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.

Nike remains bullish about growth in China in spite of the trade tensions between the US and China. The US has threatened to impose tariffs on footwear and apparel imported from China. Nike has not yet seen any impact on its sales in China and does not expect to see any major fallout. It is bullish about its potential to deliver strong, sustainable growth in this important geography. During its fiscal second quarter, Nike’s sales in China grew 26 per cent. That was the fastest pace of any division.

For the 18th consecutive quarter, Nike saw double-digit revenue growth. Singles’ Day, China's biggest online shopping day, broke records for the company. Nike, based in the US, sources more than 20 per cent of its goods from China.

The company’s stock was up six per cent in extended trading after Nike beat estimates on both its top and bottom lines and provided a optimistic outlook despite macroeconomic conditions. The retailer is anticipating currency-neutral revenue growth between the high-single digits and low-double digits for its current fiscal year.

However potential tariffs are the most important consideration for the company going into 2019. Until it is known whether the tariffs are being enacted, it's hard to predict where Nike is headed in the coming quarter.

Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics will be held from March 12 to 14, 2019. This edition will see new pavilions and more accessories. The industry looks to the fair for future trends, leading innovations and long-lasting partnerships. Buyers range from garment manufacturers, trading companies, designers, retailers, e-commerce stores and more – providing unparalleled opportunities across the textile supply chain.

The fair’s timing, after Chinese New Year, will maximise opportunities from the strongest sourcing time of the Chinese apparel industry. As well as being located in the ideal place to access the China market, the fair consistently attracts a steady flow of international visitors. Last year’s spring edition saw fashion-forward buyers from destinations such as Italy, Japan, Korea, the UK and the US.

A steady growth in buyer numbers is seen each year at Intertextile. In 2018, there were 82,314 buyers from 104 countries and regions, a 15 per cent increase from 2017. Exhibitors will fill six halls, covering an area of 160,000 sq mts. To further ease the sourcing process, the Intertextile product zones will return, with products organised into easy-to-navigate display areas. Visitors can meet all of their sourcing needs, conveniently grouped into product zones.

A series of seminars and panel discussions will offer expert industry insights, while the Intertextile Directions Trend Forum will prompt the spring/summer 2020 sourcing season.

IndustriALL Global Union trade union affiliates representing garment workers at H&M have agreed upon a global dispute resolution mechanism with the Swedish fashion giant, as a part of IndustriALL’s global framework agreement (GFA) with the company. The GFA with H&M has a National Monitoring Committees made up of representatives from unions and H&M to implement workers’ rights under the terms of the GFA. The NMCs are active in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Turkey.

The NMCs met for its second global meeting in Phnom Penh from December 10 to 12, and were also joined by participants from India and Pakistan, who will form NMCs in 2019. The participants debated a set of dispute resolution recommendations and reached an agreement on a framework. Under this framework, they agreed many procedures to solve disputes over working conditions, occupational safety and health, trade union representation, prevention of conflicts, taking labor actions and negotiating in good faith starting from shop-floor-level to factory level.

Indorama Ventures Public Company (IVL), a global chemical producer, announced has entered into an agreement to acquire Invista Resins & Fibers GmbH, which owns a high value-added PET manufacturing facility located in Gersthofen, Germany. The Gersthofen site has a combined capacity of 282,000 tonnes/ annum, and employs approximately 140 employees .The transaction is expected to be completed in the 1st quarter 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

Invista Gersthofen is a strong strategic fit for IVL and is aligned with their strategy to grow and support customer’s needs with differentiated solutions in both packaging and in industrial fibers. IVL will own the intellectual property rights of Polyshield® Pet and Oxyclear® Barrier PET, Invista’s barrier technology, in all markets globally. Polyshield® Pet and Oxyclear® Barrier PET brands are well-anchored in oxygen barrier packaging i.e. Ketchup. Together with IVL’s HVA polymer business in America’s, Gersthofen will open new opportunities in several new markets and attractive segments.

The central government expects the country's textiles sector, which currently employs over 45 million people, will require 17 million additional workforce by 2022. According to the textiles ministry, in the last four years, 8.58 lakh persons have been trained in partnership with 58 government and industry partners to meet the sector's need for a skilled workforce.

The ministry’s strategy to boost exports involves diversification of markets, positioning India in value chain and promoting collaborative exports. Towards this diversification, 12 markets in Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea, Australia, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia and Peru have been identified. The ministry also plans to pursue strategic engagement with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on the Fabric-Forward Policy.

India is seeking investment opportunities in Vietnam. India is one of the major material suppliers to Vietnam’s garment and textile sector but trade value between the two sides remains modest. The two sides have defined garment and textiles as a prioritised sector in bilateral ties.

For 2017-2018 fiscal year, India’s garments and textiles exports to Vietnam were up 42 per cent over the previous fiscal year. From April to August 2018, India’s earnings from selling garment and textile products to Vietnam were up 59 per cent over the same period a year earlier. Although trade of garment and textile between the two countries has enjoyed impressive growth in the past two years, the two sides have much potential to boost partnership in the area.

In the first 10 months of 2018, bilateral trade was up 47 per cent over the same period in 2017, bringing the countries closer to the target of 15 billion dollars in two-way trade in 2020. Under the free trade agreement between India and Asean, most cotton and woven cotton fabric and knitted fabrics imported from India will enjoy tax exemption from January 1, 2019, making India a competitive supplier of garment and textile materials and machines for Vietnam.

Online retailer Hail Women plans to launch its unique professional wear collection. Inspired by the European style to Wall Street fashion, the collection caters to conscious women who love to wear formal, smart, comfortable dresses. The collection is ideal for professions like law, business, and finance, which have a client interface, high importance is given to professionalism and employees are supposed to be well-dressed and well-groomed but still not look flashy

The international style corporate wear targets all women ranging from a company’s CEO to a fresher, corporate, students, working professions who prefer wearing formal clothes but have limited choice. The collection can be bought online through its website and includes semi-casual and formal dresses like tops, shirts, trousers, suits, etc.

A Spanish businesswoman has created a textile woven from the fibers of pineapple leaves. Carmen Hijosa is a clothes designer by trade and having abandoned leather on environmental grounds spent eight years developing her alternative textile, which she calls Pinatex. Pineapple fibers are very fine and strong and flexible. Pinatex looks like leather but doesn’t feel like leather. It’s its own material. When it gets wet it dries like leather and it behaves like leather in every way except it’s completely sustainable.

Hijosa founded the company Ananas Anam to market Piñatex. She works with pineapple farmers in the Philippines who harvest and strip the fibers, which are finished into Piñatex in Spain. To make one square meter of Piñatex takes 460 leaves - but there’s no shortage of raw material. Global pineapple production topped 25 million tons in 2016.

Since its commercial launch in 2015, Piñatex has been used by about 500 manufacturers, including vegan sneakers sold by fashion house Hugo Boss. The leather industry has its critics. Aside from the resources needed to raise cattle to slaughter, the industry uses chemicals with tannery waste containing large amounts of pollutants. So pineapples aren’t just good to eat. They can also be good to wear.

Bangladesh’s readymade garment supply chain still suffers from lack of shared responsibility on the part of global buyers. Very few factories, if at all, have received financial assistance from buyers instead they have seen reduced prices. The fundamental business model of the garment supply chain has not changed. Production remains an industry with high levels of opportunity for countries to connect to global value chains, but that has come at a price for workers.

However, transparency of buyers and working conditions in the country’s readymade garment factories have improved since the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013. The inspection process continues to be problematic. Reasons include multiple inspections by multiple inspectors, miscommunications and unplanned inspections.

There is a stronger concern for worker safety and labor standards on the one hand and continued tensions between buyers’ demands for low production costs and speed on the other. Factories in shared or non-purpose built premises need to relocate. Firms in such premises which were not able to meet the new standards had to move and often ended up in more remote regions. Such factories have to bear the relocation costs and do not receive financial support from buyers, the government or their industry associations.