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Spanish company specialising in the development of sustainable technologies for garment finishing Jeanologia recently conducted a master class on laser design for denim finishing at the Amsterdam Jean School to promote decontamination, automation and efficiency in the denim industry. The Blue Lab, the Jean School testing laboratory, employs technology developed by Jeanologia Laser and Ozone, and offers training and workshops on technological innovation to students, manufacturers, brands and designers who want to contribute in the transformation of the denim industry towards transparency and sustainability.
The company also introduced students to the profitable and sustainable G2 ozone technology, which has been developed to drastically reduce water, chemical and energy use in the denim finishing processes.
Students also discussed the importance of choosing the right fabric and the new Jeanologia Light Sensitive Fabric Test, the study that analyses how denim fabric reacts to new sustainable processes, especially the laser, in order to achieve desired washings and looks.
The digital revolution is changing the world of jeans. Amsterdam is the epicenter of training future designers toward a sustainable and efficient model of denim production. The company will showcase the possibilities of customisation of a denim garment with its Nano technology.
"In 2016, production of US man-made fibre and filament, textiles, and apparel shipments was nearly $75 billion, an 11 per cent increase from 2009, according to the National Council of Textile Organizations, which recently released its ‘2017 State of the Industry Address’. It has been a fairly stable and strong environment for about five or six years. But the market has been flat for 18 months due to sluggishness in the global and US economies and the uncertainty in the retail sector, opines Auggie Tantillo, President & Chief Executive, NCTO."
In 2016, production of US man-made fibre and filament, textiles, and apparel shipments was nearly $75 billion, an 11 per cent increase from 2009, according to the National Council of Textile Organizations, which recently released its ‘2017 State of the Industry Address’. It has been a fairly stable and strong environment for about five or six years. But the market has been flat for 18 months due to sluggishness in the global and US economies and the uncertainty in the retail sector, opines Auggie Tantillo, President & Chief Executive, NCTO.
Yarns and fabrics accounted for $30.3 billion, or nearly half the shipments sent out, while carpet, home furnishings fabrics and other non-apparel sewn products made up $24 billion in revenues. Apparel came in at $12.7 billion. One of US textile industry’s saviors has been free-trade agreements that require that regional yarns and fabric be used in production. Of the $13 billion man-made fibre, yarn and fabrics exported from the US, a big chunk, $4.4 billion, is sent to Mexico, $1.6 billion to Canada, and another $1.3 billion is earmarked for Honduras. The Dominican Republic receives $759 million in shipments. All these countries are members of either the North American Free Trade Agreement or the Dominican Republic Central America Free Trade Agreement. Tantillo says the US textile industry exports about 40 per cent of its production and more than half goes to Mexico, Canada and Central America. Still, there are ways to increase US textiles exports to free-trade partners.
US trade agreements: NAFTA
Currently, Mexico is allowed to import 45 million sq. m. equivalent of yarn and fabric a year from places such as China, which it normally uses up halfway through the year. Canada has an annual allotment of 88 million sq. m, although it most recently used only about 25 million of that. When Trump discusses changes to NAFTA, the US textile industry would like to see these trade-preference levels eliminated. Doing away with these loopholes would undoubtedly boost US textile exports, textile producers said.
When NAFTA was being negotiated more than 25 years ago, Canada asked for a TPL because it did not have a strong textile industry. Still, the US textile industry believes NAFTA is a pillar upon which the US textile supply chain has been able to grow. Canada and Mexico are the biggest US textile markets. Also, Mexico has a lot of apparel factories sewing clothing for retailers and manufacturers who need a quick turnaround on goods.
Domestic push
The US textile industry would like to see several steps taken to encourage more domestic production. It also fully supports the Trump administration’s call to negotiate more bilateral free-trade agreements that would have yarn-forward regulations encouraging the use of American fibers, yarns and fabrics. However, the trade group is opposed to a free-trade agreement with Vietnam, now the No. 2 maker of clothing imported into the United States.
Vietnam, which is turning into a cheap alternative to China, is a Communist-run country that has a non-market economy, NCTO maintains, and would heavily disrupt the US textile industry if goods were allowed to enter the country duty-free. The US textile industry is hoping to add boost and create employment in the sector.
Strong recovery
The US textile industry is recovering from the hard times experienced in the late 1990s through the early part of the 21st century, when business was dropping 10 per cent each year. A confluence of events started in late 1999, when the Asian currency crisis occurred and practically every Asian currency collapsed by 30 to 40 per cent, causing exports to surge to the US. Then China joined the WTO in 2001, Tantillo recalled. But things are turning around. Investments in US textile fibre, yarn, fabric and other non-apparel textile production grew to $1.7 billion in 2015, a 75 per cent rise from the $960 million invested in 2009. There is a positive outlook for the industry, Tantillo said.
The value of Zimbabwe’s clothing and textile exports has grown 165 per cent from 2012 to 2016. Nearly 80 per cent of the country’s clothing and textile exports goes to South Africa. However, the apparel sector currently operates at less than 30 per cent of its capacity. The industry that once used to employ over 40,000 people now employs only 8,000 workers.
Zimbabwe is flooded with cheap textile and apparel imports from Asian countries, especially from China. These low-priced textile and apparel imports have had a negative impact on the manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe. Textile and apparel manufacturers want a ban on imports of cheap polyester knitted fabric and finished blankets.
Other problems plaguing the industry are: poor performance, low productivity, out of date technology, and lack of investment and government support. An increasing number of textile mills in the country is closing down. Zimbabwe’s textile and clothing sub-sector consists of three components: production and ginning of cotton, transformation of lint into yarn and fabric, and the conversion of fabric and yarn into garments. There are also companies that are in protective clothing have been doing well because of the mines that are opening up.
Tirupur is facing a water crisis. So knitwear units have installed zero liquid discharge facilities. This helps them recover 90 per cent of the water required for the industry. The remaining 10 per cent has to be topped up every day. There is a plan to recycle sewage water also.
The textile industry is heavily water dependent. Water shortage has reduced efficiency by nearly 25 per cent. There is a shortage of drinking water too. The industry has been through booms and lulls and prolonged slackness in export orders, besides troubles closer home with hundreds of dyeing units found to have improper effluent treatment mechanisms forced to shut down.
Knitwear exports from Tirupur grew 12 per cent in 2015-16 compared to the previous year. The share of Tirupur knitwear exports in India’s total garment exports is 20 per cent. Exporters want a one-time long term initiative to be undertaken to uplift the skill proficiency of existing laborers in order to increase productivity at par with competing countries and at the same time reduce waste.
Limping back on a slow-but-promising western order recovery and robust domestic consumption, Tirupur is pursuing another growth cycle. The cluster sees protective wear, sports garments and defense-related businesses as obvious lines, given its huge spinning capacities.
India’s technical textile market may grow at 12 per cent per annum. It is currently estimated at Rs 1 lakh crore. India will contribute towards shaping the future of technical textile sector by diversifying towards nonwovens and entering into global partnerships.
Technical textiles have immense potential and are considered a sunrise industry in India. The industry could grow with sufficient investments in technology. Development and industrialisation are the main drivers for the demand for technical textile products in a country.
The market for technical textiles in India is expected to grow at 12 per cent CAGR between 2015-16 and 2017-18. India is expected to play a key role in shaping the technical textiles market with consumers spending more on home textiles, sportswear products, and medical products.
Technical textiles provide new opportunities to the Indian textile industry to have a long term sustainable future. India can be positioned as a manufacturing hub for technical textiles. Demand for technical textiles is expected to stay steady during the period 2015 to 2020 due to a broadening application in end-use industries, such as automotive, construction, health care, and sports equipment. Despite achieving a high growth rate, the per capita consumption of technical textiles in India is 1.7 per kg vis-a-vis 10 to 12 kg in developed countries.
Swiss textile machinery producers enjoyed strong exports in Egypt up to 2013 but the country’s economic and political woes since then have seen shipments decline to only 20 per cent of previous levels. Textile production is a vital contributor to Egypt’s economy. But the sector’s performance and potential is being held back by financial constraints, rooted in the serious economic downturn of recent years and the accompanying severe devaluation of the Egyptian currency.
Political instability since the revolution of 2011 drove away investors. And it has thus far hampered the much-needed investment in new technology by the textile industry. Switzerland has made offers of assistance in the key area of financing capital imports. Switzerland is ready to support Egypt in re-connecting with worldwide textile community.
Difficulties in accessing foreign funds and the high costs associated with this have been a major obstacle to Egyptian companies seeking to renew their equipment and take up new technology.
MFC (Manmade Fibers Congress) will be held in Austria from September 13 to 15, 2017. This is an event on sustainability, reduction of carbon dioxide, ecological catering, eco-friendly accommodation, waste management, water management and marine litter. It will showcase medicine and hygiene applications in the fields of hospital, nursing and implantology.
The event will be attended by leading brands and private label producers. Experts will speak on themes like fiber innovations, fibers, textiles and nonwovens for hygiene and healthcare applications, fibers, textiles and nonwovens for protective applications, and fibers, textiles and nonwovens for sports and leisure wear.
A reputed global producer of flame retardant textile fibers will present the latest developments and the requirements of the preliminary stages of the supply chain. Issues of functionalisation and ecological manufacturing process will also be addressed at the event. An expert panel will discuss textile and nonwoven waste. This will see the coming together of the fiber and nonwovens industry and waste management companies.
Lenzing, the world’s largest and most innovative cellulose fiber producer, is the lead sponsor of the congress. More than 700 participants from 34 nations - 80 per cent from Europe, 15 per cent from Asia, five per cent from the Americas - visited the show last year.
Evrything, Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Avery Dennison have gone into a partnership. The partnership explores how suppliers, manufacturers, retail brands, and consumers can access and engage with sustainability information by interacting with digital identities on products.
This collaboration begins with the launch of a smart products pilot program leveraging Evrythng’s platform and Avery Dennison’s sustainable unique identity labels coupled with SAC’s industry-leading Higg Index.
The pilot program enables participating brands to test how Higg’s performance information can be shared directly to consumers and other stakeholders via unique digital identities and smart labels on products.
Through global packaging partnerships, Evrythng enables brands to digitize their products at the point of manufacture with software identities in the cloud. These products allow brands the ability to capture and share sustainability information anywhere in the supply chain—delivering incremental business value while providing consumers with greater product transparency, which they can use to make informed purchasing decisions rooted in sustainability.
Through the partnership with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Avery Dennison, Evrything gives apparel brands the ability to explore how to use cloud-connected digital identities on their products to be increasingly transparent with consumers about their sustainability credentials in order to build and strengthen their direct customer relationships.
"Withstanding price pressures, Cotton spinners in India are resorting to production cuts in the current financial year to sustain profit margins. Experts estimate an average production cut of 15 per cent for fiscal 2017-18, if the current scenario continues. A recent study by Care Ratings estimates India's cotton yarn production at 3,936 million kg for financial year 2016-17, nearly five per cent lower than 4,138 million kg output reported in the previous financial year. For the past few years, cotton yarn production has increased by 3 -3.5 per cent to meet domestic demand and exports."
Withstanding price pressures, Cotton spinners in India are resorting to production cuts in the current financial year to sustain profit margins. Experts estimate an average production cut of 15 per cent for fiscal 2017-18, if the current scenario continues. A recent study by Care Ratings estimates India's cotton yarn production at 3,936 million kg for financial year 2016-17, nearly five per cent lower than 4,138 million kg output reported in the previous financial year. For the past few years, cotton yarn production has increased by 3 -3.5 per cent to meet domestic demand and exports.
India's cotton-spinning industry has been struggling with profitability for over two years due to a sharp decline in yarn exports following a slump in Chinese demand. Chinese textiles mills, which used to manufacture fabric after importing yarn from India, have now slowed down following the government's policy of discouraging energy-intensive industries. This has hit India's cotton yarn manufacturers hard.
While cotton prices have risen by eight per cent since January 2017 with the benchmark Shankar 6 variety currently trading at Rs12,035 a quintal, overall cost of production has also gone up by 8-10 per cent. Over 5 per cent appreciation in the rupee over the past three months has also impacted exporters' receivables proportionately. A recent Care Ratings report, however, estimates a five per cent decline in India's cotton yarn production for 2016-17 at 3,936 million kg as compared to 4,138 million kg for 2015-16. After declining by 10 per cent in 2011-12, cotton yarn production rose by over 14 per cent y-o-y to 3,583 million kg in 2012-13. In 2013-14, production was up by about 10 per cent to 3,928 million kg. High cotton prices and easy availability of MMF (man-made fibres) at competitive rates led to slower growth of cotton yarn production, the report said.
Production volumes
Cotton yarn demand in India grew at a healthy pace in 2015-16, supported by domestic demand and yarn exports. In 2016-17, demand is expected to be sluggish as derived demand and direct yarn exports will be under pressure. Also, with alternatives being explored for crude oil such as shale, prices of crude oil are largely expected to be stable during the year. Hence, demand for cotton yarn is set to face stiff competition from its easily available substitute – manmade fibres (synthetic yarns).
An Icra report said that the growth in spun-yarn production, including cotton, blended and man-made spun yarns, declined to a five-year low in FY2017, keeping production almost flat vis-a-vis the previous year. Further, improved competitiveness of polyester staple fibre (PSF) vis-a-vis cotton resulted in a five per cent YoY growth in non-cotton yarn production in FY2017, while cotton-yarn production is estimated to have declined by two per cent.
The domestic spinning industry remains highly dependent upon exports, with a third of India's cotton yarn having been exported during the past five years. Further, high dependence on exports to China and the resulting sensitivity of India's exports to China's policy on reserve cotton stock warrant a cautious outlook on India's yarn exports, until Chinese cotton stock levels subside to historical average, points out Jayanta Roy, Senior Vice-President, and Group Head, Icra. The research agency said that as overall yarn demand is expected to remain tepid, spinners may have to sacrifice capacity utilisation or contribution, and hence profitability is likely to remain under pressure. In addition to demand pressures, the spinners continue to face challenges on account of the high cotton prices.
The rupee’s appreciation by over five per cent against the dollar in 2017 is hurting Indian textile and apparel exports. The rupee’s strength has shrunk exporters’ margins. The dearer rupee also makes yarn, fabric and garment imports cheaper, hurting local manufacturers.
Export margins in apparels tend to be two or four per cent in dollar terms and the rupee appreciation has almost washed these away. Almost 70 per cent of India’s textile exports is dollar denominated. Meanwhile, currency depreciation in some of India's competing nations like China, Vietnam and Bangladesh is making their exports more competitive.
Exporters in the knitwear hub of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu fear they may lose orders to neighboring countries since they are at a 10 to 12 per cent price disadvantage. With the rupee appreciating this gap has widened by another four or five per cent.
An exporter supplying to one of the top three retailers in the US says his buyer prefers cheaper Bangladeshi textiles. He has let go of his margins but he’s still unable to compete with Bangladesh’s manufacturers. Tirupur is a sourcing hub for Walmart, Ralph Lauren, Diesel, Tommy Hilfiger, H&M and Marks & Spencer. GST is expected to have a further impact on exports as duty drawbacks will be curtailed, adding more pressure on the textile industry.
