White Milano will be held in Italy, September 22 to 25, 2022. Some 400 brands are expected to reach out to some 28,000 buyers. Sustainability will play a key role within the show which will be hosting a selection of players, talks and events.

Companies will be given support to evaluate their emissions and increase their transparency levels among partners and clients of the value chain. Materials, technologies, zero waste production, customization and treatments that are increasingly less impactful on the environment will be given importance in an immersive and experiential version aimed at better involvement of industry players and the end consumer.

Among participating companies are Dyloan, a leader in innovative technologies and solutions for the fashion world according to principles of sustainability and transparency, Fulgar, an international leader in the market of manmade fibers, entirely made in Italy, specializing in the production of sustainable and responsible fibers, Tencel, a key manufacturer of cellulose fiber of vegetable origin, YKK, the global closure specialist that has set clear goals in climate change, protection of water resources and materials, management of chemical agents and respect for people.

Key players will discuss important topics such as digital passport, green washing, materials and technologies innovations, regenerative agriculture and new frontiers of retail.

Trident’s production of bath linen tumbled 37 per cent in August 2022 compared to August 2021.

Production of bed linen slipped 37 per cent. Production of yarn slumped 41 per cent. Production of paper declined 13 percent but production of chemicals rose one per cent.

Consolidated net profit declined 37 per cent in the first quarter but net sales rose 13 per cent.

Trident is a vertically integrated textile (yarn, bath and bed linen) and paper (wheat straw-based) manufacturer and is one of the largest players in the home textile space in India. It currently has around 400 points-of-sales across the country and plans to further expand its retail presence by doubling its point-of-sales next year. Trident believes in offering innovative solutions and delivering high-quality value-added products to customers. Trident is expanding spinning capacity at its Madhya Pradesh plant. The project will help strengthen Trident’s existing home textile business and further expand its market presence. Trident’s existing capacity is 5,43,744 spindles and 6,464 rotors, and the current capacity utilisation is 99 per cent. Trident has planned for small maintenance capex in the form of de-bottlenecking and upgradation of capacities. The company is committed to embark inclusive growth for all its stakeholders and continuing to excel in future.

Sales at Tod’s rose by 17 per cent in the first half of the year. Revenues fell by 19 per cent in Greater China due to Covid restrictions.

The Italian fashion group would focus on distribution network efficiency and on digital with the aim of increasing like-for-like and higher-margin turnover.

In the first half of 2022 revenues of the Italian fashion and luxury industry went up by 25 per cent. This includes textiles, leather goods, apparel, footwear, jewelry, beauty products and eyewear. These positive results are partly explained by the price hikes introduced to compensate for the increase in energy and raw material costs. Real revenue has grown by over 18 per cent above the level recorded before the 2008 financial crisis.

Italian companies are currently reaping sizeable benefits from the depreciation of the euro against the dollar, and their exports have grown significantly towards all countries, with the exception of Russia and Hong Kong. Between January 2022 and May 2022, Italian fashion exports increased by 21.9 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier. For the first five months of 2022, Italian fashion sales to the USwent up by 59 per cent, South Korea 34 per cent, Spain 31 per cent, France 25 per cent and Germany 20 per cent. Exports to the UK went up by 22 per cent.

Reliance Industries has acquired Shubhalakshmi Polyesters.

The acquisition will strengthen the textile manufacturing business of Reliance and is part of the company’s strategy to expand its downstream polyester business.

Shubhalakshmi Polyesters produces polyester fiber, yarns and textile-grade chips through direct polymerisation as well as extruder spinning with value addition through texturising. It has a continuous polymerisation capacity of 2,52,000 tons a year. The firm has two production facilities.

The compression wear and shapewear market is growing at a CAGR of seven per cent a year.

Compression wear and shapewear are tight-fitted apparels designed specifically to keep the body in a certain posture. Change in lifestyles, rise in disposable income of consumers, high-end advancements in fabrics and garment design and a surge in demand from the geriatric population are driving the growth of the market. Male users are leading the global compression wear and shapewear market. Men prefer compression garments during a workout, further fueling the demand from the male consumer segment. The women’s segment too is growing owing to interest in fitness and comfortable clothing and an increased participation of women in sports activities.

North America accounts for about 42 per cent of the market share. Among various distribution channels, the specialty retail stores segment holds a revenue share of 62 per cent and is expected to maintain its dominance ahead as well. This segment constitutes company-owned outlets that possess extensive penetration in various geographies and sell wide product lines of compression wear and shapewear. The performance and recovery segment accounts for the maximum revenue share. This segment is expected to grow owing to extensive usage of compression wear to prevent injuries, improve blood circulation, and speed up recovery.

German sports brand Puma has rolled out an interactive metaverse project dubbed Black Station to display a collection of its limited-edition sneaker NFTs.

The sneaker tokens are part of the firm’s Futrograde collection. Holders of these NFTs can redeem them for physical sneakers at any time.

The Black Station project brings Puma up to par with fellow sports giant Adidas as it becomes the latest sportswear brand to launch digital collectibles.Twenty years ago, Black Station was Puma’s label for its most innovative designs in fashion. Now it is a portal for digital exploration across fashion, sport performance, heritage classics, and innovation. Puma's Futrograde collection follows a recent trend among clothing and luxury brands that are releasing physical products affiliated with digital assets, generally known as phygitals. Other popular brands that have towed a similar path include luxe brands Prada, Tommy Hilfiger, and Estee Lauder.

Ever since its foundation in 1948, it has been the company’s philosophy to provide the fastest athletes with the fastest products, an attitude summarized in the brand’s motto Forever Faster.Track and field is sports and athleticism in its purest form and embedded in the very core of Puma. There are also improved versions of the gold-medal-winning PumaevoSpeed Nitro Elite and several new products for long-distance runners.

Indonesia’s earnings from exports of leather, finished leather goods, and footwear increased by 41 per cent in June 2022 compared to the same period in the previous year.

There has been a diversion of orders from several global brands to Indonesia. Utilities of the leather industry, leather goods, and footwear industries also increased to 84 percent in July 2022. Utilities before the pandemic were around 80 percent.

Indonesia holds exhibitions of footwear, leather, and finished leather products. These are a means of product introduction and a bridge between business actors and between business actors and consumers. The goal is to increase inter-industry linkages between national footwear manufacturers and domestic leather producers as well as efforts to make the import substitution program a success and strengthen the supply chain between upstream and downstream sectors of the domestic shoe industry.

Exports of shoes from Indonesia grew 28 percent in 2021. Indonesia is the sixth largest footwear exporter in the world. Indonesia believes the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will open up opportunities to increase exports of footwear. The country’s shoe exports to RCEP countries reached 29 percent of total exports in 2020 followed by the United States at around 27 percent.

The European textiles industry has called on the European Union to adopt a wholesale price cap for gas.

It says a cap above a certain level will result in collapse of businesses. It wants the TTF benchmark parameters to be changed and TTF to be decoupled from the electricity market and the revision of the merit-order principle for the electricity market, which is no longer serving the purpose it was designed for.

Another proposal is that the state-aid framework should be amended and includes textiles finishing, textiles services and the nonwoven sectors as well. If this doesn’t happen, says the industry, Europe will remain without its integrated textiles ecosystem and would not be able to translate into reality the EU textiles strategy for more sustainable and circular textiles products.

Given the dire international competition in which the EU textiles industry operates, it says, it is not possible to just pass on the increased costs to consumers. Yet, with these sky-high prices, companies cannot afford to absorb those costs.EU textile companies are mainly small and medium units that do not have the financial structure to absorb such a shock. The industry fears that if the EU does not act international competitors will have an advantage in the market, resulting in the de-industrialisation of Europe and a worsened reliance on foreign imports of essential products.

Result of high energy prices causes production loss Last month gas wholesale prices reached record levels, triggering sky-high electricity prices. Already, in March 2022, with EU gas wholesale prices what they were, the business case for keeping textiles production was no longer there. To date, natural gas wholesale prices are more than 15 times higher compared to 2021. Many businesses have suspended their production processes to avoid the loss of tens of thousands of euros every day.

MMF production, Nonwovens are the affected sectors

The manmade fibers industry is an energy intensive sector and a major consumer of natural gas and electricity in the manufacturing of its fibers.Not only is it being affected by higher energy process, it is also experiencing shortages and sharply rising costs of its raw materials.For the nonwovens segment, production processes – which use both fibers and filaments extruded in situ – are also highly dependent on gas and electricity. Polymers melting and extrusion, fibers carding, web-forming, web-bonding and drying are energy-intensive techniques. Nonwoven materials can be found in many applications crucial to citizens like in healthcare (face masks) or automotive (batteries).

For some segments the use of gas has no technological substitute: for example the dyeing and finishing production units make very intense use of gas. These production units are mainly composed by boilers and driers, which only work on gas and there is no alternative technology.

The textile services sector requires a considerable amount of energy to keep services, particularly hospitals and care homes, stocked with lifesaving material as well as clothing and bed linens for patients themselves. Losing these businesses would cause a lack of clothing for healthcare professionals, including protective sanitary gowns for surgeons, nurses and doctors, uniforms including other forms of personal protective equipment.

The Indian textile industry needs to develop its strength and formulate an effective strategy when the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) comes into effect.

Bangladesh and India are interested in deepening trade ties.Bangladesh is an emerging star in the global textile industry as it has succeeded in converting itself into a global factory for textile products.Bangladesh’s apparel exports over the last fiscal increased 35 per cent over the previous fiscal. On the other hand, India’s apparel exports increased 33 per cent in the last fiscal.

Currently, Bangladesh imports more yarn and fabric from India and exports finished products like apparel. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement may change this equation.There is a view that exporting cotton and yarn from India would enable competing countries including Bangladesh to offer tough competition to Indian exporters after getting cheaper raw materials. A trade agreement between India and Bangladesh, two large economies in South Asia, can boost intra-regional trade in South Asia, which is the least connected region in terms of trade when compared to other regions such as North America, Europe and Asean. India can double its merchandise exports to Bangladesh if the latter reduces its peak tariff of 25 per cent on 415 goods under the CEPA.

Made in Bangladesh Week will begin on November 12, 2022.The event will showcase the strength and potential of Bangladesh’s apparel industry. The goal is to present the important and positive sides of the apparel industry on the world stage.

The apparel industry will be presented as a sustainable and innovative industry to international brands and retailers. The hope is that branding Bangladesh-made garment products will aid in recovering from the pandemic losses.

Bangladesh has been enjoying growth in garment exports since August last year. Numbers were high in July to August this year as well but purchase orders have been shrinking and for the next holiday season orders have dropped by 20 per cent to 30 percent due to rising inflation and recession in Europe and the US, Bangladesh’s main markets.

Bangladesh’s huge clothing industry is looking for new markets in countries such as Japan and South Korea. Inflation has stifled orders from its key buyers, North America and Europe.Most factories are getting orders of less than 30 per cent of their capacity for the next winter season amid record inflation rates across Europe and the US. The South Asian nation’s producers of readymade garments contribute around a fifth of its gross domestic product and more than 80 per cent of its export earnings.