Istanbul will host its version of the yarn fair from February 28 to March 2, 2019. This event will showcases products like knitted fabrics, cotton yarns, cotton blended yarns etc. in the textile, fabrics and yarns industry. Leading yarn manufacturers from Turkey and other countries will display their innovative and advanced technology products. The trade fair will see 308 companies and company representatives from 15 countries.

The fair hosted 12,498 visitors from 84 different countries in 2018. In the first half of the year, Turkey’s exports increased 7.3 per cent compared to the previous year. The textile and raw materials industry is getting ready to break its record in the history of Turkey given the export rates.

Woven and knitted fabric manufacturing suppliers aimed at meeting the requirements of the market and competing in both domestic and foreign markets, have embarked on a quest for product range in yarn. In this context, fairs meet the needs of woven and knitted fabric manufacturing suppliers so that they can access yarn resources and fulfill renewed and increasing demands quickly.

With robotic technologies being utilised more and more in ready-to-wear clothing worldwide, home textile and ready-to-wear clothing being diversified each year, and the continued search for design and distinctiveness in ready-to-wear clothing, the yarn used in woven and knitted fabric manufacturing has gradually become very important.

The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a water risk report for Vietnam’s textile and garment industry and a tool for assessing water risks in the Mekong region in Ho Chi Minh City. The report “Textile and Garment Sector in Vietnam: Water Risks and Solutions” features 12 recommendations of the WWF to boost links among relevant agencies of the sector while promoting the management and improvement of water resources and sustainable energy use.

According to VITAS, Vietnam ranks fourth among textile exporting countries in the world, after China, India and Bangladesh. In the first half of 2018, total export turnover of Vietnam’s textile and garment industry reached $16.5 billion, up 17 per cent over the same period last year. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the sector hit U$2.8 billion, lifting the accumulated FDI in the industry to $17.5 billion, with the Republic of Korea; Japan, and China being the biggest investors.

According to Van Ngoc Thinh, Country Director of WWF, as Vietnam’s textile and garment industry depends significantly on water and energy for production, it needs the initiatives to promote its sustainable development, thus contributing to the national economy and ensuring goals on environment.

The global adaptive clothing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.1 per cent over 2018 to 2026. Demand for adaptive clothing from an aging population and rising disabilities in adults and children worldwide is fuelling growth in this sector.

The increasing percentage of people with disabilities in the US is expected to propel growth of the adaptive clothing market. The percentage of people with disabilities in the US increased to 12.8 per cent in 2016 from 11.9 per cent in 2010.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness high growth, owing to the significant amount of population with various disabilities, particularly in economies such as India. Around 2.21 per cent of the population in India has some type of disability. Although the low presence of adaptive clothing retailers in the country is hindering market growth, it is also providing growth opportunities for new companies to enter the adaptive clothing market.

Demand for stylish adaptive clothing is rising as such clothing, apart from providing solutions to disabled people, also provides a stylish look. Brands such as Runway of Dreams and Tommy Hilfiger are offering a wide range of stylish adaptive clothes for disabled children and adults.

According to the Third annual State of Fashion Report, co-published by McKinsey & Company and Business of Fashion, US will cede its position as the world’s largest fashion market to China in 2019. The McKinsey Global Fashion Index forecasts growth of 3.5 to 4.5 percent next year, which will come in slightly below the predicted 4 percent to 5 percent growth for 2018.

The report emphasises in the coming year, companies need to take an active stance on social issues, satisfy consumer demands for ultra-transparency and sustainability, and, most importantly, have the courage to ‘self-disrupt’ their own identity and the sources of their old success in order to realise these changes and win new generations of customers. They also need to invest in enhancing their productivity and resilience, as the outlook is increasingly uncertain. External shocks to the system continue to lurk around the corner, and growth cannot be taken for granted.

Indonesia has abolished import duties of up to 30 per cent on 20 some Pakistani products. The aim is to secure the future of more than $1 billion of palm oil exports to the South Asian economy that is shifting to a new supplier.


In January, Indonesia and Pakistan finalised the review process for the preferential trade agreement. Indonesia has agreed to grant tariff concessions on major exports from Pakistan, including zero per cent tariff on tobacco, textile fabric, rice, ethanol, citrus, woven fabric, T-shirts, apparel and mangoes.


On an annualised basis relaxation of tariffs will enhance exports from Pakistan to Indonesia by 133 per cent and reduce the deficit by 15 per cent. Indonesia has long been mulling import duty concessions for 20 tariff lines, including rice, mangoes and value-added textiles, under the revised preferential trade agreement originally signed with Pakistan in February 2012.

As per a new report ‘Global Market Review of Denim and Jeanswear’ by apparel sourcing publisher just-style, the global jeans market will be worth $60 billion by 2023. The report predicts a growth of 4.9 per cent over the next five years from $57 billion in 2018, with the US set to remain the largest jeans market, with China the second largest.

The fastest growing markets are predicted to be South America, with 12.1 per cent growth, and the Rest of the World (all markets excluding North America, Europe, Turkey, Asia and South America), with 19.7 per cent growth. The report also identified a major shift in China’s market, with nearly half of the country’s jeans production now remaining in the country instead of being exported. The study estimates that around 22 per cent of manufactured jeans are now traded outside the traditional retail markets in exchange for goods or services rather than currency.

"As per Chinese Textile Industry Association, the textile industry uses 25 per cent of global chemical output. Out of this 42 per cent is used by China reveals the United Nations Environment Program. Greenpeace published a report, Dirty Laundry in 2011 that urged consumers worldwide to demand change in the fashion industry. The report outlined the wastewater in textile industry zones of Guangdong and Zhejiang contained cancer causing chemicals harmful to reproduction. Supply chain investigations linked the products from those factories with global brands like Adidas, Nike, H&M and Zara."

As per Chinese Textile Industry Association, the textile industry uses 25 per cent of global chemical output. Out of this 42 per cent is used by China reveals the United Nations Environment Program. Greenpeace published a report, Dirty Laundry in 2011 that urged consumers worldwide to demand change in the fashion industry. The report outlined the wastewater in textile industry zones of Guangdong and Zhejiang contained cancer causing chemicals harmful to reproduction. Supply chain investigations linked the products from those factories with global brands like Adidas, Nike, H&M and Zara.

A few months later Chinese non-governmental organisations, including the Institute for Environmental and Public Affairs and Friends of Nature, published a report on fashion’s polluting practices, warning global mega-brands of severe breaches of regulation in their Chinese supply chains, with a grave impact on the country’s water environment”.

Leading manufacturers like Inditex (Zara’s owner) and H&M, along with Puma, Nike and Adidas, are committed to ending the release of harmful substances from their supply chains by 2020. The key elements of that commitment include management of chemicals used in the supply chain, information transparency and the replacement of harmful chemicals with alternatives.

Companies detox to rid off harmful chemicals

Before the report was published, the textile industry focused on the quality of products and use of chemicals in them. As per the report, 80 fashion brands and suppliers, accounting for 15 per cent of the global clothing market, have agreed to “detox”. These companies are setting up a Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL), often described as a harmful substances blacklist that can guide the elimination of harmful chemicals from the manufacturing process.

In 2012, H&M published its MRSL along with a list of endorsed alternative chemicals. It then started training suppliers to understand the importance of these changes.

Managing and replacing harmful chemicals

Management of these chemicals involves the entire supply chain including the wet processing stage, where companies have to provide training and technical support to build these capacities from scratch. Supply chain transparency can help this process if companies publicise their progress and ensure that more suppliers make wastewater monitoring data public.

Ultimately, we need to replace the chemicals that cause harm but cost and availability of alternatives is the toughest part of the process. The role of industry consensus in this can be deciphered from the replacement of dimethly fumarate (DMF). A widely used solvent in the textile and leather industry, DMF was listed by the EU as a Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) for being hazardous to health. On searching for an alternative, fashion brands found a solution of synthetic leather and so several major firms required the removal of DMF from their supply chains, with deadlines ranging from 2020 to 2025.

Policies for making chemical management easier

Spurred by the emergence of online shopping and e-commerce, the textile and clothing industry is dominated by small firms, which makes change more difficult. In China, many factories supply lesser-known brands, or produce cheap unbranded clothing. This means the bulk of the clothing supply chain is not subject to strict chemicals management.

H&M’s Veera Sinnemaki agrees government policy is needed for the industry to change. Policies holding chemical companies accountable will make chemical management much easier for both brands and suppliers. In April, a number of large Chinese suppliers of dyes, additives and chemicals to the clothing sector launched a voluntary initiative to produce a ‘Manufacturing Restricted Substances List’ and a positive list of preferred substances that apply to their own sector. This would integrate several existing industry standards.

Texprocil has appointed KV Srinivasan, Managing Director, Sree Narasimha Textiles, Premier Mills and Premier Fine Linens as the new chairman. He is a Committee member of the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council from 1998.

A B.Tech in Textile Technology from PSG College of Technology and MSc in Textile Technology from the University of Manchester, Srinivasan is also the chairman of the South Indian Textile Research Association, Coimbatore.

The cotton stakeholders across the textile value chain have been demanding reintroduction of the Technology Mission on Cotton in a revised format with two mini missions focusing on technology development and technology transfer under the Ministry of Agriculture and another two mini missions focusing on clean cotton and branding Indian cotton textile products.

The Technology Mission on Cotton was announced in 1999 and closed in 2012. It made India the largest cotton producer and net exporter in the world. The Ministry of Textiles has already submitted a proposal to allocate funds to implement clean cotton and branding Indian cotton textile products missions. Additionally, Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA), has sent a representation to the Union Textile Minister seeking her intervention by empowering the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to enforce certain regulations to curb the malpractices resorted to by certain ginners.

It has suggested empowering the textile commissioner, the secretary, textiles committee, the Director, TRAs, CIRCOT, and CMD of CCI to make periodical inspection in ginning factories and take necessary action on the factories resorting to malpractices. Textiles committee should conduct periodical audits and recognise three to five-star rated ginning factories by posting the details on the CCI website and CCI should introduce the 16-digit RFID code for individual bale quality parameters on par with USDA that practises the same since 1991.

Exporters in Tirupur have been awaiting their ROSL (Rebate on State Levies) refunds for three months. For the Tirupur knitwear cluster alone, the pending ROSL claims (1.7 per cent free on board worth exports) work out to be Rs 105 crores. Settlement of pending claims would be helpful to plants at a time when the units are operating under wafer-thin margins and struggling to sustain in the price-conscious global market. These have to compete against countries which are enjoying duty-free status in the European Union and the United States markets.

Under the ROSL scheme, a rebate on state levies is provided such as value-added tax and central sales tax on inputs, including packaging, fuel, and electricity duty, accumulated through various stages of production, from yarn to finished garments. For exporters, the scheme offers enhanced duty drawback cover on inputs.

The scheme takes into consideration all taxes paid by exporters like VAT, electricity duty, octroi, entry tax etc. The ROSL rate for garment items exported varies from 2.65 per cent to 3.9 per cent.

Tirupur exporters also want India to expedite the free trade agreement with Russia, which has given Bangladesh the duty-free garment facility, and they hope India can also avail of this facility.