The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) organized a webinar to promote import substitution of polyester fabric and to explore new sources in association with Reliance Industries (RIL). Titled ‘Sourcing of Polyester Fabric’, the seminar was attended by 50 industry players.

Reliance Industries partners shared their fabric supply chain to India and updated on new fabric sourcing at the webinar. Ritesh Sharma, Head-Brand & Retail, Reliance Industries informed, his company has launched the Hub Excellence Program to enable the entire value chain to take advantage of the manufacturing and technical support, quality and supply assurance, access to innovative products, manufacturing support, and one-stop solution for all requirements.

Roshan Baid, Paragon Apparels said, the importance MMF fibre textiles is increasing across the world as a substitute for cotton. World trade in MMF fibre garments is estimated at $500 billion. However, India’s share of MMF garments in its apparel exports is just 10 per cent.

Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman, Export Promotion Sub Committee, AEPC, appealed to Reliance Industries to divert its focus from production of fibers to high-end fabrics.

The VF Foundation invested more than $320,000 towards welfare of garment workers throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including its two most recent grants in India & Cambodia.

Throughout India, garment workers and their children have grappled with challenges wrought by COVID-19. Over 80 per cent of Indian apparel workers surveyed by GoodWeave report they lost their job since the beginning of the pandemic. Many of those people have struggled to put food on the table for their families ever since.

To help those impacted most by the global pandemic, The VF Foundation donated $50,000 to Goodweave for relief work in India. The donation directly funded enough food packs to feed nearly 4,000 families of four for up to one month. Filled with rice, flour, dal (lentils), oil, sugar, salt, as well as soap, the packs provide essential nutrition and sustenance during this critical time. In total, the gift positively impacted approximately 16,000 garment industry workers and their children in Northern India.

The funding for this latest round of gifting was generated primarily from a cause-marketing campaign conducted by VF’s running shoe brand, Altra®. Throughout April 2020, the brand donated the proceeds of one of its most popular running shoes to the GlobalGiving COVID Relief Fund. The VF Foundation matched those dollars two-for-one, which more than tripled their efforts and brought the total donation to 100,000.

As per a report by Changing Markets published jointly with the Clean Clothes Campaign, Ethical Consumer, WeMove.EU and Fashion Revolution, global luxury brands are dragging their feet on making viscose less toxic.

The report evaluated 100 brands and retailers for their commitments and progress on cleaner production of viscose and other man-made cellulosic materials like modal and rayon, which have been associated with toxic chemical pollution as well as deforestation. The results show while there is more attention on viscose compared to a few years ago, there is still much work to do.

Versace, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Giorgio Armani, as well as most of the US brands, including Michael Kors, Nike and Forever 21, ranked lowest — indicating a lack of any credible viscose-specific policy for safer chemical management or transparency of any kind, according to Changing Markets.

The worst-ranked companies have no meaningful policy on viscose and disclose nothing about their supply chain, said Urška Trunk, Changing Markets campaign manager. On the other hand, top-ranking companies, including Levi Strauss & Co, Reformation, Esprit, H&M, Inditex and M&S, have concrete commitments to clean up their viscose supply chains by 2025.

Fashion group Espirit is set to lose two of its top executives. Anders Kristiansen, who took charge in 2018 as CEO of the company, tendered his resignation to the company’s board of directors on December. Similarly, Johannes Schmidt-Schultes, CEO too plan to depart soon. Both of them will leave the company by February 28, 2021, says a report by Fashion Network.

Esprit’s new CEO will not be based in Germany, a country where, in March, the company filed for a protection procedure relating to its German business, including the company headquarters. Ultimately, Esprit will close down half of its retail network in Germany, for a loss of 1,100 jobs. The group is not struggling in Europe alone. In April, it decided to cease trading in the majority of its Asian markets too.

As of June 30 2020, Esprit had the equivalent of 3,400 full-time employees. In the 2019-20 financial year, which closed on June 30, the group’s sales fell by 23.6%, down to HKD9.874 billion (€1.09 billion). The group's losses before interest and tax seriously deepened in the course of the financial year, increasing by 65.7%, from HKD2.080 billion to HKD3.447 billion (€380 million).

The UK has signed a trade deal with Mexico which guarantees tariff-free trade and other benefits for British businesses and consumers.

As per a TexIntel report, the UK-Mexico Trade Continuity Agreement particularly benefits the automotive, pharmaceutical, textiles, agriculture, food and drink industries and other manufacturing industries.

Both countries have also committed to start negotiating a new and ambitious free trade agreement next year, which will go much further than the existing deal.

This agreement also represents another step towards the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), to which we aim to apply for formal accession in early 2021. Both sides have agreed that our future bilateral negotiations should run in parallel to this process.

Joining CPTPP would put the UK at the centre of an increasingly influential trade network of 11 dynamic economies in the Indo-Pacific region that already accounts for 13 per cent of global GDP and would rise to 16 per cent with our accession.

This agreement also guarantees UK businesses the assurance to operate in the Mexican market. It could save around £59 million worth of duties that would have been levied on UK exports to Mexico under WTO terms.

Operating rate of spandex market is expected to remain high in December. Supply will touch yearly high, but demand may diminish temporarily. As per CCF Group, the diversification between supply and demand is likely to enlarge. Supply of spandex is estimated to gradually become normal and the delivery of substantially less varieties will need to queue. Trading under high price and small lots is supposed to reduce. Price is anticipated to be negotiable for some large lots.

Recently, rigid demand for spandex turned muted after downstream plants witnessed diminishing orders and slightly cut run rate. Some dealers also reduced replenishing. Supply tightness of spandex has been eased slightly and stocks started mounting, while overall stocks on spandex market remained low. Price of some spandex 20D and 30D was high boosted by seasonal demand, while that of 40D/70D/140D inched down amid falling orders. Price of spandex hiked by around 40 per cent compared with the bottom level and started shivering at high level in Dec, even moving down in some regions.

In view of supply, spandex market entered prosperous cycle after Q3 with soaring price and greatly improving profit. Most units kept running at high capacity, excluding some old units to be eliminated. Current operating rate of spandex market was at 93 per cent and is supposed to remain high in December supported by low stocks and high cash flow. Monthly production of spandex may hit yearly high in Dec.

Demand for spandex tends to weaken and sales were mainly driven by rigid demand now. Operating rate of spandex downstream mills accumulated to historic high in Sep-Nov as local and export orders for thermal fabrics, fabrics for sportswear, yoga clothes and bedding etc. were hot. However, mills concentrated on delivering in November, but orders for spring wear and summer wear failed to chase up sufficiently.

Weighed down by new COVID-19 infections and decreasing household incomes, retail sales in the US declined for second consecutive month in November. As per the Commerce Department, sales dropped 1.1 per cent in November even as the data for October was revised to show sales falling 0.1 per cent instead of climbing 0.3 cent as previously reported. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales declined by 0.5 per cent last month after downwardly revised 0.1 per cent dip in October.

Also, the economy added the fewest jobs in six months in November. The number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits jumped to a near three-month high in the first week of December. As per a Reuters tally of official data, the United States is struggling with a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 infections, with the death toll from the respiratory illness rising above 300,000. Many state and local governments have imposed new restrictions on businesses, while some consumers are avoiding shopping malls, restaurants and bars.

The situation has been compounded by the loss of a weekly unemployment supplement. More than $3 trillion in government coronavirus relief is almost depleted. At least 9 million unemployed and underemployed Americans will lose government-funded benefits on Dec. 26, with Congress struggling to agree on another rescue package.

Raffaello Napoleone, CEO, Piiti Immagine has confirmed its next physical event will be held as per schedule in in February.The organizer expects around 300 brands to attend the show. Pitti has three distinct evens, Uomo for men, Bimbo for kids wear and Filati for thread. The organization launched a digital project, Pitti Connect, in July. The platform attracted 288 brands for the Uomo, and around 550 when Filati and Bimbo were added. The next edition of Pitti Connect, featuring menswear will be held online in January.

As per reports, Pitti will stage a joint physical trade show of its three divisions from February 21 to 23. The entire event will be staged inside Fortezza da Basso, the giant medieval fortress that is the main attraction of Pitti.

Pitti operates a sliding payment structure for stands inside the fortress, depending on floor level, access and set up. However, a ballpark figure for brands is around 300 euros per square meter.

Lockdowns and tightening of restrictions in several European countries to tackle the second wave of infections have started affecting Bangladesh garment exporters. As per Rubana Huq, President, BGMEA, the lockdown announced by Germany till January 10, will aggravate the negative impact on the exports. The industry is already in such a week position that repetition of even a fraction of first wave is likely to have an intense impact on it, she said.

MA Jabbar, Managing Director, DBL Group, added the second wave, as well as the lockdowns ahead of Christmas in Europe, have already impacted shipment from his company. However, he hopes the situation to improve by April as the vaccinations in Europe will hopefully be completed by then. During the first wave, the sector accepted high discounts and delayed payments to clear the cancelled goods, which had its impact on the financial stability of the industry, Huq said.

Garment prices declined by 4.85 per cent year-on-year since September. Factories had to pay wages and all the regular payments, and forced loans have been created against factories mostly working for bankrupted buyers, she added. As per BGMEA, the garment industry lost $6 billion in export in FY20.

Italian leather goods brand Furla plans to reorganize operations in the US by closing stores at Roosevelt Field Mall, Aventura Mall, Copley Place Mall and Houston. The new plan will allow Fulra to emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process rapidly. Known for handbags, the brand currently operates 14 stores and outlets. As per recent reports, the company has stabilized operations in the US and achieved almost all of its internal objectives.

Founded in Bologna in 1927, Furla is currently negotiating with the owners of its other US stores and will announce which of its remaining locations in the country will stay open by the end of January 2021. The brands’ products are distributed through 500 monobrand stores around the world. It is confident its American subsidiary will emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever and return to growth in early February 2021.