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Within Vietnam there is a growing concern that FDI, including the textile sector, needs to be tempered with efforts to deter unlimited environmental pollution. Public opinion has been marred by mass fish deaths off Vietnam’s central coast, with environmentalists blaming a toxic leak from a steel mill in April receiving investment from Taiwan, a key investor in Vietnam’s textile sector.
As the garment and textile sectors are significant contributors to Vietnam’s economy and will become even more so under pending free-trade agreements, ‘manufacturing sustainability’ is especially being discussed by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) promoting development in this key emerging market.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and global apparel and footwear company VF Corporation and consumer products retailer Target Corporation, recently launched a program to improve resource efficiency at their supplier factories in Vietnam. In the first phase, energy and water-efficiency assessments will be conducted at around 30 factories within the first year; subsequent phases will then evaluate opportunities for use of clean energy to meet the captive power needs of the textile supply chain. The IFC will help facilitate the programme’s financing through its partner banks in Vietnam.
Independent observers, however, wonder what level of uptake IFC is going to get from the factories, given that improving energy efficiency is hardly going to be top of most garment makers’ lists of priorities for borrowing money.
The garment industry in Laos has been on the decline. Share of garments in total exports declined from an average of 36 per cent during 2001–2005 to only eight per cent during 2011–2015. Foreign direct investment in the industry has also fallen significantly.
Declining global demand is one of the key reasons for the slowdown. Most Laos garment makers provide cut, make and trim services and are usually sub-contractors of other larger companies, often located in neighboring countries. The small scale of the Laos garment industry coupled with the lack of experience and capabilities in the private sector has locked Lao garment factories into simple services with little scope for them to integrate into regional and global supply chains.
Most of the country’s garment factories base production quantities on export demand. So the slowdown in European economies and other markets has led to a decrease in orders for Laos garments.
Labor shortage is another major bottleneck in the industry. A major increase in Thailand’s minimum wage has made the Thai labor market very attractive for workers from neighboring countries, including Laos. There has also been an increase in competition for labor from other sectors in the domestic economy, such as the booming services sector as well as other manufacturing sectors. This has made it difficult for the garment industry to find and retain labor, especially in major manufacturing hubs.
According to a trade forecast, extreme sports clothing and expensive sportswear is popular in China, thanks to the government initiatives before the 2022 Winter Olympics promotional campaign.
After China implemented the one-child policy 36 years of full liberalisation of the second child, which is also expected to promote the growth of sports apparel market. According to PureGroup CEO of Hong Kong-based ColinGrant representation, the business opportunities related to health and healthy lifestyles. PureGroup in Asia’s business include gym, yoga, retail and nutrition.
Meanwhile, Dalian Wanda Group last year spent $650 million in acquisition of the World's Iron-Man company, the deal is intended to tap China's gradual warming towards sports and fitness. According to the Chinese Athletic Association, last year, China held 134 marathon and road races and, compared with 2014 year on year increase of 160 per cent. As a part of a national campaign to promote healthier lifestyles and, by 2025 China will build more than 900 000 sports venues and gym.
The BCI 2016 General Assembly on June 14 -15 in Hong Kong is poised to convene and inspire BCI members from around the world with a distinguished line-up of featured speakers. The topics include transformation in other sectors, to transformative trends in traceability, standards and agricultural research & technology. Helena Helmersson, Global Head of Production, H&M, Alistair Monument, Asia Pacific Regional Director, Forest Stewardship Council , Keshav Raj Kranthi, Director, Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, Kai Hughes, Managing Director, International Cotton Association and Karin Kreider, Executive Director, ISEAL Alliance are the main speakers at the event.
This meeting serves as a key BCI event and opportunity to inspire and motive members in their efforts to achieve scalable commodity transformation. Prior to the BCI 2016 General Assembly, BCI is hosting a recruitment meeting on June 13 in Hong Kong. This is open to the industry and a great platform for updates on the Better Cotton Standard System and global supply. Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from members like Nike, and Dayao Textile, and network with the BCI leadership team.
Bangladesh’s Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has launched a new study, ‘New Dynamics in Bangladesh's Apparels Enterprises: Perspectives on Restructuring, Up gradation and Compliance Assurance’. The CPD study seeks to capture the profound changes taking place at the enterprise level in Bangladesh’s export-oriented RMG sector through better compliance and their implications for cost and competitiveness. The study will come up with a set of recommendations towards future development of the apparels sector of the country as a compliant, highly competitive, gender-sensitive, productivity-driven and decent labour promoting industry. The study will build on CPD's recent works carried out in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza tragedy.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of Bangladesh will chair the Study Advisory Group which will include representatives from labour organisations, trade bodies (BGMEA and BKMEA), experts, activists, International Labour Organisation and other stakeholder groups. The aforesaid study will be based on data and information generated through extensive enterprise-level survey, focus group discussions (FGDs) with workers and entrepreneurs and expert group meetings.
The global textile chemical market is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of four per cent from 2016 to 2024. Asia Pacific is the leading market for textile chemical industry. It has accounted for over half of the gross revenues in the world over the past couple of years. Increasing initiatives in countries like India to retain a healthy growth in the textile industry is one of the driving factors of this market. Fast growing markets like China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Malaysia are triggering the demand in the textile chemical market.
The global textile chemical market has products like surfactants, desizing agents, colorants and auxiliaries, coating and sizing chemicals, yarn lubricants and finishing agents. The market is further segmented into home furnishing, apparels, industrial and others. Market segments in terms of geographical regions include North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World.
Textile chemicals are specialty chemicals which are in demand due to an increase in the variety of fabric manufacturing. These chemicals help impart better quality, flexibility and durability to the fabrics. They are the crucial part of the textile industry and play a vital role in manufacturing different type of fabrics like water resistant fabrics etc.
Rohit Aggarwal has been appointed president of Huntsman’s Textile Effects division. He succeeds Paul Hulme, who will retire as president of Huntsman’s Textile Effects division, a position he has held since 2006.
Aggarwal joined Huntsman in 2005 and has held various positions within the corporation’s Advanced Materials and Textile Effects divisions. Currently, Aggarwal is Huntsman’s vice president and managing director of Indian Subcontinent, a position he has held since July 1, 2015.
Aggarwal has more than 20 years’ experience in the chemical industry across multiple chemical specialties. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and a master’s degree in international business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi.
Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals with 2015 revenues of approximately 10 billion dollars. Huntsman Textile Effects is the global provider of high quality dyes and chemicals to the textile and related industries, with operations in more than 90 countries and seven primary manufacturing facilities in six countries (China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Thailand). Its textile business is aligned with the industry’s growth markets and its cost efficiency and sustainability platform are widely recognised as the industry’s best practice.
"While fashion shows and women’s glossies are filled with hyper-thin girls, the reality is their body types don’t come close to representing the average American woman. According to researchers, social media has helped spur a wake-up call that has stores, brands and even magazines, realizing the plus-size customer is not just underserved, but that the category is likely filled with pent-up demand."
Research shows social media has been a significant driver in changing the industry’s attitude toward plus customers.While fashion shows and women’s glossies are filled with hyper-thin girls, the reality is their body types don’t come close to representing the average American woman. According to researchers, social media has helped spur a wake-up call that has stores, brands and even magazines, realizing the plus-size customer is not just underserved, but that the category is likely filled with pent-up demand.
According to the Institute for Health Metrics, most adult women in the U.S. don’t fit into single-digit sizes (the average is 14), much less a runway model’s size 0 or 2. The fact is, 160 million American adults are considered overweight or obese. Among women, almost two-thirds (64 per cent) fall into this category, according to the National Institutes of Health. Thirty-six per cent are considered obese and 8 per cent extremely obese. This rate has been relatively stable since 2010. The NPD Group’s 2015 Women’s Special Size Study revealed the number of teens buying plus-size clothes has nearly doubled - from 19 per cent to 34 per cent - since 2012.
This is a $17.5 billion market, according to The NPD Group, but has the potential for marked growth. Just half of all plus women say they ‘love or enjoy shopping,’ which is significantly less than their non-plus counterparts at 64 per cent, according to a survey. And plus shoppers spend about $42 per month on clothing, which is 37 per cent less than the $67 spent by non-plus women.
Exceptional year
Says Fullbeauty Brands spokesperson Dasheeda Dawson, if 2015 was a breakthrough year for plus women and fashion, this year is shaping up to be even more exceptional. Fullbeauty has a number of brands in its stable including Woman Within, Roamans and, more recently, Violeta by Mango. Its ‘Swimsuits4All brand’ launched the curves in bikinis plus-size swimwear campaign in 2015. Featuring plus model Ashley Graham, the campaign was driven by one of the most talked about ads in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
The newness in the category will help ease the frustration plus shoppers feel. Mintel, a global market research firm, released a report that shows 16 per cent of plus women buy what fits although it doesn’t necessarily mean they like the clothes. Further, Mintel’s found 21 per cent of plus-size shoppers think the styles they really like do not look good on them. However, women under age 45 are more likely than those over 45 to have positive outlooks.
Demand for natural fibers
Actress Melissa McCarthy actually took issue with the term ‘plus-size’ when she introduced her Seven7 line of apparel late last year. McCarthy’s collection runs from missy size 4 up to size 28 and is carried in a range of stores, including Lane Bryant, Macy’s, Evans, and Nordstrom. Online retailer ModCloth also ditched the ‘plus’ nomenclature, opting instead for ‘Extended Sizes’ among the brands that go beyond 12.
According to data available, the fact is 77 per cent of plus women say better quality garments are made from all natural fibers such as cotton. And slightly more than half of all plus-size women (51 per cent) are willing to pay more for natural fibers.
When listing the important factors in buying clothes, plus shoppers put fit (78 per cent) at the top, followed by comfort (75 per cent) and then price (67 per cent), data shows. Style (35 per cent) is significantly less important to them than non-plus shoppers (44 per cent). But with the influx of new brands and retailers in the category, that is likely to change.
Bloggers and other consumer advocates have also been successful at influencing retailers to offer plus size…options and to reconsider how they price and market such clothing.
Because of its strong social and website contact, Dawson says Fullbeauty Brands knows its customer expects, and in many cases demands, more fashionable options.
India’s blended spun yarn export value was up 11.2 per cent year on year while volumes rose 19.5 per cent as compared to the same month last year.
Polyester cotton yarns was exported to 53 countries in April 2016, of which Bangladesh and Egypt were the largest importers followed by Colombia. Turkey, Honduras, Spain, Brazil and South Africa were the fastest growing markets for PC yarns while South Korea significantly reduced its import of PC yarns from India.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were among the 10 countries that did not import any PC yarns from India during April. Iran was the major destination among the 14 new markets found during the month.
In April, polyester viscose yarns were exported to 30 countries from India with volumes at 3.3 million kgs. Turkey continued to be the largest importer, with a 63.23 per cent share of the total volume exported from India during the month.
Iran, Japan, Russia and Argentina were the fastest growing markets for PV yarn while Honduras and Romania were the new major markets for PV yarn. Six countries did not import any PV yarn during the month, including the major ones like Peru, Uganda and Tanzania.
Also, acrylic and cotton yarn prices were down 16 per cent year on year in April.
For the first four months of 2016 the total value of retail sales in Hong Kong decreased by 11.4 per cent compared with the same period in 2015.The value of retail sales in April 2016 was down 7.5 per cent compared with the same month of 2015.
In April 2016 compared with April 2015, the value of retail sales of jewelry, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts decreased by 16.6 per cent; clothing fell 5.9 per cent; electrical goods and photographic equipment was down 23 per cent; miscellaneous consumer durable goods fell 31.6 per cent; motor vehicles and parts fell 5.4 percent; footwear , allied products and other clothing accessories down 5.8 per cent; books, newspapers, stationery and gifts fell 9.4 per cent; medicine fell 0.9 per cent and optical shops fell 9.3 per cent.
On the other hand, in April 2016 compared with the same month in 2015, the value of retail sales of commodities in supermarkets increased by 2.4 percent; pharmaceutical and cosmetics increased by 1.7 per cent; food, alcoholic drinks and silt grass were up five per cent.
Up to three months of the end of April 2016, compared with the preceding three months, the value of total retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 2.1 per cent while the volume of total retail sales fell by a seasonally adjusted 3.1 per cent.
