Coats’ sustainability report, ‘Pioneering a sustainable future’, launches a sustainability strategy which sets out seven ambitious targets for 2022 across five priority areas in order to accelerate the company’s progress towards a more sustainable future.

The five priority areas are water, energy, effluent and emissions, social and living sustainably. Having identified the five priority areas, Coats has set seven ambitious targets to be achieved by 2022. These include 40 per cent reduction in water used in litres/kg thread produced, 7 per cent reduction in energy used in kwh/kg thread produced, source renewable energy where feasible, zero discharge of hazardous chemicals effluent standards, great place to work’ or equivalent awards for all key sites, all employees involved in community activities, 25 per cent reduction in waste

There is also an additional target of manufacturing 100 per cent recycled premium polyester threads by 2024. All reductions are against the 2018 baseline.

Coats’ yearly revenue has grown four per cent. Pre-tax profits slipped as lower demand for zips dented apparel and footwear revenue.

The benefits from the turnaround program, connecting for growth, was realised faster than initially anticipated, with net benefits delivered in 2018.

Revenues from apparel and footwear were largely unchanged from last year. Growth in the segment was impacted by slower demand for zips due to certain fashion trends, and a 15 per cent decline in Latin America Craft sales.

The full year dividend per share was increased by 15 per cent.

The company enters 2019 in a strong position, with continued positive momentum in its core apparel and footwear and hi-tech performance materials businesses. The exit of its non-core North American Crafts business will ensure complete focus on growing the remaining businesses organically and identifying further value-add bolt-on acquisitions.

Coats sold North America Crafts to Spinrite. Coats has had a crafts heritage in North America and a long association with crafters but decided to sell North America Crafts since the crafting market has evolved in the past decade and requires a higher degree of specialisation, scale, innovation and digital capabilities to succeed. Coats will use proceeds from the sale to make further value accretive acquisitions.

Dornier presents the full range of machine and system solutions for the composites industry. The solutions include tapes, tape fabrics and 3D structured textiles.

Based in Italy, the company has been the preferred partner for technical weavers worldwide for over 40 years. It has extremely versatile roving weaving machines for processing high-performance materials like carbon, glass and aramid fibers.

With core skills in textile and plastic processing collected in its composite systems business unit, Dornier is building its reputation as a reliable equipment provider partner for the burgeoning composite industry.

The requirements placed on modern composite components, like very high dynamic loads, good impact resistance and outstanding damage tolerance, cannot be met with layered textile reinforcements. The solution, multilayer, integrally reinforced 3D fabrics, can be produced economically on 3D weaving machines from Dornier. With an innovative fabric guidance system, fabrics can be manufactured with thickness of up to 100 millimeters. For this, the textile weave pattern is first developed in a virtual environment and then transferred digitally to the weaving machine controller.

Both dry and fully impregnated tapes can be produced in widths up to 600 millimeters on the Dornier tape production line at manufacturing speeds as high as 30 meters per minute.

"As per European Textile and Apparel Confederation (Euratex) in its annual report, the European textile sector generated a business volume of €181 billion in 2017. Europe is also one of the world’s biggest consumer markets along with the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. As Eurostat reveals in 2016, each European home invested almost a 5 per cent of its consumption expenditure in clothes and footwear, which is a total investment of €395.4 billion. Consumption of clothes further grew by 0.9 per cent in 2017."

As per European Textile and Apparel Confederation (Euratex) in its annual report, the European textile sector generated a business volume of €181 billion in 2017. Europe is also one of the world’s biggest consumer markets along with the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. As Eurostat reveals in 2016, each European home invested almost a 5 per cent of its consumption expenditure in clothes and footwear, which is a total investment of €395.4 billion. Consumption of clothes further grew by 0.9 per cent in 2017.

Trade agreements with Japan and Canada boost commercial exchange

To encourage free trade within the region, the European Union is negotiating bilateral agreements with various countries. Two of the biggest agreements signed recently are the agreement with Canada (CETA) and the treaty with Japan (JEFTA). The Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) was signed between the European Union and Canada. Reduction tariffs in the agreement, valid from 2017, have increased trade between the two territories by 20 per cent in besides boosting commercial interexchange by €20,000 annual million.

EU plans more treaties, agreement with Morocco causes concern

The European Union is also negotiating trade treaties with Mexico. The treaties deal with tariff reductions, with the leather as one of the most important raw materials in that exchange. Additionally, the union recently concluded agreements with South Korea, Moldova and Ukraine, and is negotiating with Colombia and China.

The European Union has also resumed dialogue with the US on free trade issues. After the US withdrawal of Tip negotiation post Donald Trump’s Presidency, the European Commission has started maintaining contacts again to resume negotiations.

However, the dialogue between the European Union and African countries of the Mediterranean watershed is a major cause of concern for the industry. One of these is about Morocco -- the main destination for Spanish textile exports. The country is seeking to reduce the number of industrial process to a single country in order to enjoy trade benefits. This will also allow them to abandon the European market and work with Asian raw material.

Promoting import from third world countries

The European Union also promotes import from third countries by excluding them from tariff payments upto approximately 50 years ago. Countries like Myanmar or Bangladesh enjoy free trade policies with Europe, despite not respecting human rights. According to the European Union, countries with good government also enjoy benefit. In this case, they are free of two third of the total tariffs rates. In this group, countries like Bolivia, Philippines or Sri Lanka are included.

However, countries having duty free access to the European market form the biggest group. This group caters to all kinds of products except arms and ammunition. The European Commission is now promoting a digital single market policy to encourage a single price for all European products sold online. Recently companies like Nike and Guess were penalized by the European Commission for violating this principle of digital single market, and limit cross-border sales to certain products.

During February 2019, Vietnam’s total export-import turnover was down 30.5 per cent against the previous month.
Exports were down 33.9 per cent while imports were down 27.1 per cent.

In the first two months of this year, the total export-import turnover showed a year-on-year rise of 6.7 per cent. Exports increased 5.9 per cent and imports rose 7.5 per cent, causing a trade deficit of 84 million dollars. During this period Vietnam’s exports of machinery, equipment, and components were up 19.3 per cent; exports of garment-textiles were up 19 per cent; and exports of footwear were up 18.4 per cent. During the same period, the country’s imports of fabrics of all kinds were up 16 per cent; imports of machinery, equipment, and spare parts were up 14.6 per cent; and imports of computers, electronic products, and components were up 11.4 per cent.

Vietnam plans to become the world’s third major supplier of garments and textiles. In 2018, the export turnover of garment and textile products marked a year on year increase of 16 per cent. However Vietnam has to depend on raw material imports. Enterprises have to import over 60 per cent of the raw materials they need. Many companies in the sector have speeded up production since early 2019 to meet large orders for the first trimester.

Vietnam’s export turnover was up 5.9 per cent in the first two months of this year.
Earnings from exporting phones and their components were down 7.3 per cent. Earnings from garment and textile products were up 19 per cent. Earnings from electronic products and components were up 1.9 per cent. Earnings from footwear were up 18.4 per cent.

In the two-month period, turnover from the United States, Vietnam's biggest export market, was up 34.4 per cent. Turnover from the European Union was up 1.2 per cent. Turnover from China was down 9.3 per cent.

In the first two months of this year, Vietnam’s import turnover was up 7.5 per cent. Vietnam’s expenditure on importing electronic appliances and their components was up 11.4 per cent. Expenditure on importing machines, equipment and spare parts was up 14.6 per cent. Expenditure on phones and components was down 12.6 per cent. And that on cloth was up 16 per cent.

From January to February, Vietnam’s expenditure on imports from China was up 17 per cent. Expenditure on imports from South Korea was down 2.1 per cent. And expenditure on imports from Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) was up 1.4 per cent.

In 2018, Vietnam’s export turnover was up 13.2 per cent against 2017. Import turnover was up 11.1 per cent.

International Garment Fair Association (IGFA) has shifted its office from Gurgaon to New Delhi.

The new office premise was inaugurated by Rahul Mehta, Chairman of the association.

IGFA has started its activities for organising the 63rd India International Garment Fair (IIGF) and Source Zone fair from its new office.

Apparel Textile Sourcing Miami (ATSM) will unveil the fashion color trend forecast for Autumn/Winter 2020-21 by Pantone Color Institute, the global authority on the movement of color across current and future seasons that enables color-critical decisions through every stage of workflow for brands and manufacturers. More than 10 million designers and producers around the world rely on Pantone products and services to help define, communicate and control color.

Apparel Textile Sourcing Miami (ATSM) show will be held from May 28-30 at the Mana Wynwood Conference Center, coinciding with Miami Fashion Week to present a jam-packed event that features the latest developments shaping the booming apparel and textile market.

With the industry reportedly growing at double-digit rates, transformed by global markets, consumer habits and technology, ATSM provides an unprecedented opportunity for networking and education as more than 300 exhibitors from over 15 countries converge at the show — including fabric mills, ready-made garment factories, service providers, wholesalers, trade offices and home textile suppliers.

Show visitors will also have the opportunity to see the upcoming trends first hand and talk with color specialists at the Pantone booth.

According to President Renuka Jayamanne, the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will prosper the economic co-operation of both countries in the coming years. The support given by the Bangladeshi Government to develop Lanka’s apparel sector is note worthy.

Sri Lanka is also expected to be the Shipping and Logistics Hub which would benefit both these economies in the future.

The business council is planning to collaborate with various Bangladeshi institutes and key companies to strengthen economic ties further. The Sri Lankan agricultural sector could be upgraded by sharing experience between agricultural institutes of both countries at grassroots levels.

Indonesia is ready to implement Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 includes the internet of things, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, mobility, virtual and augmented reality, sensor systems and automation, and virtual branding.

A number of domestic manufacturing companies are readying themselves for the application of industrial digitalization. To optimize performance of the national manufacturing industry, efforts will be made to accelerate the application of digital technology.
Industry 4.0 is expected to have a significant impact on the manufacturing sector in Indonesia, encouraging a huge increase in Indonesia’s economic output. Industry 4.0 is a big leap in the manufacturing sector through maximum utilization of information and communication technology. The entire value chain can be made to achieve optimal efficiency so as to give birth to new digital-based business models. In addition, 4.0 not only has tremendous potential in driving policy changes in the manufacturing sector but is also able to change various aspects of human civilization and life.

Indonesia has chosen five manufacturing sectors that will be the pioneers in implementation of digitalization, namely, the food and beverage industry, textiles and clothing, automotives, chemicals, and electronics. These manufacturing sectors have been chosen because of its high contribution to the national economy, with contributions of up to 60 per cent in GDP, export value, and employment.