Trade sources predict India’s cotton exports will rise 30 per cent from 50 lakh bales in 2019-20 to about 60-65 lakh bales in 2020-21. The International Cotton Advisory Committee estimates global cotton consumption will rise to about 24.31 million tons in 2020-21 from 22.67 million tons in 2019-20. US’ ban on purchase of cotton products from the Xinjiang may unlock opportunities for India.

Vinay Kotak, Director, Kotak Commodities, says, next year, India’s cotton exports will reach 60-65 bales. Exports may depend on multiple factors including the government policy, India-China trade relations and global tensions. The main driver for these exports demand will be the price. Cotton Association of India (CAI) estimates, India’s exports for 2019-20 at 50 lakh bales, of which about 47 lakh bales have already been shipped till August 31, while the shipments may rise this month before the cotton marketing year ends on September 30. India had exported 42 lakh bales of the fibre in 2018-19.

The association’s opening stock for 2020-21 will be about 100-105 lakh bales. But most of this or about 80-85 lakh bales will be with government agencies, and only the rest with mills.

Spinexpo Shanghai was held at the World Expo Convention & Exhibition Center from September 1 to 3, 2020 without the presence of the organizing team, who were unable to come to China due to COVID-19

Spinexpo was the only exhibition specializing in spinning and knitting in 2020, both in China and elsewhere in the world. Foreign brands from other countries and regions in Asia such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong were not present, nor were brands from Europe, the United States and other countries outside China.

To remedy this situation, the organizer adopted two working methods. On one hand, its team based in China was able to contact all the representative offices of the brands that normally visit the exhibition, thanks to its database it has been building up for over 20 years; on the other hand, it is organizing two post-exhibition showrooms in Paris (France) and Hong Kong, where exhibitors with agents in Europe or Hong Kong have the chance to present their collections to buyers who all wish to have the opportunity to see the real products as well as the color and product trends of the season.

Cotton textile firms in Jiangsu, Shangdong and Anhui have reported a massive decline in inventories of high-count pure cotton yarns and polyester-cotton blended yarns in China due to high demand for last couple of weeks, says Apparel Resources. Demand for ring spinning and OE yarns of C40S (or below) has surged in the terminal consumer market and most of the spinning mills have accelerated their destocking for these products.

According to a medium-scale cotton spinning factory based in Jiangsu, there have been two major trends for mainstream yarn products since August: increase in the output of carded 40S and combed cotton yarns above 40S, while reducing cotton yarns with counts below C32S and increase in the production capacity of T/C 65/35 45S, T/C 60/40 45S and other polyester-cotton blended yarns including T/C 35/65 and other inverse proportion polyester-cotton yarns

However, the situation might not remain intact in long run seeing the USA’s ban of importing cotton from Xinjiang, China. The only satisfactory development for the Chinese cotton mills is that the COVID-19 spread is under full control which has made it possible to get production back on track.

For the fourth quarter H&M’s sales increased 11 per cent. At the end of the quarter around 115 stores were temporarily closed due to restrictions (mostly in Austria and Slovakia), which was actually more than at the start of the three-month period when 100 stores were closed (mainly in Southeast Asia). For the financial year as a whole, net sales increased 12 per cent.

Fashion retailers have been working hard just to get back to where they were two years ago and the achievement of that goal is impressive given that ongoing restrictions and consumer caution are still issues they have to deal with globally. H&M has been on a mission to turnaround its business by reducing dependence on marked down inventory, and investing more in e-commerce. Mobile is especially important, as H&M’s target market of under 25 are heavy mobile users. H&M only started selling online in 2010. Apparently the retailer was slow to see the opportunity that e-commerce presented, or else thought that its store network was enough to see off online competition. Over the last ten to fifteen years H&M and other fast-fashion brands have enjoyed great success in the fashion sector thanks to trend-led products, a speedy production process and large store networks.

Production and operation of China’s cotton textile enterprises has been improving steadily, as per estimates of China Cotton Textile Association (CCTA). Performance of the tracked key enterprises was better than that of the industry clusters as main economic indicators slowed down during the January-August period.

Operating income increases by 24.3%

During the eight-months period from January to August, CCTA as per estimates, total operating income of cotton textile enterprises increased 24.3 per cent year-on-year, 1.4 percentage points higher than that of the January-July period. Operating costs during the period grew 21.4 per cent year-on-year or 0.7 percentage points higher than the first seven months of 2021. Thereafter, total operating costs declined 0.5 percentage points from January to July to account for 88.7 per cent of the total operating income.

The cumulative operative income of cluster enterprises increased 6.2 per cent year-on-year from January to August. However, the cumulative operating income remained 2.6 percentage points lower than that from January to July. The cumulative operating cost surged by 10.4 per cent year-on-year. It surged by 1.2 percentage points than that from January to July. The operating costs surged higher than the operating income, adding greater production and operation pressure on cluster enterprises.

Export value surges

The export value of cotton textile enterprises grew 10.1 per cent year-on-year, as per data. However, exports had declined by 0.7 percentage points from January to July. Export value jumped 0.7 percentage points to account for 12.9 per cent of the industrial sales value. From January to August, the cumulative export delivery value of cluster enterprises grew by 13.6 per cent year-on-year. It grew by 1.8 percentage points than the performance of these enterprises from January to July. The export of cluster enterprises improved as the foreign trade orders surged.

Total profits surge by 71.5%

The industrial value of cotton textile enterprises rose 16.9 per cent year-on-year from January to August in 2021. Industrial added value of cotton textile enterprises rose by 7.4 percentage points higher than January to July period. The total profit of cotton textile enterprises surged 71.5 per cent from January to August. However, their growth rate declined by 15.2 percentage points from that of January to July. Profit rate increased 1.3 per cent year-on-year while growth rate declined by 0.3 percentage points than that from January to July.

Overall, the operations of tracked enterprise remained relatively stable in August. Orders for Christmas were placed earlier than previous year to cover delivery delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the performance of the overall sector was satisfactory, corporate profits fell due to an increase in raw materials and shipping costs.

Compiled by the China Cotton Textile Association, the data includes insights from over 260 cotton textile enterprises and about 15 industrial clusters across the country.

American & Efird (A&E) division of Elevate Textiles Inc has agreed to buy the high performance yarn business of Charles Craft Inc, a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-performance flame resistant/cut resistant industrial yarns and other specialty products say media reports.

This acquisition will expand A&E’s product offering related to thermal protection, cut resistant and flame retardant yarns. It will include the acquisition of Charles Craft manufacturing operations in Hamer, SC, which will operate as part of the American & Efird US manufacturing platform.

Frank Buie, Vice President-Sales for Charles Craft, will join American & Efird as part of the sales management team. According to him, becoming part of the larger A&E brand provides new life and longevity to its well-known technical yarns besides offering new opportunities for its employees and customers.

The British clothing giant Ted Baker has signed fashion retailer Next as its new lingerie and nightwear lingerie partner.

As per the deal, Next will make and distribute Ted Baker’s lingerie and nightwear collections, which will be known as ‘B by Ted Baker’.

To be developed in close collaboration with Ted Baker’s creative team, ‘B by Ted Baker’ will be officially unveiled in May 2021.

The exquisite Ted Baker-Next collections will be available not only through Next’s online retail channels, but also via the website of Ted Baker.

The new agreement carries forward the good relations both the brands have been sharing with each other for several years. Notably, early this year, Next had also unveiled Ted Baker’s childrenswear collections.

Ted Baker believes licence partnerships such as the one signed with Next is a key component to its ‘Formula for Growth’ – Ted Baker’s 3-year transformation plan that was launched this summer.

Karl Mayer, a German innovative leader for solutions in warp knitting, warp preparation for weaving and technical textiles, has carried an extensive development work on electrically conductive and high tenacity materials which are processed on multibar raschel machines.

Different thread systems can also be combined with warp knitting technology to produce fabrics with a wide variety of properties. Functional yarns in particular can result in exceptional performance profiles. For a long time now, the high-performance models have been making new, chic lace patterns possible for the lingerie and clothing sector. When producing technical articles, functional yarns can be arranged in areas of any shape, size and placement thanks to their diverse potential.

A combination of jacquard and multibar patterning is the prerequisite for the extraordinary patterning possibilities of multibar raschel machines. The split jacquard bars are full set threading and produce a basic structure that can be creatively designed using a single needle motion, while string bars with multibar patterning incorporate additional yarns into the diverse ground structure to add a functionality. The added thread material is supplied by bobbins, so it does not have to be warped onto warp beams.

By directly integrating electrically conductive yarns into warp knitted textiles, functional elements such as sensors, conductors and coils can be incorporated very easily, without any additional production steps or compromising the textile characteristics. Karl Mayer’s product manager, Sophia Krinner, has already investigated the possibilities as part of Textile-Circuit. Silvercoated filaments such as Elitex, Silvertech, Shieldex and Agsis were used for the work. Even fine insulated metal filaments and metallised yarns like Elitex TPU and Percon isolated could be used depending on flexibility and diameter.

G-III apparel has appointed Robert L Johnson as the newest member of its board of directors, informs Fashion Network. The company’s board will now consist of twelve members, with Johnson being the eighth independent director on the board.

Johnson has led an impressive career as the founder and chairman of The RLJ Companies, LLC and former founder and chairman of Black Entertainment Television (BET), the nation's first black-owned cable television network.

After successfully taking three companies public, Johnson was named to USA Today’s '25 Most Influential Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years' and Black Enterprise’s 40th Anniversary issue’s list of 'Titans: The 40 Most Powerful African Americans in Business'.

G-III’s portfolio of brands includes DKNY, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Karl Lagerfeld, among others.

Earlier this month, the NYC-based group reported a 53.8 percent decline in its second-quarter sales, as a result of disruptions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For the second quarter ended July 31, 2020, the company’s net sales dropped to $297.2 million from $643.9 million in the same period last year.

Looking forward, the company expects net sales to decline in the range of 28 to 33 percent in the second half of its fiscal year, compared to the same period last year.

CLASS ecohub, the international platform empowering professionals with responsible tools, materials and services, is organizing a panel that involves visionary innovators in the circular economy panorama who will share valuable case histories, out-of-the-box approaches and their ongoing projects. The event - under the patronage of the Municipality of Milan - is scheduled on September 28, the first day of Milano Design City, the citywide festival celebrating innovation, style and creativity through design-thinking.

The panel will present challenges and opportunities of creating new circular economy-driven business models across multiple disciplines. Giusy Bettoni, CEO and Founder of CLASS, moderates Chiara Catgiu, Senior Analyst Make Fashion Circular at Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Clara Mattioli, Head of Global Communication at Wolford, Barbara Guarducci, creative director of Mending for Good, Giulia Giglio, Innovation Manager at Krill Design and Francesco Giberti, founder and CEO of MyFoody and Babaco Market.

The event is part of Smart Voices, the virtual program of CLASS which brings together innovators, thinkers and designers determined to make fashion and design more responsible, ethical and sustainable.