The French Textile Equipment manufacturers’ Association (UCMTF), has selected Hugues Schellenberg as the new president, following the retirement of Bruno Ameline who has chaired the association since 2004. UCMTF comprises around 30 members companies. Some of them are world leaders in their markets while others are small and medium size companies.

Schellenberg is the CEO of Dollfus-Muller of Heimsbrunn in the French province of Alsace. An engineer, Schellenberg got an MBA from Montpellier University in Southern France. As president of UCMTF, Schellenberg will represent the French association on the board of Cematex, the owner of ITMAs.

As CEO of Dollfus-Muller, Schellenberg spends at least half of his time with customers that he visits worldwide. This is how he keeps a firsthand contact and a deep connection with the needs of the market in order to both manage his company on a day to day basis and design its long term strategy.

In addition to UCMTF, Schellenberg is very active in many national, regional and national associations, including the chairmanship of a trade association to improve the employment of underprivileged workers.

Nepal’s yarn industry has witnessed a surge in business operations for the local handloom producers by up to 60 percent. Producers have attributed the business bloom to the increasing orders coming from India after the phased reopening and resumption of economic activities post coronavirus lockdown.

The Government of India, under the India-Nepal Foreign Treaty of Trade Agreement imports woven handicrafts and home textile products essential to Nepal’s Textile And Garment Cloth Industries. Nepal’s GDP and livelihood of the small scale textile weaving businesses largely depend on these handicrafts exports. Nepali proprietor Bishnu Neupane, Jagdamba Spinning informed his company has been receiving high demands and orders from India.

Indian states of Punjab and Assam, and Siliguri, Guhawati, Gorakhpur, and New Delhi have been among the largest importers of Nepal’s yarn industry products for over several years. These states place bulk orders that comprise nearly 60 percent of Nepal’s total yarn manufactured goods export.

In a first-of-its-kind deal by India for any country, Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is eyeing an important contract that will allow it to directly export around 10 to 15 lakh bales (each bale weighing 170 kg) of cotton to Bangladesh. This would allow the government to directly export cotton to another country.

Bangladesh is an important market for Indian cotton, with the country importing around 25 to 30 lakh bales per year. Private traders corner exports; this would be the first time CCI is trying to enter the export market directly. PK Agarwal, Chairperson-cum-Managing Director CCI, said the contracts were in the final stages with governments of both countries actively negotiating the deals.

Last year, CCI had been able to offload around 58 lakh bales of the inventory it held. Around 20 per cent of the stocks was procured by MNCs who might have exported it further. Pradeep Jain, Founder President , Khandesh Press/Gin Owners and Traders Development Association, said the next cotton season would start with a carryover stock of 100 lakh bales. Estimates by different sources have pegged India’s production to be around 400 lakh bales for the new season.

The increased production notwithstanding, the lockdown-induced slowdown in the sector will make it near impossible the private traders to pay the government-declared MSP (minimum support price) to farmers, Jain said.

For this season, the government-declared MSP for medium staple kapas (raw unginned cotton) is Rs 5,515 per quintal, while that of long staple is Rs 5,825. Market sources feel the average traded price of the lint crop can be as low as Rs 4,500 and might rise to around Rs 5,100 in the season. The role of CCI in such a scenario assumes importance as the government body procures FAQ cotton at MSP.

Trade sources predict India’s cotton exports will rise 30 per cent from 50 lakh bales in 2019-20 to about 60-65 lakh bales in 2020-21. The International Cotton Advisory Committee estimates global cotton consumption will rise to about 24.31 million tons in 2020-21 from 22.67 million tons in 2019-20. US’ ban on purchase of cotton products from the Xinjiang may unlock opportunities for India.

Vinay Kotak, Director, Kotak Commodities, says, next year, India’s cotton exports will reach 60-65 bales. Exports may depend on multiple factors including the government policy, India-China trade relations and global tensions. The main driver for these exports demand will be the price. Cotton Association of India (CAI) estimates, India’s exports for 2019-20 at 50 lakh bales, of which about 47 lakh bales have already been shipped till August 31, while the shipments may rise this month before the cotton marketing year ends on September 30. India had exported 42 lakh bales of the fibre in 2018-19.

The association’s opening stock for 2020-21 will be about 100-105 lakh bales. But most of this or about 80-85 lakh bales will be with government agencies, and only the rest with mills.

Spinexpo Shanghai was held at the World Expo Convention & Exhibition Center from September 1 to 3, 2020 without the presence of the organizing team, who were unable to come to China due to COVID-19

Spinexpo was the only exhibition specializing in spinning and knitting in 2020, both in China and elsewhere in the world. Foreign brands from other countries and regions in Asia such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong were not present, nor were brands from Europe, the United States and other countries outside China.

To remedy this situation, the organizer adopted two working methods. On one hand, its team based in China was able to contact all the representative offices of the brands that normally visit the exhibition, thanks to its database it has been building up for over 20 years; on the other hand, it is organizing two post-exhibition showrooms in Paris (France) and Hong Kong, where exhibitors with agents in Europe or Hong Kong have the chance to present their collections to buyers who all wish to have the opportunity to see the real products as well as the color and product trends of the season.

Cotton textile firms in Jiangsu, Shangdong and Anhui have reported a massive decline in inventories of high-count pure cotton yarns and polyester-cotton blended yarns in China due to high demand for last couple of weeks, says Apparel Resources. Demand for ring spinning and OE yarns of C40S (or below) has surged in the terminal consumer market and most of the spinning mills have accelerated their destocking for these products.

According to a medium-scale cotton spinning factory based in Jiangsu, there have been two major trends for mainstream yarn products since August: increase in the output of carded 40S and combed cotton yarns above 40S, while reducing cotton yarns with counts below C32S and increase in the production capacity of T/C 65/35 45S, T/C 60/40 45S and other polyester-cotton blended yarns including T/C 35/65 and other inverse proportion polyester-cotton yarns

However, the situation might not remain intact in long run seeing the USA’s ban of importing cotton from Xinjiang, China. The only satisfactory development for the Chinese cotton mills is that the COVID-19 spread is under full control which has made it possible to get production back on track.

For the fourth quarter H&M’s sales increased 11 per cent. At the end of the quarter around 115 stores were temporarily closed due to restrictions (mostly in Austria and Slovakia), which was actually more than at the start of the three-month period when 100 stores were closed (mainly in Southeast Asia). For the financial year as a whole, net sales increased 12 per cent.

Fashion retailers have been working hard just to get back to where they were two years ago and the achievement of that goal is impressive given that ongoing restrictions and consumer caution are still issues they have to deal with globally. H&M has been on a mission to turnaround its business by reducing dependence on marked down inventory, and investing more in e-commerce. Mobile is especially important, as H&M’s target market of under 25 are heavy mobile users. H&M only started selling online in 2010. Apparently the retailer was slow to see the opportunity that e-commerce presented, or else thought that its store network was enough to see off online competition. Over the last ten to fifteen years H&M and other fast-fashion brands have enjoyed great success in the fashion sector thanks to trend-led products, a speedy production process and large store networks.

Production and operation of China’s cotton textile enterprises has been improving steadily, as per estimates of China Cotton Textile Association (CCTA). Performance of the tracked key enterprises was better than that of the industry clusters as main economic indicators slowed down during the January-August period.

Operating income increases by 24.3%

During the eight-months period from January to August, CCTA as per estimates, total operating income of cotton textile enterprises increased 24.3 per cent year-on-year, 1.4 percentage points higher than that of the January-July period. Operating costs during the period grew 21.4 per cent year-on-year or 0.7 percentage points higher than the first seven months of 2021. Thereafter, total operating costs declined 0.5 percentage points from January to July to account for 88.7 per cent of the total operating income.

The cumulative operative income of cluster enterprises increased 6.2 per cent year-on-year from January to August. However, the cumulative operating income remained 2.6 percentage points lower than that from January to July. The cumulative operating cost surged by 10.4 per cent year-on-year. It surged by 1.2 percentage points than that from January to July. The operating costs surged higher than the operating income, adding greater production and operation pressure on cluster enterprises.

Export value surges

The export value of cotton textile enterprises grew 10.1 per cent year-on-year, as per data. However, exports had declined by 0.7 percentage points from January to July. Export value jumped 0.7 percentage points to account for 12.9 per cent of the industrial sales value. From January to August, the cumulative export delivery value of cluster enterprises grew by 13.6 per cent year-on-year. It grew by 1.8 percentage points than the performance of these enterprises from January to July. The export of cluster enterprises improved as the foreign trade orders surged.

Total profits surge by 71.5%

The industrial value of cotton textile enterprises rose 16.9 per cent year-on-year from January to August in 2021. Industrial added value of cotton textile enterprises rose by 7.4 percentage points higher than January to July period. The total profit of cotton textile enterprises surged 71.5 per cent from January to August. However, their growth rate declined by 15.2 percentage points from that of January to July. Profit rate increased 1.3 per cent year-on-year while growth rate declined by 0.3 percentage points than that from January to July.

Overall, the operations of tracked enterprise remained relatively stable in August. Orders for Christmas were placed earlier than previous year to cover delivery delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the performance of the overall sector was satisfactory, corporate profits fell due to an increase in raw materials and shipping costs.

Compiled by the China Cotton Textile Association, the data includes insights from over 260 cotton textile enterprises and about 15 industrial clusters across the country.

American & Efird (A&E) division of Elevate Textiles Inc has agreed to buy the high performance yarn business of Charles Craft Inc, a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-performance flame resistant/cut resistant industrial yarns and other specialty products say media reports.

This acquisition will expand A&E’s product offering related to thermal protection, cut resistant and flame retardant yarns. It will include the acquisition of Charles Craft manufacturing operations in Hamer, SC, which will operate as part of the American & Efird US manufacturing platform.

Frank Buie, Vice President-Sales for Charles Craft, will join American & Efird as part of the sales management team. According to him, becoming part of the larger A&E brand provides new life and longevity to its well-known technical yarns besides offering new opportunities for its employees and customers.

The British clothing giant Ted Baker has signed fashion retailer Next as its new lingerie and nightwear lingerie partner.

As per the deal, Next will make and distribute Ted Baker’s lingerie and nightwear collections, which will be known as ‘B by Ted Baker’.

To be developed in close collaboration with Ted Baker’s creative team, ‘B by Ted Baker’ will be officially unveiled in May 2021.

The exquisite Ted Baker-Next collections will be available not only through Next’s online retail channels, but also via the website of Ted Baker.

The new agreement carries forward the good relations both the brands have been sharing with each other for several years. Notably, early this year, Next had also unveiled Ted Baker’s childrenswear collections.

Ted Baker believes licence partnerships such as the one signed with Next is a key component to its ‘Formula for Growth’ – Ted Baker’s 3-year transformation plan that was launched this summer.