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To ensure that Indian exports are globally competitive, a research by Amitendu Palit, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, looks at approaches that would align with the ongoing coastal economic development strategy, Sagarmala, and with the State’s strategy, which seeks to fully utilise the potential of having India’s longest coastline.
One of these approaches would be to upgrade one of Andhra Pradesh’s ports with state-of-the-art facilities that significantly enhance its maritime trade capacity — and, at the same time, ‘backward’ linking of the port with the hinterland, to enable fast movement of cargo and a reduction in logistics costs.This would increase the port capacity by 20 million tonne a year, substantially increasing revenue over the coming decades, worth Rs 1,695 crore.
The main costs in the project include new and upgraded facilities: like a container freight station, expanded berths and more dredging, along with land acquisition and expanding highways around the port. The fixed costs including substantial operating costs over the 20-year period come to Rs 1,985 crore.
According to a McKinsey survey report conducted with Women’s Wear Daily, top fashion companies today are using data analytics and consumer insights to develop concepts and plan lines.
These companies can deliver a product to market in less than six to eight weeks. They have adopted a more sophisticated model based on understanding what the consumer wants. This model allows them to incorporate what has been selling and respond quickly to what is generating early sales.
As companies often complain that they are stuffed with data but starved for insights, they can analyse consumer research where they can explore what topics are trending on major search engines and track the search rankings on peers’ websites.
Retailers can use advanced visual recognition tools to identify styles and colors trending on social-media sites. Aggregate product ratings by attribute, price, and style—either from the merchant’s own site or from retailers’ sites—can provide insight into what is trending with a specific type of consumer.
New testing from Oeko-Tex helps companies throughout the global supply chain easily test their organic cotton products for GMOs (genetically modified organisms), a molecular-level indicator of whether or not cotton products actually meet a fundamental definition of organic.
Consumers expect the organic products they buy to be genuine and verifiable as such. Manufacturers have to be confident that organic cotton products are not contaminated with non-organic cotton.
Today, about 70 per cent of cotton globally is genetically altered. For example, some forms of cotton have been engineered to be herbicide-resistant. Others have been infused with an insecticide to kill pests like boll weevils.
New GMO testing gives manufacturers and marketers the confidence that their organic cotton products meet regulatory and consumer expectations with regards to GMOs as well as the independent, traceable documentation to prove it.
To qualify as organic and to be marketed as such, cotton must meet a comprehensive list of criteria governing the cultivation, processing, and segregation.
Everyone is talking about robots, and the fashion industry is no exception. Policy makers and companies who own data and robots must consider the impacts that automation is both having and will have on workers around the world.
It's generally accepted that automation and digitalization will increase supply chain productivity and greatly improve the fashion industry’s sustainability performance. From manufacturing to design, to business analysis, jobs in the fashion industry will change as some tasks are automated through the use of robotics and artificial intelligence.
If the future is to be bright for workers, as well as the planet, technological innovation’s impact on people within the supply chain must be monitored closely. If it isn’t, the heaviest blow will be dealt to workers in garment factories around the world.
Today, the disparity between the industry’s highest earners and lowest earners is massive. The CEO of a top-five fashion brand can earn a Bangladeshi garment worker’s lifetime pay in four days.
In our world, anything not fully circular poisons our small plant. Technology offers solutions, but leadership sets the speed of progress and adoption.
In fact, circularity is going to be the application that will constrain the fashion industry to an appropriate scale. Now, six out of ten garments we produce end up in a landfill or are incinerated within the first year of production.
X-Rite and Pantone have collaborated on color management innovations. These can help designers, master batchers, compounders, coatings companies and manufacturers to specify, communicate, formulate and control color quality across the entire manufacturing workflow to help speed production and reduce waste.
The Ci7500 features SPIN/SPEX measurement to accurately determine gloss levels and is UV calibrated for advanced optical brighteners. This new instrument brings the level of reliability, traceability and accuracy that customers expect in a more affordable model.
MetaVue VS3200 is the first non-contact imaging spectrophotometer that brings versatility and accuracy to the color measurement of wet and dry paints, liquids, powders, gels and plastic samples for improved color formulation and quality control. MetaVue VS3200 is ideal for color formulation, production color checks and quality control operations.
The MA-T family of multi-angle imaging spectrophotometers are the industry’s first instruments to combine color imaging and multi-angle spectral measurement to quantify color, sparkle and coarseness. They allow manufacturers to more precisely define and control effect finishes in order to achieve a new level of consistency and harmony across adjacent parts.
X-Rite is a global leader in the science and technology of color and appearance. More than ten million designers and producers around the world rely on Pantone products and services to help define, communicate and control color.
Pakistan has emphasised on value addition in the textile sector to increase exports, boost the domestic economy, accelerate industrialisation and create job opportunities.
The textile sector in Pakistan contributes more than 50 per cent to the country’s exports and generates around 38 per cent of employment. During this fiscal year Pakistan’s exports have again picked up momentum as compared to the previous fiscal year and the textile sector’s performance is also improving.
The country is working on upgrading its supply chain and improving productivity. There is room for further expansion of the textile sector with improvement in the law and order and energy situations. As compared to 2013, Pakistan is a changed country now with a conducive environment for both local and foreign investors.
The six major sub-sectors of the textile sector, including spinning, weaving, processing, printing, garment manufacturing, and yarn manufacturing, are expected to benefit by adopting value addition and modern techniques.
The Textile Institute of Pakistan is producing professionals of the highest quality in textile science, design technology, management and marketing, apparel manufacturing and merchandizing, fashion design management and industrial manufacturing and management.
Graduates from the institute are engaged in the textile industry in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
IndustrtiALL Global Union‘s textile and garment members from MENA region’s main producer countries Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco reported tangible progress in organising and collective bargaining at a meeting at Tunisian capital, Tunis, on 3-4 May 2018.
The affiliates developed further plans for important actions in the textile and garment supply chain.
In Jordan, a new sector-wide agreement that includes improvement in wages and working conditions was signed.
The agreement covers both Jordanian nationals and migrant workers. In close cooperation with IndustriALL, with an objective to strengthening the voice of migrant workers in the sector, the Jordanian affiliate General Trade Union of Workers in Textile Garment & Clothing Industries (JTGCU) is currently building a Migrant Workers’ Union Advisory Committee.
Through negotiations with Employers’ Association and threatening to strike, IndustriALL’s Tunisian affiliate, Fédération Générale du Textile, de l'Habillement, Chaussure et Cuir (FGTHCC-UGTT) achieved a 6 per cent wage increase in 2016 and 2017.
FGTHCC-UGTT is now preparing for the annual negotiations on the wages in the sector aiming at an 8 per cent increase.
Autefa Solutions has launched a few new solutions for thermo- and acoustical- insulation nonwovens fabrics. The first of these includes the random card Airlay K 12 which offers an improved MD:CD ratio and a three-dimensional web structure. It also offers the special advantages in terms of lighter weights and high loft fabrics.
Autefa Solutions has delivered a complete needlepunch line with nonwovens carding system Masterfelt, crosslapper Topliner and two over 13 m wide needle looms Stylus Variliptic and Stylus NL. The company has developed and patented the V-Jet injector which leads to higher tensile strength at same entangling water pressure than a standard injector. The new Square Drum Dryer SQ-V combines the advantages of a horizontal dryer with the lower space requirement of a conventional drum dryer. The nozzle system uniformly distributes the airflow in terms of speed and temperature throughout the whole working width, providing best spunlace web and surface quality results.
BaseAUTEFA Solutions also delivers high innovative Stylus needle looms with the Variliptic drive concept (elliptical needling) and with the NL drive for vertical needling.
The iconic Bermuda short returns this summer in denim. Be it cuffed, rolled, customized or distressed, the classic denim short has earned a permanent place in women’s summer wardrobes.
But a new silhouette is offering consumers new lengthier options. The casual short, which typically hits one-inch above the knee, is offered in a broad range of washes, colors and price points.
The shorts are the classic companion to other summer staples like striped T-shirts and canvas sneakers. People are searching for a longer and leaner silhouette. In particular, people are searching for Bermuda shorts that are white, high waist or available in plus sizes.
The uptick in Bermuda shorts can be chalked up to several factors. Modesty fashion, a term originally used to describe fashion for women who dress modestly for religious and cultural reasons, has become common fashion vernacular to describe everything from long shorts to bridesmaid dresses with sleeves.
Consumers may also be hungry for an alternative to vintage cut-offs which have dominated the women’s denim market for several years now.
The Bermuda silhouette brings a new level of comfort and freedom to women’s denim fashion—a potent combination for denim labels in competition with athleisure brands for consumers’ money and loyalty.
Sales of the fashion industry are expected to triple between 2016 and 2018. Emerging markets remain a crucial source of this growth. In 2018, for the first time, more than half of apparel and footwear sales will originate outside Europe and North America.
The main sources of growth are emerging market countries across Asia–Pacific, Latin America, and other regions. They are forecast to grow at rates ranging between 5 and 7.5 per cent in 2018. Meanwhile, the economic outlook in the mature part of Europe is stable, and fashion industry sales growth is likewise expected to remain at a modest but steady two per cent to three per cent. In North America, while overall consumer confidence is strong, the impact of policy changes is uncertain, and markdown pressures, market corrections, and store closures continue. Here, growth is expected to be modest, one per cent to two per cent.
Consumers are trading away from the midmarket price points even while the luxury, value, and discount segments are picking up speed. Stronger sales growth is expected in apparel and footwear. Handbags and luggage, and to some extent watches and jewelry, are returning slowly to their historic highs, driven by demand in Asia–Pacific. Athletic wear is the only category where record growth rates look to slow down slightly in 2018.
