Sateri is China’s first lyocell producer to be Oeko-Tex STeP certified. Sateri has been awarded the Sustainable Textile Production (STeP) certification for responsible production. Sateri’s lyocell facility has also obtained the highest ranking of level three in the certification assessment scoring for exemplary implementation of best manufacturing practices.

Oeko-Tex is an independent Swiss-based certification organization. The STeP by Oeko-Tex certification comprises three levels describing the extent to which a company has achieved sustainable production and working conditions of factories in the textile industry. The areas of assessment include chemicals management, environmental performance, environmental management, social responsibility, quality management, as well as occupational health and safety.

The certification confirms Sateri’s lyocell fiber is free of any harmful substances and complies with European standards. This label not only attests to Sateri’s lyocell fiber as safe and manufactured in an environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and safe facility, but also the group’s commitment to higher levels of transparency and accountability through the product traceability feature of the label. This not only reflects Sateri’s relentless pursuit for responsible manufacturing excellence but marks an important step towards sustainable value chain management. Sateri will continue to work with upstream and downstream partners to realise the sustainable development of its entire industrial chain.

Focusing on sustainability, the recent spring-summer edition of Denim Premiere Vision highlighted the growing demand for green denim among consumers. The event offered a wide range of alternatives to raw cotton and chemicals for clothing and showcased vintage and workwear-inspired apparel styles.

Alternate denim making techniques in focus

Demand for denim has rebounded due to its ability to fit with the ‘Work from Home’ routine. Denim mills banked on their signature products and updated them with sustainability features. The denim fashion seminar highlighting spring-summer ’23 trends introduced cotton-alternatives like hemp, and new high-tech washing and finishing techniques. The sector spearheaded the sustainability wave in fashion.

An example was the introduction of the most sustainable iteration of the Green Replicants Collection by garment-maker and laundry company Elleti Group. The company believes, brands are not always ready to green solutions, especially those in the contemporary and advance contemporary segments. Hence, it develops denim by using the patented Wiser Wash technology. The technology replaces harmful chemicals and pumice stone with ozone treatments.

Denim pants developed by Elleti Group using the Wiser Wash technique were awarded the ‘green’ Environmental Impact Measuring score. These denims are cheaper than regular ones as they eliminate water and chemical costs. However, its consistency is yet to be assessed before rolling out broadly.

Exploring green blends and recycled fibers

Chinese-Vietnamese mill Prosperity Textile experimented with a wide variety of green blends. The Galactic Collection by the company focuses on the use of bio-based polyester. The material offers elasticity and recovery features while being compostable in specific environments. The mill has also teamed up with Swedish company Sodra to introduce rayon made of wood pulp and 20 per cent recycled textiles for its vintage-looking Once More Denim collection.

Turkish mill Calik’s new Re-J collection highlighted recycled fibers including pre- and post-consumer cotton. The company explored the market for hemp blends and fabrics containing up to 20 per cent of natural ingredients. PG Denim focused on saturated colors, flocking and 3D effects, as well as digital prints and metallic finishes. The brand has incorporated denim into sweaters and tops in addition to jeans. It has also developed eco-friendly dyeing technique to reduce chemical usage, notes Paolo Gnutti, Founder. The brand’s ‘Green Denim’ range uses GRS-certified textiles and aimed to tap high-end clients in France, Italy and the US.

RSWM is foraying into knitted fabrics in line with demand trends. This decision is expected to contribute Rs 800 crores to its topline over the next two to three years. The Rs 3,000 crore company has earmarked Rs 200 crores for the foray and is currently investing Rs 80 crores in plant and machinery in its existing facility. Demand for woven fabrics has dwindled while there is a surge in demand for knitted fabrics from both domestic and international brands. The knitted fabric plant will become operational in April 2022 and will add to Rs 275 crores to the topline in a year with a 400 ton plant capacity but is expected to scale up to Rs 800 crores after the capacity gets augmented to 1000 tons. Over the next two or three years investments will be another Rs 500 crores in new, upgradation and debottlenecking projects spread over various plants.

RSWM, a group company of LNJ Bhilwara, is one of the largest makers and exporters of synthetic and blended spun yarns from India. RSWM is also exploring an opportunity into garmenting fabrication franchising as international brands are now keen on finished garments rather than buying yarns. The company will offer soft bridge loans to set up or expand with buyback arrangements.

The business situation along the global textile value chain is very good, says a survey by International Textile Manufacturers Federation. In the first half of November 2021, the ITMF conducted the 11th ITMF Corona-Survey among more than 330 companies around the world in all segments along the textile value chain.

On an average across all regions and all segments, the situation has improved significantly since the survey in September. The textile industry is also expecting a further improved business in future. The balance between companies with a good and a poor business situation jumped from +10 percentage points (pp) to +28 pp. When it comes to business expectations in six months’ time (May 2022), the balance is +33 pp. This means that significantly more companies are expecting business to be more favorable than less favorable by May 2022.

The business situation has improved on an average in most regions except for east Asia. Business expectations are optimistic in all regions. As for the different segments, the gap between the upstream segments – fiber producers, spinners, and textile machinery producers – on the one hand and the downstream segments – weavers/knitters, finishers/printers, and garment producers – on the other hand is narrowing. Order intake expectations have increased again from an already high level to +41 pp.

Egypt’s readymade garment exports increased 40 per cent from January 2021 to October 2021, says Ready-Made Garments Export Council (RMGEC). The country is working at upgrading the export system, increasing exports on a continuous basis, and informing exporting companies of all developments in international markets. All services needed by factories to assist them in the export process for all markets will be made available.

Egypt’s textile exports increased 28 per cent during the first nine months of 2021. Exports of fabrics were up 17 per cent. Higher exports were driven by the gradual easing of restrictions in markets and the high vaccination rates across the world. Egypt wants to have stronger trade relations with Africa. Steps include taking part in international exhibitions in the African continent and setting up an Egyptian-African free trade zone. The main countries Egypt is interested in are Kenya, Zambia and Ivory Coast.

Egypt plans to develop its textile industry with the objective of becoming the next textile factory of the planet. Machinery will be renovated and workers will be trained. The vision is to quadruple exports of textiles and garments by 2025. The aim is to support Egypt’s private sector upstream manufacturers’ competitiveness in the world markets.

The Greek clothing and textile industry is recovering after a difficult 2020, Greek Fashion. Accumulated net profits of the 100 largest enterprises in the sector fell by 70 per cent in 2020, with exporting companies recording the best results. Men’s clothing recorded the biggest decline in turnover last year, while underwear had the smallest decline and the sales of sports and casual clothing also declined. Turnover of 102 clothing companies fell by 20.8 per cent with gross earnings down 25.7 per cent compared with 2019 and profit margins at 36 per cent. Accumulated net profits were down 70 per cent from 2019.

Turnover of enterprises with activities in the domestic market fell 24.7 per cent, gross earnings fell 29 per cent. Exporting enterprises’ turnover fell 7.1 per cent in 2020, gross earnings fell 2.8 per cent and net profits soared 100 per cent.

From January 2021 to September 2021, retail sales in the domestic market grew 24.7 per cent and exports rose 19.2 per cent, evidence that the industry was staging a strong recovery. Greece is a renowned supplier of various types of textile products to international markets. The textile sector of Greece employs more than two million people in around one hundred thousand businesses. It is a significant part of the country’s economy.

Aeon is introducing a range of recovery wear called Topvalu Select Celliant. These are undershirts that use the first-ever Celliant fibers from Hologenix that are pure white in color. Many men prefer to wear white undershirts under their business shirts in Japan and in response Aeon planned and developed the pure white Celliant undershirt. Topvalu Select Celliant offers the benefits of Celliant, a responsive textile that captures and converts body heat into infrared, with the pure white color Aeon customers prefer. Topvalu Select Celliant is registered as a general medical device in Japan. Celliant mineral-infused fabrics have been shown to help regulate body temperature and improve local circulation in healthy individuals for faster recovery, better sleep and stronger performance during the day.

Aeon is a Japanese retail giant. Aeon Retail, incorporated in 1986, owns and operates general merchandise stores and supermarkets in Japan. Aeon is switching out existing acousto-magnetic electronic article surveillance systems for Checkpoint Systems’ radio frequency identification RF EAS systems to improve inventory management and the shopping experience. Aeon Retail will also pioneer Checkpoint’s RFID robot prototype to automate the in-store inventory cycle-counting process so it can improve inventory visibility and enhance the shopper experience. Shopping at Aeon means beautifully displayed products, immaculate shopping areas and reasonable prices.

Garment Show of India will be held in Noida from December 12 to 14, 2021. The apparel trade show will bring together garment manufacturers, wholesalers, traders, retailers, and distributors from across India. The trade show will feature product categories including men’s wear, women’s wear, children’s wear, active wear, accessories, ethnic wear, inner wear, and denim, among others. This is an exhibition for readymade garments, fabrics, accessories and fashion. The exhibition connects suppliers and buyers looking for quality and reasonably priced garments. The show is an important platform for the booming apparel retail industry of India.

GSI will also feature a fashion forum on December 13 for industry leaders to discuss upcoming trends. With an exhibition space measuring over 1,500 square feet and numerous experience zones, this is the biggest domestic exhibition for north India’s textile and apparel industry. The trade show expects around 8000 visitors and 200 exhibitors. Now in its fifth year, GSI is one of the prestigious and well-known B2B exhibitions connecting all apparel, fashion, textile and retail segments. Retailers, manufacturers and retail chains will be facilitated for their performance. Experts from fashion, retail and e-commerce will throw light on India’s domestic retail industry, its opportunities and threats.

Having witnessed a tremendous uptick over the years, the US market for denim jeans is estimated to be around 25 per cent of the global denim apparel market. As per Global Industry Analysts Inc (GIA), the total value of the market is expected to reach $16.40 billion in 2021. The import data released by OTEXA also supports the market value estimated by GIA. As per an OTEXA report, US’ imports of denim apparels increased by 28.56 per cent Y-o-Y to $2.54 billion during January-September ’21 period. In terms of quantity, the imports grew by30 per cent to 27.07 million dozen annually.

However, compared to pre-COVID period, the sourcing of denim apparels by the US’ declined by 10 per cent in values and 5.74 per cent in quantities. Of the total denim apparels imported by US from January-September ’21, value of men and boys’ jeans surged 35.14 per cent Y-o-Y to $1.27 billion value, while the value of women and girls’ jeans surged by 23.70 per cent to $1.20 billion The remaining miniscule values were contributed by denim skirts and denim jackets.

Basic denim in demand

The data indicates, US denim buyers changed their preferences during COVID-19. The unit prices of denim apparels shrank hurting the exporting destinations. During the January-September ’19, unit prices per dozen of imported denim apparels shrunk 4.38 per cent to $ 95.10 in the same period of 2020 and further reduced to $93.95 in the 9-month period of 2021.This decline indicates the preference of US buyers to more basic jeans commodities and search for low cost destinations.

Bangladesh surpasses Mexico in US denim exports

The data also confirms, Bangladesh has now surpassed Mexico as the leading denim exporter to the US in 2021. Bangladesh’s exports increased by 23.74 per cent in 2021’s first 9-month period as compared to the corresponding period in 2019. The high UVR from Mexico is hurting its exports despite being in close proximity to the US and getting an advantage of ‘zero’ duty rates for jeans under USMCA.

China’s dominance has also come to an end as unit prices have massively contracted in the last two years’ time. China’s average UVR of the shipped denim clothing to the US, which earlier was $97.14 per dozen are now reduced to $75.24 per dozen while the country has further slipped to fifth position in the tally.

Pakistan gains advantage in denim exports surge

China’s decline is an advantage for Pakistan which has slowly increased its denim apparel exports to the US. In terms of export value of denim apparels Pakistan saw an increase from $194.94 million during January-September ’19 to $275.89 million in January-September ’21. This value surpasses China’s export to the US and comes close to Vietnam’s figure as both countries have been witnessing sluggish denim shipment over the months.

Sangam India is expanding its manufacturing facility in Rajasthan. The Rs 137 crore expansion project is funded partly by term loans of Rs 102 crores and the balance Rs 35.25 crores by internal accruals. The move is aimed at increasing the capacity of Sangam’s cotton yarn business by 47 per cent and knitted fabric business by 28 per cent. The expansion is expected to increase the company's revenue by 15 per cent from 2022-23. The expansion program will result in the installation of 32,832 spindles and six knitting machines for the manufacturing of cotton yarn and knitted fabric. The plan is to achieve an increase of 15 per cent in the overall business.

The PV dyed yarn and seamless apparel producer is aiming at strategically leveraging the D2C (director) market and the digitised textile space to further elevate its reach and supply in India and overseas. Sangam India is the largest producer of PV dyed yarn in Asia at a single location. It is also a forerunner in manufacturing ready to stitch fabric with an annual capacity of 30 million meters of fabric and 40 million meters of denim. Sangam has more than 2,00,000 spindles and 3000 rotors. The group has diversified into infrastructure, power, steel and recently the seamless garment industry.