The Japanese government recently passed a plan to sign a revised free trade agreement (FTA) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The revised FTA, which includes liberalisation of investment and service fields, will be a huge step towards enhancing the economic partnership between Japan and ASEAN.

The country is expected to sign the agreement on February 27 and seek approval from parliament this autumn, while ASEAN countries will start the signing procedure from March 2. The original FTA between Japan and ASEAN went into effect in 2008 and was Japan’s first multilateral free trade deal, which focused on the trade of goods.

To further optimise benefits from this pact, the two sides started negotiations on investment and services in 2010 and concluded at the ministerial level in 2017.

The ready-to-wear and textile industries together gave Turkey a trade surplus of 15.6 billion dollars in 2018.
Ready-to-wear exports which were four million dollars in 1970 reached 17.6 billion dollars at the end of 2018.The aim for 2030 is 30 billion dollars of exports. With the severe contraction in the domestic market in Turkey, companies need to direct themselves to exports in order to survive the recession with minimal damage. Turkey’s average export price of 1.5 dollars per kilogram has reached 18 dollars in the apparel industry.

Turkey’s readymade clothing and apparel sector, which has assumed the role of a pioneer, does value added exports and contributes to employment and exports. The apparel sector contributes 10.7 per cent to Turkey’s overall exports and 13.1 per cent to industrial exports. The EU is the biggest market for Turkey’s ready-to-wear and apparel sector. This is followed by Germany, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France, Iraq, the US, Italy, Denmark and Israel. As for the other markets, there was a 48 per cent increase in exports to Russia, one of Turkey’s largest trading partners, followed by a 30 per cent increase in exports to China, the world’s largest ready-to-wear supplier. Other exports are to Qatar, Libya, Slovakia, Serbia, Egypt, Romania, Albania and Kazakhstan.

Fashion group Esprit Holdings recently posted a bigger loss for the first half amid changes in consumer behavior, price competition and reduced customer traffic across its distribution channels due to weakness of its brand.

The Europe-focused clothing retailer reported a net loss of HK$1.77 billion ($2.25 million) for the six months ended December, including a HK$924 million ($118 million) loss on provision for store closures and leases. That compared with a net loss of HK$954 million ($122 million) in the year-ago period. Revenue slid to HK$6.77 billion from HK$8.04 billion.

Esprit plans to cut about 40 per cent of its non-store jobs and reduce the number of products it sells in stores as it restructures in the wake of tough competition from online and fast-fashion retailers. The apparel group would also shut loss-making stores, restructure cost base and improve products offering, while time would be needed to draw customers back into its stores. The group expects its revenue to further decline in the next two financial years due to closure of loss-making stores.

An integrated large scale eri farming project has been launched in Arunachal Pradesh under the North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme. Financial assistance will be provided to 4000 beneficiaries under the scheme in the state. Skill training will be imparted to sericulture farmers and weavers under the Samarth Scheme for capacity building in the textile sector.

There are 27,000 looms and 33,000 handloom weavers in Arunachal Pradesh. Initially the project would cover five districts—Papumpare, East Kameng, Siang, East Siang and West Siang. Ninety per cent financial assistance will be provided to registered weavers wanting to upgrade their old looms.

Silk production is being encouraged in the Northeast. Projects worth Rs 690 crores are being implemented in the north east states. Out of these six are in Assam, one in Sikkim, two each in Meghalaya and Manipur and the rest in other states. The scheme is aimed at a holistic development of sericulture in all its spheres from plantation development to production of fabrics with value addition at every stage of the production chain.

All four commercially exploited varieties of silk — mulberry, muga, eri and tasar — are produced in the north east and this region contributes about 21 per cent of the total silk production in the country.

Yarn expo will be held in China from March 12 to 14, 2019. The fair consistently offers new options at each edition, with a wide array of yarn and fiber products, from fancy yarn to high-quality wool yarn, cotton, chemical fibers and many more. Over 460 exhibitors from China, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and newcomer Egypt will be present. The fancy yarn zone will see 125 exhibitors displaying their latest fancy yarn collections.

For brands in the textile industry, Yarn Expo is a prime platform to find innovation, whether that’s in sustainable fibers, high-quality yarns or unique functional products. As such, the event has seen fashion brands like Adidas, Ralph Lauren and Zara source upstream in recent editions, partnering with yarn and fiber suppliers in order to meet consumer demand. The fair will be held concurrent with four renowned fairs to attract the entire textile supply chain.

Today’s consumers are more conscious of the materials that go into their clothes. Following a year of fluctuating demands and trends in the textile industry, especially in China and the Asia-Pacific region, it’s more important than ever for suppliers to continuously innovate and produce strong products in order to survive in the uncertainty of the recent economic climate.

Singapore dye manufacturer DyStar Group has opened the first of its kind testing laboratory for the export industry in Bangladesh, providing end-to-end solutions in the supply chain, from raw materials to final products along with the testing services. The new facility, Texanlab Bangladesh, in Dhaka can test not only textile products but also dyes and auxiliaries. The company has Texanlabs in India and Bangladesh, and plans to set up similar labs in cities like Turkey, Vietnam and may be Pakistan.

The new lab would help to support the industry assisting them reduce the harmful chemicals, creating a greener and cleaner environment. Texanlab being a service company of DyStar Group closely works with more than 50 global brands and retailers and has tested more than 3,50,000 RSL parameters since its inception.

Specialty textile chemicals supplier CHT has seen a spike in demand for formaldehyde-free binders used in textile finishing and pigment dyeing – despite some initial doubts about the effectiveness of these types of formulations.

Formaldehyde-based finishes, as is the case with many chemicals used in the textile supply chain, have come under greater regulatory scrutiny. Many customers expected that the formaldehyde-free technology would lead to higher costs and adjustments in production processes. Nevertheless, in 2018 the team of CHT Germany was able to sell more than 500 tons of formaldehyde-free binders in Germany alone.

CHT, based in Germany, has set the goal to become the preferred partner for sustainable specialty chemicals all over the world. In all of its business fields its product ranges are now being increasingly substituted by future-oriented, more sustainable products. In order to future-proof its operations, CHT has also been developing alternatives to a variety of traditional textile chemicals which not only meet but exceed new and existing legal regulations. The ultimate goal of this ongoing work is to completely substitute critical substances and to develop future-oriented alternatives even if the industry has not yet the demand for such solutions. Chemical firms are now moving towards a greener approach to textile finishing.

Bangladesh is likely to sign a MoU with Russia to boost exports, especially in apparels. The country has also been looking at Russia for quite some time as a potential export destination for readymade garments. There is big demand for Bangladesh-made apparel items, seafood, potato, medicine and other products. Russia is interested in importing these items from Bangladesh.”

Bangladesh’s apparel exports to Russia amounted to $427.8 million during the fiscal 2017-18, according to Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau. Knitwear contributed to $260.6 million of export while woven segment contributed $167.2 million. From July to January 2019, apparel exports amounted to $276.3 million, of $169 million was knitwear items and $107.3 million woven items.

US companies in China forecast a gloomy year ahead. They are worrying about a deterioration in bilateral trade ties and nearly a quarter are delaying investments. China and the US have exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs on more than 300 billion dollars of goods in two-way trade. The tariffs have directly hit US businesses, increasing costs and lowering demand from Chinese consumers with some companies even forced to lay off workers. About one-fifth of firms have moved or are considering moving production outside of China, with the tariffs and rising costs top reasons. A majority of firms think tariffs should be kept in place in some fashion during negotiations.

Market access -- a long-time concern for US, European and other foreign businesses and at the top of the American administration’s list of gripes -- remains a problem for most companies. Another issue under debate between the world's top two economic powers is protection of American intellectual property, with the US accusing China of encouraging theft of US creations. For one-third of firms this has caused them to limit investment in China, rising to about one-half in technology and resource and industrial sectors.

Nevertheless, China is still a critically important market for many American companies.

Monday 18. February 2019 - Mimaki, a leading manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers and cutting systems, today launched its, Make the Difference campaign, designed to celebrate Mimaki-powered print innovation and customer success. Produced by some of the most inspirational print service providers and brands across Europe, the project explores digital print diversity with stories focussing on applications from POSPOP to textiles, direct-to-object and 3D applications.

Encapsulated by the campaign’s full title, ‘Your Inspiration, Our Innovation, Make the Difference’, the initiative showcases innovative, high quality and creative commercial projects produced by Mimaki customers. In addition to the creation of a Mimaki community designed to share success, the campaign that will initially run for 6 months, will also form an inspirational catalogue of best-in-class printed applications to drive increased ideas, knowledge sharing, business growth and profitability.

“We are delighted to launch this campaign today and further support and celebrate our amazing customers. At Mimaki, we see success as a team effort,” says Danna Drion, Mimaki Europe’s Senior Marketing Manager. “By working together, we can fuse creativity, technology and energy to deliver incredible results.

“This campaign will highlight the fantastic work that our customers deliver in partnership with other suppliers including graphic designers, artists, architects and engineers – producing jobs that are not only commercially successful, but inspirational and educational too. Over the coming weeks and months, we will be telling their stories, representing industry segments including sign graphics and industrial print to fashion, interior design and architecture. We will celebrate and reward featured customers at FESPA in Munich in May 2019,” continued Drion.

The first series in the campaign, launched today, tells three different stories featuring Mimaki customers and a technical Mimaki blog. These include Gate7 and its client KUHN, a leading UK-based manufacturer of farm machinery, as well as the award-winning University of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, UK. The technical blog, on the other hand, will explain about a set of Mimaki’s proprietary core technologies used to ensure stable production and continuous operation to deliver superior results. All stories will be available on the dedicated ‘Make the Difference’ campaign page. This page also features a Mimaki customer contact form, for those interested in participating.

“While the campaign has only just begun and we continue to invite customers to participate, we are already excited by many of the applications we’ve experienced so far,” Drion stated, “We hope that the unique blend of art and science, creativity and technology, design and delivery, will provide the inspiration for the development of new and profitable solutions for Mimaki customers across Europe.”