Cotton demand that remained dormant during the second pandemic wave is now being released with consumption rising to 360 lakh against normal levels of 290 to 320 lakh bales. The US sanction on cotton imports from Xinjiang province and attractive cotton futures trading are also fuelling cotton prices to record high levels in a short period.

Price rise is also being triggered by a drop in cotton production from 360 to 330 lakh bales, and 11 per cent import duty levied on cotton till April 13, 2022. Benefitting from these, cotton farmers, ginners and traders have started hoarding seed and lint cotton, leading to further rise in prices. Traders are also using the MCX and NCDEX platforms to adopt import parity pricing policy, leading to further 10 per cent rise in cotton prices. Looking at growing demand for cotton, the government abolished import duty on cotton from April 14 to September 30, 2022. Union Minister of Textiles and Secretary, Ministry of Textiles has scheduled May 17, 2022 to review the situation.

Ravi Sam, Chairman, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has urged all stakeholders to stop demanding a ban on cotton or yarn exports that tarnishes the country’s image as a reliable supplier in global market, and instead resolve the crisis collectively. The Association has already urged spinning sector to shoulder the rise in cotton prices to maximum possible extent.

Cotton prices to soften on new arrivals

Sam said cotton prices in India might start softening once imported cotton as well as the summer cotton from states like Tamil Nadu arrives in the mills. He noted, that 40 lakh bales contracted by Indian spinners after April 14, 2022 is expected to reach the mills only by the end of June, leading to a considerable drop in cotton consumption.

Sam opines, short-sighted policies by the government might damage the capital-intensive spinning sector in India that currently operates with 15-year-old machines. He urged the government to collect the online statistical returns data to provide details of production, consumption, and stock across the value chain, and take appropriate policy decisions. Sam also appealed to all stakeholders to file the Returns to the Office of the Textile Commissioner.

New cotton scheme may benefit 65 lakh farmers

Sam also underlined the need to launch the Technology Mission on Cotton 2.0 on war footing to restrict the drop in cotton productivity levels from 565 kg per hectare to 460 kg per hectare, and a drop in production from 398 lakh bales to 330 lakh bales.

He believes the scheme would help protect the livelihoods of 65 lakh farmers and over three crore people directly employed in the cotton textile value chain. Absence of latest technologies including high-density planting, drought tolerant, weedicide etc, poor agronomy research and practices, and poor handling of cotton is impacting the entire crop value chain including farmers, he adds.

Urging stakeholders to avoid demanding anything that might benefit one segment but affect another, Sam asked them to come together and work collectively in this moment of crisis. He urged the government to launch TMC 2.0 with adequate funds to resolve the raw material crisis permanently. He said, the industry plans to appeal to the government to extend import duty removal beyond September 30, 2022, to tide over the crisis. This would help the industry change market sentiments without affecting cotton farmers.

Home textiles major Welspun India reported a 61.85 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 51.25 crore in the fourth quarter ended March. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 134.34 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal.

Consolidated total income during the quarter under review stood at Rs 2,247.06 crore as compared to Rs 2,173.56 crore in the year-ago period.

Total expenses in the fourth quarter stood at Rs 2,138.37 crore as against Rs 1,993.84 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

For the fiscal ended March 31, 2022, consolidated net profit was at Rs 606.71 crore as against Rs 550.79 crore in the previous fiscal.

In FY22, total income stood at Rs 9,377.31 crore as compared to Rs 7,407.96 crore in FY21.Total expenses in 2021-22 stood at Rs 8,504.47 crore.

Italian denim brand Gas Jeans has managed to escape bankruptcy by selling its assets to new buyer in Milano 1984 SpA.

As per an Apparel Resources report, Grotto SpA, the parent firm of Gas Jeans, faces €80 million losses, leading to the firm being subsequently taken over by Milano 1984 SpA.

Following the acquisition, Grotto SpA’s property assets, the Gas Jeans label as well as 140 employees at Grotto will operate under the the formal jurisdiction of Milano 1984.

Reportedly, the offer was consistent with the initial tender. Notably, Grotto was valued €17.5 million, including €2.5 million for its subsidiaries Esagon, which owns the outlet stores of Gas Jeans.

Founded in 1984 by Claudio Grotto, Gas Jeans initially established itself in Europe, America and Asia, but lost all its momentum in last 10 years. It generated revenue of €55 million in 2019.

Italy-based leader in the ecological innovation of chemical application in the textile sectorOfficina39 will be present at the Bangladesh Denim Expo in Dhaka on May 10-11, 2022 after a two-year break. The company will focus on sustainability and its central theme ‘Beyond Business.’

Officina39 has been committed for years to the reconversion of the sector’s technologies to an environmental point of view. The company’s new Trustainable™ collection FW 23, reflects this attitude. The collection is based on the approach of honesty, transparency and social responsibility that have always driven the company. This collection offers a new approach to denim and colored surfaces, explains Juan Manuel Gomez, Officina39 Creative Leader. It is made possible by rethinking the conventional path for washing and dyeing using low-impact techniques and alternative looks with Aqualess Mission and Recycrom™ – the one-of-a-kind dyestuffs range patented by Officina39 which employs recycled used clothing, fibrous material and textile scraps, etc

Since the 1970s, the General System of Preferences (GSP) has been a boon for top five global manufacturers including Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines. Now, the proposed reforms to this largest and longest-running trade preference programs threaten to deprive these Southeast Asian countries of the tariff reductions provided on almost 5,000 products from bags to jewelry; mattresses and car parts.

Inactive since 2020-end, the GSP scheme needs to be renewed with reauthorization by the US Congress. Until now, the scheme covering 119 countries has been renewed 14 times. Of this, 10 renewals were made at varying intervals and the importers were reimbursed each time for the extra tariffs levied on their products

New eligibility laws for tariff reduction

The current renewal comes after a delay of 18 months, resulting in $1.4 billion in extra taxes for companies. The latest revision introduces new eligibility laws for tariff reduction besides earlier provisions that focused on labor rights. It bans countries violating human rights or failing to enforce environmental laws.

Further, the law takes into consideration, a country’s initiatives on poverty reduction and corruption. It upholds their progress on women’s empowerment and threatens to undermine its importance by threatening to disqualify a large number of companies. Critics therefore, urge the program to recognize the efforts of beneficiaries in identifying discrepancies in law.

Edward Gresser, Vice President and Director-Trade and Global Markets, Progressive Policy Institute, warns, introducing too many eligibility requirements would make the GSP impractical and unenforceable. It would debar almost all low-income countries due to lack of government capacity. Currently, the final decision on GSP renewal remains uncertain though it is mandated in the bipartisan innovation and competition legislative package dubbed H.R. 4521.

Balance eligibility with product expansion

Josh Teitelbaum, Senior Counsel, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld believes, the law is not likely to be passed until mid-November. He advises the government to balance eligibility changes made to the GSP by expanding product eligibility to include things like apparel, he adds. Teitelbaurm believes, this would enable Southeast Asian countries to comply with the program.

The Congress also aims to make the ‘Competitive Need Limitation’ rules more flexible to enable countries to increase exports to the US. However, lapse in GSP implementation may create disastrous situation for the industry, opines Piet Holten, President, Paetics, a Cambodia-based manufacturer.

The industry leader in flat knitting technology, Stoll has recently launched two new innovation packages. These packages aim to make Stoll’s high innovative strength even clearer and enable customers to benefit from it more quickly.

The innovation packages have the benefits for customers in focus and were tailored to the respective target groups. Every optimization contained therein leads to a decisive improvement in production. All of the solutions developed can be easily integrated into existing Stoll machines.

Innovation package Number One is aimed explicitly at knitters who focus on technical textiles. The focus is on convenience and process acceleration. Simple network configuration, expansion of the number of NP values, extended functionality when loading and saving the pattern and also improvement of handling in connection with Production Management from PPS are just some of the features of the package.

The Number Two innovation package includes improvements for the maintenance area – regarding the use of lubricants and the maintenance intervals– as well as optimizations in terms of sustainability, for example when it comes to reducing consumption of oil and increasing reliability. These solutions will be suitable for all machine types and applications. The focus here is on improvements in belt take-down, the import and export of data and support for additional storage feeders.

In addition, the development teams are currently working on optimizing various knitting qualities and increasing user-friendliness.

World's leading industrial thread manufacturer, Coats Group plc has signed an agreement to sell its business in Brazil and Argentina to Reelpar SA, an entity backed by a Sao Paulo Private Equity Firm. The deal is expected to complete in May.

As per reports, the transaction will result in a positive annualized impact of circa 50bps uplift to the Group's adjusted operating margins. Under the terms of the disposal, Coats will fund $10m to Reelpar SA to support restructuring of the business.

Announced in March, the exit from the Brazil and Argentina business will accelerate Coat’s sales growth and transform the company.

Coats is the world's leading industrial thread company. At home in some 50 countries, Coats has a workforce of over 18,000 people across six continents. The group provides complementary and value-adding products, services and software solutions to the apparel and footwear industries. It also applies innovative techniques to develop high technology performance materials threads, yarns, fabrics and composites in areas like personal protection, telecoms, energy, transportation, and household and recreation.

Scheduled for June, 2022 edition of China’s YIWUTEX has been postponed due to fresh rise in pandemic cases and renewing of restrictions in Shanghai and parts of China. As per a Knitting Industry report, taking into consideration the health and safety of all participants, the organizers decided to postpone the 22nd China Yiwu International Trade Fair for Functional Yarn & Knitting & Hosiery Machinery and The 11th China Yiwu International Trade Fair for Sewing & Digital Printing Machinery, known collectively as YIWUTEX22 was scheduled for May 10-12, 2023.

The organizers also decided to organize a Seamless Garment and Hosiery Technology Forum at Yingyun Innovation Plaza during the fourth quarter of 2022. The forum will cater to the growing demand of seamless garments, and the call for transformation and upgrading of the industry.

The event will highlight industry topics ranging from smart manufacturing, forefront technologies to new materials and innovative designs through a series of showcases, forums and meetings. It will provide a platform for professionals to network with industry peers.

As per Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) stats, total value of textile imports during the first nine months of FY2021-22 increased 25.59 per cent to $3,499.68 million against $ 2,786.5 million in July-March 2020-21. However, import of raw cotton declined 14.57 per cent to 533,871 metric tons.

A similar trend was seen in import of synthetic fiber which declined 15.85 per cent to 291,364 MT in terms of quantity while it rose 27.51 per cent from to $562.281 million in value. Import of synthetic and artificial silk yarn increased 30 per cent in value while it declined 7.64 per cent in quantity to 293,191 MT. Imports of worn clothing surged 56.87 and 66.47 per cent both quantity and value during the period. Pakistan imported 764,139 MT of worn clothing worth $341.319 million during the period as compared to 487,107 MT of worn clothing having a value of $205 million. Import of other textile items increased 21.64 per cent during July-March 2021-22 and surged to $740.383 million from $608.677 million in the first nine months of 2020-21.

The new EU-Ukraine Textile Initiative (EUTI) by Euratex aims to facilitate cooperation between European and Ukrainian textile and apparel companies. The initiative will offer a single contact point for Ukrainian companies with their EU counterparts, and vice versa. That connection will help companies match supply and demand, engage in public procurement and offer company-to-company support. To be coordinated in close cooperation with UKRLEGPROM, the Ukrainian Association of enterprises of textile & leather industry, the initiative will be managed by Olena Garkushag of Ukrainian textile industry.

In 2021, EU exported textiles and garments worth €1.3 billion to Ukraine while imports from the nation totaled €500 million. Dirk Vantyghem, Director General, Euratex believes, EU and Ukraine can expand their relationship in the long run by partnering in the PEM Convention. They can also benefit from the EU’s proposed suspension of tariffs on imported products from Ukraine.