Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) has appealed to all brands and retail chains operating in India to source their requirements from within the country instead of importing. ITF’s appeal comes in the wake of a huge jump in import of readymade garments from Bangladesh. The government is making best possible efforts to promote ‘Make in India’, ‘Skill India’ and incentivising job creation. Indian textile clusters can serve better, source the needs of both western and Indian brands both in terms of quality and competitive pricing. Products sourced from within were far better than those sourced from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Indonesia.

Retailers and brands should explore possibilities to partner with garmenting hubs in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Karur, Erode, Surat and Ludhiana, among others, and focus on local sourcing. Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data has revealed that Bangladesh exports touched a high of $1.07 billion between July and April of 2018-19 fiscal compared to $701.56 million earned during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal That's not all. The resultant impact is far more in terms of job loss across the textile value chain.

Textile Exchange and Reblend have joined Circle Economy’s Cotton Recycling Pilot as knowledge partners. The duo will join forces with Circle Economy to add their respective insights in order to improve and accelerate the uptake of post-consumer recycled cotton in the apparel sector.

Cotton Recycling Pilot is a project seeking to remedy the issues currently encountered by firms looking to incorporate post-consumer recycled cotton into their product ranges. The initiative aims at identifying brand and retailer requirements for recycled textiles, addressing available raw materials supply and performance barriers, creating reference documents to facilitate faster scaling, and enabling the production of real products through supply chain engagement.

Having now joined the project, Textile Exchange and Reblend will support the work of Cotton Recycling Pilot through sharing data and insights from past projects and ongoing work. Textile Exchange, based in the US, is a global non-profit that works closely with its members to drive industry transformation in preferred fibers, integrity and standards and responsible supply networks. It identifies and shares best practices regarding farming, materials, processing, traceability and product end-of-life in order to reduce the textile industry’s impact on the world’s water, soil and air, and the human population. Reblend is an Amsterdam-based textiles label and change agency for fabrics and fashion with a positive impact.

Pakistan’s textile exports in the first nine months of the current fiscal year grew 19 per cent in quantity and three per cent in value. Pakistan will provide incentives to the textile sector to boost value-added exports. The aim is to boost value-added textile exports to $30 billion over the next five years. The special energy package will continue for the five zero-rated sectors. The drawback of local taxes and levies scheme will continue for the five zero-rated sectors. This scheme was announced in the outgoing textile policy for exporters of textile products on free-on-board value of their enhanced exports on an incremental basis if exports increased more than ten per cent over the previous year’s exports.

Financing under the subsidised export finance scheme and long-term financing facility will be increased. A five per cent customs duty will be applied on raw cotton imports from July 2019. Support price will also be announced for raw cotton based on export parity.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will issue promissory notes for sales tax refunds for exporters. Sales tax refunds stand cleared till November 30, 2018. The FBR will also issue promissory notes of a three-year tenure with an interest rate of ten per cent.

Screen Print will be held in Mumbai, April 24 to 26, 2020. The aim is to bring global technologies under one roof. This will showcase latest machinery in sectors like screen printing, textile printing, digital and sublimation. Apart from hosting prominent names from the industry, the show will also recognise path-breakers and technology inventors within the screen printing industry. An awards ceremony will be hosted to encourage and support the screen printing industry. Companies will get networking and business opportunities.

Focused knowledge seminars throwing light on various processes and technical advances is another highlight that will keep exhibitors and visitors up-to-date with trends. The show floor will display an array of product launches and live demonstrations to help decision makers and buyers invest in the right technology.

Despite the advent of other printing technologies, screen printing still holds a prominent position as many new application areas are being discovered like automobile dials and decals, ceramic decals, metal labels, product application labels, PCB and electronics, home appliances, engineering, electrical goods, sports goods etc. The textile and garment industry uses flat bed, rotary and carousal screen printing. Even in the commercial printing space, screen printing is extensively used in graphics printing and value addition with special effects.

Ketan Desai has taken over as the president and Dinesh Navadia as vice-president of Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Gujarat recently. Desai promised to build a conducive atmosphere for trade and industry in the city. He assured that he will make effective presentations to government to sort out the industry-related issues.

As per AM Naik, Chairman, L&T Group they need to take the city’s economy to villages and work in the education and medical field. He said his work as chairman of National Skill Development Corporation is to equip four crore youths of the country with skills.

French Luxury group Kering recently announced grouping most of its Swiss logistics activities into a single hub by relocating those to Italy over the next three years. The new hub near Novara will raise Kering’s stock-keeping capacity and improve its logistical efficiency. The company’s logistics activities in Switzerland will be substantially sized down, but will stay in use. Kering has also decided to move its central US warehouse to a new location in New Jersey, which is under construction, and will also need to make new investments in Asia.

Earlier this month, Kering settled a charge with the Italian tax authorities regarding its Swiss logistics subsidiary, Luxury Goods International SA, for a high amount of $1.39 billion.

Grasim Industries, a flagship company of Aditya Birla Group (ABG), has added Rieter’s latest air-jet spinning machine J 26 at Textile Research and Development Centre (TRADC) in Kharach, Gujarat. The Rieter air-jet spinning machine J 26 includes unique characteristics that differentiate it from other air-jet machines. This machine coupled with industry benchmark autoleveler draw frame RSB-D 50 guarantees the perfect combination of spinning preparatory and end spinning system.

The unique Com4®jet yarn structure that excels by its low pilling tendency, high washing resistance and dimensional stability offers great potential in the development of new, innovative products. The state of the art TRADC is a pilot plant involved in addressing the downstream textile value chain and to provide comprehensive Research and Development (R&D) for all the VSF manufacturing units belonging to the ABG conglomerate.

The technology center helps upholding ABG’s strong commitment towards contributing technological advancements and producing eco-sustainable products. TRADC’s Lifestyle Studio, which displays fabrics and garments primarily made of VSF of Grasim, is an additional highlight in the technology center. The joint co-operation between Grasim and Rieter will provide benefits both in downstream processing and in the fabric. The conducted trials and development work results in distinct end products with yarns spun from mature technologies and sustainable fibers.

Jeanologia will present a new production model at Itma 2019. Based on digitalization and sustainability it reduces times and simplifies processes, reinventing the way of producing jeans. The company will show a complete solution that achieves 100 per cent ecological production, speeding up time to market through the perfect integration of hardware and software. This new agile and efficient way of producing drastically reduces lead time from months to weeks or even days, adapting to the new market needs.

This innovative process also reduces to a minimum the use of water and chemicals, obtaining significant savings and eliminating discharge, helping companies to reduce their environmental footprint, lower costs and take care of workers’ health. The production model is completely technological, efficient, ethical and sustainable without compromising product authenticity.

Since 1994, Jeanologia’s mission has been to create an ethical, sustainable and eco-efficient industry through disruptive technology and knowhow. Its laser, G2 ozone and e-flow systems have revolutionized the textile industry. The company offers infinite design and garment finishing possibilities and has clients in five continents through its ten subsidiaries. The export of its machines and services represents 90 per cent of its total billing, reaching 61 countries. The biggest market brands place their trust in Jeanologia, using technology developed by the company.

Lycra’s Fusion fiber creates ultra-sheer, run-resistant hosiery with natural-looking shine.

Legs appear better than bare, which minimises imperfections and also make them look and feel stunning, with hosiery crafted out of this technology. This method alternates knitted courses of covered Lycra Fusion fiber with courses of bare Lycra Fusion fiber, which is plated with polyamide. What results is an unique garment offering several desirable benefits to the value chain. Mills can benefit from this as no special equipment is needed and it can be produced on a normal hosiery machine. They can reduce production costs due to the ability to use bare knitted Lycra Fusion fiber. And differentiated benefits to drive sales down the value chain are offered by patent pending innovation. Retailers and brands can benefit from this new garment as they can offer hosiery styles with natural shine, thus filling the need gap for women across the world. It offers improved table layout in stores and opens up design possibilities in ladder/run-resistant hosiery.

Ultra-sheer hosiery gives a natural appearance to the legs. However, consumers do not wish to forgo garment strength and durability for this and want transparent hosiery, which halts runs and ladders in their tracks and helps in augmenting the garment’s life.

Grasim’s viscose business increased 18 per cent year on year in Q4. The share of domestic sales rose to 86 per cent from 83 per cent in the same quarter last year.

Grasim’s popular viscose staple fiber brand Liva has been extended to the home textile category with the launch of Liva Home. Today, Liva partners over 40 retail brands and is available across 3,500 outlets in exclusive business outlets and large format stores in India in addition to many more multi brand outlets in 250 cities of India. This has resulted in doubling viscose fiber consumption in the country over the past four years.

Grasim’s viscose business will continue to focus on expanding in India by partnering textile value chain, achieving better customer connect through its brand Liva, extensions into new categories and enriching the product mix through a larger share of the specialty fiber. The viscose business has been registering double digit growth in the last few years and the market share of viscose in the overall fiber basket has gone up from 3.5 per cent to five per cent in the last four years.