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Cotton Council International will hold a seminar in Mumbai, September 29, on the cotton and cotton textile industry in India. The seminar will bring together experts from each segment of the supply chain to discuss raw material planning in today’s dynamic consumer environment. Cotton represents about one-third of world fiber usage and has been one of the most sustainable fibers for more than 7,000 years, used to clothe and nurture mankind. Spinning mills have catered to the needs of changing fashion and have made cotton a trend setting fiber.
India is considered as a spinner’s hub, with close to 52 million spindles and the capacity to produce 4.7 million tons of spun yarn. Indian spinning mills have been importing various varieties of cotton from across the globe. In apparel and home fashion, quality begins with the fiber. Supima, often known as the cashmere of cotton, is a special extra-long staple fiber grown in the US, known for its softness, strength, brilliance and lasting colors. Supima cotton is a key ingredient in manufacturing premium and luxury goods.
Indian textile mills are the top consumers of extra long staple cotton. In 2015-16 global textile mills consumed more than 4,25,000 tons of ELS cotton with India consuming 1,45,000 tons.
Hundreds of thousands of workers in Bangladesh are said to be making clothes for Swedish retailer H&M in dangerous conditions. Washington-based Workers Rights Consortium says there are severe safety hazards, including a lack of fire doors, fire exits, proper alarm systems and sprinkler systems. H&M became the first company to sign the Bangladesh Accord, which came about after the 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza, a building that housed several garment factories.
Considered the country’s worst industrial disaster, the collapse killed more than 1,130 people and brought international attention to the safety of garment workers. H&M is also said to have not followed up on its promises on labor rights and human rights. Last year H&M released a statement defending its progress, stating it only produced in factories that met standards required under the legally binding Bangladesh Accord and it was working to address safety concerns in its factories.
However, the company conceded that it experienced delays in upgrade work due to problems in deliveries of upgraded fire doors and sprinklers as well as a heavy workload for Accord inspection experts. H&M has contracts with 1,900 factories that employ 1.6 million workers. There are 4,100 H&M stores worldwide and another are 400 due to open this year.
Though Vietnam’s exports of textile-garment of increased in the first eight months of the year but it was a tad slower than the same period last year. The country shipped textile-garment products worth $18.7 billion in the January-August period (up 4.4 per cent) year-on-year, according to the Vietnam Cotton and Spinning Association (VCOSA).
VCOSA vice chairman Nguyen Hong Giang observed that due to a lack of orders and falling demand from global markets, growth slowed down compared to previous years. If the rough situation continues, things will get harder. Then it will be difficult for the sector to earn revenue of $29 billion this year which is even lower the target of $31 billion set earlier this year, Giang said. Decrease in export orders resulted from mounting competition from rivals including China, India, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. In addition, Cambodia and Myanmar enjoy tax incentives when selling textile-garment products to the European Union (EU), making their products even more competitive. Besides competition, domestic apparel firms are grappling with difficulties, brought about by the minimum wage rise and regulations on inspections.
Fewer FDI approvals have been registered for the textile and garment industry this year than in previous years. In 2014 and 2015, many foreign enterprises had shown interest in investing in the sector to capitalize on opportunities from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement which allows firms to enjoy tax breaks when exporting products to member states.
The recent spurt in cotton prices has resulted in higher input costs for the spinning sector in India. So the Cotton Corporation of India will sell its existing stock purchased under the minimum support price to spinning mills in the micro, small and medium enterprise category.
The industry is expecting a heavy squeeze on margins as the demand-supply imbalance is stoking cotton imports and new crop arrival is delayed due to late sowing of cotton.
Most spinners are likely to run short of raw material before the new crop arrives.
The cotton demand-supply imbalance is likely to last till November due to the late sowing owing to the delayed rains this year.
Prices are up 30 per cent in spot markets and likely to further increase due to the demand and supply imbalance.
The spinning industry is in dire need of fiscal incentives.
The demand- supply imbalance has fuelled cotton contracts for imports from Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, West Africa and the US. But most firms are not in a position to enter import contracts as shipments will be delayed and prices are on the rise.
Yarn manufacturers are likely to be the worst affected as moderate demand has left little scope for a rise in prices of products.
"Gone are the days when fast fashion brands could lure customers to the store to possess the most inspirational label. Even a decade back every teenager’s dream was own a Calvin Klein, a Ralph Lauren or a Tommy Hilfiger. Each has a distinctive style well portrayed in glossy advertisements to create the aspiration in the consumer psyche."
Gone are the days when fast fashion brands could lure customers to the store to possess the most inspirational label. Even a decade back every teenager’s dream was own a Calvin Klein, a Ralph Lauren or a Tommy Hilfiger. Each has a distinctive style well portrayed in glossy advertisements to create the aspiration in the consumer psyche. Today the scenario has changed. Interestingly these attractive, million dollar ads somehow fail to create similar excitement which has resulted in plunging sales. In fact, a few legendary American brands which pioneered ‘fast fashion’ and ‘aspirational brand’ are now facing a downward spiral in sales, giving a clear indication towards shifting consumer psyche. Brands like Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren are coping with slow sales and shutting down stores.
Biggies suffered from being class to mass
Analysing the changed market behavior, Charles Lawry, a professor at Pace University's business school specializing in studying luxury market says “high-end American brands have been creating cheaper products for decades now. Ralph Lauren was one of the first American luxury brands to reach across many different categories, and that is really what made it successful. For a time, this strategy was extremely lucrative; soon, other brands followed suit, including MK by Michael Kors and Donna Karan's DKNY”. During early 2000s, fashion brands like Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, and Coach became public company while by 2010, Phillips Van Heusen Corp owned both Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. With new set of investors coming on board, almost all companies were forced to explore the bigger market instead of the niche luxury segment. To sustain the growth brands lowered the cost of manufacturing to making the brand accessible to new a wider spectrum of consumers. “There was an over-expansion and distribution into places like factory stores, which presented a tremendous economic opportunity. But it came at the expense of the brand. If you start training the consumer to believe that the brand is widely distributed in factory outlets, people who were once your core customer will start doing that, or lose interest in the brand altogether” says Eric Korman, Ralph Lauren's president of digital and e-commerce between 2010-2014.
Dip in sales was also a result of low skilled manpower engage in manufacturing set up in countries like Vietnam and China. With globalization and an effort to cut cost by going overseas, these megabrands that were once known for high quality started to see their quality deplete and decay. Moreover, in 2008, the US economy hit new lows due to recession. During the recession and post-recession, these brands went further by having a lot of these products trickle down to discount retailers. Now there's nothing remotely glamorous about picking up that same Coach bag in a messy, overcrowded department store with harsh lighting and thousands upon thousands of mass-produced articles.
New Age brands take on the giants
Over the last few years, the market dynamics has changed with a new generation of high quality, reasonably priced and direct to consumer brand coming up. Big brands were focused to tap wider customers and in the process lose their uniqueness. Startup companies too saw this opportunity to redefine premium fashion and educate customers about how high-end goods are made. The internet did not made it easier to buy products online. Another important distinction between these fashion startups and older apparel companies is that they are much less flashy. The internet has democratized brands. People are willing to pay for something special and they want to know how their products are made and, these days, it is possible to find exactly what they are looking for online. Now, the big question is whether the once great American brands can right their ships and regain consumer trust by improving quality, cutting back distribution channels, and speaking to the world in a more relatable voice.
Under Armour, the US-based performance brand has chosen Lectra as an official partner for its manufacturing and design centre, the Lighthouse, which opened in Baltimore, Maryland. Under Armour is a leader in performance footwear, apparel and equipment which sells its apparel and footwear products worldwide to athletes at all levels. Lectra is a leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to industries using fabrics, leather, technical textiles and composite materials.
The new facility will showcase the latest technology and serve as an incubator for creating state-of-the-art product with efficient manufacturing methods. Lectra shares Under Armour's commitment to helping manufacturers and brands attain operational excellence and deliver better products to market faster.
The Lighthouse will employ Lectra's advanced cutting-room solutions, in particular, the Brio fabric spreader and the Vector fabric-cutting machine. It will provide a collaborative space for designers and manufacturers to learn and develop new and innovative methods for making and delivering product, which can then be shared with global teammates and partner factories.
Lectra’s innovative Smart Services provides enhanced visibility to the production processes through remote monitoring. This predictive technology is designed to optimize machine up-time and production.
A new type of fabric could change the way smart clothing is made. The space cloth is the first non-woven material made from yarn with strong potential for use as a smart textile due to its unique structure, with space to encase copper wiring, LEDs and more. Because of the material’s linear channels of yarn, it has great potential to be used as a smart textile. In particular, it lends itself well to being embedded with microcapsules containing medication or scent, to either help deliver drugs to specific parts of the body or to create antibacterial and aromatic clothing.
The material has potential in other applications as well, such as wall coverings, in addition to clothing. It is also not quite as challenging to make as other knit or weave fabrics, which makes its production easier on the environment.
The space cloth is called Zephlinear, comes from the merger of two words, zephyr and linear. It was given the nickname space cloth due to its appearance and its e-textile capabilities. The material is strongest and most efficient when created from natural yarns, such as 100 per cent wool, hair or wool and silk mixtures, but it can also be made from synthetic yarns.
Senthil Kumar has been re-elected chairman of the Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) the apex body of textile mills. Kumar has over 40 years of experience in the textile field. He has been actively serving the industry with his participation in various national and state level textile forums. He was the chairman of the Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council from December 2002 to January 2005. He is the promoter, chairman and managing director of Palladam Hi-tech Weaving Park.
Kumar is also the director, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, New Delhi, director, Apparel, Made Ups and Home Furnishing Sector Skill Council, Haryana, director, Textiles Sector Skill Council, New Delhi, and managing director, BKS Textiles.
SIMA was set up in 1933. SIMA is the single largest employers’ organisation representing the organised textile industry in the world and the only employers’ organisation of the textile industry having in-house expertise to advise right from designing the textile project to marketing. Equipped with a strong data base, it advises members on all functional areas of the textile industry. SIMA has made unique contributions in the areas of industrial relations, human resource development, industrial engineering etc. It plays a lead role in all textile policy making bodies in South India including Planning Commission work group relating to textiles.
The Society of Dyers and Colourists Education Charity, India (SDC EC) successfully organised its Colour Event 10/ 2016 on September 2 at Rachana Sansad, Prabhadevi. The event included three technical lectures and an award ceremony. The technical lectures were followed by presentations by top nine entries for the International Design Competition 2016. Soon after, the process of felicitation of the winners of the competition was done.
The Technical session started with Rachana Singh’s presentation on ‘entrepruneship’. She shared her experiences on the various stages of starting an entreprunal company. The sharing was inspirational for the students to understand as to what should be their focus and what efforts they need to put in if they want to achieve their aspirational goals.
The second lecture was on ‘How did I get here’ by Aniket Satam. He communicated very well with the students about his experiences and success story of being in the fashion industry. He shared various instances of successes and failures in his career. His talk motivated the students to think out of the box & not let failures bring them down.
Lipika Nair spoke about Digital Printing and shared technical aspects of digital designing and its reproduction on fabrics. The do’s and don’ts of design and expectations from a designer’s perspective was shared with the audience.
After the technical session, all top 9 entries were invited on the stage to talk on their boards and the thought behind it. The theme for this year’s design competition was ‘Make it personal’. All top nine entries were unique with different products and usages. The event was attended by more than 120 students, faculties, heads of the department and principals of various institutes and industry professionals.
The global spandex market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of more than eight per cent from 2016 to 2023. It is also commonly known as elastane. A growing application scope in the apparel and textile industry is likely to drive the spandex market over the forecast period.
Dry spinning technology has been majorly preferred by manufacturers over the past few years. Other processes include wet spinning, melt extrusion and reaction spinning. Asia Pacific accounted for more than 60 per cent of the total volume in 2015. China accounted for a major chunk of the market in the Asia Pacific region in 2015. The market is expected to grow with the recovery in the US economy.
Increase in automobile production, particularly in the Asia Pacific, is likely to drive growth. Major automobile manufacturers are shifting bases to countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, India and China owing to cheap labor wages and favorable incentive schemes. China accounted for more than 50 per cent of the global share in 2014 and is the major manufacturer for this market. In 2012, China had around 30 manufacturing units with a total capacity of 520 kilo tons and domestic production exceeding 320 kilo tons.
