A technical textile park will come up in Salem, Tamil Nadu. As per the state’s Chief Secretary, K Shanmugam the plan is to set up two textile parks, one in Tuticorin and Salem. The one in Salem would be for technical textiles. Technical textiles are textile material and products used for their technical performance rather than as personal clothing. They could be anything ranging from bullet proof and fire proof jackets and to sheets used in surfacing of roads and those used in medicines, such as bandages and gloves.

The technical textile market in India is growing at 12 per cent a year. The aim is to make it grow by 15 per cent to 20 per cent a year. Demand for this sector is rising due to many factors including rapid urbanisation, advances in medical technology, expansion in construction sectors, awareness on safety and environmentalism and increased spending on healthcare. Technical textiles are very significant for the growth of the entire textile industry as they are value added products manufactured primarily for technical performance and multi-functional properties with less intent on aesthetics and design. This sector is considered as a sunrise sector and it provides new opportunities to the Indian industry to have a long term sustainable future. India still has a long way to go as it currently lacks the ability to domestically fulfil the rising demand and to be globally competitive in this sector. There is untapped potential both in the export and domestic market of technical textiles.

China’s forward imported yarn market remains sluggish and the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has worsened demand for imported yarns. Weavers are gradually returning to work, especially the large scale companies. But small and medium-sized weavers are still shut down. Besides restrictions on travelling, logistics has been impacted too, with delays in deliveries, transportation, resulting in stock accumulation. Trading will be dull for some more time.

Indian exporters are burdened with stocks due to few purchases from China in the past two months, and the recent reduction in orders from Bangladesh and Egypt. Judging from the price spread between the spot and the forward, the latter is much higher than the former, and buyers may be more cautious in purchasing. Vietnamese carded 32S for airjet increased and the Indian yarn price spread dropped.

The PFY market remained largely quiet. Only some companies revised down offers, and most leading companies sustained their pre-holiday price levels. Most market players retreated to the sidelines, so transactions failed to rise apparently. Meanwhile, for the downstream market, the traditional peak season of the textile industry in March to May is anticipated to be discounted when sales of winter wear and spring wear are dragged down by the epidemic and some exporting orders are transferred.

Shanghai Fashion Week plans to collaborate with the giant Alibaba Tmall to broadcast the autumn-winter 2020 fashion shows, which have been canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic.

The online fashion week is set to take place between March 24 and 30, since the application for the online show has just begun. The alliance is, in fact, an alternative to confront the current crisis.

The online platform will broadcast the fashion show live and customers will have the opportunity to buy the collection instantly. It will also enable brands to generate more sales, and save many of them from bankruptcy.

Although this measure has been taken as a result of the health crisis in China, it may not only be sporadic. If the outcome of this initiative is good, Shanghai Fashion Week will not rule the option to incorporate this online version to its calendar as confirmed by WWD.

Karl Mayer is buying Stoll.

German company Karl Mayer the warp knitting machinery manufacturer has acquired Stoll, a flat knitting machine manufacturer also from Germany. The two long established and outstanding companies will combine forces to create a German powerhouse in the field of knitting. The alliance brings together two very strong brands in textile machinery building whose solutions portfolios and regional presence complement each other. With the acquisition, Stoll will become part of the global Karl Mayer Group, an independent family business. Stoll will benefit from the broad global positioning of Karl Mayer’s sales, service and production sites, and from the opportunities for joint development, such as in the field of digital solutions. This will enable Stoll to expand and accelerate its innovation strategy in the areas of digitalization and technology and strengthen its global presence.

Both family-owned companies can look back on a long and successful company history, and at the same time prove themselves time and again as trendsetters. In their respective market segments, they represent innovation, quality, long-term orientation, reliability and comprehensive expertise. They have complementary product portfolios and an even greater regional presence in all relevant markets. Karl Mayer is thus the only company in the textile industry to offer industry-leading solutions for the two main stitch-forming processes: knitting and warp knitting.

The French government is developing a scoring system for clothing, grading from A to E. The scoring system incorporates environmental impacts into consideration, such as carbon footprint of clothing production and transportation, water needed for clothing production, toxicity of fabrics and dyes, and whether clothes can be recycled or reused.

The highest score was A, and the most serious pollution was E. The purpose of the system was to make consumers better understand the way and process of clothing production. In early February, the French government passed a law prohibiting clothing brands and retailers from destroying unsold and returned products. France took the lead in formulating the Loi Anti Gaspillage. The anti waste law covers electrical appliances, sanitary products and cosmetics, and must take measures such as ‘re-use’ (reused), ‘redistribution’ (redistributed) or ‘recycling’ (recycled). The bill contained 130 clauses and was passed by the Senate and the national assembly in January 21, 2020.

The purpose of the new law is to reduce the consumption of resources by 30 per cent between 2010 and 2030 according to the proportion of GDP output value. Compared to 2010, the amount of non-toxic waste is reduced by 50 per cent in 2025. Before 2025, the target of one hundred percent plastics recycling and recycling is reduced; greenhouse gas emissions are reduced: 8 million tons of extra carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided each year through plastic recycling measures. Create up to 300 thousand extra jobs, including new jobs.

A Northern India Textile Mills’ Association (Nitma) delegation recently met Ravi Capoor, Secretary Textiles to discuss issues facing India’s textile sector. The Nitma delegation comprised president Sanjay Garg, vice-president Mukesh Kumar Tyagi, and others spoke on the anomaly in the FTA (free trade agreement) with Indonesia and Vietnam, resulting in the closure of MSME spinning mills.

The secretary assured them India will enhance textile sector competitiveness across the entire value chain. Yarn manufacturing sector will be provided a level playing field. Nitma pointed out the surge of imports, particularly from Indonesia and Vietnam, has hit Indian spinning mills. This surge has been happening of late, as some existing duties — which acted as a safeguard against imports in the pre-GST period — were removed. Post-GST, with the removal of Cenvat and SAD, polyester yarn is being cleared with zero duty.

Operating profits of polyester yarn manufacturers in India are set to rise next fiscal. Reasons include a rise in operating margins, a healthy demand for polyester, and higher blending in garments and other products. The price of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) – a key raw material that accounts for more than half of the sales price of polyester yarn – is expected to be under pressure in the near term. Moreover, PTA capacities in Asia are set to rise 20 per cent over the next couple of years, which will keep prices in check.

Garments exports from Philippines are projected to register flat growth this year, as firms struggle to alternative sources for raw materials outside of crisis-hit China. Nearly all of the country’s apparel production is stopped due to the disrupted shipment of raw materials from source countries, particularly China. The Asian superpower is wrestling with its Coronavirus crisis that forced many factories to shut down.

The Philippines has to find alternative sources for fabric, textile and accessories, as it has no respectable domestic output for these items. This was largely why the garments industry, which is trying to make a comeback through public and private efforts, is tempering growth forecast this year, expecting export receipts to stay the same or increase by just 1 percent.

The industry is anticipating new players to come in when the Citira bill becomes law, as it will reduce corporate income tax to 20 percent by 2029, from 30 percent at present—the highest rate in the whole of Southeast Asia. In terms of market, the United States will keep its status as the country’s largest buyer of clothing products this year. The country will further solidify this position if it expands the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) of the Philippines to garments.

As a GSP beneficiary, the Philippines can ship a total of 5,057 products to the US at zero tariff. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that exports of apparel and clothing products last year declined nearly 7 percent to $906.28 million, from $974.44 million in 2018.

Last year, the Board of Investments unveiled a road map seeking to bring back the Philippines as one of the world’s largest exporters of garments. In the short term, the industry is required to grow by 12.3 percent annually starting this year to enter the circle of the world’s top 20 by 2022.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to factory closures and layoffs across Asia. Low-wage workers are particularly vulnerable to any global economic downturn triggered by travel restrictions and quarantines. Factories in Southeast Asia are dependent on China for supplies like cloth, buttons and zippers. In Cambodia 10 factories have decided to suspend operations. Some 200 factories are expected to slow or stop production in March, affecting 1,00,000 of more than 850,000 employed in the sector, which is Cambodia's largest employer.

In Bangladesh, the world’s second largest garment manufacturing industry after China, factories are still running but anxiety is growing. Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories employing some four million workers. Almost 70 per cent of its woven fabrics come from China and if the goods do not arrive on time, the readymade garment industry will be affected. If the crisis in China is prolonged, the impact would be severe. Neighboring Myanmar has a smaller industry but is more dependent on China. Half of the nation’s 500 factories could shut down by March if the crisis persists. China supplies about 90 per cent of the fabrics sent to Myanmar.

Asia’s textile industry accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s readymade garments, textiles and footwear.

A well-entrenched global group known to offer “End-to-End Solutions in Air Treatment”. One of the fastest growing adsorption technology groups in the world today, the Pahwa Group focuses on energy smart and green technologies. Operating within a broad framework of 'environment and energy', the group offers advanced environmental control solutions to a wide array of companies. It plans to display some of these most advanced technologies at ACREX India 200- South Asia's largest exhibition on air conditioning, heating ventilation and intelligent building. At this exhibition, the group will display Arctic Coolers, Treated Fresh Air Units (TFA), Energy Recovery Wheels (HRWs), Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV), Active Chilled Beams (ECB) and Evaporative Cooling Pads. Varun Pahwa, President, DRI-Pahwa Group, "With Desiccant at its core, in relation to air" elaborates Pahwa.

Present in India since the last 30 years, the Pahwa Group offers air treatment solutions and products. “Our products offer a comfortable ambience to garment workers who constantly toil in high temperatures. We offer an air draft close to the worker, which ensures constant supply of fresh air and reduces chances of transmitting infections. This creates a wholesome environment in the factory,” notes Pahwa.

According to him, since air-conditioning a factory may not be viable for the owner, he can opt for evaporative cooling. “This ensures deliverance of cool air through ducts at one-tenth cost of air-conditioning as the only inputs used are a water source and a motor,” he says.

The garment industry in India employs workers on contract basis. “Providing these workers with a clean environment will reduce attrition rates in the garment industry. It will also enable the factory owner to save time and money,” adds Pahwa

The Pahwa Group caters to all shopfloors. “Exporters can assure buyers of the congeniality of their products by using our services. Our services also help domestic manufacturers retain their contract laborers,” he affirms.

Pacific Textiles Limited, a big name in China knitting textile industry, announced a production bouncing back up to more than 80 percent of its capacity as of February 25, from its 40 percent production level on February 14. It restarted its operations on February 12, reflecting a gradual job return amid on-going tightened efforts to prevent and control the Coronavirus epidemic.

Pacific Textiles Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of customized knitted fabrics in textile industry with its headquarters based in Hong Kong and its production base in Panyu District of Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong Province, South China, the city is the top GDP producer of China.

Even though government has called for resuming production wherever the conditions are improving in terms of the disease control, lot of efforts are still being done both inside and outside the factories to keep a safe and clean workplace as workers have to travel from various place back to work. The production is resuming, but still full flow would take time, which impacts the company’s performance temporarily. The three-week long pause in production prior to the restart of on-site operation for normal leave during Spring Festival and the shortfall in full-capacity running, together with other uncertain factors in this special period, will roughly cut off 400 -450 million Hong Kong dollars in business income on estimated basis as against the previous production schedule.

It is noticed that in many places, the initial returning rate of operators is somewhere at 20-40 percent, leaving more than half of the job position short of hands due to quarantine measures and traffic flow control. Even if the process of restarting the work has started and reaching up to 80 percent of installed capacities at few places, yet for full-fledged operations , there is still sometime, it seems, that too if the epidemic is fully in control.

Pacific Textiles Ltd. is has an integrated services of knitting, dyeing, printing and finishing with scalable water treatment facility and cogeneration power plant, with annual production capacity of approximately 87million kg and work force of 6500 in production area, covering its production and workforces in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka etc. The company has the full conviction that the plant in Panyu District in Guangzhou will run full throttle soon and its clients orders will be fulfilled, as the situation improves.

Contributed by Mr. ZHAO Hong

He is working for CHINA TEXTILE magazine as Editor-in-Chief in addition to being involved in a plethora of activities for the textile industry. He has worked for the Engineering Institute of Ministry of Textile Industry, and for China National Textile Council and continues to serve the industry in the capacity of Deputy Director of China Textile International Exchange Centre, V. President of China Knitting Industry Association, V. President of China Textile Magazine and its Editor-in-Chief for the English Version, Deputy Director of News Centre of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), Deputy Director of International Trade Office, CNTAC, Deputy Director of China Textile Economic Research Centre. He was also elected once ACT Chair of Private Sector Consulting Committee of International Textile and Clothing Bureau (ITCB)