As per Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the country exported readymade garments worth $599.260 million in the first quarter of current financial year as compared the exports of $608.688 million of the corresponding period of last year. Exports of readymade garments during the period under review in dollar terms decreased by 1.55 per cent as compared the exports of first three months of last year.

During the period from July-September, 2018-19, about 10,235 thousand dozen of readymade garments exported as compared the exports of 8,939 thousand zozen of same period of last year.

However, the knitwear exports during the period from July-September, 2018-19 grew by 9.80 percent as over 30,912 thousand dozen of the knitwear worth $710.210 million exported as compared the exports of 25,587 thousand dozen valuing $648.805 million of same period of last year. On month on month basis, the exports of knitwear grew by 6.66 percent bedwear by 3.26 per cent.

Sri Lanka is in danger of losing its duty-free access to the EU. The European Union is worried the return of Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister could derail the progress made toward national reconciliation. Under Generalised System of Preferences Plus status, Sri Lanka's top exports of garments and fish get lucrative concessions in the world's largest single market.

Trade is key to Sri Lanka’s economy and the EU is its biggest export market, accounting for nearly a third of exports in 2017. Sri Lanka regained the GSP plus preferential treatment in 2017. Its exports to the EU have since jumped 18 per cent. Sri Lanka had promised the EU in 2016 it would work toward reconciliation with Tamils, who mostly live in the north and east of the predominantly Buddhist nation. The country also pledged to provide justice and reparations to victims of human rights violations committed during the 26-year civil war.

The EU warning on trade is the strongest yet from western powers. On the other hand, China, which has invested billions of dollars during Rajapaksa's presidency, has called for non-interference and said Sri Lanka could tackle its own problems. Sri Lanka’s garment industry is its second biggest hard currency earner.

Indorama Ventures is acquiring Brazilian company M&G Fibras. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2018 and fills an important gap in IVL’s global footprint in fibers by establishing capacity in Brazil. It also offers IVL an opportunity to participate in the domestic market along with strategic and logistic advantages from established free trade agreements with other Latin America countries. The demand in Brazil is expected to grow in response to a recent recovery in consumption.

IVL will also be in an advantageous position to expand more into nonwoven applications which are growing strongly in Brazil, supported by the presence of global brands. As a world leader in the service of the hygiene sector, the presence of global brands will allow IVL to offer its customers an extensive portfolio of products to serve their needs.

Brazil has a very innovative textile industry and its relatively high consumer purchasing power is driving the growth in nonwoven and filling fibers. IVL’s strategy is to continue to serve the growing needs of the existing customers of M&G as well as the needs of IVL’s global branded customers in this fast-growing economy and stay ahead of the curve in introducing quality products.

Vietnam’s textile industry is heavily dependent on imported raw materials and accessories. In the first nine months of this year, cotton imports surged 30.3 per cent, fabric imports increased 13.5 per cent and yarn imports were up 34.6 per cent.

If this dependence continues, Vietnam’s textile industry will not be able to take full advantage of free trade agreements like the Europe-Vietnam free trade agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Particularly, when these take effect at the end of this year, with tax lines cut to zero, Vietnamese garment and textile products will have opportunities to expand their market share in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. However, the two deals set high requirements in terms of thread and fabric origin, which poses barriers to the industry, when it is productive in terms of final products but grinds to a halt in the production of materials.

Textile firms in Vietnam produce 0.8 billion meters of fabric a year, meeting only around 13 per cent of the total demand. And this amount can’t be used to make high-quality products. In fact, many businesses have to import more than 90 per cent of their material to satisfy production. However, some domestic firms have invested heavily in weaving and dying and this is expected to provide the sector sufficient material.

A Cotton USA-sponsored seminar on the cotton and apparel market and how the industry is moving ahead with re-industrialisation was attended by nearly 100 partners throughout the Hong Kong textile supply chain. The seminar was organised by Hong Kong Association of Textile Bleachers, Dyers, Printers and Finishers in collaboration with the Textile Council of Hong Kong and Clothing Industry Training Authority.

The seminar was launched by Karin Malmstrom, Director of China and Northeast Asia, Cotton Council International (CCI) by sharing cotton market developments under the current dynamic trade conditions and CCI's “what’s new in cotton?” initiative. Jimmy Rowe, Manager of Strategic Analysis from Cotton Incorporated, elaborated on consumers’ and retail insights in the U.S. and China following their recent research, as well as their perception of sustainability when they are purchasing apparel.

Professor Philip Yeung, Executive Director of Clothing Industry Training Authority, introduced the re-industrialisation project commissioned by the HKSAR government and how small-to-medium enterprises in Hong Kong's fashion industry will benefit from this project. Karen Ho, Head of Corporate and Community Sustainability at WWF, also introduced its “making sustainability fashionable” project and how sustainable practices can pave the way for strategic success across the apparel and fashion industry.

"Kanoria Chemicals & Industries, which manufactures two million meters of denim fabric per month plans to ramp up its capacity to 27 million meters per month in the next three years. “We serve all mainstream brands such as: Otto Group, Inditex, TCP, TEDDY, H&M, Levis, VF Corp, and niche markets of the world with our wide range of denim,” Ashish Agarwal, Group CEO. KCIL produces denim fabric in the weight range of 4 oz to 15 oz. “Our fabrics are made of 100 per cent cotton denim, cotton stretch, cotton mercerised, cotton poly stretch, cotton rigid, over dyed,” he says. The company operational for the last two years also has a state-of –the-art plant in Ethiopia."

Kanoria Chemicals & Industries, which manufactures two million meters of denim fabric per month plans to ramp up its capacity to 27 million meters per month in the next three years. “We serve all mainstream brands such as: Otto Group, Inditex, TCP, TEDDY, H&M, Levis, VF Corp, and niche markets of the world with our wide range of denim,” Ashish Agarwal, Group CEO.

KCIL produces denim fabric in the weight range of 4 oz to 15 oz. “Our fabrics are made of 100 per cent cotton denim, cotton stretch, cotton mercerised, cotton poly stretch, cotton rigid, over dyed,” he says. The company operational for the last two years also has a state-of –the-art plant in Ethiopia. The company’s product development team works round the clock to feed to large appetite of the fashion industry.

From a miner’s uniform to fashion garments

Talking about denim fabric trends in India, Agarwal says, “Denim fabric, in the last few decades has shifted from being the miner’s work wear to fashion product.” The fabric has undergone several innovations. The recent trend is of stretch comfort jeans with more structure in weaving for domestic market. International brands are opting for stretch fabrics, light weight and dark shades with coating, pitching, printing on high end fabrics. Recycle, cotton made in Africa, BCI are few sustainable denims in demand in the European market.

“Stretch denim usually incorporates an elastic component such as elastane into the fabric to allow a degree of stretchability,” Agarwal explains. “This requires dedicated effort which only a few out of the total 55 denim companies have. The rest merely copy the product from others,” he adds.

High scope for development

The scope for denim wear is increasing and its worldwide market share has increased unpredictably in the last few decades Agarwal points out. “India is a leading denim fabric manufacturer in the world with a capacity of about 1,500 million meters per annum. The country’s denim fabric manufacturing capacity, in 2006, was 260 million meters per annum and currently is 1,500 million meters, with another 150 million meters in the pipeline, currently 75 to 85 per cent of the capacity is consumed domestically ,” he informs

Demand-supply gap

The country has about 55 denim fabric mills with a capacity ranging from 10 million meters per annum to 110 million meters per annum. Almost 85 per cent of this is dominated by men, with 10 per cent coming from women segment and 5 per cent kids segment. Of late, denim production is more than demand, creating a push rather than pull situation. “To add to this, GST and demonetization has impacted the business. However, demand will increase every year by not less than 10 per cent CAGR,” Agarwal observes.

World manmade yarn exports dropped 36.28 per cent in the second quarter. The drop was 36.25 per cent if compared to the corresponding period last year. Manmade filament yarn exports fell 32.25 per cent over the previous quarter and 24.50 per cent over the corresponding period of last year. Manmade staple fiber yarn exports witnessed a drop of 47.41 per cent over the previous quarter and a 45.75 per cent drop over the corresponding period of the last year.

India’s manmade yarn exports grew 3.02 per cent in the second quarter over the previous quarter and compared to the same period last year the growth climbed to 28.88 per cent. Under total manmade fiber exports, India’s synthetic filament yarn exports accounted for a share of 95 per cent.

Synthetic filament yarn exports from China grew 12.43 per cent over the previous quarter and 33.09 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Turkey’s manmade yarn exports grew 3.91 per cent over the same period last year but from the previous quarter there was a fall of 7.67 per cent.

Mexico is the top export market for USA's synthetic filament yarn. The other top export markets are Canada, El Salvador, United Kingdom and China.

The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has revoked duty-free concessions on import of at least 50 Indian products, mostly from the handloom and agriculture sectors. The federal register notification mentioned 90 products that were so far subject to duty-free provisions under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).

President Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation recently, leading to the removal of these products from the privilege, beginning November 1. These products may continue to be imported subject to regular most favoured nation duty-rates, a news agency reported.

In 2017, the duty-free export to the United States by India, the largest beneficiary of the GSP, under the scheme was to the tune of more than $5.6 billion. The list conveys that a large number of small and medium businesses could be impacted, in particular handloom and agricultural sector, the report said.

Products from Pakistan, Ecuador, Brazil, Thailand, Suriname, Turkey, the Philippines, Argentina and Indonesia have also been removed from the GSP list.

The intensifying trade war between Washington and Beijing weakened factory activity and export orders weakening across Asia last month. In a sign conditions for exporters and factories were deteriorating, manufacturing surveys showed marginal growth in China, a slowdown in South Korea and Indonesia and a contraction in activity in Malaysia and Taiwan.

These figures follow weaker-than-expected industrial production data from Japan and South Korea, with output in the latter shrinking the most in over 1-1/2 years. By contrast, the US ISM manufacturing survey for October was expected to show a much faster growth pace than in Asia, albeit a tad slower than in September, supporting the outlook for further Federal Reserve Rate hikes.

Worryingly, the prospects for higher US rates could feed back more market pain for the region's externally vulnerable economies — Indonesia, India and the Philippines, which have already been forced to raise rates to mitigate a sell-off in currencies, stocks and bonds.

Swiss textile technology innovator HeiQ and sustainable outdoor clothing brand Patagonia have expanded their partnership. Patagonia will begin using HeiQ fresh tech odor control in its fall 2019 collection. Odor control technology in active wear helps humans to be close to others without having to worry about bad smell.

HeiQ fresh tech is a family of highly versatile and effective odor-preventing and odor-absorbing textile technologies that continue to be effective even after prolonged use and frequent washings. This product family comprises technologies that either prevent odor from emerging, absorb odor from the surroundings, or take both into action.

Patagonia, based in the US, is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, defending clean water and air, and divesting from dirty technologies. Its mission is to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

The approach Patagonia takes toward product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility. Patagonia-inspired fleece jackets have been popping up on runways over the past several years. Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes for climbing – as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, and trail running.