The US is seeking to boost bilateral business with Bangladesh over the next three years. The value of two-way trade is over $7.47 billion. Trade is projected to be even higher in future between the two countries in the days to come.

The US is the single largest export destination for Bangladesh, the bulk of which is covered by apparel products. Apparel is 16 per cent of Bangladesh’s exports to the United States. The country’s export earnings are 2.3 per cent higher than last year. The main export are woven garments followed by knitwear products and home textiles and caps. The US procures over 25 per cent of Bangladesh’s woven products, nine per cent of knitwear and 18 per cent of home textile products.

Until October, Bangladesh’s apparel exports to the US rose 31 per cent over last year. During July to October, earnings from wovens rose 24 per cent. Earnings from knitwear exports saw a gain of eight per cent. This gain can be attributed to two major factors: global shift in sourcing strategy, which is commonly known as China plus sourcing strategy, and increasing work orders due the ongoing trade war between the US and China.

White Street Market will be held in Italy from January 12 to 14, 2019. The show will offer three days entirely focused on sustainability and fashion culture. It will not be the usual trade show but a true B2C meeting point where final consumers and insiders can meet, interact and discover new trends of the main players of international street culture.

The June 2018 edition attracted around 9000 visitors. This time the show expects to replicate and register higher attendance. It will host about 60 top brands, including young minded ones like Timberland, New Balance, Dickies, Iuter, Pony, Daily Paper, and fashion collections such as Nana-Nana and Last Heirs. It will also host over 25 events including happenings, presentations, talks and workshops.

A special space will be given to skateboarding. Two women’s skater crews–an Italian and an American–will perform on a special half pipe to be installed in the location, alongside with other initiatives related to this popular sport.

A capsule of fashion films focused on brands and urban fashion system realities will be presented. Among the movies will be Skate Kitchen and We Margiela. A significant presence of eco-friendly fashion, design and beauty brands will complete the event.

Companies are finding ways to improve the impact of their operations and products on the environment. The EU has developed a variety of initiatives, including the Circular Economy Action Plan and the Single-Use Plastics Directive. The initiatives emphasise upcycling, recycling, resource efficiency and reclamation.

Indorama Ventures has formed a joint venture with Loop, which may prove to be the biggest contributor to the development of a circular economy within the textile industry, and is poised to take the recycling of polyethylene therephthalate PET fibre-based products to the next level.

The joint venture—which has received backing from global giants such as Coca Cola, Danone, Evian, L’Oreal and Pepsi—makes use of Loop Industries’ technology, which allows plastics of little or no value to be diverted, recovered and recycled endlessly into new virgin quality PET.

PrimaLoft has launched a new product made from 100 per cent recycled PET which biodegrades when exposed to microbes in landfill or ocean water. However, it remains highly durable throughout its usable life cycle. The company expects 90 per cent of its insulation products to incorporate 50 per cent post-consumer recycled content by 2020. The global textile industry produces around 60 million tons of waste annually. Of this only 32 per cent is reused or recycled.

New recycled fibers and technologies are allowing the denim industry to become increasingly good at making old feel and look new. Lenzing is ramping up the amount of waste it’s recycling for Refibra—a request that’s coming directly from the denim market. In 2019, Lenzing will begin offering Refibra made with 10 per cent more post-industrial cotton, increasing the amount of waste recycled from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.

Lycra has made strides to improve performance of stretch technologies, and advance both their comfort and sustainability in denim. The company’s latest innovation, Lycra T400 with EcoMade technology, maintains the stretch, recovery and retention characteristics of Lycra T400 fiber but with a sustainable twist.

Lycra T400 with EcoMade comprises 68 per cent sustainable fibers. Fifty per cent of the fiber is made from recycled PET and 18 per cent made from plant-based materials. The fiber fits in nicely with brands that have 2020 sustainability goals to meet, and lives up to the performance standards of its popular predecessor.

Mills are also creating circular economies in their own production. Italian denim mill Berto has introduced Pianeta, a fabric made with 35 per cent cotton and 65 per cent cotton yarn regenerated from its own production waste.

Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry has forayed into a few new areas of late. The country has been exporting winter wear to West for around 30 years. Eighty per cent of the products made by the country's export-oriented apparel factories were for long limited to traditional items like blankets and sweaters generally made of cotton.

Germany tops the countries that import large volumes of winter clothes from Bangladesh. Others are Europe, the US and Australia. Suits and blazers are major exports. Manufacturers find them as highly promising value-added products. Apart from traditional readymade garment makers, specialised tailoring houses are now engaged in making suits and blazers for exports.

Still at a nascent stage, suit-blazer factories are at present dominated by five or six houses. One of them is capable of shipping readymade suits worth $26 million a year. It aims to export suits and blazers worth $100 million by 2021. Orders from industrialised countries like the UK, the US, Japan and Germany continue to pour in.

Great prospects notwithstanding suit manufacturing sector is plagued by a lot of drawbacks. The most glaring is the lack of skilled hands and required technology.

PETA France has announced the winners of third edition of 2018 PETA Vegan Fashion Prize, which is the third edition of the awards. Burberry, Versace, Maison Margiela, Jean Paul Gaultier and Diane Von Furstenberg emerged winners of the Biggest Luxury Fashion Moment award in the high-fashion segment. The awards in the Biggest High-Street Moment category were bagged by Comptoir des Cotonniers, Promod, Princesse Tam Tam and Lacoste.

The developer of fake-fur via recycled plastic bottles, Ecopel, bagged the Innovation Award while the Best Vegan Shoe Collection went to Studio Céleste, the footwear line of Galeries Lafayette. UK-based e-retailer Asos bagged the Most Progressive Retailer Award as it banned dealing with collections made of cashmere, silk, duvet, feathers and mohair across its platform.

Other award winners include: Magnethik for Best Wool-Free Coats, Ashoka Paris for Best Vegan Bags, and Napapijri for Best Cruelty-Free Parkas.

"India’s textiles sector has witnessed a spurt of investment in the last five years. The industry attracted FDI worth $2.97 billion from April 2000 to June 2018. Some of the major investments in include a new skill development scheme named 'Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS)' by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), with an outlay of Rs 1,300 crore ($202.9 million) from 2017-18 to 2019-20. Investments worth Rs 27,000 crore ($4.19 billion) recorded by the industry from June 2017-May 2018."

India’s textiles sector has witnessed a spurt of investment in the last five years. The industry attracted FDI worth $2.97 billion from April 2000 to June 2018. Some of the major investments in include a new skill development scheme named 'Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS)' by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), with an outlay of Rs 1,300 crore ($202.9 million) from 2017-18 to 2019-20. Investments worth Rs 27,000 crore ($4.19 billion) recorded by the industry from June 2017-May 2018.

Strong domestic consumption leads to promising future

The future looks promising, buoyed by both strong domestic consumption and export demand. The domestic textile industry is estimated to reach $250 billion by 2019 from $150 billion in November 2017, while cotton production in India is estimated to have reached 34.9 million bales in FY18. In FY19, growth in private consumption is expected to create strong domestic demand for textiles.

Textile and apparel exports are expected to increase to $82 billion by 2021. Exports of textiles and apparels from India reached $13.0 billion in FY2019. Manmade garments remain the largest contributor to total textile and apparel exports from India, contributing 24.53 per cent to total textile.

Favorable initiatives lead to growth

The Textile Ministry earmarked Rs 690 crore ($106.58 million) for setting up 21 RMG manufacturing units in seven states for development and modernisation of textile sector. Additionally, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) revised rates for incentives under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) for two subsectors of the industry – RMG and Made ups -- from 2 to 4 per cent.

As of August 2018, the government has increased basic custom duty to 20 per cent from 10 per cent on imports of 501 textile products, to boost Make in India and indigenous production.

The government also announced a special package to boost exports by $31 billion, create one crore jobs and attract investments worth Rs 80,000 crore ($11.93 billion) during 2018-2020. As of August 2018 it generated additional investments worth Rs 25,345 crore ($3.78 billion) and exports worth Rs 57.28 billion ($ 854.42 million). It has taken several measures including Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS), scheme is estimated to create employment for 35 lakh people and enable investments worth Rs 95,000 crore ($14.17 billion) by 2022

Texworld USA will take place from January 21 to 23, 2019. This is the largest fabric sourcing event for the North American market. Speakers will dwell on topics like the impact of sustainability on the industry and the development of China’s eco-friendly sourcing solutions. The educational component is designed at enhancing the event as a whole, opening the door to more engaging discussions between exhibitors and attendees while providing real-life solutions that can be applied now.

This year’s program is designed to offer insightful and informative sessions for every role and level of experience across every segment of the industry. Innovations in textile dyeing, sustainability, ethical solutions, tariffs and trends are among the many sessions offered on this year’s comprehensive educational platform. Interactive sessions will address current issues facing the industry, from supply chain changes to the impact of environmental textile trends.

Style narratives will provide clear direction for fabrics, prints, accessories and footwear for all fashion markets. The concept of using recycled or upcycled materials, from plastic water bottles and mushroom roots to fabric remnants and used jeans, is helping reinvent the textile industry. Textiles are one of the worst contributors to landfills, various forms of pollution and use of natural resources.

One of the key priorities for the Social and Labor Convergence Project (SLCP) is to steer the industry away from duplication of efforts in auditing. Between 90 and 95 per cent of auditing has been found to be homogenous, meaning a waste of time, resources and effort for many firms. A converged assessment will, it is hoped, allow the sizeable resources previously designated for compliance audits to be redirected towards the improvement of social and labor conditions throughout the supply chain.

The convergence offered to companies by the organisation can redirect valuable resources towards capacity-buildings programs, or programs that really make a difference. SLCP, having started out with 33 signatories in October 2015, now has the support of 190 organisations.

Following its successful first phase in China and Sri Lanka, SLCP’s operation will be rolled out to eight new countries. SLCP operates an agnostic framework. Data is gathered and collated without any value judgments being made. The process of applying subsequent analytics, scorings or ratings is left in the hands of those utilising the resource. Major brands doing business in Sri Lanka have committed to adopt this tool for their suppliers.

The SLCP is also transitioning its name from project to program – indicating a level of determination to ensure the longevity of its work. This new moniker will be in place from January 2019.

Prices of polyester industrial yarn have gradually stabilized in China. Prices edged up in January to October 2018, hitting a five-year high. Operating rate of PIY plants was relatively stable in 2018, with a low level appearing during the spring festival on a turnaround and peaking in January to August. The operating rate change was mainly due to the turnaround in some mainstream big units like Guxiandao and Unifull.

Many plants have added capacity or plan to expand capacity. If the new capacity in 2019-2020 starts operation as scheduled, the downstream market may need at least eight years to consume the excess capacity.

Huaya has increased production to 250 mt a day. The new products focus on conventional coarse deniers like 3000D. Taizhou Sanwei’s new unit is scheduled to begin operation in the first half of 2019. The on-spec goods are conservatively anticipated to appear in August, which may have limited influence on the actual production in 2019. Hengli’s new plant has been delayed for many years. Billion plans to add new textile filament and PIY capacity in two years.

The production chain of most PIY plants is relatively short, with hardly any supporting unit of the industrial chain, especially upstream equipment. Most PIY plants are medium-to-small sized units, not even having a PET fiber chip equipment.