FW
International Textile Group (ITG) has launched the Carlisle Cotton Company and its innovative line of luxury and performance cotton fabrics.
Combining the heritage and expertise of Cone Denim and Burlington, the Carlisle Cotton collection brings a unique blend of colour, comfort and performance innovations to create a new generation of cotton fashions that are versatile, from fashion shirtings to bottom-weights for jeans wear and rugged casual styles.
Carlisle Cotton fabrics are made in the USA and named after the Carlisle Finishing plant where they are dyed and finished. Located in Carlisle, S.C., and surrounded by the Sumter National Forest, Carlisle has been a leader in dyeing and printing for more than 60 years.
The said fabrics are versatile and come in many different constructions and finishes ranging from heavy-weight ducks, twills and canvases that are durable yet comfortable all the way to luxury brushed-cotton spandex blends and sulfur and pigment piece dye fashions that appeal to the jeans wear customer.
Additional styles are offered for lightweight, breathable uniform fabrics and brushed, no-wrinkle cotton twills and shirtings for everyday wear.
India is planning to extend the proposed India-Myanmar-Thailand highway to the CLMV (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam) countries in the second phase, despite the first phase being stuck on procedural issues.
The India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) trilateral highway is facing inordinate delays, and has already missed a couple of deadlines. It may now become operational by 2018-19. However, a lot of work needs to be done. Firstly, on the Indian side there are as many as 69 bridges that are in a dilapidated state, which have to be rebuilt. Although work is on to modernise these bridges, the progress is slow.
The implementation of the trilateral highway got delayed for reasons that are beyond India’s control. But assuming it gets operational by 2018, it may be extended to the CLMV countries. This will then give India direct access to the South-East and East Asian markets.
The trilateral highway is crucial for the success of the Modi regime’s Look East policy.
India and Thailand have also agreed to speed up negotiations on the India-Myanmar-Thailand Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA). However, India is not keen on signing the MVA now unless work on the highway progresses.
Myanmar is now creating hurdles to the project. It has demanded a renegotiation of the MVA and its applicability on the trilateral highway as the agreement was negotiated under the previous military government.
Nigeria imports a high proportion of fabrics and textile materials. This affects the textile industry as these commodities could have been produced within the country. The high rate of imports of textile materials do not allow the revival of the country’s ailing textile sector.
In Nigeria for instance, more than 80 per cent of all finished consumer products are imported.
Cotton farming in Nigeria over the years has suffered because the opportunity cost of planting cotton has remained high. Cotton does not compete favorably against other lower risk crops and this has led to a dwindling of farmers involved in cultivating the crop over time.
The electricity supply is still below 20 per cent. Since manufacturers cannot produce enough material, this means that textile traders down the line must rely on imports, much of which is smuggled.
At the same time, importers have tightened the supply chain, insisting on upfront payment since the local currency was devalued.
In the face of stiff Asian competition, manufacturers are asking for government protection. Traders, on the other hand, want a quick propping up of the local currency to make imports affordable.
Employment of casual workers is not allowed in the industry.
Protecting the interests of domestic manufacturers, India has imposed anti-dumping duty on imports of Purified Terephthalic acid (PTA) from five countries.
The countries slapped with anti-dumping duty are China, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. Imports of PTA from these nations now attract an import restrictive tax in the range of 85.87 dollars to 168.76 dollars per metric ton.
PTA is a vital raw material for polyester yarn production. Reliance Industries is the sole manufacturer of PTA in the country.
Anti-dumping steps are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry.
In Asia, the growth in PTA consumption has been driven by strong polyester fiber demand, which is the largest segment accounting for nearly two-thirds of global polyester demand. Polyester fibers are used to make fabrics for apparel and home furnishings such as bed sheets, bedspreads, curtains and draperies. They are also spun together with natural fibers such as cotton to produce a cloth with improved properties such as wrinkle resistance.
Other PTA applications include coatings and composite materials, based on unsaturated polyester resins, and hot-melt adhesives.
India currently imports two to three lakh tons of purified terephthalic acid every year while domestic production is six lakh tons.
Total production for the 2015-/2016 cotton season in Zimbabwe is estimated at between 70, 000 and 80,000 tons.
Merchants have already started buying cotton at the common collection points with prices averaging 36 cents per kilogram, a price which may change if farmers are allowed to have their way at the bargaining table. The 2016 cotton marketing season is currently in progress.
The price continues to be negotiated between farmers and ginners and farmers are being paid according to the grade of their cotton seed, hence the price adjustments will be paid after grading.
Cotton production has declined over the past years due to viability challenges. Contractors complained of side marketing while farmers said buyers were offering low prices.
The government had to intervene last year by assisting cotton growers with inputs under the Presidential Inputs Scheme.
Farmers are complaining over the cotton producer prices, which they say are not viable. Farmers say some of the contractors do not give adequate inputs. In other words farmers have lost trust in ginners’ paying adjustments.
But farmers hope buyers will be fair and pay firm prices that will enable the farmers to go back to the land. Buyers say they will give an adjustment at the end after the crop has been graded.
The Directorate General of Customs Valuation (DGCV) of Pakistan has drastically increased customs duty with an average of over 400 per cent on unbranded garments. This has forced commercial importers to find other illegal means to bring imported attires into the country.
According to market sources, an unprecedented increase in customs duty with an average of over 400 per cent on unbranded garments as compared to previous valuation ruling is compelling importers to divert around 175 containers which was grounded at Karachi port to UAE for bringing all these containers under the guise of Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) cargoes into the country.
However, sources have ruled out the possibility of any negative impact on import of garments after duty increase, saying that all garments consignments would now enter into the country under ATT cargoes. Moreover, they said that this initiative would create negative impact on customs revenue collection besides encouraging smuggling and corruption. In short, the customs department may be deprived of collecting revenue of over Rs 1.5 billion from garments importers.
Meanwhile, a customs official who was closely involved in evolving this new valuation ruling, on condition of anonymity, said that department did not increase customs duty on unbranded garments but did rationalise its value as per international prices.
Moreover, he said that this was the first time when the department had taken Pakistan Readymade Garment Exporters and Manufacturers Association (PRGEMA) on board for rationalising the valuation of unbranded garments as per international prices adding that this new valuation ruling would also protect local garment industry.
The Coats Group had lower sales growth in the second quarter due to tough market conditions. Operating profit was up 24 percent on an adjusted basis. Industrial profit growth was 27 per cent delivered by market share gains and cost productivity. Adjusted EPS was up 24 per cent with higher operating profit and reduction in tax rate offset mainly by unrealised losses on foreign exchange hedges.
Adjusted free cash flow for the last twelve months was 82 million dollars primarily due to higher profitability. The revenue of 718 million dollars was maintained. Americas Crafts margin increased, despite tough market conditions, due to focus on costs.
Coats, based in the UK, is the world's leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market. At home in more than 60 countries, Coats employs 19,000 people across six continents.
Coats' pioneering history and innovative culture ensure the company leads the way around the world: providing complementary and value added products and services to the apparel and footwear industries; applying innovative techniques to develop high technology specialty threads and yarns in areas such as automotive and fiber optics and extending the crafts offer into new markets and online.
China’s mills want more cotton to be released from state reserves as fewer quotas for low-tariff imports and higher demand for local yarn tighten supplies.
Greater dependence on reserves at the world’s top importer could dent a rally in global cotton futures that hit a two-year high this month. But in the long term, it could be bullish for prices as China runs down its massive stockpiles.
Already 1.57 million tons have been sold via auctions, nearly 100 per cent of the volumes offered since sales started in May, but traders say more is needed to meet an annual demand of seven million tons given output and imports are on the wane.
China's January-June cotton imports more than halved from a year ago.
Strong demand for reserve cotton, estimated at more than half of global stocks, follows last year's dismal sales when the government shifted just 3.4 per cent of its stocks due to high pricing and a slowing economy.
Bids from China's mills, which cleared out stocks on hopes the government would sell at lower prices to attract buyers, as well as from traders have led to stronger sales this year.
China had said it would increase the daily volumes on offer to 50,000 tons if more than 70 per cent of the auctioned volume was sold three days in a row. However, the maximum cotton offered has remained at 30,000 tons.
As per a report of the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (EURATEX), China’s share in the imports of goods from the European Union has been decreasing over the years.
While in 2010, its market share of EU textiles and clothing imports stood at 40.8 per cent, it plunged to 35 per cent in 2015.
Besides, Mediterranean countries, which have long enjoyed the advantage of their proximity to the EU-28, have experienced the same scenario as that of China. Its share has contracted from more than 20 per cent in 2009 to 18 per cent in 2015. This has benefited SAARC zone… From 19 per cent in 2010, its market share of textiles and clothing imports in 2015 was 24.6 per cent.
The report also mentions that the ASEAN zone, which is smaller than the SAARC area, showed enough drive and economic dynamism to escalate its share of textile and clothing imports from over 6 per cent in 2010 to 8.6 per cent in 2015. Totally, these four zones accounted for 86 per cent of total extra-EU textile and clothing imports in 2015. Clothing products represented 80 per cent of total imports, a +10.5 per cent gain in value terms.
Products-wise, China came up tops as the top supplier of woven garments’ imports. However, its share continued to decline at 37.6 per cent. The Mediterranean countries also witnessed decline in this segment ending up with a 16.5 per cent share.
As unions, employers and government officials in Cambodia met for the first time in the run-up to the annual battle over the garment industry’s minimum wage yesterday, another group of labour and advocacy groups came asking when they would be part of those discussions.
Meeting at the Phnom Penh’s Sunway Hotel, union organisers from sectors as varied as construction, food services, tourism and manufacturing discussed a variety of approaches – from a flat minimum wage that would span all industries to a more measured sector-by-sector approach – to push on the national level.
While there have been no formal discussions on creating a national minimum wage in Cambodia, a Labour Ministry spokesman had said way back in February that the yet-to-be-drafted minimum wage law will look into expansion of the wage to other sectors.
Country director for worker advocacy group, Solidarity Center, William Conklin said that the meeting was driven by an increasing sense of urgency among non-garment sector unions, eager to stake out their positions on the minimum wage going forward.
Here it may be noted that Vietnam currently has four minimum wages based on geographic areas with increases mapped out over a five-year period while both Thailand and Malaysia have their own national minimum wages.
Article 104 in Cambodia’s Labour Law stipulates that wages in the country “must be at least equal to the guaranteed minimum wage; that is, it must ensure every worker of a decent standard of living compatible with human dignity.”
