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The IAF together with the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India is hosting the 32nd IAF World Fashion Convention in Mumbai (India) on September 27-28, 2016. The theme for this Convention is ‘Insights into New Opportunities’.
The Mumbai Convention will cover a broad range of global strategic issues such as Sourcing, Retailing, Technology, Denim and Branding. Speakers that are confirmed include denim guru Adriano Goldschmied and representatives of such world renowned apparel companies as VF, Bestseller, Tommy Hilfiger, Arvind, TAL and G-Star, associations from Bangladesh and Africa, and global apparel industry specialists as WGSN, Alvanon and the Cotton Council.
The Mumbai Convention combines a global outlook with a closer look at the host country, India. Clearly India’s fast growing markets offers many opportunities but good insights are required to capitalise on them.
Traditionally, IAF Conventions are more than just a conference. Excellent social activities provide good opportunities for networking within the global apparel industry net work. This year, delegates will be treated to a Golf Tournament, a welcome reception, a gala dinner and a Mumbai retail tour. The experience can be extended with an extra study and leisure tour to Goa. An early bird rate giving a € 100 discount will be valid until June 23rd. IAF members registering now pay €295 and non members pay € 595 (excluding study and leisure tour). All international delegates can now register through the dedicated Convention website,
There are few industries fickler than fashion, changing annually and swapping seasonally. The good news is that fashion can, in theory, change more quickly than the energy or agricultural industries, for example. And when it comes to tackling climate change, agility and the ability to rapidly retool practices will be essential attributes of the most resilient and sustainable industries.
On an average, most clothes are worn only seven times before they’re discarded; forcing an astonishing 150 billion new clothing items to be made annually. Thank ‘fast fashion,’ a business model based on the fabrication of hyper trends and clothing that doesn’t last for consumers to accumulate. But given limited natural resources and the urgent need to protect what remains from further apparel-driven pollution, the cutting edge in fashion will soon need to trend and tack towards something more people-and planet-friendly.
Getting clothing cheap enough for the fashion industry’s disposable model has required massive amounts of cheap material and cheap labour - both of which came with devastatingly high and unaccounted-for costs.
During Denim Première Vision that took place from 18-19 May in Barcelona, US Denim Mills, a leading producer of fabrics for leaders in denim design and recycled denim, has exhibited its textile innovations at the Mad Science of True Denim display.
US Denim showcased imaginative inventions and technological advances at the exhibition. According to the company, they are spoofing science fiction with the décor. That’s to highlight some breakthrough products, while referencing the company’s technological and environmental leadership.
On display were samples and garments from more than 25 new US Denim collections and options, including some fashion favourites, but mostly all new processes, fibers, weaves, treatments, colours and coatings, including a few original textiles.
Rolling out under this serious-fun science-fiction theme were some wild, wacky and even woolly fabric investigations, including spider-silk blends, anti-mosquito denim and cosy Moulin wool-look.
Other collections, among more than 25 featured, demonstrated advances in recycling, waterless-dye, infra-red and non-fade options, as well as experiments with coatings, weave inventions, alternative fibers and more, including new dye-weave colours, stretch re-invention and seamless denim.
The Chiripal Group is setting up a Rs 500 crore terry towel facility in Ahmadabad. This will begin commercial production from December this year. About 95 per cent of the production will be exported. Once the plant is commissioned, Chiripal expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 400 crores from the plant in the first year of operations.
With its eyes set on the overseas market, the company has chalked out a strategy to market terry towels in the US, Germany, UK, Italy, France, Romania, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, besides other regions. The company hopes to penetrate new markets like Latin America and Africa with the right mix of product and competitive pricing.
It has planned a total investment of Rs 503 crores, of which 70 per cent will be debt portion.
To meet its in-house requirements of textile verticals, Chiripal is also setting up 48,960 spindles for the manufacturing of cotton yarn with an investment of Rs 306 crores. The new spinning facility will help the company increase its turnover to Rs 1,100 crores by the end of fiscal 2016-17. Right now the company has a total turnover of Rs 850 crores.
As part of its business diversification strategy, Chiripal also plans to install 80 airjet looms.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) has failed to record the large number of workers’ details due to its lackluster approach to get the job done. However, the association has brought about 1,550 RMG units under the database system as of April 21.
The government earlier asked the sector people to complete their workers’ bio-metric documentation within June 15. BKMEA is the platform of knitwear manufacturers, while BGMEA represents the owners of woven manufacturers of Bangladesh.
Following the collapse of Rana Plaza, the issue of central database came under the spotlight as there was no accurate number of workers that worked for the factories. In the aftermath of the industrial disaster, buyers, brands, trade unions from home and abroad, plus rights group put pressure on the manufacturers and the government to create a central database containing workers’ details.
According to BKMEA, it has 2,192 members, who employ about 2.1m workers.
BKMEA, Systech Digital Limited and Tiger IT Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of the bio-metric database for the workers on January 18, 2014.
This poor performance is only due to the negligence and dilly-dallying of the board, a former BKMEA leader said, preferring not to be named. If the authority took stern action, it could be completed earlier, he added.
Source Africa will be held June 8 to 9, 2016.This is a pan-African textile and apparel trade show. More than 1,500 manufacturers, buyers, suppliers and service providers will gather to promote manufacturing and discuss the region’s potential. It will feature more than 180 exhibitors from countries like South Africa, Mauritius, Lesotho, Kenya, Egypt, Madagascar, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
Mauritius, which has been steadily working to rebuild its once-thriving textile industry, will take a delegation of 39 companies to the show this year who will showcase their production of T-shirts, polo shirts, jeans, high end suits and accessories. With decades of experience and renewed investments in high end design skills and manufacturing technology, Mauritian textile and fashion producers now supply leading fashion brands, primarily in the Eurozone and USA, namely, Calvin Klein, Adidas, Woolworths, Tommy Hilfiger, Puma, Harrods, River Island and Levi’s.
African manufacturers in eligible countries are poised to benefit from the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a trade preference program, renewed last year with the United States that grants countries meeting certain requirements duty free access to the US market for their apparel exports.
Africa is expected to play an increasingly important role in the textile, apparel and footwear industry over the next decade.
"Digital textile printing market in Pakistan has shown good promise as it offers better and high definition textile print design possibilities, lower water, effluent, emissions and energy use with economical production of ‘short run-medium run’ prints to the market. Shorter delivery brings in increased savings to retailers and brands as digital printing hubs are based on proximity sourcing and just-in-time printing and sourcing strategies"
Digital textile printing market in Pakistan has shown good promise as it offers better and high definition textile print design possibilities, lower water, effluent, emissions and energy use with economical production of ‘short run-medium run’ prints to the market. Shorter delivery brings in increased savings to retailers and brands as digital printing hubs are based on proximity sourcing and just-in-time printing and sourcing strategies.
Textiles maintains a strong growth story
Pakistan’s textile sector plays a pivotal role in the country’s economy. At present, independent processing units are working in and around Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Karachi with complete finishing facilities. These integrated units have complete finishing facilities which include bleaching, mercerising, dyeing, calendaring and printing. These units from the power loom sector procure cloth and after processing are marketed under their own brand names in the domestic market.
Weaving and made-ups have three different subsectors viz. integrated, independent weaving units and power loom sector. Cloth is being produced in both mill and non-mill sectors. Pakistan’s fabric range from coarse to super varieties. There are a large number of vertically integrated units, where production is controlled from fiber to the end product, and marketed abroad directly.
The production of cloth (mill sector) increased from 1,020 million square meters in 2010-11 to 1,037 million square meters in 2014-15, thus showing an average increase of 0.54 per cent per annum. Out of total production of cloth during 2014-15 in mill sector, 50 per cent produced in grey form, 34 per cent dyed and printed, and 16 per cent blended and bleached.
In order to help the value-added sectors of textile industry the government has taken a number of measures. One of these is to correct the imbalance caused by dependence of the entire country’s economy on a single commodity that is raw cotton. Serious efforts have been made by the industry to increase substantially, the domestic production of polyester fiber, whose supplies can be technically pre-determined and controlled by man as against raw cotton, being always on the mercy of nature. Consequently, there is a growing trend for blended fabrics, especially polyester/cotton in garments and other made-ups, like bed sheets.
Increase in import of finishing machines
Fashion has always been a fast-paced industry, but today top brands are incorporating new colours and styles onto their shop floors at unprecedented speeds. Household and other textile applications are also beginning to experience similar pressure to provide more designs at a faster pace. The success of garment printing illustrates the growth of an industry that equipment manufacturers have clearly noticed.
Meanwhile, a number of printing companies have released DTG printers, Epson’s Sure Colour F2000 series among them. Garment printing uses GT-3 Series Garment Printer with CMYK and 4 White Print Heads made by Brother. Due to withdrawal of custom duties and taxes and introduction of concessional financing and LTFF on the import of finishing textile machinery increased during the year 2014-15. Import of textile dyeing, drying, bleaching and finishing machines increased from 782 numbers valued Rs 1.34 billion in 2012-13 to 2,220 numbers valued Rs 3.35 billion in 2014-15, thus showing an average increase of 50 per cent in terms of value.
Innovations resulting from technological advancements represent the best strategy for success in the increasingly competitive textile industry. The fabric production market has limited scope, which can be enhancing by value added finishing to textiles. The maintenance and improvement of current properties and the creation of new material properties are the most important reasons for the value added textiles.
Challenges ahead
Pakistan textile industry is facing challenges due to social and environmental compliance issues from US and European buyers at present. The impact of environmental regulations on Pakistan’s textile sector can be classified according to many parameters. However, the major area of concern for the textile-processing sector is wastewater and effluent treatment.
The country’s textile industry is burdened by high cost of inputs and many taxes. Electricity rates have been raised by 13.6 per cent that makes the textile products completely uncompetitive in the international markets. Frequent power outages and fluctuations cause havoc with the production.
According to APTMA, billions of rupees of the textile industry are stuck up with the government for a long period due to the overdue refunds of sales tax, income tax, and duty-drawback. Despite repeated representations at all levels, overdue refunds have not been released. This has raised the cost of production for the Pakistani manufacturers in relation to its other world competitors and forced the industry to borrow to continue and survive.
Pakistan government announced Textile Policy (2014-19) in February 2015 envisaging doubling of textile exports from $13 billion to $26 billion in the next five years. Besides opening up EXIM bank, reconstitution of export development fund board, setting up of land port authority and Federal Textile Board.
This year (January-March), Bangladesh exported 51 million square meters of RMG to the US market and earned $145 crores. This is more than last year. The growth in January was 11.31 per cent but it came down to 8.46 per cent by the end of February, according to the data released by Office of Textiles and Apparel.
Bangladesh is on 3rd biggest RMG exporter to the US market. China and Vietnam are the top two. This year (January- March), China exported RMG to the US market and earned $609 crore. This is 5.94 per cent less than the previous year. During the same period, Vietnam earned $257 crores through RMG exports to the US market. However, Vietnam’s exports have increased to 5.73 per cent since the last year.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts substantially higher production of cotton with a moderate increase in consumption. Global production is estimated at 104. 35 million bales (1 bale = 480 pounds) in 2016-17 compared to 99.54 in 2014-15, up 4.8 per cent. The likely increase in production is largely attributed to the US, India, and Pakistan. There aren’t any major increases in acreage, but extreme weather conditions and pest attack of last year that negatively impacted crop yields are not anticipated in 2016-17. In 2016-17, the USDA expects US cotton production at 14.8 million bales, India at 28 million bales and Pakistan at nine million bales, which are 15 per cent, 4 per cent, and 29 per cent higher than 2015-16 figures, respectively.
However, Brazil and China are likely to have lower production. China’s cotton production has been pruned for a third consecutive year to 23.8 million bales in 2015-16 and 22.5 million bales in 2016-17. The slide comes in the midst of lower price realisations (cotton prices lost 30 per cent in 2014), reduced support prices and increased preference for food grain crops.
The USDA estimates global cotton consumption at 110.78 million bales in 2016-17 compared to 109.02 million bales in 2015-16. China’s cotton consumption (use of cotton by mills) had gone down in recent years on account of factors like higher domestic prices, falling man-made fiber prices and overall industrial slowdown; and no major upturn is expected. However, cotton consumption in China is expected to grow slightly in 2016-17 on lower domestic prices.
H&M, the Swedish retail giant began a revolutionary practice in February 2013: it started collecting old garment items from its stores worldwide to reuse them to save water and ensure environmental sustainability. The company has collected 28,000 tonnes of old garment items for reuse and recycling, t date which is as much fabric as in at least 100 million T-shirts, according to company data. In the short term, we have a clear vision to avoid waste and minimise the waste that goes to landfill. In the long term, we want to find a solution for reusing and recycling all textile fibers for new use, said Anna Eriksson, spokesperson for H&M.
H&M launched the first products made of recycled textile fibers from items collected under the Garment Collecting Initiative in February 2014. The garments, made from recycled cotton, included five classic denim pieces for men and women. It serves as an example of how H&M is closing the loop on textiles and the aim is to use more recycled material in future, Eriksson said.
The products are classified depending on the quality — re-wear, re-use, recycle and energy. The sorting process is set up to the criteria of the waste hierarchy, which states that all products fit for wear are sorted out to keep them in their original form for as long as possible. In 2015, some 1.3 million pieces were made with ‘close the loop’ material, which was an increase of over 300 percent from 2014. Regarding the prices of the garment items produced from the reused and recycled clothes, Eriksson said they want to move towards a 100 per cent circular business model.
