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The textiles sector in Ethiopia, the fifth fastest-growing garment producing country in the world, employs women in abundance.
The International Trade Centre (ITC) is the only development agency that is fully dedicated to support the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In tandem with its local partner, the Center for Accelerated Women’s Economic Empowerment, the ITC works to provide women with capacity building, training and support, enabling them to better meet international buyers’ requirements.
Interestingly, the textile sector makes up for the third largest manufacturing industry in the country after food and leather processing.
Uster case study focused on an Indian yarn manufacturer which originally invested in early-stage fiber cleaning in 2009, and has since upgraded to Total Contamination Control, combining the Uster Jossi Vision Shield and Uster Quantum 3. An experienced member of the Uster sales team in India, J. C. Kumaar has a strong relationship with his customers in the south of the country. His knowledge gained over 20 years has enabled him to assist an important client to implement step-by-step improvements in contamination control, in line with the company’s goal of continual enhancement of yarn quality.
This customer made its initial move into fiber cleaning in the blow room, with its purchase seven years ago of the Vision Shield MPIX by Jossi. Since then, the customer has stepped up its requirements, especially with regard to polypropylene contaminant removal, opting for the Uster Jossi Magic Eye in 2015. The company spins yarn for the high-quality segment, typically mixing Guntur and Giza cottons to produce yarn counts of Nec 50s, 40s and 26s. A medium-sized mill, its priorities were better contamination control without increasing waste or causing more yarn clearer cuts at the winding stage.
The first stage in the upgrading of the mill’s contamination control came in 2015. Kumaar explains that the decision was made to tackle the challenge at fiber cleaning stage. For better fiber cleaning results, the existing Jossi fiber cleaner was upgraded with the Uster Jossi Magic Eye.
Despite an excellent performance of the textile sector, sizing and weaving sectors are least developed and are unable to contribute their due role in the up gradation of the textile sectors, according to Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) president Ch Muhammad Nawaz.
The FCCI president said that textile sector, despite its inherent pros and cons, was earning $13 billion foreign exchange per annum for the country.
He said that it was the only sector which had the potential to immediately double. He said that in addition to the Ministry of Science and Technology, many universities and R&D institutions were working for the development of science in Pakistan, but its practical benefits to the industrial sector were non-existent.
He told that the government had launched Industry-Academia Linkage Programme to bridge the gap between industry and academia and in this connection serious efforts had been made but still it could not give the required results.
Dr Mirza Habib Ali, Director Research Support, Ministry of Science and Technology, indicated that they must promote knowledge-based economy to get a due share from the international markets.
Muhammad Hasnain, Deputy Director Science Centre, gave a detailed presentation about the centre and informed that 16 different institutions were working for the promotion of science in Pakistan. He stressed the need for industry-academia linkages and said that industrialists should contact R&D related institutions for the practical solutions of their industry related problems.
The Science Centre was established in 2000 and so for 500,000 students, scientists and researchers had visited it. He also said that science foundation had added a unique model of dinosaur while a dome of planetarium was also under completion.
For the first quarter Sutlej Textiles’ net profit increased 42.9 per cent year on year and revenue grew 19.5 per cent year on year.
Presently its EBITDA margin is about 15 per cent. Sutlej feels that the margin should further improve going ahead given the rains and the Seventh Pay Commission. The company’s total income is at around Rs 550 crores.
The company is focusing more on exports and the home textile segment and has seen exports increase by 30 per cent sequentially.
Sutlej is into the manufacture of value added dyed yarns and mélange yarns and is also focusing on fancy yarns and value added products.
Sutlej Textiles is one of the largest integrated textile manufacturing companies in India. It has the capacity to manufacture single ply, double ply and multi ply grindle, roving grindle, core spun, slub and other fancy yarns.
The daily production is up to 385 tons of dyed synthetic and blended yarns, cotton mélange and cotton blended mélange and dyed yarns, yarns from specialty fibers like modal, tencel, bamboo, cool max, fancy yarns like siro spun, siro compact, lycra twisted, core spun, double core yarn etc. in single ply, double ply and multifold.
Despite a huge drop in acreage in the wake of a whitefly attack last year, the cotton yield is expected to remain normal during the current season in Punjab. Due to the fear of another whitefly attack, the area of cotton cultivation in the state shrunk to 2.56 lakh hectares as against 3.39 lakh hectares last season.
This year there has been a focus on clean cultivation, good quality seeds, timely sowing, proper monitoring and timely remedial action, quality control of pesticides and creating awareness about identification of severity of the incidence and management methods. Training camps for farmers were organized. They were provided a crop calendar and literature on cotton. Pesticide dealers were imparted training and radio and TV talk shows dealt with pest management in cotton. Field supervisors monitored the ground situation.
The pest attack had caused widespread damage to the Bt cotton variety in Punjab and Haryana last year. In Punjab, 1.36 lakh hectares, out of 4.50 lakh hectares of cotton acreage, were ravaged by the attack and the output had dropped by 40 per cent.
The whitefly attack was less severe in 2016 than in 2015. Last year's pest attack made some farmers plough up their cotton fields in anticipation of a similar attack this year.
Polyester fiber is in abundance in China and prices of direct-spun polyester staple fiber (PSF) rose in mid July.The price rise is driven by cotton and polyester yarn instead of polyester feed stocks, taking the industry unprepared.
Boosted by cotton and viscose staple fiber prices, direct-spun PSF prices have surged up, partly because of massive scale demand from yarn mills, which have shifted to polyester staple fiber products under pressure from surging cotton and VSF prices. And partly because of polyester yarn mills who have revised offers boosted by excellent demand.
Direct-spun PSF plants were mostly free of inventories and some even could not completely cover orders. Downstream showed limited follow-up trends, so the market now enters a consumption period and the focus can be returned to polyester feed stocks.
In June viscose staple fiber prices moved parallel with auctioned cotton prices. Direct-spun PSF also followed up during end of the June and early July, completely dragged by polyester feed stocks.
Moreover accession in the massively stable polyester feed stocks, progress flow of direct-spun PSF widened to 400 yarn per meters, close to the high level year-to date.
Also blended yarn in north China was weak.
India will be more appealing to multinational firms once GST (Goods and Services Tax) becomes a reality.
GST could boost India’s appeal to multi-nationals as a myriad of existing federal, state and interstate levies in the country had previously increased their tax burdens and barred them from further exploring potential in the world’s major economy. This reform will make them see India as a much better destination for investment and as an opportunity.
The complicated and cumbersome tax system in India as well as bureaucracy related to tax-collection remains a hurdle for firms doing business in India.
Once GST comes into effect, all central- and state-level taxes and levies on all goods and services will be subsumed within an integrated tax having two components: a central GST and a state GST. This will ensure a complete, comprehensive and continuous mechanism of tax credits. Under it, there will be tax only on value addition at each stage, with the producer/seller at every stage able to set off his taxes against the central/state GST paid on his purchases. The end-consumer will bear only the GST charged by the last dealer in the supply chain, with set-off benefits at all the previous stages.
Coimbatore based KG Denim is facing a six fold jump in net profit in the three months ended June 30, 2016, as against the same quarter of fiscal 2015-16.
The increase in net profit in the April to June 2016 quarter was partly helped by operating profit which soared 48.08 per cent over the prior fiscal’s first quarter.
However, net sales of the company dropped 1.80 per cent from a fiscal ago quarter.
KG Denim is a denim and apparel fabric manufacturer, which caters to fashion brands and retailers across the world. It went public in 1993. The company’s product divisions include denim, apparel fabric and home textiles. Its denim products include authentic ring denims, selvedge denim, organic/bio denims, tencel denim, printed denim and coated denim. The apparel fabric products include stretch twills, jean twills, and stretch, with or without lycra.
The home textiles range includes a blend of cotton and natural fibers, such as wool, linen and fiber blends.
The company currently manufactures 24 million meters of denim fabrics, 12 million meters of cotton fabrics, two million equivalent sheet sets of made–ups and three million jeans and trousers. KG Denim has a jeanswear brand called Trigger.
For June 2016 the total value of exports of goods from China fell by 11.5 per cent. Re-exports decreased by 14.9 per cent.
The value of domestic exports increased by 8.2 per cent. For the first half of 2016, total exports of goods fell by 6.5 per cent. Re-exports and domestic exports decreased by 5.7 per cent and 10.4 per cent.
Exports to mainland China rose by 4.1 per cent. Exports to Hong Kong decreased by 11.1 per cent. Exports to the European Union and the US decreased by 29.4 per cent and 22.7 per cent. Non-textile exports fell by 6.5 per cent. Exports of watches and equipment and parts decreased by 32.5 per cent and 21.7 per cent. Exports of electronic components increased by 46.2 per cent. Textile and garment exports were down 6.4 per cent.
Imports from mainland China and the EU dropped by 21.6 per cent and 17.8 per cent. Imports of consumer goods fell 16.9 per cent, of which watch imports and passenger car and motorcycle imports decreased by 41.6 per cent and 56.7 per cent.
The value of imports of mobile phones and construction materials fell 16.9 per cent and 47.6 per cent in the first half of 2016.
The decline in cotton production in Gombe State and the country in particular has been attributed to a lot of factors with the government taking the larger part of the blame.
Farmers, especially, yearn for the good old days when cotton farming and production was attractive and rewarding and plead with government to return them to those glorious days.
Gombe, usually referred to as Gombe State is located in the north eastern part of Nigeria. There, the history of cotton production dates back to the 1940s when the British Cotton Growers Association (BCGA) set up a collection centre about five kilometers from the then Gombe town from where they collect cotton from farmers after the harvest season.
The development led the colonial masters, who ruled the country at the time, to construct a railway line linking Gombe and Lagos for easy transportation of cotton to the seaports in Lagos and onward export to Liverpool in the United Kingdom and other developed countries.
The BCGA area, which was initially a collection centre, gradually metamorphosed into a residential area after labourers who usually spend the night there loading cotton into the trains for transportation to Lagos, started to build houses and settle with their families.
In the late 1970s and early 80s, the BCGA area gradually merged with the nearby villages to form the BCGA residential quarters in the present Gombe State.
Nevertheless, there are still some indigenous companies like Nasara Agro-Industrial Company Limited (NAICO), West African Cotton (WACOT) and OLAM that buy cotton from the farmers, process and sell to textile owners outside the state as there is no single textile factory there, according to All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN).
The withdrawal of government from cotton farming dealt the sector a huge blow from which it is yet to recover 20 years hence. Apart from lack of good seedlings, pesticides, fertilizers and stable price, insecurity is another problem that contributed in crippling cotton production in Gombe. It was gathered that herdsmen invaded the farms and destroyed crops, close to the time of harvest.
