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China’s Belt and Road Initiative may help Nepal realize its dream of development and economic prosperity. Nepal, a land-locked and least developed country, needs the cooperation of neighbors, especially China, to upgrade its status to a developing country. Introduced by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road. The Belt and Road Initiative is expected to bring opportunities in multiple fields including trade, connectivity, physical infrastructure development, tourism and investment.
China and Nepal are interested in enhancing cooperation, namely, strengthening policy coordination and consolidating mutual trust, expanding connectivity and sharing experience for economic development, promoting unimpeded trade, deepening the financial integration and constructing the road for innovation, strengthening the people-to-people bond for mutual learning.
Nepal seeks investment under the Belt and Road Initiative in various possible sectors like hydropower, agriculture, trade related infrastructure, tourism, herbs and herbal products, natural resources and service sectors.
But for that to happen Nepal needs to pay attention to basic pre-requisites like connectivity, infrastructure development, reforms in laws, and policy amendments, among others. In addition there is a need for sincerity and political commitment for implementation of the initiative from the Nepali side.
Apparel retailer C&A, joined Prince of Wales global Sustainable Cotton Communiqué, a pledge launched at the 2017 Textile Exchange Sustainability Conference and commits apparel retailers to use 100 per cent sustainable cotton by 2025. Around 37 major fashion brands, including Asos and Nike, have signed the pledged in an effort to drive sustainable practices in the apparel industry and alleviate the negative environmental impact of cotton production, including the use of pesticide and eliminate greenhouse gases.
C&A pledged to source more eco-friendly cotton over the next three years. Jeffrey Hogue, C&A’s global Chief Sustainability Officer elaborates on the pledge, “By joining this initiative we – as the world’s No. 1 buyer of certified organic cotton and the world’s No. 3 brand sourcing more sustainable cotton – have the opportunity to share our learning with the industry on how to source and accelerate the use of more sustainable cotton. Our 2020 goal is for 100 per cent of the cotton we use to be more sustainable. Today, already over 70 per cent of the cotton we sell meets this standard.”
As per C&As 2016 global sustainability report, 53 per cent of the cotton C&A sold met the standard for sourcing more sustainable cotton and 33 per cent of the cotton the company sold was organic. The brand revealed it does not blend organic cotton with non-organic cotton in its apparel range and makes sure that all organic cotton it uses are certified by leading third-party standards, including the Global Organic Textile Standard and the Organic Cotton Standard.
In 2015, C&A signed the Better Cotton Initiative, a program crafted around adoption of better farming practices and support eco-friendly cotton production.
Six apparel companies have entered the ‘Fast Company’s’ The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies list this year. What’s more, four of the six —Amazon, Patagonia, Stitch Fix and Walmart—ranked among the top 20. This year, Amazon, the e-commerce giant grabbed 5th spot. Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon says the reason for their victory is the company’s focus on long-term customer loyalty and exponential expansion into new businesses.
Amazon is one of the leading apparel retailers, expanding its already extensive apparel empire last year with the launch of its try-before-you-buy service Prime Wardrobe and its private label activewear lines Rebel Canyon and Peak Velocity. The e-commerce behemoth is forecast to lead the US apparel market by 2020.
Patagonia was in 6th place due to its retail successes by serving as a champion of social causes. Founded in 1973, it has grown into one of the most successful and well respected outdoor brands. The company, which is privately-owned, has used its brand image to enhance awareness on social and environmental issues, investing in grassroots organisation that enables its supply chain more sustainable.
Comparative newbie, born in 2011, Stitch Fix’s 13th position is in recognition of the impact the e-commerce subscription and personal shopping service has had on the apparel industry since it was launched. The reason behind its success is personalised services and keen eye for detail of its over 2 million users.
Walmart, at No. 15, has not only maintained retail dominance in the face of adversity as a brick-and-mortar store — 4,700 locations in the U.S. and over 600 outlets of its members’-only warehouse chain Sam’s Club — but it has also made several very strong moves in digital retail, investing in e-commerce services, fulfilment centres and technology initiatives.
Surecom Media will organise ApparelConnect 2018, dedicated to the logistics segment of the apparel industry, at Shangri-La's Eros Hotel, New Delhi on May 17, 2018. The day-long conference would have four panel discussions where several top industry leaders from leading apparel export companies, supply chain professionals, logistics service providers, airlines and cargo terminal operators will participate and share knowledge and extensive experience.
The panel discussions will be on following themes: International Logistics; On Time Delivery: The Vital Aspect; Making Future Ready the Current Supply Chain Structure of Garment Companies and Managing Off Shore Sourcing and Outsourcing; Customs and Border Regulations; Warehousing Decisions; and Managing Returns of Fashion Retailing.
Supply chain professionals from leading apparel manufacturers and export companies such as Bombay Rayon Fashion, Eastman Exports Global Clothing, Pearl Global Industries, Richa Global Exports, Pratibha Syntex among others will gather under one roof and share knowledge and logistics experience with leaders who are driving the industry forward.
ITM 2018, the largest regional fair for world textile machinery and technology sector with investors and trade delegations from nearly 100 countries worldwide, will be held in Istanbul from April 14 to 17. Local and foreign companies are set to display latest textile machinery and technology. The ITM exhibition is one of the two largest in international and the largest in the region in its segment in terms of the number of visitors/participants. Besides being one of Turkey’s most important brands internationally, the country is also a textile bridge between the East and the West.
A key aspect that makes it attractive for visitors is the fact that the fair is held in Istanbul, a prosperous city with growing transportation facilities and expanding world trade. Following extensive PR activities for ITM 2018 — organised by Teknik Fairs and Tüyap, with the co-operation of TEMSAD — the exhibition area is already booked to capacity.
The exhibition, which broke a record by hosting about 50,000 visitors in the previous event, is expected to break last season’s record. Many textile machinery manufacturers, both foreign and domestic, who are the leaders in cotton to yarn, weaving to knitting and dyeing and also digital printing will launch their new textile machines and technologies in ITM 2018. Manufacturers in Turkey are also looking to showcasing their innovations here.
ITM 2018 will be held concurrently with the HIGHTEX 2018 International Technical Textiles & Nonwoven Exhibition, Istanbul and the 8th International Textile Conference. With the synergy that will arise from the gathering of all these events, Istanbul will host a world-wide sectoral meeting and textile feast during April 14-17.
DyStar and RotaSpray have jointly developed an indigo spray dyeing procedure, which allows denim producers to significantly reduce their environmental impact. The new technology offers high flexibility for dyeing small lot sizes, reduced water use and effluent discharge, lower impact on yarn in the dyeing process and simplified recipe changes.
DyStar and RotaSpray have been working together to develop it further and make it available for bulk production in important denim markets like Turkey, India and Pakistan. Although rotary atomizers have been established for several decades in the textile industry they were mainly used for rewetting textiles with moisture. But recent cost pressures and a global demand for more sustainable solutions were motivators for R&D and led to the recent technology leap.
RotaSpray, founded in 2013, manufactures rotating atomizers for tailor-made conceptions in dyeing and finishing of warp yarn, fabric and nonwoven as well. DyStar is a leading dyestuff and chemical manufacturer and solution provider, offering customers across the globe a broad portfolio of colorants, specialty chemicals, and services. DyStar also caters to multiple sectors including the paints, coatings, paper and packaging industries. Its expansion into the food and beverages and personal care sectors reinforces the company’s position as a specialty chemical manufacturer.
Vietnam’s exports of textiles and garments to China have exponentially increased in recent years, surging from $2.7 billion in 2016 to around $3.2 billion in 2017. Economist report the average annual growth of exports remained more than 20 per cent for the past three years. Data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs show the import value of textile and garment from China touched around $9 billion last year, accounting for over 42.7 per cent of the country’s total imports and rose over 12 per cent last year. Value trade was nearly four times higher than that of Republic of Korea and nearly five times higher than that of Taiwan - the two major import markets of Vietnam in recent years.
China and Vietnam are known rivals in many garment export markets. China’s textile and garment exports touched $260 billion annually, while Vietnam’s apparel products were initially exported to the Chinese market, surging to over $31 billion last year. The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) estimates it will be easier for them to export higher number to China from 2018 following significant growth in Chinese, Russian and Cambodian markets. As per Vu Duc Giang, President, VITA the reasons for the increase is Vietnam’s fibre exports to China benefit due to a zero per cent tariff under the ASEAN-China FTA, while products from other markets have to pay 3-5 per cent duty.
Further, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) between ASEAN and the six countries of China, the ROK, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand is expected to boost Vietnam’s exports to China.
By the end of 2017, China was among the top five consumers of Vietnam’s textile and garment products valued at over $3 billion. Le Tien Truong, General Director, Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), says their country has so far been the world’s leading textile and garment exporter but Chinese products are dominating the domestic market. However, remarkable improvements have been seen in Vietnam’s exports to China.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports price of cotton is forecast to fall by 12 per cent next season, despite a steep rise in Chinese imports and the prospect of 20 per cent of the crop in drought-hit US Southern plains being lost. The USDA, presenting its first full estimates for world cotton supply/demand in 2018-19, forecast the Cotlook, A index of physical prices, will “decline about 10 cents to 73 cents a pound” on a year-average basis.
The forecast came despite an estimate that world cotton stocks will drop by 5.9m bales to a seven-year low of 82.7m bales over the season. Chinese imports may rise 40 per cent to a four-year high of 7.0m bales as the country’s drive to erode its huge state inventories, built by a now-scrapped guaranteed pricing scheme.
USDA says, “China’s reserve could fall to just about 20 per cent of its peak of 53m bales by the end of 2018-19.”
Inventories outside China, which in available to the world market are more significant in pricing, were estimated to rise next season by around 1.4m bales to a record high of 49.1m bales. Increased supplies outside of China are expected to pressure cotton prices in 2018-19.
In the US, officials forecast stocks will stabilise at 6.0m bales next season, due partly to a forecast of exports growth by 1.5m bales, to a 13-year high of 16.0m bales. Official US meteorologists for the southern Plains reporting on the seasonal outlook mid-February, from “indicates that drought will persist through the end of May for much of the region, with the probability of below-average precipitation forecast”.
A Dubai-based textile company manufacturing in Kenya says the high cost of power and enhanced minimum wage have raised the cost of production and their products may be out-priced in the market. United Aryan, which has been operating in Kenya for the last 16 years, is not happy to pay higher energy tariffs/wages as against countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi and Egypt where the cost of labour is much cheaper. The minimum wage in Kenya is Sh13,475 and forecast to rise to Sh15,372 this year if recommendations, by the Central Organisation of Trade Union secretary-general Francis Atwoli, to the Federation of Kenya Employers is ratified.
United Aryan’s founder and chairman Pankaj Bedi says manufacturing sector in Kenya has a huge potential for growth unlike other countries in East African region. The only challenge they are facing at the moment is the high cost of power and high wages which have left them struggling to meet production costs.
Kenya also charges organisations around $0.15 per kilowatt an hour when taxes and other levies are incorporated, which also makes business uncompetitive as against Ethiopia where manufacturers pay about 0.4 (Sh4.14) per kilowatt hour. Bedi says a number of companies will prefer setting up their operations in Ethiopia because the cost of power, land and labour is cheaper.
Products in Kenya can only remain competitive if electricity tariffs are charged at $ 0.7 (Sh7) per kilowatt hour, he said. Should the situation persist, companies planning to set up bases in Africa will prefer operating in countries where the cost of power and labour is relatively cheaper. The laid back performance of the sector has been seen as the reason Kenya failed to achieve the targeted sustainable annual 10 per cent growth in GDP from 2010 as envisioned in the Vision 20130 plans.
Sensient has introduced a new range of high-performance digital pigment inks. Xennia Emerald PC is suitable for direct printing of textiles. Based on innovative dispersion and binder technology, Xennia Emerald PC changes the game for printers by offering excellent color strength with unrivalled printing performance.
Designed to maximise printing performance in production environments, Emerald PC inks also offer the peak in color performance with an optimized ink set to provide an extended gamut. These inks deliver minimised pre- and post-processing by including a revolutionary binder technology within the ink, eliminating the need to use a post application fixing polymer.
Key to the performance of Emerald PC is including a binder within the ink while increasing the color strength it maximizes open time and latency. A further key advantage of Xennia Emerald PC inks is their cross compatibility with printhead technologies, allowing proofing and production with the same ink set, providing ultimate flexibility for users with multiple systems.
Sensient was the first company to release a digital pigment ink for textiles. It has applied all the learnings from the market to provide a solution to take digital pigment printing to the next level. Successfully printed on a range of digital printers, the developed inks show exceptional print and color performance.
