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The 11th Prime Source Forum (PSF) is ready to take off from March 14-15 in Hong Kong. The organizers sat, the event will continue to sustain its position as the annual meeting place for senior executives to discuss the challenges and opportunities that stakeholders across the global fashion supply chain are facing in the industry.
In its 11th year, PSF the leading global event will once again bring together executives and senior stakeholders from the apparel and footwear supply chain. This year, Ethiopian Minister and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Arkebe Oqubay will be the keynote speaker at the PSF. Fellow keynote speaker Tino Zeiske, Senior Vice President for Corporate Responsibility at Metro Group will share his perspective on sustainable development in the fashion industry following the G7 Summit and COP21.
The US-driven TPP unites 12 countries to grow rapport across the Pacific
while the China-led Belt Road initiative to strengthen the trade relation extends beyond the Silk Road routes. These two regional projects are certainly ‘mega’ enough to create disruptions over the supply chain. Christian Ewert of the Foreign Trade Association will take the lead to ignite the panel discussions regarding the opportunities and challenges behind the scene.
Among the other topics, including strategic tool to weather the turbulent manufacturing conditions and innovative ideas against the disruptive situation of the fashion supply chain are to be explored. Professional advice to mitigate the risks and provide competitive advantage will also be one of the highlights of the two-day Forum.
"TPP will help boost production and exports in Vietnam and enhance its maritime trade with the US. As far as the textile companies are concerned, Vietnam’s skilled workers are a plus even when labour costs are higher than that of Bangladesh and Myanmar. In fact, Japanese garment-textile companies have began expanding their production in Vietnam after the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was approved."
TPP will help boost production and exports in Vietnam and enhance its maritime trade with the US. As far as the textile companies are concerned, Vietnam’s skilled workers are a plus even when labour costs are higher than that of Bangladesh and Myanmar. In fact, Japanese garment-textile companies have began expanding their production in Vietnam after the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was approved. Vietnam’s competitive advantage has been strengthened to become the world’s export center, attracting foreign investment flows, including those from Japan.
Manufacturers hope to have stronger motivation after the TPP, of which Vietnam is a member. Experts say, TPP will help boost production and exports in Vietnam and enhance its maritime trade with the US. As far as textile companies are concerned, Vietnam’s skilled workers are an asset even when though labour costs are higher than that of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
As Mukuta Satoshi, Senior MDm, Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) points out, Japanese firms had invested a total of $37.3 billion in Vietnam as of end 2014, the second highest among all countries and territories investing in the country.
Gateway for Japan to ASEAN markets
For Japan, Vietnam is a gateway to ASEAN markets. Kuraray Trading, an Osaka-based trading house for synthetic fiber maker Kuraray, will spend 300 million yen ($2.51 million) to install a production line for sportswear at an affiliate in Da Nang, the largest city in central Vietnam this year. Kuraray Trading is also considering investing billions of yen in textile operations, such as weaving and dyeing, in Vietnam’s largest city Ho Chi Minh City. Itochu, another Japanese firm has been increasing its presence in Vietnam even before TPP began gathering steam. In 2014, the company established a weaving mill in Vietnam with a monthly capacity of 500,000 meters of fabric.
Toray Industries, a Japanese fiber maker has recently increased production at a local sewing unit established in Ho Chi Minh City by its trading arm, Chori. The company plans to make the plant a key group production site. Chori ships the finished goods to the U.S. and other markets.
Japanese cotton spinner Shikibo will lower output at its Chinese sewing factory and increase production at a partner plant in Vietnam. The company will soon start producing bedding fabrics at the latter site.
Binh Duong Province awarded an investment certificate to Polytex Far Eastern under Taiwan’s Far Eastern Group to develop a $274-million clothing project. This project covers 99 hectares at Bau Bang Industrial Zone and produces supporting items for the apparel sector.
Dong Nai Province has approved a $660-million project of Hyosung Istanbul Tekstil, which will make industrial fiber at Nhon Trach 5 Industrial Zone. This is a Turkish-registered project but the actual investor is South Korea’s Hyosung Group. Hyosung Vietnam has been a familiar face in the textile and garment sector in the province with total registered capital of over $995 million. Hong Kong’s Worldon Vietnam also got approval to carry out a $300-million project in the apparel sector in HCM City. The project covers over 50 hectares at Dong Nam Industrial Zone in Cu Chi District.
Mergers and acquisitions
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Garment Textile Embroidery Knitting (AGTEK), there was a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the domestic garment and textile sector as local enterprises found they could not fulfill requested orders due to their limitations in capital.
Further, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said management offices carefully weighed requests before issuing investment licenses for large textile and garment projects, since textile, fiber production and dyeing projects often cause environmental problems. So, some investors have bought factories from local partners.
In 2016, part of the $300 million provided by the Indian government will include investments in projects to manufacture textile and garment materials in Vietnam, as part of the cooperation between the governments of Vietnam and India.
Delegates attending this year's Planet Textiles event in Copenhagen on May 11 will gain a unique insight into how China's latest five-year plan will impact environmental issues in China's textile manufacturing sector by 2020. Speaking at the event will be Zheng Jian, Project Manager at the Office for Social Responsibility with Chinese National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC). Jian has been working on sustainability issues in the Chinese Textile and Apparel Industry since 2005. The five-year plan for China's textile industry was recently launched by the government, and CNTAC is the key organisation charged with the task of ensuring the plan is properly implemented and interpreted throughout the industry.
CNTAC’s office for Social Responsibility recently led the work of the Textile Sustainable Manufacturing Coalition, an initiative that was set up by CNTAC, the China Dyestuff Industry Association and the Artificial and Synthetic Leather Committee of China Plastics Processing Industry Association. The work of the project includes environmental information disclosure, chemicals information exchange and sustainable technological innovation in textile supply chains in China. Delegates at the event will hear the latest on these plans in addition to other environmental initiatives underway in the world's largest textile and clothing manufacturing sector.
Among the key speakers at Planet Textiles include environmentalist, mountaineer and filmmaker, Rick Ridgeway (Patagonia's vice president of environmental affairs), senior governmental representation from the German Ministry's Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, and the European Clothing Action Plan, which will talk about how to embed a circular economy approach to the European clothing sector.
Ghezzi, the Italian yarn manufacturer for twisted, stretch and fancy yarns made with synthetic, artificial and natural fibers has launched a range of new generation premium stretch yarns at the recent Filo Yarn and Fibre Exhibition in Milan. These new yarns with ROICA Eco Smart by Asahi Kasei are said to deliver high performance stretch together with sustainability benefits.
According to Ghezzi, ROICA Eco-Smart is an eco-friendly, stretch yarn and is the only more sustainable, eco-stretch elastane that is GRS certified (Global Recycling Standard by Textile Exchange). The production of this yarn uses more than 50 per cent pre-production industrial waste material and is designed responsibly and ethically for customers looking to bring contemporary stretch to their own more sustainable product lines.
The smart and innovative material is designed to help clothing manufacturers deliver a more responsible high performance without compromise, while appealing to the modern consumer’s desire for better value.
Ghezzi has been a partner of ROICA, but also of CUPRO by Asahi Kasei for many years. CUPRO is a refined, matchless material with a soft silk like touch. Its soft versatility is said to make it perfect for the modern wardrobe’s fashions, intimates, special occasion and everyday casual wear.
Nantong Teijin has developed a range of high performance fabrics and environmentally friendly solutions. The products are targeted at Chinese markets for sports and casual fashions and garments. It’s made of thin- to medium-thickness fabrics. Microft is a moisture-permeable, water-repellent fabric produced with functional, high-quality microfiber. The laminated version combines soft texture with enhanced waterproof properties up to water pressure of 10,000 mm or greater.
Solotex is a polytrimethylene terephthalate fiber that is highly soft, stretchable, shape-retaining and durable. As Solotex is partially bio-derived, it also helps to conserve fossil resources.
Teijin is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the areas of sustainable transportation, information and electronics, safety and protection, environment and energy, and healthcare. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers, such as aramid, carbon fibers and composites, healthcare, films, resin and plastic processing, polyester fibers, product converting and IT. The group has some 150 companies and around 16,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide.
www.teijin.com.cn/en/about/
India will soon have a simplified textile policy. The new policy is aimed at increasing production and productivity of the textile sector, generating more employment, bringing down the cost of production, penetrating into newer markets, and introducing more value added products and focusing both on exports and domestic markets.
There may be some relaxation in labor laws such as allowing women to work at night. Some kind of tax incentives may be provided to weavers to make the sector attractive. This also includes tax holidays and interest subvention.
Most incentives or subsidies given now are production related. Those related to processing and skilling would be continued. Exports from India are expected to become unviable after 2017 as India is a signatory to WTO guidelines. There will be a review of subsidies and concessions. Some will be continued and some will be phased out. There may be production-related sops.
The Textile Upgradation Fund scheme has been revised. The growth of Indian textile sector has been hampered by factors such as high cost of production, sudden spurt in interest rates on working capital and an increase in labor wages. The industry has sought modifications in contract laws.
The biotech industry in India has opposed the notification fixing the maximum sale price of BT cotton seeds. It says the move violates the principle of free market economics and would discourage research.
BT cotton seed price has been fixed at Rs 800 per packet of 450 gram, including the trait value of Rs 49 per packet. The industry feels an atmosphere for promotion of innovation would have given the farmer new technologies for generating higher income and that slashing trait fees does not support innovation in the long term. The decision, it says, runs counter to the Make in India initiative and would be detrimental in the long run as companies would reconsider their investments in seed based R& D in the country due to the current uncertain environment. There would be no opportunity for companies to bring new products to the market.
The sharpest cut is on royalty or trait fees. They were reduced by 74 per cent. The latest prices will come into effect from the next kharif crop season, sowing for which begins in June. While the move will benefit nearly eight million cotton farmers in India, it raises concerns about the country’s intellectual property rights regime.
Inditex, the owner of the Zara chain, has reported strong sales growth for the first five weeks of the new financial year. But it plans to slow down its rapid pace of store openings.
Inditex will focus store openings on flagship sites in prime locations. It will aim for 6 to 8 per cent growth in new sales space in the coming years, below the previous guidance of 8 to 10 per cent.
Sales of items such as broderie anglaise blouses and floral lace dresses from fashion label Zara’s spring collection helped push sales across Inditex’s stable of brands up 15 per cent, at constant exchange rates, in the first five weeks of the financial year that started in February.
Inditex, the world's biggest clothing retailer, opened 330 stores in 56 markets in 2015, with a new Zara shop in Hawaii becoming the group's 7000th store worldwide. Its brands include upmarket label Massimo Dutti and teen fashion chain Bershka. It expanded online sales to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and Australia during the year and may complete its online presence in all European Union markets in April.
Inditex’s net profit came in at 2.88 billion euros for the financial year which stretches from February to January, boosted by the relative weakness of the euro against a basket of around 60 currencies.
https://www.inditex.com/
China's exports witnessed their heaviest fall in nearly seven years in February diving more than a quarter as feeble global trades offset the weaker Yuan and raised pressure on Beijing to ramp up domestic demand as a driver of expansion. While promising reforms and higher spending to boost the world's number two economy, the below-forecast reading is the latest data raised fears of a ‘hard landing’ in China and comes days after Beijing cut its growth target for this year.
Last month, customs figures showed exports sank 25.4 per cent on-year to $126.1 billion, sharper than the 14.5 per cent economists predicted and the worst performance since May 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis. China is the world's biggest trader in goods and a key driver of international growth but its firms have been battered by weak demand from major markets as the global economy stutters. In turn, its slowing expansion has sent commodities prices plunging, battering producer economies such as Australia.
China’s imports fell for the 16th consecutive month, plunging 13.8 per cent to $93.6 billion. Analysts at ANZ Research cited ‘weakening global trade’ and ‘sluggish domestic demand’ as factors driving the ‘disappointing’ export and import results.
Textile Exchange has the released the second set of 13 new documents within the full suite of Material Snapshots, produced in 2015 with financial support from VF Corporation and in collaboration with Brown and Wilmanns Environmental, LLC.
The new snapshots offer a deeper dive into the life cycle issues of 27 fibers and materials, covering both ‘preferred’ and ‘conventional’ options. Each snapshot combines available LCA data and information with detailed literature reviews to provide a reliable and comprehensive, yet succinct, analysis. Included in each snapshot is an overview of: unit process descriptions, process inputs and outputs, performance and processing attributes, potential social and ethical concerns, availability, certification and pricing details, suggested questions to ask when sourcing the material, and system diagrams.
Designed for more technical users such as materials, sourcing, and sustainability professionals, the new snapshots are not aimed at users looking for a more summary view of a fiber or material; for that, Textile Exchange offers a set of 33 Material Summaries, produced in 2013/14 with support from VF Corporation (previously also referred to as ‘Material Snapshots’).
Founded in 2002, Textile Exchange is a global nonprofit organisation that works closely with all sectors of the textile supply chain to find the best ways to minimise and even reverse the negative impacts on people, air, water, animals, and soil created by the $1.7 trillion industry.
