To make the industry more competitive on a global level, the Gujarat government plans to set up two mega textile parks in the state. And as Chintan Thaker, Co-Chairman, Assocham says besides boosting exports, these parks will also help more employment at the back-end. Thaker said, a single cluster will help bring in more investments and give an impetus to MSMEs in the textile sector. It will help ancillary units in a big way. Moreover, the plug-and-play model for the park will aid employment generation and give an ecosystem to exporters and domestic manufacturers.

Industry stakeholders feel, the state government’s subsidy outlay of Rs 1,500 crore to industries under the textile policy will boost competitiveness of domestic manufacturers. Vijay Purohit, President, Gujarat Garment Manufacturers’ Association (GGMA) points out, a cluster approach will bring in more investments in the sector besides building an entire textile value chain. This will help the industry grow, scale-up and innovate while being more competitive.

Bangladesh will to continue to enjoy the generalized system of preferences (GSP) on trade until 2027, according to British high commissioner in Dhaka Robert Chatterton Dickso. The two countries will find out a mechanism to maintain a trade regime beneficial for both after 2027.

The GSP includes quota-free and duty-free market access to the United Kingdom for all products other than arms and ammunition.

The UK is the third largest export destination of Bangladesh and the country maintains a positive trade balance with the UK.

The major exportable items include readymade garments, frozen food, IT engineering, leather and jute goods and bicycle.

Eurojersey has launched a new range of Sensitive® Fabrics imbibed with Lycra® Sport technology. These fabrics are characterized by an exclusive textile construction, a high percentage of Lycra® elastic fibre and a unique offering of weight variants, prints and finishing processes. Lycra® Sport certification, widely known and appreciated by sportswear brands, applies an exclusive scientific method for rating fabric performance, based on a combination of Comfort, Power and Energy indicators.

Founded in 1960, Eurojersey is a reference point in Italian-made warp knit fabrics, thanks to its patented range called Sensitive® Fabrics, selected by major brands for sportswear, readytowear, intimate apparel and swimwear markets.

The company has a fully integrated production plant, from knitting to dyeing, through finishing and printing. Underpinning its success is a business strategy that combines innovation and constant attention to quality with the sustainable development of large-scale production.

At an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), knitwear manufacturers and exporters called for keeping yarn prices unchanged for at least a month to help them negotiate prices with global buyers. As per Dhaka Tribune, they also called for a policy to ensure stable yarn prices. Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, MP and former President, FBCCI was the chief guest at EGN while Selim Osman, President, BKMEA was the moderator.

The meeting was convened to discuss ways to come out from the present crisis caused by the pandemic, which pushed the prices of raw materials up and slashed demands of finished goods. Shamima Akhter, Managing Director, KAP Fashion said though they are getting a good response from buyers and work order flow is better, yarn prices go up abruptly forcing Bangladeshi exporters to lose their competitiveness in global market.

Fluctuating yarn prices prevents fixing a deal with buyers within the set prices, said Zakir Hossain Jewel, MD, Best Style Composite. BKMEA data reveals, prices of mostly consumed 30-carded yarn rose to $4.81, which was $2.78 last year. As of February 2021, the average price of yarn went up to $3.77 per kg from $2.94 a kg in 2020. Exporters called for holding a tripartite meeting among Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and BKMEA to put a leash on the price hike.

They also urged for keeping the yarn prices static for at least a month, as well as informing the buyers about the change 15 days beforehand, so that negotiations can be better dealt.

As per a Euratex report, the EU smart textiles market is expected to reach € 1.5 billion in 2025 with key innovations in areas of smart high performance materials and products, digital manufacturing and supply chains and bio-based materials and processing. Digital evolution will play a big role in the industry’s further developments. In future, the IoT (Internet of Things) revolution will totally change how production machines operate while gathering data on all processes will cement big data in the decision-making at all levels. At the same time, the design within the fashion manufacturing and within the technical textiles sector moves to a completely digital process, allowing fast simulation of the created products to evaluate their effectiveness before they are actually produced.

According to a 2020 research, the European project ICT-TEX “ICT in textile and clothing higher education and business, most companies currently use automatic programs, even if the production stages are mainly managed by the personnel. Companies consider innovation as an important aspect and expect their employees to improve the production lines and to develop new kinds of products. On the other hand, they believe that these kinds of competences, together with those related to technological and ICT skills are the ones that the technical staff need to improve the most.

They also expect their employees to manage pieces of machinery exploiting the possibilities offered by their latest functionalities and covering all the functions based on software, representing nowadays machineries essential components. They also expect companies working in the smart textile sector to develop new smart products, including also those skills connected to sensors and ICT components development.

Finishing printing and functionalization specialized companies need to adopt innovative technologies. For this, they need to develop technical abilities and special knowledge mainly related to specific dyeing and printing processes, as for example rotary screen printing technology, raster printing, colorimetric, and so on. Around 66.7 per cent T&C companies used Cad systems while 38.1 per cent used Cam Systems. ERP is used by 31,7 per cent while PPC is used by 30,2 per cent.

A report by ESOMAR-certified market research and consulting firm, projects online clothing rental market will see robust growth between 2021 and 2031. The report perdicts the will reach $1.8 billion by 2021-end with subscription model becoming a new trend in clothing rental business. The online clothing rental subscription market is extending customer’s reach by obliging specialty/niche markets. Some of them are adopting innovative strategies to gain traction. For instance, Gwynnie Bee offers rental clothes for plus-sized shoppers.

The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.0 per cent between 2021 and 2031, says the latest market intelligence study. The US has emerged as a highly lucrative market, accounting for nearly 95 per cent of the North America market.

The UK is projected to register 11.8 per cent Y-o-Y growth in 2021, performing exceedingly well within the Europe market. Germany and France will continue exhibiting high demand for online clothing rental Within East Asia, the demand for China and South Korea is expected to be higher than Japan.

As per the IPO filed by Goldman Sachs-backed secondhand clothing retailer ThredUp Inc, last year the company processed over 100 million unique secondhand items from 35,000 brands. The company’s net loss widened to $47.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, from $38.2 million a year earlier. Its full-year revenue, however, jumped 14 percent to about $186 million.

ThredUp received $175 million in funding in August 2019, which it said would be used to expand its platform to offer resale clothing services to retailers. The resale firm plans to use $500,000 from the proceeds to start an environmental policy function, to advocate the reuse of apparel. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the lead underwriters for the offering.

E-commerce firms have benefited during the COVID-19 pandemic. A fleet of digital resellers, including ThredUp’s peer Poshmark Inc and ContextLogic Inc, the parent company of shopping app Wish, have gone public in recent months.

At a talk organized by the lower Chamber’s industry Commission and the Senate’s European budget and affairs Commission, Carlo Capasa, Chairman, Camera della Moda said, upto €3 billion would be required to support all the small and medium-sized enterprises in Italy. As per a Womens Wear Daily report, Capasa said the association will request for special measures and strategies from the government to help the industry recover from COVID-19 effects. The Italian fashion industry recorded sales worth € 100 billion last year with exports amounting to €71.5 billion. He ensured his organization Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana will activate detailed projects on environmental and social sustainability, digitalization, internationalization and training to ensure a specialized and competitive future on the global market for the new generations.

Last week, a group of leaders had met to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the industry, and how larger companies could help smaller and medium- ones impacted even more heavily by the pandemic.

The meeting included representatives of the Camera della Moda’s strategic committee which confirmed its plans to develop a document shared with Confindustria to help grow the sector after the pandemic, underscoring the importance to collaborate on proposals and actions to undertake.

As per recent Vietnam General Department of Customs stats, the country’s textiles and apparels exports are expected to reach $39 billion this year. Exports increased $270 million to reach $3.77 billion by February 15, 2021. Le Tien Truong, Deputy Chairman, Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) and Chairman, Vinatex says, since the COVID-19 situation is still intense and consumption is declining in Vietnam’s major export markets like the US, EU, and Japan, many local firms have shifted to producing items for common use with reasonable price tags.

VITAS expect consumption to reach 2019 levels in the third quarter of 2022. However, slow recovery can delay this to 2023-end. Total aggregate demand for textile and apparel products has declined by 22 per cent globally. According to Vinatex, many firms in the sector have signed orders until the end of April. Similarly, new orders for knitwear and items have been placed until July and August.

Hit hard by the pandemic, America’s apparel manufacturers are moving away from the Trump administration’s ‘America First’ Biden’s ‘Buy American’ policy. As per a McKinsey report, 71 per cent of America’s small businesses were negatively impacted by the pandemic and this once again brought into sharp focus the inadequacies in supply chains.

Carbon neutrality by 2050

The Biden administration aims to build tighter procurement and build supply chain resilience to make the country self-reliant in critical raw materials. As a per Innovation in Textiles report, it is currently focusing on addressing climate issues like rejoining the Paris climate accord and revoking permits for the Keystone XL pipeline scheduled to run from Canada to US along the West coast.

The administration also aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by accelerating its move to renewable energy, says John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate. Gina McCarthy, the President’s domestic climate advisor said the government aims to use the Federal budget and its procurement opportunities to inform the market about technologies and products that need to be built in the country.

Eco-friendly partnerships

US textile and apparel manufacturers are also focusing on environmental and social impacts of domestic and imported goods. Manufacturers are embracing new sustainability initiatives as can be seen from industry conferences and trade shows such as the IFAI’s annual Expo. American suppliers are also focusing on eco-friendly partnerships such as opening Hohenstein, a top European service provider and manufacturer opening an US office. The country also sees digital innovation as essential for achieving a transparent supply chain.

Change in shipping rules

Making a cautious move, the Biden administration is building international partnerships without disturbing existing tariffs and other trade barriers. However, it needs to give attention to rising shipping costs which have increased by almost 300 per cent in the past 12 months, says the FBX Freightos Baltic Index. Special attention needs to be paid to the Jones Act that requires goods shipped within the country to be transported using vessels built, owned and operated by American citizens or permanent residents. Europe and other trade partners have been urging the US government to make changes in this Act and allow greater competition and lower costs. The government seems to be focusing on building domestic manufacturing capability, stronger environmental laws but retaining tariffs. It can also gain from building mutually beneficial partnerships.