Due to a boycott on Japanese goods, Uniqlo’s sales in South Korea have taken a hit. Japan’s decision to tighten controls on exports of materials that South Korea uses to make semiconductors and smart phone displays has prompted a consumer backlash in Korea, with consumers boycotting Japanese products from beer to pens. Japan has also removed South Korea from a list of favored trading partners. Relations between the two US allies are now at their worst in decades. The dispute is rooted in compensation for forced laborers during Japan’s occupation and South Korea has repeatedly invoked its difficult history with Japan, which colonised the Korean peninsula during World War Two. A South Korean court last year ordered Japanese companies to compensate Koreans who were forced to work for Japanese occupiers during World War Two.

Uniqlo has close to 190 stores in South Korea where its sales comprise 6.6 per cent of its revenue. Uniqlo, known for its simple and affordable clothes such as lightweight down jackets, is battling saturation in its main home market, Japan. It could also come under pressure due to a slowdown in China, where it typically logs a major proportion of its growth. Unseasonably warm weather hit sales of winter clothes.

The Union Textile Minister has assured the Indian Texprenuers Federation that no duties will be imposed on cotton imports and the policy of the Central government will be uniform across the country. Indian Texpreneurs Federation had earlier opposed a proposal by the Maharashtra government to levy import duty on cotton. Prabhu Dhamodharan, Convenor of the Federation labeled these proposals as anti-industry that can change the entire dynamics of the textile value chain.

The Federation feels, the industry needs long term and stable policies to be competitive in the international market. Dhamodharan advised the industry to make value added products to capture the global market and tap the opportunities arising out of the US-China trade war. He also advised the Union Textile Ministry to intervene and ensure there is no such duty on cotton imports.

He comes from Williams-Sonoma, a specialty retailer of home products, where he oversees marketing strategy and operations. He is also responsible for consumer research, marketing analytics, and loyalty programming, and serves as the executive sponsor of Williams-Sonoma’s inclusion and diversity programs. Carbullido has also served in various roles with a number of leading retailers including Macy’s, Banana Republic, Gap, and Smith & Hawken.

Abercrombie & Fitch has invested in loyalty programs and developed direct-to-consumer and omnichannel capabilities. These steps have contributed to an improved top and bottom-line. The company undertook a massive rebranding initiative in 2014, moving away from the reputation it had built over the past decade. The company’s store count has been reduced, stores now have a smaller footprint with larger fitting rooms, and are integrated with technology. The overpowering perfume, which filled the stores earlier, has also been modified to a fresher, cleaner fragrance.

Japanese textile maker Suminoe Textile will set up an electric carpet plant in Vietnam. The factory will produce electric heating appliances such as electric carpets and blankets. Electric heating appliances are one of Suminoe’s key products in the functional goods business. Suminoe made its first foray into the overseas business in 1994 by establishing a plant in Thailand. It now has 14 bases in seven countries, including the United States, India and Indonesia.

Japanese firms are scaling up investment in Vietnam’s textile and garment sector. Japanese company Matsuoka produces casual apparel in Vietnam to be exported to Japan and China. The company has chosen Vietnam for capital injection and production expansion in recent years to take advantage of the opportunities anticipated to be brought by new-generation free trade agreements such as the EVFTA and the CPTPP. Matsuoka has three plants in Vietnam with one more coming up. The firm’s medium-term business plan intends at minimising its dependence on China by nearly 50 per cent by March 2021 by shifting its focus to Vietnam from China, where production costs are on the rise. Sakai Amiori, another Japanese company, has opened an export apparel production plant. The influx of foreign direct investment has the benefit of turning Vietnam into a global manufacturing base.

Indian textile mills are importing cotton as domestic cotton is more expensive. The escalating trade war has led to a slump in global cotton prices. The December new crop cotton contract on ICE Futures US hit a four-year low earlier this week and analysts are expecting another decline due to worsening relations between the US and China, the world's largest exporter and importer respectively.

So far, deals to import around 50,000 bales of cotton have been signed for delivery in October to December, despite the quarter being the peak harvesting season in India. Mills in north India have contracted 6,000 tons to 10,000 tons of cotton, while deals of around 3,000 tons have been signed by mills in southern India. Import deals are being signed mainly with the US, Brazil and West Africa. But prices may fall ahead of the harvest starting in October, which may halt imports. The situation is different from last year, when traders were busy selling the commodity to overseas buyers due to expectations of a bumper domestic crop, which eventually did not materialise.

Global prices have also been hit with an estimate of a rise of around five per cent in cotton output in 2019-20, and slower growth in consumption, which may lead to higher ending stocks for next year.

India’s textile machinery and accessories imports have grown 24 per cent compared to the previous year. The highest imports were of digital printing machinery, accounting for 37 per cent of total imports. Digital printing is a happening segment in textiles. The new machines are versatile and fast and save on water, so demand is high. Weaving machines and spinning machinery and accessories were also imported. Imports of spinning products and machinery grew 41.85 per cent.

Several textile engineering multinational companies have started operations in India and they import parts and accessories. Indian textile engineering industry is operating at about 70 per cent capacity utilisation, serving 65 per cent of the textile sector’s demand. The Indian textile machinery industry has been experiencing tremendous growth over recent years, facilitated by the country’s booming textile and apparel market. India is expected to be a leading textile producing country in by 2020, and domestic textile and apparel market in India is estimated to grow at 12 per cent CAGR over 2020. The technical textile market in India is also showing a promising growth, at 18 per cent CAGR. The machinery industry is expected to reach Rs 35,000 crores by 2021.

Indian cotton yarn exports in June 2019 were the lowest in the last five years. The textile industry is passing through a crisis. Poor demand in export and domestic markets, lack of skilled labor, and high raw material costs are all affecting textile units. Exports of yarn, fabric, and made-ups grew over 50 per cent from 2008 to 2018 but yarn exports saw a steep decline in 2019. China is the main market for Indian yarn. However, it gave duty free access to Pakistan in April this year and Bangladesh and Vietnam already have duty free access. The industry has sought tax refunds and competitive interest rates and the re-introduction of the interest subvention scheme apart from pro-active schemes to train labor. Another important factor for the industry is energy. Textile units in Tamil Nadu have invested in wind energy, initially with state support. Now the industry wants support for wind energy generation.

However, imports of textile machinery and spares are on the rise in India. Industries are focusing on production concepts such as 5S, lean manufacturing, and energy audits. Textile engineering units have a huge potential to tap in the country provided they upgrade technology constantly and concentrate on value addition.

India’s exports to Pakistan dropped 20.5 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal. Exports to Pakistan were only 0.6 per cent of India’s outbound shipments during this period, Purchases from Pakistan, too, collapsed 93.3 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal. This was due to India’s imposition of a 200 per cent duty on purchases from Pakistan following a withdrawal of the most favored nation (MFN) status to Pakistan in the wake of the terror attacks. India had granted the MFN status, a jargon for giving equal treatment to all trade partners under the WTO framework, to Pakistan unilaterally in 1996.

Between April 2018 and January 2019, India’s exports to Pakistan had risen 22.1 per cent from a year earlier, while imports from Pakistan inched up by 12.6 per cent. While India’s exports of cotton crashed 71.4 per cent in the April-June period of this fiscal, that of plastics dropped 24.6 per cent. Exports of organic chemicals, however, rose 8.2 per cent in the first quarter. Together these three items made up for close to a half of India’s exports to Pakistan.

On its part, Pakistan hasn’t granted the MFN status to India and continues to trade with India with a negative list of 1,209 products. This means barring those products on the list India can ship out other items to Pakistan.

There is a huge jump in India’s imports of viscose yarn compared to the previous year. This is hurting domestic yarn manufacturing spinning mills. Domestic spinners want to be able to buy viscose fiber at international prices and protection from low-priced yarn imports.

The main reason for the increase in viscose yarn imports is the lower material cost for Chinese and Indonesian spinning mills, from where most of the imported yarn is originating. In recent years, demand and use of viscose products has increased in the Indian textile industry, as the sector is slowly and gradually moving toward making more blended products both for domestic and export markets in line with changing fashion trends. Viscose products (including fiber, yarn, and fabric) are playing a major role in the growth of the overall textile manufacturing sector, within both the manmade fiber and the blended product space. Due to this growing momentum in viscose use, several new capacities have been added in the viscose segment with considerable investments, creating a lot of job opportunities across India. Even new technologies like air jet spinning have been introduced in the domestic viscose spinning segment.

Viscose use remains below one-tenth of cotton consumption or production in India.

If India can exploit its competitive advantage in the machinery, chemical and textile sectors, the country has great opportunities in the export market.

This will help the country explore the opportunities generated by the ongoing trade standoff between the US and China and narrow its trade deficit. This is especially true of products related to minerals, machinery, mechanical appliances and their parts, electrical machinery and equipment, chemicals, synthetic fibers and textiles.

Escalation in global trade tensions is a recent factor and India has been attracting better investments in manufacturing over the past four years. For instance FDI from China in Indian metallurgical industries rose around five times in fiscal ’19 and three times in the renewable energy and services sector. Similarly, FDI from the US in the Indian software and hardware industry rose more than three times in fiscal ’19. Metallurgical industries, education and power sectors also saw a spike in FDI from the US.

However the extent to which India can increase exports depend on market access, cost competitiveness of the product in comparison to the alternative in different markets and the generation of an adequate export surplus. For instance, exports of India’s major export commodity, steel, to the US have fallen by 35 per cent due to the imposition of the additional tariff of 25 per cent on steel imports by the US.