As per McKinsey & Company, despite e-commerce boost, apparel sales in North America are poised to decline by 30 per cent in 2020 and by 25 per cent in 2021 from the 2019 levels. According to Althea Peng, Head, McKinsey’s-Americas, the earliest apparel sales might return to pre-pandemic levels is by the first quarter of 2023. If dire conditions persist through next year, retailers can expect to languish till the second quarter of 2025.

Though online sales will continue to gain market share, they won’t be able to compensate for the decline in brick and mortar sales. In 2020, online sales will constitute over one-third of total apparel sales. In 2021, e-commerce penetration may decline a bit as stores may reopen for the entire year. The absolute increase in e-commerce sales from 2019 to 2021 will be mostly offset by lower brick-and-mortar sales. Digital-first brands and retailers are projected to grow by 25 percent from 2019 levels in 2021.

However, Emma Spagnuolo, a McKinsey Associate Partner, does not view customers’ use of online channels even after the contagion to being a threat as according to a poll, consumers’ willingness to buy clothing and footwear online post-pandemic has jumped by just percent.

Spgnuolo also sees 35 to 40 per cent growth in users of omnichannel-type services—such as buy online, pick up in store and purchasing through social media or apps—post-COVID-19. According to her, successful retailers approach e-commerce from two angles: capturing a greater share of traffic by boosting conversion and retaining customers, and supercharging profitability by thinking outside the traditional legacy model to find ways to reduce costs across the system, increase data transparency and promote the proper attribution of costs to create clarity and accountability.

As per Kohan Textile Journal, from January-June 20, China’s exports of the sewing machine decreased by 21.90 per cent on a Y-o – Y basis. The country’s overall sewing machine export revenues during the first half of 2020 declined to $934 million. Iindustrial machinery exports decreased by 26.03 per cent to $446 million.

As regards export volumes, Chinese industrial sewing machines dropped to 1.42 million sets by 26.41 percent. The average exportation cost per sewing machine for H1’20 was $371,66.

China exported $169 million sewing machines in June ’20, which was a 20.93 per cent dip from its past year. However, exports increased 23.14 per cent from May 20. In particular, the volume of exports of industrial sewing presses fell by 31,96 per cent to 221.700 sets , but compared to May’20, the volume of shipment increased by 16,91 per cent. Export of industrial sewing machines also declined by 43.96 per cent to $59.67 million. However, their value increased however by 4.17 per cent on the M-o-M basis.

As containment of the pandemic led to many world buyers diverting orders to domestic manufacturers, Pakistan textile industry was able to scale up its production capacity to pre-COVID-19 levels, says a report by the Tribune. This growth in textile production has been achieved through a big jump in the import of basic raw materials as the recent heavy rainfall and pest attack damaged notable portion of cotton crops in the fields to a multi-year low.

Asif Inam, Former Vice-Chairman, All Pakistan Mills Associati(APTMA) says, precautionary measures to safeguard people from the virus and industry-specific economic measures by the government have helped the industry to resume production to full capacity. However, this full-capacity production excludes those textile units which closed down during the crisis, said Inam. Pakistan's textile industry is in a much better position compared to regional competitors as well. Many world buyers have diverted their orders to Pakistan from China, India and Bangladesh for different reasons including US-China trade war and halt in production in India with worsening of COVID-19 crisis there.

Secondly, the industry recovered on a fast pace with the government's support in the shape of rationalizing energy price to a regional competitive level, the continued supply of raw material and subsidized financing for the expansion of production and setting up new units.

Pakistan saw a jump of almost 1,000 per cent in import of cotton in dollar-term at $67.43 million in August compared to $6.30 million in the same month of last year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Cotton imports surged 255 per cent in the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2021.

Rubana Huq, President, BGMEA says the association has adopted a safety protocol prepared in consultation with the International Labor Organization and the Director-General-Health, Bangladesh government. As per Huq, the government’s stimulus package will help the industry. At the same time, other steps that will help include apparel manufacturers die-hard engagements with buyers who canceled orders and get them back on negotiation table. This has resulted in 80 to 90 per cent of the $3.18 billion canceled work orders been reinstated.

Huq says, COVID-19 has unleashed many truths which were never uncovered, some of those are about the country’s internal deficiencies which need to be overwhelmed, and some of those are about how manufacturers deal with their shareholders with proper policy measures.

Also the industry has learned about several disadvantages like a lack of proper contractual protocols between buyers and suppliers, and we did not even have any backup to reply to an emergency crisis. This pandemic has also shown its overdependence on the garment sector and the need for immediate diversification. She suggested exploring new opportunities that COVID has opened up like the market for personal protective equipment and also how more funds can be drawn in Bangladesh, and how the industry can diversify its product basket.

American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) says, the US government alongwith its allies and stakeholders can end the terrible situation arising out of forced labor in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). At a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee trade sub-committee, Steve Lamar, CEO urged US government to use tools at the country’s disposal properly. He urged them to use withhold release orders (WROs) and other sanctions tools to declare all cotton from the XUAR ‘in part or in whole’ as products made with forced labor. Such a WRO would wreak unending havoc to human rights, economic development, and legitimate supply chains—which are already battered by COVID-19—all over the world, he said.

Lamar said, the government needs to keep the pressure focused on those actors in China that are perpetuating this system. It needs to evaluate its joint efforts through the lens of what would help them get their end goal. He called for a partnership between te industry, NGOs, unions, Congress, the US government, and other governments to take a comprehensive approach to resolving the horrific situation in XUAR,

The Indian MMF industry needs to work with the government to push MMF garment exports, says A Sakthivel, Chairman, AEPC.

According to Sakthivel, MMF garment exports in India total $1.6 billion whereas the world trade is about $200 billion. To increase share in the global MMF garments business, AEPC has initiated a dialogue with Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), he added.

He informed that AEPC will host a series of webinars on how to increase the export of MMF garments. Ronak Rughani, Chairman, SRTEPC, said that while cotton was the primary fiber for universal usage, MMF has surpassed cotton as the dominant fiber since the mid-1990s and has continued to grow faster thereafter as compared to all other fibers.

The domestic fiber consumption ratio in India at present is 40:60 between manmade fibers and natural fibers, which is almost opposite to the global fiber consumption trends, he added.

After witnessing a sharp decline since April, India’s ready-made garment exports are on a road to revival. This recovery is largely driven by the European Union (EU) markets. Capacity utilization has increased to 60-80 per cent with customers placing new orders based on the season and the number of stores that opened have globally.

Raja N Shanmugam, President , Tiruppur Exporters’ Association, said enquiry levels are more than last year’s. Brands are now looking for alternatives from China. According to him, Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) will not impact apparel exports since it has been withdrawn last year itself.

SP Apparels’ factories are operating around 60 per cent capacity due to social distancing norms imposed by the authorities. The company managed to address labor shortage by providing migrant workers with accommodation and food in the hostel premises. The depreciation of the rupee in the fourth quarter impacted the company’s hedged positions and resulted in hedging losses.

The Government has approved the creation of National Technical Textiles Mission for a period of four years with an outlay of Rs.1480 crore. The focus of the Mission would be on developing the use of technical textiles in various flagship missions, programs of the country including strategic sectors. The use of technical textiles in Jal Jivan Mission; Swachch Bharat Mission; Ayushman Bharat will bring an overall improvement in cost economy, water and soil conservation, better agricultural productivity and higher income to farmers per acre of land holding in addition to promotion of manufacturing and exports activities in India. The use of geo-textiles in highways, railways and ports will result in robust infrastructure, reduced maintenance cost and higher life cycle of the infrastructure assets.

Promotion of innovation amongst young engineering /technology/ science standards and graduates is proposed to be taken up by the Mission; alongwith creation of innovation and incubation centres and promotion of 'start-up' and Ventures'. The research output will be reposited with a ‘Trust’ with the Government for easy and assessable proliferation of the knowledge thus gained through research innovation and development activities.

A sub-component of the research will focus on development of bio degradable technical textiles materials, particularly for agro-textiles, geo-textiles and medical textiles. It will also develop suitable equipment for environmentally sustainable disposal of used technical textiles, with emphasis on safe disposal of medical and hygiene wastes.

The Indian government’s decision to cap incentives under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) at Rs 2 crore per exporter for four months till December 31 is likely to likely affect 700-750 exporters of textiles, engineering items, automobiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas.

The cap was introduced as the government found MEIS had failed to deliver the desired result of boosting exports, which were worth around $300 billion in the last five years despite its liberal application across sectors.

The government said 98 per cent of the exporters who claim MEIS would be unaffected by the changes as per an analysis of claims in the same period of 2018-19.

The top 50 exporters from these sectors account for around 20 per cent of the benefits under the scheme, the outgo under which was 45,000 crore in fiscal 2020.

The new Import Export Code obtained on or after September 1 would be ineligible to submit any MEIS claim for exports, and the ceiling would be subject to a downward revision to ensure that the total claim didn’t exceed the allocated Rs 5,000 crore for the period.

As international trade shows are gradually getting back on schedule in China, this year’s Yarn Expo Autumn will also open on September 23. The fair will house over 410 exhibitors from six countries including China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, US and Vietnam, in hall 8.2 of National Exhibition and Convention Centre (Shanghai).

Apart from the all-encompassing range of high-quality and innovative yarn and fiber products on offer, a number of themed areas and events will also take place during the fair to reveal the latest developments of different industry sectors, as well as offer valuable knowledge exchange opportunities.

Amongst the 410-plus exhibitors this year are some big-name players, which include: Cotton Council Internationalh 8.2-C56): will promote quality and traceable US cotton using their Cotton USA brand; Texperts India; Orient International (Holding) Co; Nantong Doublegreat Textile Co will showcase the company’s newly developed polylactic acid blended yarn; and Hmei Thread Co Ltd of Yibin Sichuan (8.2-H95): will highlight their dyed viscose spun yarn which uses top quality viscose staple fibre as a raw material, and is spun by a first-class spinning process.

More highlighted exhibitors such as M.ORO Cashmere (8.2-A56), Hi-Tech Fiber Group (8.2-A108) and Sateri (8.2-C58) will also be at the fair and present some of the highest quality cashmere products and regenerated fibre technologies.

This year’s Yarn Expo Autumn has launched a new online business matching service for all pre-registered visitors. This online platform offers access to the exhibitor search platform as well as allows users to meet with their targeted visitors or buyers virtually. In fact, as those who can attend the fair can also use this online service to start their sourcing early and schedule meetings with potential suppliers in advance, it will increase buyers’ sourcing efficiency and boost the exhibitors’ exhibit results.