FW
With GST, trade between India and Bhutan has slowed down. For one, GST has rendered the items Bhutan exports to India costlier and those that the country imports from India cheaper. Bhutan is worried that this may result in a spike in imports, depleting the country’s rupee reserves.
In case of exports and imports, GST is levied at the entry points and not at the point of sales. Bhutan wants India to allow it to levy the tax at the point of sales. In fact, the country has stopped imports of vehicles from India for want of legal clarity on how GST can be imposed.
Bhutan may lose up to Rs 140 crores a year as the GST regime puts an end to excise duty refunds. The loss may widen to Rs 290 crores once petroleum comes under the GST ambit. Also the huge amount of paper work is rendering the movement of consignments painful.
Bhutan’s economy has strong links with India since India is the key transit route for its goods and an important trading partner. As much as 90 per cent of Bhutan’s imports come from India and these include cooking gas, fuel and kerosene which are at a subsidised rate.
"Functional textile is Taiwan’s forte amid stiff competition from its Asian counterparts. This has been possible because of its strong thrust on R&D, advancements in manufacturing capabilities and cross-industry collaborations. Taiwan today accounts for about 70 per cent of the world’s functional fabrics, and is the sixth largest textile exporter globally. For years, Taiwanese suppliers have been offering efficient, friendly services and a wide range of high-quality fabrics at competitive prices, which has boosted its business."
Functional textile is Taiwan’s forte amid stiff competition from its Asian counterparts. This has been possible because of its strong thrust on R&D, advancements in manufacturing capabilities and cross-industry collaborations. Taiwan today accounts for about 70 per cent of the world’s functional fabrics, and is the sixth largest textile exporter globally. For years, Taiwanese suppliers have been offering efficient, friendly services and a wide range of high-quality fabrics at competitive prices, which has boosted its business.
A strong player in sports apparel segment
With lifestyle changes, and workout becoming a part of daily routine and sportswear has emerged a strong category globally. With a boom in performance apparel sector, product lines have expanded, and a host of new brands have emerged. Taiwan’s apparel industry has directly benefited from the growth of brands like Under Armour and Lululemon, and the steady sales of giants like Nike and Adidas.
Taiwan is giving tremendous competition to countries like Japan and Korea. The signing of the China-Korea Free Trade Agreement in 2015 has increased pressure on Taiwan’s textile industry because China remains the biggest export market for the country. With Vietnam’s inclusion (and Taiwan’s exclusion) in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), there are possibilities of shifting business to Southeast Asia, owing to lower tariffs, cheap labour and improved manufacturing capabilities. To circumvent this scenario, Taiwan has to work on differentiation strategy by developing a focused and strategic position in the market.
A three-layered approach to branding
To build a higher-value position in functional textiles, Taiwan needs to take a three-layered approach.
Global-facing companies across the textile supply-chain in Taiwan need to consider and understand their real value in the world of functional textiles. They need to understand their competitive advantages, and build on their strengths. The biggest victory lies in communicating these USPs to the masses and capture growth horizons.
Taiwan still lacks the associations of industry-leading quality, innovation and sustainability, particularly when compared to manufacturers from Europe, Japan and the US. The textile industry in Taiwan needs to rebrand and focus on a set of strategic messages and supporting marketing communications that can change Taiwan’s perception as a destination for lower-value textiles.
To drive Taiwan’s textile industry towards a higher-value position requires support from the government and rethinking its global positioning. Taiwan is seen as a leader in cost-down manufacturing – developing good quality products at competitive prices. But with growing competition from China and Southeast Asia, it’s unlikely this will remain sustainable in the future.
Tapping eco opportunities
In order to capture major market share, Taiwanese textile industry needs to clearly shift focus towards eco-textiles. Ably supported by its existing cost-down know-how and advantages, such a position would provide brands and consumers a clear choice: choose Taiwan for textiles with the lowest possible environmental footprint. For any brands serious about being sustainable, Taiwan should become their default option.
Textile and garment units in India and the world over have joined an initiative sponsored by the Netherlands that urges adoption of production practices that ensure safety and well-being of workers and protection of the environment. The aim is for 80 per cent of garment and textile businesses to be part of this agreement by 2021. These brands operate in Europe, Asia and Africa. Over 300 textile and garment units in India are part of the initiative.
Netherlands is a huge importer of fabrics and also a champion of labor and environment issues. Among the states represented by this agreement are: Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka. The agreement provides for ending unfair discrimination against workers, especially on grounds of gender, preventing child labor, ending forced labor, encouraging freedom of association, ensuring a living wage, offering safety and making healthcare provision for workers, responsible use of raw material, prevention of water pollution through chemical use and animal welfare.
The Netherlands pursues a successful environmental policy that is resulting in cleaner rivers, reduction in carbon emissions, reduction in waste streams, and the cleanup of contaminated soil. National environmental policy is directed to contribute to sustainable economic development and to the health and safety of people by maintaining and improving the quality of the environment.
A flagship of the Aditya Birla Group, Grasim incorporated in 1947 as a textile manufacturer and since then, the company has diversified into various new sectors and industries, including the production of viscose staple fibre, cement, sponge iron and chemicals. The journey of Grasim Industries, a building materials and manufacturing company, is as old as that of independent India. The company was incorporated in 1947 as a textile manufacturer. Since then, Grasim has diversified into various new sectors and industries, including the production of viscose staple fibre (VSF), cement, sponge iron and chemicals.
Grasim is known as the world's largest producer and exporter of viscose rayon fibre, with a market share of about 24 per cent. Textiles and related products comprise about 15 per cent of the group's turnover. Other major businesses include cement and chemicals; its subsidiary, UltraTech Cement, is the largest producer of cement in India, and Grasim itself is the largest producer of caustic soda in the country. Recently, Aditya Birla Nuvo was merged into Grasim, paving the way for the creation of a $9.2 billion manufacturing and service business.
The Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) has five new board directors. With the five additional board members, the ZDHC board has a total of 12 directors and also significantly extends board representation in Asia. The appointment of new directors enables it to drive forward its strategic growth and continued global leadership on sustainable chemistry and safer chemical management.
ZDHC is a collaboration of over 70 signatory brands, value chain affiliates, and associates advancing towards the elimination of hazardous chemicals in the textile and footwear value chain. ZDHC has prepared a Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL). This is a list of chemical substances banned from intentional use in facilities that process textile materials and trim parts in apparel and footwear.
The focus at ZDHC is to ease regulatory confusion of chemical management standards and bring brands, chemical companies, mills and manufacturers to align on common standards and tools. While the creation of the ZDHC MRSL was hailed as an industry milestone, one of the challenges suppliers still face in working to conform to this standard is knowing where to go, and who to trust, when it comes to safer chemistry claims.
The ZDHC chemical gateway is designed to address this gap. It provides a positive list of safer chemical formulations. Conformance is determined by third-party product accreditation standards and options available in the market.
The International Conference on Apparel and Home Textiles (ICAHT) will be held in New Delhi on September 9, 2017. This is a cross- disciplinary event and the idea is to explore creativity and the creative process through the lenses of imagination and innovation. Renowned speakers from different organizations across the globe will share knowledge in the form of presentations and workshops on various topics connected to the textile and apparel industry.
The theme for this year's conference is ‘People, Purpose and Passion: The Pathway to Success’. The conference is intended to cover all aspects of the apparel industry, including the problems of small-scale enterprises in the developing world, barriers which are hindering the growth of this industry, strengths and weaknesses of manufacturers in different regions, globalization issues, resource and manpower scarcity, quality of the product, trade laws, adopting new techniques to improve productivity, managing the global supply chain and finally changing apparel industry trends with ever-changing fashions.
The conference in October 2016 was attended by over 400 delegates from 110 manufacturing units and 50 academicians from all over the country. More than 70 per cent of attendees were garment industry professionals and 60 per cent of attendees were senior level persons which included 60 owners of garment manufacturing units.
Digital Textile Symposium will be held in Mumbai on November 16, 2017. The conference will look at opportunities and market growth enabled by new high speed and high performance digital textile systems and consumables.
The focus will be on creating business opportunities for stakeholders of digital textile printing industry and charting out a sustainable growth part for this technology in India. The conference will feature an array of topics covering the entire breadth of the industry including high speed digital fabric printing solutions, digital fabric printing for increasing profits, pigment inkjet technology for textiles, software solutions enabling digital textile printing, latest technologies for textile sublimation printing, emergence of new business models driving digital textile printing, solutions for durable printing of home textiles, direct disperse inkjet printing onto synthetic fabrics.
Concurrent to the symposium, and in Mumbai, an exhibition on textile processing will be held on November 17 to 18. This is dedicated to innovations in textile processing across various application sectors. This exhibition should be of particular interest to ink manufacturers, OEMs, fashion designers, service providers, processing houses, textile mills, brands, print service providers, garment manufacturers, home textile manufacturers, fabric manufacturers, digital textile printers, apparel manufacturers, fabric printers, screen printers, investors and entrepreneurs, and technologists.
Apparel Tech Up was held in Sri Lanka on July 20. The event was aimed at discussing the latest trends in global apparel retail and manufacturing. And subsequently how new age technology like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Mobility can aid Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers.
The event saw a large turn out from the apparel manufacturing fraternity of Sri Lanka with a presence of over 42 manufacturing groups including Sirio, Hirdaramani Group, MAS Bodyline and Brandix. The audience also included technology providers Fast React Systems and GSD. There was a discussion on the changing landscape of retailers and consumers of fashion products, the inevitable rise of e-commerce and the plausible impact on manufacturers.
The number of styles per season is rising at a CAGR of 17.9 per cent. This means that by 2020, manufacturers will have to plan twice the number of styles as they do today, whereas the overall quantity will remain constant.
This impact of fast fashion is expected to greatly affect global apparel manufacturing. Amazon holds a 6.6 per cent share of fashion retail in the US and this is expected to rise to 16.2 per cent in the next five years. Products using AI, Big Data and Mobility can drastically change the landscape of apparel manufacturing in the world.
Babar Afzal, a shepherd and pashmina artist from Jammu & Kashmir, has come out with an initiative, Global Luxury Pashmina Dialogue Series, to preserve, enhance and re-imagine the authentic handmade pashmina heritage. The objective is to walk the audience through pashmina’s journey right from Changthang to luxury stores in Europe and bring back the lost sheen of the fabric once worn by royalty. Sozni pashmina shawls take around six to seven years to be made and cost close to Rs 70 lakhs.
The dialogue intends to be a yearly event, first in six cities of India and subsequently going international. Udaipur will be the first city. Others are Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and New Delhi. Among the items on display will be a paisley woven wool and silk shawl with a typical all-over intricate design, part of the big-sized square Mughal collection woven in gold thread, priced over Rs 1.5 crores.
Besides antique collection from the Mughal courts, two dozen pashmina artworks made from pashmina goat hair, vegetable dyes and cotton will be showcased. The cost of each artworks ranges between Rs 20 lakhs and Rs 50 lakhs. France, Germany, Canada, Monaco and the UAE are the largest importers of pashmina.
Japanese denim powerhouse Edwin is launching a collection for the US market. This line will feature five-pocket jeans and fashion bottoms in denim and non-denim fabrics as well as T-shirts, chambray shirts, outerwear and shorts. The collection will be manufactured in Edwin’s group of factories in Japan. The foundation of the new collection will be Edwin’s production capability, its five-pocket jeans and a unique denim culture.
Edwin is one of Japan’s top denim brands available at 3,000 points of sale, including at 900 doors in Europe. However, in the United States, Edwin has been available only at a handful of boutiques catering to hard-core denim enthusiasts. The brand’s Japanese executives plan to boost its American and Canadian business, where interest in denim runs the highest. So much so 96 per cent of American consumers own a pair of jeans, and 39 per cent of the world’s denim purchases are made by Americans compared to the 20 per cent made by European customers and ten per cent by Japanese and Korean buyers.
Edwin has been historically known as a men’s brand. However, the brand will focus on increasing its women’s business. The upcoming US collection will include 60 women’s products.
