The technical textile industry in India is growing at a CAGR of 20 per cent. The diverse range of technical textiles in India can be broadly grouped into categories such as agrotech, meditech, packtech, clothtech, indutech, hometech, geotech, Oekotech, protech, sportstech, buildtech and mobitech. All these sectors are expected to see double digit growth.

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 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. However, the absence of a clear classification for technical textiles is creating confusion and many genuine manufacturers do not get the incentives and subsidies allowed to this sector. This is impacting investment in this segment.

India still has a long way to go as it currently lacks the ability to domestically fulfill 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.

Menswear trade show Project NY, to be held from July 20-22, 2019 in New York has revealed a program showcasing the hottest trends for Fall/Winter 2019-20. The trade show will address one of the biggest questions in contemporary men’s fashion: Where next for streetwear?

The three-day show will feature five neighborhoods, each dedicated to a different aspect of menswear. The Tents, for example, will play host to high-end contemporary luxury brands such as Troubadour, Eden Park and Ace & Everett, while The Foundry will offer visitors a curated selection of men’s apparel, home goods and male grooming products, among other “purposeful objects”, with confirmed exhibitors including Raw Shaving, Beltology and The Frenchie Group.

Elsewhere, Project Sole will focus on footwear and Blue will present buyers with a range of premium denim brands. The last day of the show will be dedicated to streetwear. It will include talks entitled “Streetwear Starter Pack: FW19 Edition”, led by Brian Trunzo, senior consultant at WGSN, and “The Future of Streetwear”, led by WGSN associate editor Quentin Humphrey.

Project NY will also discuss other growing tendencies in menswear. Moderated by Trunzo, the “Take (Back) Ivy & The Great Prep Revival” panel, featuring Jack Carlson of Rowing Blazers, GQ’s Sam Hine, Jeremy Kirkland of Blamo! and vintage collector Josh Matthews, will explore the resurgence of the prep style in men’s fashion.

The ongoing US-China trade war threatens to dent exports from the world's two largest economies but other countries may see Chinese and American demand diverted their way. Vietnam is one of the places most expected to benefit from the trade war-inspired buying. The Southeast Asian nation has been touted as a possible winner in the US-China trade war because of its low cost of manufacturing. Some companies have already begun shifting production out of China to avoid tariffs imposed by America.

Vietnam will likely benefit from those adjusted supply chains for a long time. It is now set to be kind of a China 2.0 for various reasons. While firms have been limited by the logistical constraints of relocating and building new facilities in Vietnam, the country has begun to see new orders flooding into its existing industries that have some capacity for increased production.

Big export orders are flowing into the seafood, and the furniture and the garment industry. People have started to divert business away from China. Vietnam’s companies have good earnings growth and are trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of around 12 times, which is lower than in neighboring countries. Vietnam unseated Singapore as Southeast Asia's top grossing market for initial public offerings in 2018.

Pakistan is upgrading its filament production capacity. The aim is to ensure availability of the raw material for the industry as well as fair protection to the domestic industry to attract further investment. Internationally cotton is 30 per cent of total fiber consumption and manmade fiber and filament is at 70 per cent while the situation in Pakistan is the opposite. The filament manufacturing group of the textile division of Pakistan has committed to invest $125 million to upgrade its existing production capacit

Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Cambodia are leading exporters of synthetic textiles following China. So far domestic policies in Pakistan and market conditions have hindered the country’s foray into this emerging market.

In India higher GST rates have had the effect of raising cost of production and restricting supply as the business environment became tougher to manage. Polyester filament yarn production increased five per cent in 2017 up to July, relative to the same period the year before. Polyester filament yarn makes up the vast majority of total filament yarn production in India this market year as 92 per cent of total yarn production consists of polyester filament yarn.

Nylon filament yarn production makes up just three per cent of total filament yarn production in India. The increase in polyester filament yarn production has offset the drop in polypropylene filament yarn and viscose filament yarn production.

Gas and electricity tariffs have been rationalised for the export-focused industry in an attempt to cut cost of production and boost competitiveness. These incentives have brought down the cost of production for the textile value chain.

Pakistan has been a net importer of cotton for nearly two decades. Its cotton production hit the highest in the last ten years in 2014-15 and that year too the country imported about a million bales.

In 2018-19 season, Pakistan is expected to face a shortfall of three to four million bales. High duties and taxes of up to ten per cent, including three per cent customs duty, two per cent additional duty and five per cent sales tax, were imposed on cotton imports in July 2018, leading to a sharp decline in imports. Now the plan is to rationalise subsidies for agricultural crops in order to encourage the cultivation of cotton. The cotton ginning industry os being encouraged to reduce contamination, improve productivity and upgrade the machinery.

Owing to trade tensions between the US and China, Pakistan’s textile industry is receiving a large number of import queries from the US. Simultaneously Pakistan is working on expanding its market share in China, Japan, the European Union and the US.

The Spanish club La Liga Powerhouse Barcelona has filed a trademark lawsuit against Istanbul-based Barca Textile for infringement of trademark rights. Barca (or Barça) is the colloquial name of the La Liga champion and a petition to a Turkish court by the club's Turkish lawyer Nazlı Deniz Kol says this is how the club is known across the world. The club has countless trademarks in nearly 100 countries and a large fan base in Turkey as well.

The lawsuit comes after the club, which plans investments in Turkey, failed to register its trademark when it turned out that Barca had already secured the name officially after applying to the state-run patent authority in Turkey. The lawyer, however, says Barca has been in use as the name of the football club since 1899.

However, Barca Textile's owner Ali Öziçer reveals that company, founded in 1997, is named after "boat" in Italian, as a logo of a boat next to the company's name indicates. It has been exporting clothes to many European countries under the name and that it is a registered trademark in those countries. It recently applied for a trademark in Spain, but was turned down. The company found out that the Barcelona club was planning to open a restaurant in Turkey under this name and had applied for trademark rights. It filed an objection to their application, and they filed a lawsuit in return.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry in Egypt recently announced plans to establish the largest textile and garments city in the country. The city in Sadat City, includes 592 factories. The new city is one of the major projects to be organised in Egypt, according to the latest technologies in the spinning and textile industry, operated by the Chinese company, Ningxia Mankai Investment Company.

Furthermore, the Armed Forces Engineering Authority has completed about 50 per cent of the construction work in the first phase of the city over 600,000 sq m. This includes 150 factories at a total cost of construction work estimated at EGP 2.1bn. The ministry plans to start experimental operation of some factories in the first phase in May, with the completion of all operating work by the end of this year. The project includes three phases and will be developed over four years. The Chinese company has signed initial sales contracts for 48 factories in the first phase for Chinese companies, and is negotiating with more than 60 Chinese investors to sell other factories in the second phase.

Garment accessories and packaging manufacturers in Bangladesh have sought policy support including low cost funds and incentives. As a backward linkage industry, this sector contributes $7.10 billion to the garment export earnings of the country.

The sector helps exporters reduce their lead time by providing accessories and packaging products in a short time. In addition to supplying packaging products to local exporters, the sector is also exporting products directly and has become self reliant.

Makers of garment accessories in Bangladesh are gearing up to meet the demand of the growing apparel sector. They are emphasising more on producing high-quality accessory items to establish this sector as an individual industry rather than a backward integration of the readymade garment industry.

About 100 new factories started operations last year in Bangladesh. Currently, around 1,700 factories are producing accessory items in the country. Bangladesh produces and exports accessories like woven labels, leather badges, stone and metal motifs, rubber patches, gum tapes, satin and cotton ribbon hangers, price tags, and buttons and zippers. In all, accessory makers and packagers supply 34 types of products. The sector contributes 15 to 20 per cent to net export earnings of the readymade garment sector.

Volcom is working with Cotton Connect on a program to increase the supply of organic cotton. The program forecasts by improving wages and living standards of farmers growing organic cotton, it will increase organic cotton harvests and safeguard the world’s environment. Action-sports brand Volcom, based in the US, is a part of Kering, a France-based luxury conglomerate. Kering is also the parent company of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen.

Cotton Connect, based in the UK, works on building sustainable supply chains, teaching sustainable agriculture practices and developing skills of women in countries where organic supply chains start. The program will also guarantee that yarn labeled and sold as organic cotton is indeed organic cotton. Certifying cotton as organic can occasionally be a murky process. This project makes it possible for a company to seek traceability in a supply chain, which was said to be impossible.

The program also offers a year long organic-farming-skills program for farmers that includes working to develop natural pest controls and organic fertilizers. The program also offers sessions on women’s rights and life skills. It embodies both environmental and social benefits. The program opened in 2017 in Madhya Pradesh and produced nearly 27 metric tons of organic cotton.

Textile major Arvind is keen on introducing DyeCoo’s CO2-dyeing technology at its manufacturing plants across India. This eliminates the need for water and chemical dyes and is environmental free. DyeCoo, a Dutch company, is looking to partner leading textile firms in India.

If all goes well, Arvind will be the first company in India to introduce sustainable technology in the manufacturing of textiles in India. Arvind is in the process of ramping up textile production across its manufacturing units as it plans to double its textile business in the next five years. The company has earmarked an investment of Rs 500 crores every year for the next five years to expand its textile business.

Arvind has an annual production capacity of more than 100 million meters in denim, 132 million meters in woven fabric, 10,000 tons of knit fabric and 48,000 meters of voile. The group has built a strong portfolio of brands that straddles consumer segments across the income pyramid.

The company is also looking at developing garment clusters in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Each of these clusters will employ 4000 to 8000 workers. These clusters will be like a global supply chain. Arvind already has a cluster operational in Ethiopia.