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Cotton futures set a fresh two-month high in New York, after a three per cent jump in prices in China overnight, encouraged by a downgrade to a key world supply forecast, and concerns over the crop losing out in farmers’ sowing plans. And prices were also gaining support from the rise in values of other crops, notably soybeans, which are rivals in US spring sowings programs.
Chicago soybean futures are providing a bit more support for the cotton market. Soybeans are one of the main competitor crops for cotton in the US South in terms of the battle for area in farmers’ planting plans. New York futures, which remain a little shy of year-ago levels, are also curtailing expectations of large crops in many other producing countries, such as Australia and Brazil, too.
Strong textile exports, especially of apparel and bed wear, have forced Pakistan's textile sector to look to imported cotton, especially from India, to make up for a significantly smaller domestic crop. The forecast for US carryout inventories was trimmed by one lakh bales. Prices are not conducive to large cotton crops around the world.
The rally in cotton is seen as gaining extra pace thanks to a scramble by speculators - who had bet on further price falls - to close short positions, putting extra buying power into the market.
Setex, based in Germany, is a leader in designing, manufacturing and implementing automation solutions for textile dyeing and finishing machines. Setex’s new production management software, OrgaTex X1, guides intelligent communication to machines for efficient production and energy management. OrgaTex X1’s production management software offers newly designed process and recipe handling. The modules provide new features to simplify the complex production steps, systematically save expert know-how and optimise resource efficiency.
OrgaTex X1 is also customisable. Although dyeing machines significantly lower liquor ratio and require less chemical quantities, this software suite is designed to further reduce dyeing time and production costs, optimising the throughput and exposing weak spots and bottlenecks.
The philosophy of the new software is to bring the best-in-class recipe tools while still providing the flexibility of using simple flat recipe methods. As such, converted information and experience is usable as formulas, wizards assist the creation of formulas, and there are predefined formulas shipped with the system.
Each machine can be considered within the overall energy management concept. Intelligent integration of dosing systems can save chemicals and water. The operation is independent of operator skill. OrgaTex X1 has enhanced adapters to communicate with dyeing and finishing machines for ecological and cost improvement. This is essential for a fast and smooth implementation in production running at full capacity.
"Liva the fiber brand from Birla Cellulose is gaining popularity among garment brands. Liva is the brand name for fiber (Viscose, Modal) which is now being promoted at the consumer level. The brand has made inroads across 179 cities and is being co branded it with other brands. Manohar Samuel, President of Birla Cellulose says they have partners in supply chain via accredited partner forums like yarn manufacturers, fabric manufacturers and garment brands to sell Liva made garments at retail stores."
Liva the fiber brand from Birla Cellulose is gaining popularity among garment brands. Liva is the brand name for fiber (Viscose, Modal) which is now being promoted at the consumer level. The brand has made inroads across 179 cities and is being co branded it with other brands. Manohar Samuel, President of Birla Cellulose says they have partners in supply chain via accredited partner forums like yarn manufacturers, fabric manufacturers and garment brands to sell Liva made garments at retail stores. “Promoting a fiber brand involves taking the whole value chain,” Samuel opines.
Promoting Liva among consumers
Throwing light on the company’s strategy, Samuel says, “We have cobranded with different garment brands. For Liva, the financial year has been good .The number of stores has increased and 22 brands have been tagged. Next season, we need to have 32 customer tags.” Having spread to over 179 cities the brand is looking at spreading its footprint. “We will make inroads into more fashion products in specific areas. Fashion magazines like Grazia and Vogue have entered into ad tie-up with us. We have digital partners too,” explains Samuel. He further explained, “combined branding is with the stores. In the sari segment, we have tied up with category leaders. One is the topnotch traditional segment dominated by silk. modal saris. Then we have starched cotton saris and viscose. The third is the synthetic segment. Here we have polyester nylon.”
Across the country, in places like Surat and Kolkata the company has tied up with the top retailers and apparel brands. In women’s wear across many categories fiber sales have gone up. They are 14 per cent higher in India. Birla Cellulose also exports fiber and has improved their off take from India. Price wise they have always been reasonable. Liva follows all quality norms at the fabric level as this is a requirement across the world.
Samuel points out, consumer reception towards Liva has been good across men’s and women’s wear. Some supporting brands at the fabric and garment levels are Siyaram and Raymond. “They are much more knowledgeable than us in what they market. So their consumer insights on what can work well is critical for us. The last three seasons have been good for the international market. Along with garment exports, we have done work on active wear. Earlier, retail and promotional costs were too high for designers. This was a supply chain challenge.”
Birla Cellulose has developed a new model which is a cart concept. “Designers want to dye the fabric but may not want to immediately take 500 or 600 mt. So, we have tied up with Vardhaman. X Studios to give us finished goods,” he explains. Samuel says many designers are keen to work on Liva fabric. “They will have 50 per cent core and 50 per cent innovative designs. At the fabric level, they work on the colors and textures.”
Recently, the US government and industry players gathered in Washington D.C. to discuss the ‘nascent smart fabrics market,’ as described by secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker, who moderated the final session at the one-day event. As per panelist at the Smart Fabrics Summit David Lauren, Executive VP of global marketing and communications for Ralph Lauren, in the fashion industry, people are looking for innovation; an opinion shared by Joshua Walden, senior vice president and general manger, New Technology Group, Intel. Walden admitted that at one time he couldn’t have imagined being on a panel about fabrics, but then he discovered that the description of smart fabrics closely matches what the New Technology Group is all about. This is in our DNA, Walden said, adding that the emerging market is ‘really exciting.’
Secretary Pritzker noted that the smart fabrics market was up 18 per cent last year to about $1.9 billion worldwide. The US claims $854 million of that, ‘playing a leading role,’ she added, stressing that the Dept. of Commerce is committed to helping in that effort by supporting entrepreneurs and bringing market participants together. IFAI president Mary Hennessy made a similar point, stressing that the organization’s role is bringing industry participants together and supporting their efforts to be successful.
The Summit was co-sponsored by IFAI with the Dept. of Commerce, which sent representatives from several of its offices to share their expertise with attendees. Business people representing markets from protective fabrics to conductive fibers to high fashion underscored the diversity inherent in the smart fabrics segment.
Garment manufacturers in Indochina for decades have led a campaign designed to convince the wider public that their workers ply a menial, unskilled trade undeserving of more than a pitiful wage, currently about $150 a month. Skeptics of course have long refused to believe this narrative. The fact is that for a few bucks, big brands outsource productions, which are then passed onto consumers for a whole lot more.
Recently, Melbourne-based ANZ Bank has released an upbeat report covering the industry’s future. It said that the outlook on Cambodia’s exports of RMG remains positive in light of the consistent foreign investment into the sector. It expects Vietnam to fully diversify within the industry following the signing of its free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) after two-and-a-half years of talks. The FTA is expected to be ratified next year with a formal launch in 2018.
ANZ said in its latest release of ‘Greater Mekong Quarterly Outlook’ that Vietnam has already managed to get a foot in the door, with the EU being a key market for its footwear exports. The ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free-Trade Agreement (FTA) will likely to benefit textile apparel exports from Vietnam.
However, ANZ also said that these benefits would take place over ‘longer staging periods’ of up to seven years and that Hanoi would have to undertake a series of steps to fully realise these gains due to the FTA’s strict origin rules.
Fabric sales in Keqiao in China’s Zhejiang province and the world-leading hub for textile production and trading jumped 57.38 per cent in March, on the previous month, to 509 million metres, due to the seasonal factor. Trading volume was up 2.22 per cent y-o-y, too.
In the first quarter of 2016, the like-for-like trading volume expanded 3.34 per cent to 1.22 billion metres, while sales revenue increased 10.36 per cent, against the same period of the last year, to US$18bn.
The much higher growth rate of sales revenue was attributable mainly to the closures of dyeing mills in Keqiao, pushing up the dyeing costs dramatically. To tackle the thorny issue of pollution before the G20 Hangzhou Summit in September 2016, the local governments of Zhejiang province have shut down nearly 100 dyers in Shaoxing, one-third of the total, after the Spring Festival.
Meanwhile, the move from the government firstly prompted the mills to use more high-quality dyes. As a consequence, quotations for Disperse Black ECT 300 per cent, the key product, jumped around 65 per cent in March, to 28,000 Yuan per tonne in early April. The Reactive Black WNN 200 per cent traded at 27,000 Yuan per tonne on 1 April, soaring 50 per cent during the earlier month.
The closures of dyers boosted the confidence of the leading firms of the sector to raise their service fee by around 15 per cent, as employees had to work overtime every day after the Spring Festival.
The recent publication of a 10-page report titled ‘Mind the Gap: Towards a More Sustainable Cotton Market’ has prompted a response from Cotton Incorporated aimed at filling gaps in the report. Published by Pesticides Action Network UK, Solidaridad and WWF, the report was carried by a number of sustainability and textile trade press. The document portrays conventional cotton as unsustainable, citing environmental, social and economic issues. It also asserts that sustainable cotton is only available through certification programs such as Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), CMIA and Organic, and suggests that more promotion is needed to call attention to problems with conventional cotton.
Cotton Incorporated, in response published in the medias refutes some of the claims and provide facts to fill gaps in the report. In an editorial, Cotton Incorporated President and CEO Berrye Worsham called the ‘Mind the Gap’ report a document that pits cotton programs against each other, at the expense of the entire industry. The paper positions certification programs not as one path to responsible cotton production, but the only path. This philosophy favors paperwork over real, measurable and verified progress, including that made by conventional cotton growers in many countries. By identifying those facts that support a pro-certification agenda, the report obscures the fact that cotton is the only commodity fiber offering the supply chain multiple methods and programs to assure responsible production and traceability.
Cotton Incorporated points out many inaccuracies from the ‘Mind the Gap’ and strongly asserts the case for sustainable conventional US cotton. Cotton Incorporated also highlights the Cotton LEADS programme which is not mentioned in ‘Mind the Gap’ report.
Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has announced a new partnership with the Israel Cotton Production & Marketing Board (ICB). As per the partnership, 100 per cent of Israeli farmers have signed-up to BCI, and Better Cotton from their first harvest is already available. With the addition of Israel, BCI now operates in 21 countries worldwide.
While Israel is a relatively small cotton producer, it demonstrates highly advanced practices at field level. Examples include country-wide implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) methodology based on plot specific scouting of pests and beneficial organisms, regular area-wide infestation assessment, cultural control methods, a pest resistance monitoring routine and regulated usage of pesticides. In the realm of water and nutrition management, highly controlled and cost beneficial application of these inputs are based on direct plant and soil monitoring. The hallmark of the Israeli cotton sector and its proven success in producing high yields of excellent quality cotton is the result of ongoing collaboration between growers and their cooperatives, ginners, extension services and research and development activities and institutions. This cooperation is coordinated under the leadership of ICB.
Israel produces predominantly extra long staple, feeding the Better Cotton supply chain with the highest quality cotton fibre. Many BCI members use Extra Long Staple to produce high-quality textiles.
World leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to industries using fabrics, leather, technical textiles and composite materials, Lectra has joined forces with Les Enphants and the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art to hold its inaugural childrenswear design competition in China using Kaledo®, Lectra’s textile design solution.
Outstanding designs from the competition will be included in Les Enphants’ children’s wear range, and the winner will be awarded a unique opportunity to intern for the company. Over 30 fashion design students from the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art took part in the competition.
China’s market for children’s products is expected to boom, with children’s wear becoming a major source of growth for fashion companies due to the government’s newly implemented two-child policy. The design campaign was officially launched in September 2015. Design Managers and Purchasing Managers from Les Enphants conducted classes, helping students carry out market research on upcoming childrenswear trends and define their design direction and style while providing creative guidance. Lectra’s design solution Kaledo helped the students bring their design ideas to life. The submitted designs were then evaluated by a panel of industry experts, followed by an awards ceremony recently hosted by the event sponsors. These designs will then be used by Les Enphants and even have a shot at appearing in the Shanghai 2016 autumn/winter fashion show, where they will be highly publicized and showcased to a wider audience.
Swiss companies have been close partners of Pakistan’s textile companies for more than six decades. Trade between the two countries has been increasing steadily. Switzerland is known worldwide for its precision watches, cheeses and financial services. However, Swiss competence is not limited to these sectors. Equally strong are Swiss companies in textile technology, testing equipments, chemicals and service sectors.
In the weaving sector Staubli is the world leader in jacquard technology and Jakob Mueller is the undisputed leader in narrow fabric technology. Pakistan is the ninth most important market for Swiss textile machinery manufacturers. While Swiss textile machinery exports to the key markets of Turkey and China have seen a sharp decline, Swiss exports to Pakistan have been increasing over the last three years.
Many Swiss companies are doing business in Pakistan independently and as joint ventures. Switzerland has also been contributing towards the development of Pakistan through its development programs. Exports of major textile items from Pakistan to Switzerland are cotton yarn, cotton fabrics, readymade garments, hosiery, towels, made-up textiles and synthetic textiles. Swiss companies import home textiles and clothing (other than knitwear) from Pakistan, selling them in Switzerland and Europe under their own brand names and designs.
