing concern for the textile industry. Technologies such as barcodes, QR codes and RFID tags have been put in place to enhance supply chain transparency but they often fail to provide complete traceability. The coded yarns work much in the same vein as barcodes, where lines of varying widths and spacing represent digits, and a set of lines represents the full code. Similarly, a coded yarn’s unique optical features represent a digit, with a sequence of coded yarns representing a complete code. The full code can be altered or controlled by changing the coded yarns’ sequence in the textile.
Barcodes and RFIDs possess low security against copying and reproduction, which means an identical tag can easily be reproduced and placed with a counterfeit. The tracking tags are removed at the point of sale. Therefore, it becomes difficult to trace back the history of a textile product after sale.
The textile chemical and dye market of Bangladesh is seeing huge growth prospects on the back of rising garment exports. The demand for chemicals in Bangladesh has been increasing rapidly because of the growing denim industry. The country’s performance in the denim segment is so strong it has overtaken even China in the EU market.
Bangladesh has 425 spinning, 790 weaving and 250 dyeing mills. With the existing capacity, the primary textile sector can supply 90 per cent of the raw materials for knitwear and 40 per cent for the woven sector. The rest of the demand is met through imports from China, India and Pakistan.
Water use for washing and dyeing can be reduced by about 50 per cent if the chemicals are used properly. Similarly, energy consumption can also be cut by 30 per cent. Huntsman Textile Effects, based in the US, is working with nearly 200 textile and dye factories in Bangladesh and logging 16 per cent year-on-year sales growth. It sees room for further expansion of its chemical and dye business in Bangladesh. The country is among its top four destinations globally.
Huntsman is among the top three chemical companies for Bangladesh. The country is among its top four destinations globally. Among major garment producing nations, Huntsman supplies chemicals to textile factories in China, India and Vietnam.
