FW
Birla Cellulose wants to increase its footprints in Bangladesh. The company is interested in launching in Bangladesh its unique knowledge sharing initiative, Liva Accredited Partner Forum, with the entire value chain partners which includes spinners, knitters, weavers, processors, and garmenters.
Recently Birla Cellulose organized a technical symposium on Current Trends in Viscose Processing in Bangladesh, which was attended by leading global brands, readymade garment exporters, fabricators, spinners and designers who form the fulcrum of the Bangladesh clothing and textile industry.
The symposium emphasised the need for design and product innovation, sustainability in operations and consumer value creation in the competitive world. It also discussed various current trends in viscose spinning as well as in wet processing. Fiber is one of the oldest businesses of the Aditya Birla Group. Birla Cellulose is a world leader in viscose staple fiber. Its production is spread across six countries, Canada, Thailand, India, Indonesia, China and Laos.
The group independently fulfills India’s entire viscose staple fiber requirements. It offers business development and other support to its value chain partners. With a strong focus on R&D, the group’s initiatives span the entire value chain. The company aims to be a world leader in manmade cellulosic fiber.
www.birlacellulose.com/
"The report published by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) highlights the actions needed to ensure positive impacts on natural capital. It presents 15 different management interventions in the cotton supply chain, focusing particularly on water, biodiversity and soil.An online cotton tool was also unveiled to help businesses identify the types of interventions that are most relevant to their cotton production."
Natural Capital Leaders Platform and leading companies joined forces at Cambridge University with cotton experts to unveil a report that demonstrates the positive natural capital impacts of specific cotton production practices. Seven leading global businesses called on all actors in the cotton industry to accelerate action on natural capital to ensure a sustainable future for the sector. They joined forces with social and environmental initiatives and cotton experts to produce a report ‘Threading natural capital into cotton: Doing business with nature’, that demonstrates the positive natural capital impacts of specific cotton production practices.
The report published by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) highlights the actions needed to ensure positive impacts on natural capital. It presents 15 different management interventions in the cotton supply chain, focusing particularly on water, biodiversity and soil.An online cotton tool was also unveiled to help businesses identify the types of interventions that are most relevant to their cotton production.
Cotton: One of the most important crops
The report says that cotton is one of the world’s most important crops. Last year, it was grown across 2.5 per cent of global agricultural land. Cotton is worn throughout the world, across socio-economic boundaries. However, the natural resources its production depends upon are at risk and must be safeguarded to ensure the long-term security of cotton supply chains.
The report highlights opportunities to safeguard the natural resources the cotton industry depends upon while at the same time reducing business vulnerabilities and risk. The study concludes that natural capital must be recognised and understood by businesses and incorporated into their decision-making processes. The report aims to inform a constructive dialogue and collaborative work between all actors, from farmers to retailers, and encourage progress towards sustainable and resilient cotton supply chains by providing strong evidence of natural capital impacts.
The online cotton tool
The online tool assesses various types of management practices and their impacts natural capital, such as water, biodiversity and soil. According to Gemma Cranston, Senior Programme Manager at the Natural Capital Leaders Platform, the challenge facing businesses around cotton is that there is not enough evidence around best management practices for natural capital. That is why we convened a group of leading businesses, experts and representatives from sustainable cotton initiatives to begin assessing the evidence for cotton-based management interventions on natural capital. By making it accessible to key decision-makers and influencers within cotton supply chains, more informed decisions can be made to support cotton’s sustainable future, explained Cranston.
The online cotton tool unveiled with the report will help businesses determine the management interventions they should prioritise depending on their position in the cotton supply chain. The tool is based on a technical report that challenges current management practices by providing a robust systematic review of scientific and accessible evidence.
‘Threading natural capital into cotton: Doing business with nature,’ is the result of a collaboration between the Natural Capital Leaders Platform and leading companies including Asda, Bayer, Cargill, C&A, Kering, Olam International and Value Retail, working together with experts and cotton initiatives as part of a Cotton Action Research Collaboratory (ARC).
India's exports shrank in January for the 14th straight month on continued weak demand from Europe, but the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it would not follow countries such as China and Japan in pushing down the currency to help. The country’s exports fell 13.6 per cent from January a year ago, while imports contracted 11.01 per cent, data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry revealed.
However, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has resisted pressure from exporters and policy makers to devalue the currency to support exports. The trade deficit for January narrowed to $7.64 billion, mainly due to soft demand for imported crude oil and falling prices of imported commodities, versus $11.66 billion a month ago.
However, Asia's third largest economy is expected to grow 7.6 per cent in the 2015/16 financial year that ends in March, overtaking a slowing China to be world's fastest growing major economy.
Cornell University has put up a shimmering, seven-foot-high knitted textile pavilion made on a Shima Seiki computerized fat knitting machine at a new exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. The multi-coloured structure was designed by Jenny E Sabin, Cornell University’s Arthur L and Isabel B. Wiesenberger, Assistant Professor of Architecture. It was made from photo-luminescent and solar-active threads, is one of two works commissioned by the museum for Beauty – Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, which includes more than 250 projects by 63 designers and teams from around the globe.
According to Lipps, the museum decided to commission a textile pavilion by Sabin because of her pioneering work using emerging technologies in architecture. In addition to her PolyThread pavilion, the exhibition includes a glass display case with several 3D-printed ceramic PolyBricks and other objects designed by Sabin.
Sabin’s 400-sq. ft. PolyThread pavilion is the largest work in the exhibition, taking up half of a third-floor gallery. Covered with a maze of variegated cellular shapes, the pavilion’s 15-minute illumination sequence mimics the transition from day to night, changing from pale blue to white. The structure is Sabin’s second textile pavilion commissioned for installation in New York City. The first was designed for the release of Nike’s Flyknit Collection in 2012.
In a significant development, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a detailed probe against Monsanto as it found the global agricultural giant to be violating competition law in the market of Bt cotton technology in India. The move follows a complaint filed by the agriculture ministry and three Indian seed companies.
As per the ruling passed by six out of seven members of CCI, recommends investigation against Monsanto, Monsanto Holdings (MHPL), Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco) and MMBL (Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India) for forcing anti-competitive agreements and abusing their dominant position in the country's Bt cotton seeds market.
According to the fair trade regulator, the termination conditions of the sub-license agreement entered in between MMBL and the informants are found to be excessively harsh and do not appear to be reasonable as may be necessary for protecting any of the intellectual property rights… Such agreements discourage and serve as a major deterrent for the sub-licensee from exploring dealing with competitors.
Esmetex has announced its first collection of casual and dress shirt fabrics that combines the cooling and moisture wicking properties of Sorbtek, with the recycled benefits of Repreve. The company is a leader in producing and sourcing fabric.
Esmetex is the first company to launch Repreve and Sorbtek, both products of Unifi, in lightweight shirting fabric. According to the company, these lightweight fabrics are ideal for bringing performance benefits to the casual and dress shirt market.
In an effort to continue offering the latest in fabric development to the industry, Sorbtek is designed to offer properties found in athletic wear, such as moisture wicking, along with the convenience of soil release technology. Each shirt made with Repreve will contain an average of two recycled plastic bottles, according to the company.
Esmetex is launching two yarn dyed fabric blends, one with 54 per cent cotton/46 per cent Repreve, and the other 70 per cent cotton/30 per cent Repreve. The weight for both fabrics is 4.5 ounces per sq. yard, and the width is 57 inches.
Many textile-garment enterprises in Vietnam secured export orders until the end of the second quarter and some have tight production schedules until the end of this year. According to Le Quang Hung, Chairman of Saigon Garment Manufacturing Trading JSC (Garmex Saigon), there are plentiful export orders which will keep their factories busy until the end of the year and that the firm looks to raise revenue by 20 per cent to VND1.8 trillion this year over last year. Garmex Saigon obtained VND1.53 trillion ($68.3 million) revenue in 2015.
Said, Pham Xuan Hong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) that most of the companies have won export contracts for the first and second quarters and some even prepare goods for export until the year’s end. Vietnam’s apparel export turnover reached $27 billion last year and is projected to rise by over 10 per cent to some $30 billion in 2016, Hong observed.
Ministry of Industry and Trade statistics reveal that the manufacturing index of the textile industry went up 12 per cent in January and the index for the apparel sector up 11.2 per cent year-on-year. Nearly 30 million sq. mt. of woven fabric made from natural fibers was turned out last month, up about 10 per cent year-on-year, artificial and synthetic fiber products grew 6.5 per cent to 63.3 million square meters, and clothes were up 9.2 per cent with 305.8 million items. Overall, the textile-garment sector posted $2 billion in export revenue in January, a rise of 5.8 per cent against the same period of 2015.
France is hosting two shows, Première Vision Paris and Texworld. Both end on February 18. Economic uncertainty and terror fears failed to dampen the mood on the first day of Première Vision Paris, with the textile show on track to attract 58,000 visitors across its three days.
Exhibitor numbers were also on the rise, climbing to 1,725 companies from 52 countries in the February 2015 edition of the show. On country basis, Italy led the way, followed by France, a growing contingent from Turkey, the UK and Spain. British mills have acquired a newfound confidence. There were many agents and customers looking for British fabrics, in particular, tailoring fabrics.
But the self-service ticketing system and heightened security measures slowed footfall into the halls. Texworld was quieter. China continued to dominate the 659 exhibitors at Texworld, with participation also strong from Hong Kong, Korea, Pakistan and India. There was a 30 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of exhibitors in the Apparel Sourcing section, taking the total in this area to 200 manufacturers.
Texworld is a very international show. Companies from the UK, Scandinavia, Spain, Greece, Poland and Russia participated. There were some people from the US but not as many as usual from Japan.
www.premierevision.com/
Kerala’s Kozhikode district wants to revive its legacy as a textile hub. Vastramandala is a consortium of apparel units formed for this purpose. The objective of the consortium is to promote the products of these apparel units under a brand, Kudumbashree, across the state. The products which mainly include children's apparel and other readymade clothes would undergo strict quality checks so as to compete with the top brands in the field.
Two apparel manufacturing units have been set up. The new units have been named Calico Designs and Calico Fashions. Workers have undergone training in apparel designing at the National Institute of Fashion Technology and would be soon provided further training with modern technologies in the field.
Kudumbashree is an all-women collective of members selected from poor households. There is a huge number of women in Kerala who are members. Their sheer number allows Kudumbashree members to access linkage banking, insurance schemes, grants, interest subsidies and the like. Kudumbashree includes nearly half the households in Kerala. In other words, half the state's population makes a living out of this program.
Kudumbashree today runs about 35,000 microenterprises in fields as diverse as food processing and handicraft and cosmetics.
Indonesian textile and garment makers want greater economic partnership with European and Pacific Rim countries in order to boost the country’s exports. Indonesian companies hope to have a boost in demand from the partnerships’ participating countries.
Garment makers basically welcome any partnership with other countries as long as they help reduce both tariff and non-tariff barriers for Indonesian textile products. Indonesia’s textile exports increased from $11.2 billion in 2010 to an estimated $22.65 billion last year, with import value always below export value.
Indonesia is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Indonesia is one country that has been quite active in concluding free trade agreements. Indonesia has FTAs with trading partners that account for 67 percent of its total trade. For context, Chile, Peru, and Mexico have FTA coverage ratios of more than 80 per cent, while Canada, Singapore and New Zealand are at more than 50 per cent.
For small economies there are at least two positive outcomes to be derived from regional trade agreements. The first is an expansion in investment. While the direct impact on trade might be debatable in the beginning, rising investment usually follows. Second, regional agreements can drive unilateral domestic reforms.
