Christian Straubhaar be the Senior Vice President Sales at Rieter Machines & Systems in Winterthur from January 2021. He will succeed Reto Thom who will retire.

A Masters in engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology n Zurich, Straubhaar has over 20 years of experience in the textile industry. He was the Group Sales & Marketing Director at Itema for the world-wide sales of machines and spare parts. Prior to this, he held various positions in operations and as Business Unit Head in Itema and other global textile companies.

Straubhaar has a solid track record in identifying new market potentials and growing the business for the company. He also has a longstanding experience in selling to both large and small customers and developing key accounts within India.

Reto Thom successfully led the sales department at Rieter Machines & Systems for many years and made an enormous contribution to the success of the company.

The first edition of the Fashionomics Africa competition would be an excellent opportunity for the African Development Bank to showcase the creativity of African fashion designers striving for a more circular fashion industry. As per the Kohan Textile Journal, African Development Bank hosted Fashionomics Africa webinar on December 10 alongwith the HEVA Fund. The webinar was attended by 150 fashion entrepreneurs and focused on finance. It discussed the challenges faced by fashion entrepreneurs, especially women and youth, in Africa’s creative industries.

Participants were also presented with opportunities to access finance from investment funds including the Alithea IDF Fund, for which the African Development Bank is an anchor investor; the Women’s Investment Club (WIC) Capital; the African Export-Import Bank; the State Bank of Mauritius; Thundafund and Senegalese clothing brand, Sarayaa.

Vanessa Moungar, Bank Director, Gender, Women and Civil Society, said the ongoing pandemic has prompted adaptations and innovations to keep Africa’s $31 billion fashion industry thriving. According to her the crisis provides an opportunity to set up targeted support mechanisms and develop new and innovative financial tools for the textile, apparel and accessories industry that will not only help the entrepreneurs make it through, but set the basis for them to grow their businesses going forward.

Evelyne Dioh Simpa, Managing Director, WIC Capital, emphasized on the importance of developing financial products and capacity building tailored to fashion entrepreneurs.

As per a Business World report, the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expedite the free trade agreement (FTA) with UK during forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A Sakthivel, Chairman, AEPC says, India’s apparel export industry is falling behind competitors like Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Pakistan due to a duty disadvantage of 9.6 per cent in exporting to the United Kingdom.

The UK imported apparels worth $24.9 billion in 2019. Of this, its imports from Bangladesh were worth $3.6 billion while that from India were worth $1.4 billion. This in spite of the fact that India has a complete value chain from fiber and yarn to fabrics and apparels whereas Bangladesh has to import raw materials. He urged the government to address this duty disadvantage urgently to help India double its apparel exports in two years.

A hike in prices of rayon yarn has led to the closure of 30,000 powerlooms across Erode in Tamil Nadu. Renowned for its textile production, Erode has over 50,000 power looms, of which at Kalingarayanpalayam, Veerappanchatram, Asokapuram and some other places, 30,000 power looms produce 24,000 metres of rayon cloth a day. As per Sureshj, President, Erode Powerloom Cloth Producers Association, the cost of 120 gm and 150-gm rayon yarn used for the production of the rayon cloth has been increased by Rs 26 for a cone as a result of which the cost of production has been increased by more than 20 per cent.

Hence, the association decided to stop down the shutters of 30,000 power looms in the district for seven days from December 21 to December 27. This closure is likely to affect 6.80-crore meters of rayon cloth production and about Rs 40 crore worth of trade.

2020 will be remembered as a year that not only changed the global geopolitical map but also as a year that saw China’s dominance over world trade. As per a SRTEPC report, in recent years, the US and Europe saw a massive rise in imports from China. However, COVID-19 and China’s role in its global spread has forced these countries to rethink their policies and reduce dependence on China. This is particularly true for industries with security implications like finished engineering goods.

The US and its allies are now looking for new trade partners whom they can trust. The Trump administration could not earn the trust of Europeans due to the failed Trans-Atlantic Partnership deal. However, President-elect Joe Biden has been more transparent in his foreign policies, and is a strong believer in the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Under his leadership, the Europeans are distancing themselves from China’s geopolitical ambitions as seen by some recent moves of Europe’s big wigs France and Germany.

Ban on technology imports from China

On July 8, 2019, the European Union along with 22 other countries sponsored a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council to condemn China’s mass detention of Uighur Muslims, in Xinjiang Province. Now, the Union has initiated a move to impose targeted sanctions on China including a ban on import of technology from the country. In particular, the US plans to end its collaboration in telecommunications with China. This would seriously hamper China’s global ambitions in telecommunications.

The Biden Administration is likely to continue the policies followed by Trump government with regards to China. However, it will be more consistent in their implementation than the previous administration. The military influence exerted by the US in the Arab and Islamic world will be carefully and gradually withdrawn.

An eye on China-Pakistan ties

The Biden government will also continue to support Israel, and end sanctions imposed on Iran. It will also keep a check on increasing Chinese investments in China and Pakistan.

How much will the ongoing US-China feud benefit India, remains to be seen. As seen from the recent Joint Air Exercises carried by Pakistan and China, the Indian Ocean region is becoming the epicenter of power struggle between these three countries. Meanwhile, China’s armed forces have engaged in a military confrontation with India in Ladakh. They deployed 120 warships of various countries across the Indian Ocean Region. It is now time for India to collaborate with partners and allies to counter the growing Chinese threat.

Cambodia’s garment sector suffered a huge blow this year as COVID-19 muted business for most of the year. Imposition of tariffs by European Union over human rights abuses added to its woes as the sector lost duty-free access to the EU market in August. Cambodia also rolled back its labor rights this year as the virus fuelled ‘union-busting’ and poorer wages at garment factories. Reforms for laid off garment workers were rolled out though advocates criticized them for being insufficient.

Workers lose millions in wages as exports drop

The pandemic left millions of garment workers across the world jobless and without salaries in 2020. Cambodian workers lost over $120 million in unpaid wages in the first three months of the pandemic, says advocacy group Labor Behind the Label. The country’s exports to the EU dropped by almost $1 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Though Global brands, including Adidas and Levi Strauss, had earlier urged Cambodia to drop criminal charges against union leaders, the government refused to accede to these demands.

Owner of 50 factories in Cambodia, H&M believes sourcing from the country is difficult due to increased tariffs, labor rights and environmental concerns. As per reports, garment workers still receive lower than $588 wages calculated by the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, a supply chain lobby group. In January, they are set to receive a $2 rise in the minimum wage to $192 per month.

Exports, Brexit to help industry resurgence in 2021

Almost, 110 factories have shut permanently due to loss of orders. However, Ken Loo, a representative for factory owners, expects the industry to rebound soon as exports to the United States have surged in 2020, more than 60 new factories have registered, and Cambodia has far fewer coronavirus cases than other Asian production hubs. Loo also expects Brexit to end EU tariffs on Cambodia and allow it a duty-free access to the British market.

The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) plans to set up an Export Promotion Council (EPC) for technical textiles in Surat to promote the exports and manufacturing of technical textile products in the city.

As per a Times of India report, Surat is considered to be the man-made fabric (MMF) hub of India, having nearly 6 per cent of share in the MMF textiles in the country, where technical textile is a sub-group and the investment is increasing in the region.

The formation of EPC for technical textiles in the city will boost the export and strengthen the domestic manufacturing capacity, said officials at the Man-Made Textile Research Association (MANTRA), the designated centre of excellence in technical textiles by the government of Gujarat and centre of excellence in Agrotech by the government of India in the sectors namely coating and lamination, non-woven and converter technology.

To be held from February 1 to 5 at the Atelier Richelieu, in the heart of Paris, Texworld Evolution Paris - Le Showroom will allow buyers and designers to explore offers from a selected number of exhibitors from Apparel Sourcing, Avantex, Leatherworld and Texworld Paris.

The show will provide its visitors direct access to the textile and clothing collections arranged around two main areas: A Trend Forum that will offer buyers a creative inspiration book elaborated around a selection of textile and clothing samples that will become the fashion of spring-summer 2022, and a Library that will unveil, by categories, a precise selection of several thousands of fabrics samples and finished goods to be discovered in specially designed areas that will facilitate the professionals' journey.

Buyers will be provided with a digital tool specifically developed to facilitate direct contact with manufacturers for expressing interest, requesting samples or quotations.

Messe Frankfurt group is the world’s largest trade fair, congress and event organiser with its own exhibition grounds. With about 2,600 employees at 29 locations, the company generates annual sales of around €736 million. We have close ties with our industry sectors and serve our customers’ business interests efficiently within the framework of our Fairs & Events, Locations and Services business fields.

The Jordan clothing sector continues to suffer from the repercussions of the coronavirus crisis despite winter, Christmas and New Year seasons and holidays.

As per Asaad Qawasmi, a representative of the clothing, garment and jewelry sector at the Jordan Chamber of Commerce, this year the sector has not seen such an activity, sales volume is the lowest ever. Consequently, retailers have not been able to pay their dues and have become greatly worried about their returned cheques, the thing that reflected negatively on wholesalers.

The representative noted that the crisis and the measures taken to combat it such as the closures, curfews and lockdowns have together caused “grave losses” to merchants, a lack of liquidity and increasing operational costs and bills.

The Kingdom’s imports of clothing are charged 47.5 per cent in customs, income and sales taxes and service fees, whereas footwear imports pay 58 per cent in fees and taxes on customs declaration, according to Qawasmi.

The Kingdom’s winter imports of clothing and footwear have dropped by 25 per cent this year, reaching a total of JD65 million compared with JD85 million last year, he noted.

Raja M Shanmugham, President, Tirupur Exporters Association, has urged Tirupur textile units to resume cotton supply immediately as the mills have stopped supplying cotton yarn and are not taking up fresh orders. Shanmugham has written to all textile mills associations including SIMA, TASMA and ITF to advise their members to supply the yarn continuously to protect the Tirupur Knitwear Exports sector.

According to him, the mills’ decision to stop supply would impact garment units, largely affecting exports and stimulating job losses. It would also lead to foreign buyers cancelling orders and leaving the country. Shanmugham further said that the rise in yarn prices in the past two months has led to textile units incurring losses on already committed orders and the garment sector operating on wafer-thin margins.