The local garment manufacturers are expecting good gains during the summer season as the import of garment from China and Vietnam have been hit owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Expressing their satisfaction, the local garment manufacturers believe that if the trend continues for some more time, the local garment industry will benefit hugely and buyers will start reposing confidence in ‘Make in India’ products.

During winters, the local garment industry gained profit because the import of readymade garments from China, Vietnam and Bangladesh was hit. Sudershan Jain, president, Knitwear and Apparel Manufacturers’ Association, said owing to the pandemic, the imports from Red Dragon had been hit hard.

Local garment dealers believe that not only garments but accessories as well were difficult to obtain China, owing to which, innovation on garmenthas taken a blow and the demand is hit.

Sweden’s H&M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, is facing a furious backlash from Chinese internet users who just learned that the company had stopped sourcing cotton from Xinjiang since last year over allegations of forced labor in the region.

The online furor erupted when the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), the youth division of China’s ruling party, lambasted H&M for issuing a letter saying it was deeply concerned by reports on “forced labor and discrimination of ethnoreligious minorities in Xinjiang.A vast number of Weibo users have called for a boycott of the Swedish fast-fashion chain, which operates over 400 stores in China.

Topics, hashtags, and posts related to the controversy have been dominating Weibo all of today. The main hashtag associated with the issue, Snow-white cotton in Xinjiang, has been viewed more than 200 million times, with thousands of comments calling for the retailer to shutter its Chinese stores and leave the country entirely.

Other international apparel brands, including Nike and Adidas, are also under attack due to their affiliation with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a major international cotton sustainability organization, which suspended licensing of farms in Xinjiang last year due to concerns about the use of forced labor in the region.

A Crisil study of 75 spinners indicates, despite the pandemic, yarn manufacturers will maintain operating profit rates at 10 per cent this year on account of a sharp rebound in demand in the second half of the current fiscal leading to improved yarn prices.

Prices of polyester yarn and its key input, purified terephthalic acid (PTA) rebounded in September 2020-January 2021. On the other side, prices of viscose yarn and its raw material input have remained largely steady, supporting spreads. Although the prices of polyester spreads are expected to soften over the next two quarters, they would still remain higher than that in the corresponding periods of last fiscal. This will support operating profitability next fiscal, too.

Dinesh Jain, Director, Crisil Ratings says, operating rates for synthetic yarn spinners are expected to be in the range of 65-70 per cent this fiscal, even with strong order flows in the second half. But the spreads are attractive this fiscal. In fact, the low rates provide spinners enough headroom to absorb additional demand next fiscal, without immediate need to increase capacities.

Overall the industry is expected to see contraction in volume to 5.5 million tonne this fiscal from 6 million tonne last fiscal. Spinners are expected to mitigate this impact by tightening working capital cycles, with faster collections and better inventory management, adds Jain.

Till December 2020, Vietnam’s manufacturers exported around 1.2 billion masks to North America, Europe and around Asia, according to statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs. The pandemic triggered a surge in demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) from the manufacturing sector in Vietnam. The country had 6,000 garment factories and textile mills employing some three million workers in 2020.

One of the prominent manufacturers is Vietnam Goods and Exports (VGE) which excels in garment manufacturing and low-tech products like personal protective equipment, such as face masks, gowns, hand sanitizers, wipes, etc. Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade is bullish on the possibilities of the garment and textile industry producing PPE, particularly in the anti-bacterial cloth mask segment. Trans Thanh Hai, Deputy Director-Export and Import Department of the Ministry said, Vietnam is capable of becoming one of the world’s major cloth face mask producers. Coupled with the fact that anti-bacterial fabric was now being produced locally, he believed production capacity could be increased significantly.

SIMA Cotton Development & Research Association has submitted a proposal to develop ELS cotton, organic cotton and naturally colored cotton to the. The association has designed and developed a Kapas Plucker that enables farmers to double their net income apart from producing contamination free and least trashy cotton. Cotton Corporation of India, Ministry of Textiles and Government of Tamil Nadu have been extending subsidies to SIMA CD & RA and the farmers during the last two years both for ELS cotton promotion and also for the free distribution of SIMA Kapas Plucker machines to the farmers.

Last year, the government of Tamil Nadu provided subsidy to distribute 200 metric tons of SIMA ELS seeds to farmers free of cost through Cotton Corporation of India (CCI). CCI and Tamilnadu government have also distributed around 9000 Kapas Plucker Machines at free of cost to the farmers.

Coimbatore has signed an MoU with SIMA CD & RA for the production of ELS organic cotton cultivation by supplying all the inputs at free of cost to the farmers and also guaranteeing to procure cotton at market price. The MoU has been signed for the production of ELS organic cotton on a pilot basis in an area of 500 acres at Semmandipatti Village, Namakkal District. The organic ELS cotton will have staple length of over 33 mm and would be suitable to produce organic yarn of counts upto 80s. The crop duration is around 160 days and expected to give the productivity of 10 quintals per acre.

The US Cotton Trust Protocol has added over 300 brands, retailers, mills and manufacturers since it opened enrollment six months ago. These include Gap Inc and its lifestyle brands Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta as well as UK retailers Next and Byford. The Trust Protocol also added the first US mills, the first members in Latin America, and Advance Denim, as its members.

The Trust Protocol is a system for more responsibly grown cotton that has committed to six areas of sustainability in line with the U.N. Sustainability Development Goals. It underpins and verifies sustainability progress through sophisticated data collection and independent third-party verification, enabling members to better track the cotton entering their supply chain. Members also get an access aggregate year-over-year data on water use, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, soil carbon and land use efficiency.

As per Dr Gary Adams, President, the Trust Protocol was designed to fit the unique growing environment in the United States. Members will avail of the critical assurances needed to verify that the cotton fiber element of their supply chain is more sustainably grown.

ORTA Denim’s new Deeply Rooted collection focuses on issues of climate action and biodiversity stress, and antiviral protection. The collection includes the Gen H range that features 100 per cent plant based fibers and fabrics, from forest and field to jeans. The range includes a breakthrough denim fabric made with up to 30 per cent hemp, an important net-positive biodiversity crop, sustainably sourced from the leading hemp farm in France that certifies all the stages of production. With Gen H, ORTA perfects the authentic look and feel with the most resilient, soft and bio-positive ecofibers. The organic cotton used in the range are socially and environmentally certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), the world’s leading textile standard for organic fibers. With GEN H, you can wear your denim with an eco-conscience.

ORTA is continually innovating game-changing technologies that are antibacterial, anti-odor, moisture blocking, temperature-balancing, and UV protecting that are redefining denim performance, endurance and safety. Infused with sheltering technology, Denim Guard’s protective antibacterial and antiviral technology disrupts the contagious forces and inhibits its ability to adhere or inhabit your skin. While the Fresh Guard range offers triple benefits of balancing, UV protecting and 100 per cent odor managing, encapsulated with silver to eliminate bacteria.

At its 17th Annual General Meeting, David Roberts, Chairman, National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), presented an overview of the US textile industry. Roberts outlined the industry’s efforts in producing PPE in the face of a once-in-a-life time pandemic. He also presented the US textile supply chain, economic, trade data, and NCTO’s 2020 policy priorities for domestic textile manufacturers. NCTO is Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers

Roberts is CEO of Cap Yarns Inc, a South Carolina specialty yarn manufacturer and a leader in developing unique yarns for the knitting and weaving industry. NCTO’s annual meeting was held virtually on March 23-24.

The meeting also highlighted the US employs around 530,000 people in the textile industry in 2020. The country exported apparels and textiles worth $64.4 billion in 2020. Its exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $25.4 billion in 2020. Capital expenditures for textiles and apparel production totaled $2.38 billion in 2019, the last year for which data is available.

International retailers and brands are again demanding payments deferral of 120 to 150 days from Bangladesh suppliers on the pretext sales have dropped after Western nations reimposed lockdowns and tougher restrictions because of a surge in coronavirus infections. As per a Daily Star report, last year too, retailers and brands had sought a deferral in payments for 120 to 220 days, which resulted in severe financial crisis for suppliers, forcing many of them to close their factories and lay off workers.

AK Azad, Managing Director, Ha-Meem Group, is yet to receive its $1.4 million payment from JC Penney as the company was sold out. So far, Azad, Former President, Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has received only $0.7 million from JC Penney before ownership change.

Ahmed F Rahman, Managing Director, Kappa Fashions, said nine small and medium-sized garment exporters had together settled payments with their Hong Kong-based buyer at 43.5 per cent discount after nearly a year of negotiation. As per the final settlement, the Hong Kong-based company was supposed to pay the suppliers $1.5 million by February 19 this year. However, the buyer refused to pay saying was facing problems.

Rubana Huq, President, BGMEA confirms, regular demand for discounts and the deferment of payment are critical issues that the sector has to deal with.

Manoj Patodia, Chairman, Texprocil, has welcomed Ministry of Textiles’ initiative to sign a limited trade deal with the UK for textile and apparel products. Patodia said the UK is one of India’s largest trading partners amongst the European countries in textile & clothing (T&C) sector accounting for almost 24 per cent of the T&C products exported from India to the EU region. With UK signing trade agreements with 62 countries by January 1, 2021 including competing countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, it becomes all the more imperative for India to conclude the limited trade deal without any delay as India stands to lose market share.

Patodia also mentioned that the proposed visit of Elizabeth Truss, UK Secretary of State for International Trade, provides an opportune moment for discussing the ‘limited trade deal’ which can get further cemented during the visit of Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister in April.