In a notification pertaining to payment of wages and reopening of factories in Yellow zones, Ith Sam Heng, Cambodia’s Minister of Labor and Vocational Training said, workers need not get vaccinated in order to return to work. He assured that, any discrimination against non-vaccinated workers will be investigated by the labor inspector of the ministry.

The letter also urged the ministry to pay 50 per cent of wages due to employees for April as well as other benefits by May 14. The General Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) also said, factories producing textiles, garments, footwear, travel goods and bags will be subject to the conditions first discussed by the Labour Action Committee (LAC) at a meeting on May 6. Workers employed in factories located in the Yellow zone will be split into two groups, with one group working the first two weeks of the month and the second group finishing out the month.

Workers will be paid full salaries. However, they will work for only two weeks, said Ken Loo, Secretary General, GMAC. All workers will be allowed to work regardless of their vaccination status, but priority to work the first two weeks will be given to vaccinated workers, he added. The GMAC also reiterated the necessary measures that must be followed by factories in Yellow Zones. These included worker rotations, measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 and ensuring that worker transportation services halve the amount of passengers for each trip.

It also stated that, according to law, if a COVID-19-positive case is found at a factory or enterprise, the capital or provincial governor may suspend operations in a portion of the factory for two days.

As per a study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), government stimulus does not prevent 25 per cent of Bangladesh garment factories from shedding jobs. The government distributed Tk 105 billion in March last year to RMG factories for paying workers’ wages and allowances, reports Textile Today. Disappointingly, the survey discovered the amongst the workers who lost jobs, 59 per cent received only their salaries while 18 per cent were laid off without any wages. The survey was conducted amongst 102 employers, 301 employed workers, and 100 unemployed workers from the RMG industry of Dhaka and Gazipur districts.

The survey discovered normal income for workers deteriorated by 37 per cent. It was 39.9 percent for jobless female workers. While household income for employed workers declined by 0.7 per cent. However, during the pandemic uncertainty, 62.7 per cent factories received government support for four months, 25 per cent of them still sacked their employees.

However, 82 per cent of RMG factories said they have a set of guiding principles to operate. The report also said more than 67 per cent factories applied, and 62.7 per cent received subsidized credit for four months. 42 per cent received the help of late payment for utility bills.

A small section of non-member factories also received credit for a breach of the conditions. Such deviation, however, allowed a section of factories to pay wages to workers, the study said. The CPD said the oversight functions of authorities need to ensure that factories do not benefit by depriving their workers. While the labor and employment ministry, the Bangladesh Bank, the BGMEA, and the BKMEA, which were involved in scrutinizing and finalizing the list of workers, have responsibilities in this regard.

Renzo Rosso, Founder Deisel SpA, believes future survival of Italy’s small fashion players depends on partnerships. Italy’s maverick fashion entrepreneurs need to work together and create a more united front as the country lacks a national luxury-sector champion, unlike France, which has dominant companies like LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE and Kering SA, Rosso says. He advises entrepreneurs to adopt the French model and act together.

Grouping Italian branded goods businesses together can increase their competitiveness, lead to technological growth and enhanced ability to develop sustainable products, he adds.

Rosso’s Only the Brave holding company or OTB, has already acquired a collection of fashion brands, including Maison Margiela, Viktor&Rolf, Marni and Jil Sander, He plans to buy more brands in future. OTB, which had sales of over $1.6 billion last year, could also seek a stock-market listing, Rosso added.

Supply chain disruptions, soaring emerging prices and protective tendencies are threatening the competitiveness of global textile and apparel industry, says Dirk Vantyghem, Director General, Euratex. Launched on May 5, the European Union’s newly-revised Industry Strategy underlines the need to think carefully about Europe’s industrial base and develop privileged partnerships with trusted partners, he adds.

The strategy also calls for more consistency by the EU across different policy areas, Vantyghem says. He urged the industry to welcome EU’s proposal to address distortions caused by foreign subsidies in the Single Market. The EU textile and clothing industry includes160, 000 companies employing 1.5 million workers and over € 61 billion of exports. Euratex works to create a favorable environment for the development of textile and clothing products within the European Union.

Russian Fashion Council has invited designers from across the globe to apply for the international hybrid fashion event - Global Talents Digital. Dedicated to sustainability, the third Global Talents Digital issue is dedicated to sustainable development of clothing footwear and accessories. The event will take place phygitally in the end of July.

The previous edition of Global Talents Digital was held in September and got over seven million views. 103 participants from 34 countries and areas united to explore the issue of sustainability. The show encompassed designer collections, works of artists and virtual models in collaboration with non-profit organizations and technology startups. It was watched from 1,519 cities throughout the world and streamed on 100 international media websites as well as in the social networks. The shows were covered by media across world Vogue Italy and Forbes USA to Vogue Russia and Kommersant

For the upcoming edition, designers and brands need to present a collection that hasn’t been demonstrated to the audience or the media. They need to prepare a video presentation of the collection or demonstrate it as a stream. They can use AR/VR elements in the presentation. The final list of participants will be announced by the international Advisory Board of Global Talents Digital.

Big spinning, dyeing, washing and weaving mills are using new heat recovery technologies to capture and reuse waste heat energy from gas burners that run the factories. As per Daily Star, mills in Bangladesh are capturing this waste heat energy to boil water and run air conditioning and other purposes for which they can save both energy and money. The waste heat recovery system offers textile industries an economic and green solution to save valuable energy.

According to the program led by International Finance Corporation (PACT), the system reuses waste energy from industrial processes instead of dissipating it into the environment. The recovered heat can be used for onsite power and steam generation and preheat combustion air. Over 335 factories are using the waste recovery systems, which has reduced annual gas consumption by to 1,274,983 cubic metres from 1,291,122 cubic metres, says PACT.

Wherever the industry uses captive power units, steam can be additionally generated for various other uses, such as for chillers, dyeing and availing hot water, which would have otherwise required consuming additional gas, he said.

The overall gas consumption in such industries attains efficiencies of 81 per cent to 86 per cent. Where combined cycle power plants are run, the efficiency is higher, at 47 per cent to 52 per cent, said A Matin Chowdhuy, Managing Director, Malek Spinning Mills. Chowdhury said he has been making savings capturing waste heat energy from gas usage in his three units including Knit Asia, Salek Textile and JM Fabrics at Shafipur in Gazipur. He produces 50 tonne of fabrics a day to produce garment items at Knit Asia.

The UK government has launched a new project that aims to transform its fast fashion culture into one where products are made sustainably and then re-used or recycled.

Known as Textile 2030, the project will be developed by the University of Leeds School of Design with support from clothing brands such as John Lewis, Primark, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer, and recycling organizations who will set targets, measure the impact of products and track progress towards national targets as part of the initiative.

The project aims to cut carbon by 50 per cent, limit global warming to 1.5°C, in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, achieve Net Zero by 2050 at the latest and reduce the aggregate water footprint of new products sold by 30 per cent.

This target-based approach will be used so that textiles businesses set tough targets, measure impact and track progress on both an individual business basis, and towards national targets and public reporting.

In its recent notification, Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue waived customs duty on cotton yarn imports upto June 30, 2021. The exemption is applicable to cotton yarn, irrespective of its cotton weight or it is meant for retail sale or not, the FBR said in is notification SRO 533(I)/2021.

The FBR's notification follows the April 14 decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Pakistan’s cabinet to withdraw customs duty on the import of cotton yarn.

The withdrawal of customs duty will ensure smooth supply of cotton and cotton yarn and bridge the gap between domestic production and overall demand for inputs," said ECC.

Although yarn prices have been declining, textile exporters in Pakistan believe it is still quite high. Cotton production in Pakistan has been falling in recent times.

Fespa has introduced a new series of live virtual events aimed at helping printers plan effectively for their business recovery.

Known as Fespa Innovations and Trends (FIT), these new interactive live online events are each themed around a particular area of technology and applications, giving visitors a focused environment to engage with new products and explore trends.

The first event, Wide Format, will take place from 26-27 May 2021. The event will be focussing on wide format graphics and the evolving printed décor market. It will also showcase innovations from a range of leading technology, software and substrate suppliers.

The Gold sponsors for the event include: Durst, highlighting its latest P5 portfolio; EFI, showcasing its new EFI Vutek Q5; HP, showing its new Latex 700 and 800 portfolios; Kornit Digital, explaining how printers can harness its NeoPigment inks; Mimaki, presenting its new 100 series of UV, solvent and sublimation printers; OneVision, highlighting its end-to-end automation suite; and PrintFactory, discussing the benefits of using correct workflow and colour management tools.

Other participating suppliers include Ahlstrom-Munksjö, Aleph, Aslan, Avery Dennison, Dataline, Elitron, Fotoba, Hanglory, Kala, Klieverik, Kongsberg, Mactac, Mutoh, Pigment.Inc, PLASTGommet, Pongs, STS Inks and TTS.

The second event, Printed Clothing, will be conducted from 9-10 June 2021. It will focus on the textile printing and garment decoration sector, covering direct-to-garment (DTG), screen printing, software and materials.

Gold sponsors for the second event include: B-FLEX, showcasing its growing heat transfer vinyl portfolio; EFI Reggiani, introducing its integrated offering for digital textile production; Gemini CAD, highlighting its software solutions for fashion designers, manufacturers and e-commerce brands; Kornit Digital, presenting the latest Kornit HD industrial DTG printers; Polyprint, presenting its DTG & Direct-to-fabric printers and pre-treatment machines; PrintFactory, highlighting its suite of textile software tools; Roland, introducing a new compact DTG printer; and ROQ, showing its latest innovations in automatic screen printing and hybrid printing.

Other exhibitors include technology suppliers such as INO, Klieverik, Lotus Holland, Melco, Pigment.Inc, Sport PrintLab, Vastex, and customised software solution provider Zakeke, and transfer film producer Coveme.

A global sustainable chemical producer, Indorama Ventures Public Company (IVL), reported record Q2 FY22 earnings as the company’s global integrated model continues to benefit from strong consumer trends and management responded effectively to market disruptions.

IVL’s EBITDA grew by 17 per cent Q-o-Q and 59 per cent Y-o-Y to $758 million in the in Q2. Sales revenue rose by about 11 per cent Q-o-Q on a same-store basis, supporting a Core EBITDA margin of 14 per cent. The combination of strong sales and improved margins helped offset higher energy costs in the U.S. and Europe, while management leveraged the company’s leading position in local and regional markets to ensure uninterrupted customer service levels as higher crude oil prices impacted raw materials costs.

The strong second-quarter performance extends the record profit achieved in 2021 as the company’s differentiated product portfolio grows in line with long-term macro-consumer trends. Most of IVL’s products are used in daily household necessities and are resilient against short-term economic headwinds. This innate stability allows management to continue focusing on the company’s long-term growth strategy of developing its unique global leadership position across its integrated petrochemicals value chain. For example, IVL completed two strategic acquisitions in LATAM and Vietnam in the second quarter, which contributed an additional 12% in revenue growth.