Indonesia’s viscose rayon fiber capacity increased from 8.7 per cent of total world production in 2004 to 11 per cent of total world production in 2017. Since cotton is difficult to produce, the country has turned to viscose rayon fibers. Mixed with polyester as men’s clothing, viscose fibers are highly absorbent, with soft hand feel, have bright colors, and are resistant to resin processing.

Asia Pacific Rayon, which began operations earlier this year in Indonesia with a production capacity of 2,40,000 tons of viscose rayon fiber per year, is the first integrated producer of viscose rayon fibers in Asia with traceable raw material sources.

Indonesia is set to become one of the top five textile and textile product producers in the world by 2030. Of the use of raw materials, the industry uses 51 per cent synthetic fiber, such as polyester and nylon, 37 per cent cotton fiber, and 12 per cent rayon. But the industry still faces obstacles in reaching its full competitive potential, as nearly all cotton must be imported. In contrast, 80 per cent of synthetic fiber and 85 per cent of rayon is domestically produced, with these numbers expected to increase further. The aim is to increase the sector’s share in Indonesia’s total exports to 1.6 per cent.

Arvind is joining Fashion for Good. Based in Amsterdam, this initiative brings together the biggest names in fashion. Arvind is the latest to sign up to lending its expertise and vision to the growing collective, which also supports startups and scale-ups designed to reshape the industry.

Arvind is a global pioneer in sustainable textile manufacturing and has power brands such as US Polo Association, Arrow, Flying Machine and Tommy Hilfiger. Sustainability and innovation are its key strategic growth pillars and it has always attempted adoption of innovation in textile manufacturing. It is committed to promote the sustainable technologies originating from the Fashion for Good platform. Arvind’s aim is to work with these technologies to fuel the next set of growth in manufacturing with a drastically reduced environmental impact.

Fashion for Good is a buoyant ecosystem of game changers defining the future of fashion. By having Arvind joining in, all of Fashion for Good’s innovators and stakeholders are gaining in- depth knowledge and support from a unique pioneer in manufacturing. The entire fashion ecosystem is coming together to implement and scale innovative solutions across the fashion value chain. Many trailblazers are establishing the Dutch city as the new global capital of the burgeoning sustainable fashion industry.

Pointing out that export business has significantly picked up after the announcement of rebate of state and central taxes and levies (RoSCTL) scheme, AEPC has urged the Union Commerce Ministry to implement the scheme as soon as to enable exporters to take full benefit of the scheme. The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has also sought a clarification on disbursal of the rebate on export of garments and made-ups from the ministry.

RoSCTL was announced on March 7, 2019. As per the scheme, the rebate on state levies (RoSL) for the apparel exports was reduced to 1.7 per cent from 3.5 per cent when the GST was implemented. Now, along with 1.7 per cent RoSL, 4.35 per cent rebate of central embedded taxes and levies would be provided to exporters under the RoSCTL scheme, which would be valid only up to March 31, 2020.

Twenty-one brands and buyers from North America, who were signatories of Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, recently launched a new platform, Nirapon, for safety monitoring in the Bangladesh readymade garment (RMG) units that supply them.

Nirapon will use a brand-led approach to monitor safety, oversight and reporting services for its members based on Bangladesh laws to help the factories build their own self-sustaining culture of safety, according to Bangla media reports. Factories would provide regular updates, including documentary evidence, to the brands and to Nirapon of their performances in those areas and work with vetted, local training and engineering firms who would conduct regular safety and training audits.

Over 600 factories are part of this initiative. All Nirapon member factories are required to continue to meet the National Action Plan harmonised standards for structural, fire, and electrical safety and all the factories would have to implement standardised training programmes focused on worker safety, she said. While Alliance had worked directly with factories to drive remediation and training programmes, Nirapon’s role would be of oversight and independent verification of safety and training compliance and reporting those results to its members.

American & Efird (A&E) has a new line of advanced identification threads called Integrity. These are molecular-tagged DNA threads. One of the big challenges brands face today centers around authenticity. Loss of revenue, reputation, and brand trust are some of the potential outcomes of counterfeit products. This thread line provides a tool which adds advanced identification for greater visibility and transparency into the product creation process.

A&E is a manufacturer of industrial and consumer sewing threads, embroidery threads and technical textiles. Through its global network, A&E’s products are manufactured in 22 countries, distributed in 50 countries and sold in over 100 countries. A&E supports many of the world’s top industrial and consumer brands with thread products that require strict quality and performance. The textile thread manufacturer achieved its initial targets for zero-waste-to-landfill in 2015. American & Efird has also launched a new recycled polyester sewing thread. This is designed especially for athletic wear and high-performance apparel. The new thread is derived from recycled post-consumer plastic bottles and aims to provide textile manufacturers within the performance apparel, active wear, athleisure, and intimate apparel markets a recycled alternative to existing sewing threads. The air-entangled sewing thread is made with Repreve recycled polyester, a brand of US yarn supplier Unifi.

According to the average estimate among analysts surveyed by Bloomberg ahead of the US World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, the 2019-2020 U.S crop will expand to 21.8 million bales from 18.4 million the previous season. In March, the USDA had forecast that cotton acres would decline to 13.8 million for the 2019-2020 season from 14.1 million a year earlier. Still, anecdotal evidence in states including Texas and Oklahoma suggests the fiber cultivation will increase to 14 million acres nationally.

Relatively low prices for competing crops and rainy weather causing planting delays for corn may make the fiber an attractive alternative.

The US wants India to remove both tariff and non-tariff barriers for American companies and eliminate data localisation restrictions that weaken data security and increase the cost of doing business. US businesses complain of facing significant market access barriers in India. These include both tariff and non-tariff barriers, as well as multiple practices and regulations that disadvantage foreign companies. The US feels India’s average applied tariff rate of 13.8 per cent is the highest of any major world economy. While India’s import duty on ICT products such as network routers and switches and parts of cellular phones is as high as 20 per cent, the US rate for these same products is zero. India has countered by saying that domestic support per farmer in the US is a massive 267 times India’s and that huge subsidies have led to a competitive advantage of farm products of developed countries in the global market, which has forced developing ones like India to offer limited tariff protection to their farmers from the onslaught of heavily subsidised imports. The US imposes very high import duties on several products, including 350 per cent on tobacco and 164 per cent on peanuts.

US exports of goods to India last year jumped by 29 per cent while India’s exports to the US rose 12 per cent.

Oritain, a product and supply chain traceability specialist has mapped all Supima cotton growing regions. This will help the cotton industry to root out fraud in the global supply chain. With over 500 licensees in more than 45 countries, Supima partners with over 200 brand/retailers around the globe that use Supima cotton. Using Oritain’s forensic technology, these licensees can test and authenticate the origin of their Supima products at any stage in the supply chain, revealing if it has been blended or substituted and ensuring the product’s provenance. By testing the intrinsic natural properties of the cotton, Oritain identifies a unique distinguishing fingerprint for each product verifying where it was grown. Unlike other traceability methods, this fingerprint cannot be forged or altered and is unique to the land the cotton was grown on.

Global luxury group Kering has implemented Oritain’s services to verify that Supima cotton used in its garments is Supima cotton, woven and dyed by Albini. The partnership has produced the world’s first 100 per cent traceable organic Supima cotton by testing the cotton at every stage of production, from field to the retail floor, the company reports.

Garment Show of India (GSI) will be held in New Delhi from July 8 to 10, 2019. 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 seen as an important platform for the booming apparel retail industry of India. Special pavilions will be created for men’s, women’s, children’s, active wear, inner wear, fashion accessories and many more. Some of the product categories that will be on display will include kurtis, ethnic wear, coats, blazers, jackets, trousers, party wear, athletic wear, wedding wear, T-shirts, shirts, tops, dresses, skirts and many more in cotton, knitted and woven. Manufacturers from Tirupur, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Mumbai, Noida and many more hubs of apparel will be participating.

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.

Garment Show of India is being organised by Saina Events. Nationwide road shows are being conducted to promote the event. Digital media, newspapers and magazines, hoardings, radio ads and online marketing tools are being used to promote the event on a very large scale.

Jack Mathews and Lisa Valente have joined Kaltex America. Jack Mathews is senior vice president of denim. He will lead the company in strategic initiatives for the denim fabric division. He has spent more than 30 years in the denim industry and has held executive positions at Cone Mills, American Cotton Growers and most recently at Artistic Denim Mills. He has also held leadership positions in various industry associations, including the Cotton Board and American Apparel Producers Network, and served as a delegate on the National Cotton Council.

Lisa Valente has been brought on board as chief merchandising officer of apparel. She will lead Kaltex’s strategic apparel growth efforts in the US and Europe. She has held various retail leadership positions with Old Navy, Sears Holdings Corporation and Kohl’s department stores. She brings 25 years of denim manufacturing experience, including private-label brand development, global fabric research and wash development, cost engineering and merchandising.

Kaltex American is a division of Grupo Kaltex, a Mexican-owned, vertically integrated textile company that produces a range of fibers, yarns, fabrics, apparel and home textile products. Over the past year, the company has been strengthening its team in New York and in Mexico to successfully implement its strategy and take advantage of market opportunities.