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The ministry of textiles and jute in Bangladesh has initiated a project for setting up 23 textile vocational institutes aiming to equip the underprivileged youths with critical technical skills sets.
At present there are 40 vocational institutes in the country, helping many unemployed youth to be self-reliant. The objectives of the project are to introduce textile vocational courses in 23 districts aiming to reduce poverty and development of socio-economic conditions of the underprivileged youth.
It will create skilled manpower for the textiles industries especially for the ready made garment sector. The project will help reach the goal of Vision 2021 when Bangladesh aspires to become a middle-income nation.
Clothing exports remain a crucial pillar of the economy and the sector employs more than four million workers, 80 per cent of whom are female.
In the July-April period of the outgoing fiscal year, the textiles and clothing sector brought in foreign currency amounting to 19.97 billion dollars, up from around 19 billion dollars in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The country needs a large number of skilled manpower in the sector. Bangladesh is the second largest apparel exporter in the world after China.
Sourcing at Magic will take place August 17 to 20, Las Vegas, US. This is the single most important sourcing event in North America, reflecting the complete fashion supply chain. In addition to providing all necessary production resources, it also serves as a forum where some of the industry's most important brands converge to gain insight into market trends, innovative technologies and important industry intelligence.
This year, Sourcing will focus on denim, a first in the show’s nine-year history. Exhibitors will showcase new technology, washes and innovations in denim and meet with other suppliers from fiber to fabric to finished garments. Some of the components of the denim focus area are recycled cotton and polyester components in fabric, sustainable technology using 90 per cent less water and recycled water, novelty denim fabrics, chambray, organic cotton etc. The importance of eco sustainability will be stressed and there will be exhibits and seminars by Cotton Inc and Jeanologia.
Indonesia is set to participate at the show. Together forming a pavilion, Indonesia will bring in 20 companies with high quality products and new collections of women’s and men’s apparel, leather apparel and accessories, textiles and more
Under the theme 'Cruise Sensation', the 21st HKTDC Hong Kong Fashion Week for Spring/Summer will be staged from July 7 to 10, 2014 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. It will feature more than 40 events, including fashion parades, seminars & forums and demo sessions.
Ten house shows will be staged and young designers will showcase their creativity to international buyers. 'Fashionally Collection #3' showcases 11 past winners and finalists of the Hong Kong Young Fashion Designers Contest, such as designs from Nelson Leung, the Overall Winner and Contemporary Day-Wear Group Winner this year. Four shows from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Design Institute and Hong Kong Raffles School of Continuing Education will be staged to highlight works of the student designers.
International beauty brand NARS Cosmetics will unveil its nail collaboration with famed fashion designer Philip Lim – the 3.1 Philip Lim for NARS Nail Collection includes nine limited edition nail shades inspired by the “colours that exist in the shadows”. NARS will also collaborate with three local young designers – namely Elizabeth Lin, Mim Mak and Mountain Yam and launch its new Dual-Intensity Eye Shadow at Hong Kong Fashion Week.
Brand Collections Show will feature local fashion brands like IKA BUTONI, Claire and ZeeVonco from Indonesia. The Designers’ Collection Show will showcase innovative collections of designers from Hong Kong, Australia and the Chinese mainland as well as labels from Macau in a standalone show. Eight fashion parades will present new clothing designs under the category of active wear and sportswear and in line with the theme Cruise Sensation.
A series of high-profile seminars by international trend forecasters including Peclers Paris from France, WGSN from the UK and Style Vision Asia will examine the latest fashion intelligence and trends. Fashion website founder Ning Lau and local artist team Stickyline will host a seminar on branding in the fashion industry and a workshop on polygon paper top hat-making respectively, while designer Salina Yam will share with visitors the latest visual merchandising trends.
Small-order Zone expects to feature 150 garment racks and showcases for buyers who require low volume supplies. As an important sourcing and marketing platform, the Hong Kong Fashion Week for Spring/Summer is expected to attract around 1,200 exhibitors from 18 countries and regions, with first time exhibitors from Madagascar, Morocco and Thailand.
The latest report from Textile Exchange is upbeat about the ‘preferred’ textile fibres such as identity cottons, recycled polyester and bio-based synthetics.The report names Nike, Puma, H&M, G-Star Raw and prAna as the biggest users of recycled polyester.
The growing popularity of identity cottons produced in compliance with voluntary sustainable standards, upward projections for recycled polyester manufacture by leading resin suppliers, and projected growth in Tencel production by Lenzing at its new Austrian plant are key reasons to be optimistic about the sustainable textile fibre market, suggests the report by Textile Exchange (TE).
The report, ‘Preferred Fibres Market Summary’, is fibres based on global market size, Textile Exchange’s Material Snapshots and the values set by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), Higg Index, MSI and the Made-By Environmental Benchmark for Fibres have been selected. The report includes competition with other crops for agricultural land, rising raw materials prices for recycled synthetics, and a lack of performing substitutes for spandex which is blended with a wide variety of textile fibres.
This latest TE report provides a useful overview of different types of recycled polyester and bio-based synthetics as well as a helpful side-by-side comparison of the similarities and differences between various cotton sustainability initiatives and standards.
Textileexchange.org
Polluting textile factories in Bangladesh could be hit with a new green tax.The new levy will be imposed on a company that wantonly pollutes the country’s rivers with untreated effluents. The fine would be in the form of a one per cent environment protection surcharge or green tax on an ad-valorem basis.
At present, factories breaching pollution standards may face a one-off fine but bribery of inspection officials is not uncommon. The industry is being encouraged to set up effluent treatment plants. Industrial effluents and waste from urban sewage are seen as severely contaminating rivers and taking a heavy toll on the aquatic environment and its surroundings.
However, it’s not only about fines. Newly competing low cost textile sourcing destinations such as Ethiopia and Myanmar together with a shift towards re-shoring represent a significant threat to Bangladesh’s ready-made garment industries.
In view of this, and with the aim of making the industry competitive, the government is mulling tax inducements to key sectors such as garment manufacture which have been beset by problems in recent times, particularly in the wake of last year’s Rana Plaza factory disaster which killed more than 1,000 people.
Many Chinese and Hong Kong textile and garment firms operating in Vietnam have plans to expand their business and investments in the country. Vietnam saw a sharp increase in foreign direct investment from Hong Kong and China in the first five months of this year.
Hong Kong was ranked the second largest foreign investor in Vietnam between January and May with around four times its investment during the same period last year. China was ranked the seventh largest foreign investor in the January to May period with a three-fold year-on-year increase.
FDI in the textile and garment industry of Vietnam has increased since mid-2012 with large-scale projects invested by businesses from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Among the projects are a textile and dyeing plant from a Hong Kong company which will occupy 20 hectares and manufacture 3,00,000 tons of fiber and dye 20,000 tons of cotton annually.
Chinese investors are boosting investment in Vietnam because they want tariff-free access to the United States, the largest textile and garment export market for Vietnam, once the two countries join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Apart from textiles and garments, Chinese and Hong Kong investors have also boosted their investment in real estate in Vietnam.
Coats has launched Hemseal, a new product delivering additional fixing qualities to the hems of tailored garments. The adhesive thread has a low melt portion which adheres to fabrics when pressed under heat, helping to hold hems in place even if the stitching fails.
Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread and consumer textile crafts business. Blind stitching hems of garments produces a neat, unobtrusive hem line but, because it is a chain stitch using a single thread, it can easily unravel and cause the hem to drop down. Hemseal is used as a part of the hem construction and can also be reactivated by repressing.
The advantage of Hemseal is that the hem remains in place even if the blind stitch used to sew it unravels. This helps enhance the durability of the garment and will reduce those annoying instant hem drops that can happen in clothing like tailored suits and school uniforms.
Hemseal can be used on most types of fabrics – including heavier ones requiring additional seam adhesion where it can be incorporated in the overlock stitching. Coats is the second largest and fastest growing global zip manufacturer. One in five garments on the planet is held together using Coats’ thread. Coats produces enough yarn to knit 70 million scarves a year.
A new activator developed by Chinese researchers for hydrogen peroxide used to bleach cotton fabrics halves the amount of energy needed for the process. Traditional cotton bleaching techniques used in industry require temperatures in excess of 98°C and high alkalinity to produce the desired whiteness. The process uses large amounts of energy, degrades the cotton fabric so it loses weight and thickness and produces waste water with a high chemical oxygen component.
The team used a spectrophotometer to measure the whiteness index of the cotton treated with its method and found that it was comparable to that of cotton bleached using the traditional method. The cotton loses less weight during the new process, and retains some of its natural waxes, resulting in a softer fabric. The fabric can be dyed to virtually the same color depth as fabric bleached traditionally. The process not only uses less energy, but saves time in water heating, and uses less water, as the traditional process has an extra cooling step.
The only downside of the process is that more hydrogen peroxide is needed than in traditional methods to ensure the same rate of oxidative reactions at the lower temperature. However, this does not significantly affect the strength of the fabric.
Pakistan's exports of readymade garments increased by 9.36 per cent for the first time in Q3 of this year as compared to the same period last year. The readymade garment industry has emerged an important small scale industry as its products have a large demand both at home and abroad.
The local requirements of readymade garments are almost met by this industry. The garment industry is also a good source of employment to a large number of people at a low capital investment. The industry mainly uses locally produced raw materials. Most of the manufacturing machines used by this industry are imported or locally made and assembled.
Production of garments depends on export orders. These orders have somewhat risen in terms of value, but have been fluctuating widely in terms of quantity. One problem is that while the European Union has opened up its markets to duty-free imports from Pakistan, the country’s garment industry is not really able to grab the opportunity. Garment manufacturers claim the government’s restrictive import policies are blocking access to new raw materials, which they require to diversify their product lines to take full advantage of the duty-free access.
Americhem will lead a technical seminar on color and performance additives for specialty fibers at ITMA Asia + CITME from June 16 to June 20 in Shanghai, China. Americhem is a leading provider of custom color and additive solutions for synthetic fibers. It will demonstrate more light stable pigments for outdoor use. These products are also excellent for automotive upholstery, including colors that easily hide yellowing of recycled PET. There will also be a discussion of additives that enhance product performance, including flame retardants, antimicrobials and UV stabilisers.
Americhem will also display custom colors and additives designed for use in many high-performance textile applications. While promoting the company’s theme of ‘Living a Green & Colorful Life’, Americhem will display solution-dyed products in three key categories: awnings and outdoor fabrics, automotive fabrics and high performance apparel.
Americhem manufactures custom color and additive solutions for polymeric products. The company’s products include custom color and additive master batches, single pigment dispersion, high-performance blacks and whites, and custom compounding solutions. It serves nonwovens, turf, textiles, and carpet synthetic fiber markets and building products, transportation, packaging and containers, engineered materials, film and sheet, and other specialties markets. The company was founded in 1941 and is based in Ohio.
