Indian apparel exporters are facing various constraints. Among these are increased prices of raw material, the Russia-Ukraine war and sluggish demand in major garment importing countries. In addition buyers are asking for higher discounts.

The impact of the global slowdown on trade is beginning to show on credit demand from Indian exporters, with export credit by banks shrinking nearly a quarter year on year at the end of October 2022 by 25 per cent, signaling further downsizing in overseas merchandise exports. Most of the traditional markets of Indian readymade garments including the UK, EU and the US are witnessing recession and global headwinds, leading to shrinking of demand on one side and buyers asking for discount on the other.

Exporters now are waiting for free trade agreements in these markets to be expedited and ensure all tariff lines of the garment sector to be insured, which will enable a duty reduction from existing 9.6 per cent and act as a strong breather. Among the issues they have raised are early announcement of the PLI-2.0 scheme, extension of ATUFS, RoSCTL disbursements through bank transfer; relaxations to apparel exporters under various provisions, one-time relaxation on account of bankruptcy, insolvency , discounting, cancellation of export orders, and raw material security.

When it comes to engineered products with non-aesthetic purposes, where function is a primary criterion the technical textile market reigns supreme over traditional textiles every time. Manufactured using natural as well as man-made fibres such as Nomex, Kevlar, Spandex and Twaron that exhibit enhanced functional properties such as higher tenacity, excellent insulation and greater thermal resistance, the global technical textile market is in good shape these days.

The technical textiles market is expected to grow significantly to reach a CAGR of 6.2 per cent by 2025, says a report ‘Global Technical Textiles Market’. The niche market includes textiles for automotive applications, medical textiles, geotextiles and for protective clothing such as heat and radiation protection, molten metal protection for welders, stab protection and bulletproof vests and spacesuits among other uses. This segment is now coming into its own by using both synthetic and natural fibres for chemical processing to make high-performing textiles of far greater quality and strength than traditional textiles.

Hi-tech speciality fibres is the focus

The pandemic may have led to reduced growth but due to increased demand for medical garments such as masks and gowns made using technical textiles, there was always a glimmer of light in the middle of darkness for the technical textiles market. Technical textiles which were earlier a sunrise segment came into their own during the Covid-19 crisis with mass production and export of medical equipment including N95 face masks and protective gear among others.

The number one market driver for is global increase in awareness and demand for technical textiles. As there is an increase in awareness about the quality, functionality, and availability of technical textiles, demand for product has increased as well. More and more consumers are demanding flexible, durable, high-quality, and high-strength textiles. Whether it is for activewear, undergarments, or medical apparel, technical textiles are superior to traditional textiles.

Many countries are now focussing on setting up manufacturing units for technical textiles and moving away from traditional textiles as their quality and not quantity keeps raking in profits. Invention of speciality fibres and including them in all segments is increasing their popularity for the future. The Asia-Pacific has seen the maximum growth in this sector and captures the largest market share due to rapid urbanisation, technological advancements in medical, automobile and construction industries and also fuelled by easy production, low-cost labour and conducive government policy support.

Asia Pacific markets the growth drivers

Asia-Pacific has seen tremendous growth in this sector and captures the largest market share due to rapid urbanisation and technological advancements in the medical, automobile and construction industries. This is further catalysed by easy production, low-cost labour and conducive government policy support. Industry analysts feel that the Asia-Pacific region has 40 per cent of global market, while North America and Western Europe have around 25 and 22 per cent respectively.

However, it’s not a walk in the park for the technical textile segment as it has to cope with many restraints. High manufacturing and production costs of the textiles due to sophisticated manufacturing infrastructure and expensive raw materials needed make the finished products produced expensive as compared to traditional textiles. The pricing structures for the finished products are sometimes not worth the high production costs, which discourages many manufacturers.

There are also many environmentally friendly criteria mandates to deal with which regulate the technical textile manufacturing materials and this is different in every region. The technical textile market is expected to be on an upward swing during the forecast period until 2025 with key market players pitching in such as Asahi Kasei (Japan), DuPont (US), Mitsui Chemicals (Japan), Berry Global Group (US), and Freudenberg & Co. (Germany) among others.

Indian exporters witnessed a 100 percent growth in their business on Amazon. Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sale events were held from November 24 to 28, 2022.

Under Amazon’s global selling initiative, sellers from India sold on Amazon’s global marketplaces like North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, Japan, and Singapore.With Amazon global selling, entrepreneurs of all sizes from across India can leverage Amazon’s investments in logistics and infrastructure to cater to customers across the world.

Amazon aims at enabling $20 billion in cumulative exports from India by 2025. To onboard sellers to its global selling program, Amazon has reduced the subscription fee for new exporters and has witnessed a 50 percent jump in new seller sign-ups on the program.Amazon’s global selling program was launched in India in 2015 to help Indian exporters reach customers worldwide through Amazon’s international websites and marketplaces. The company has more than 100, 000 exporters across India on the program.

During Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (AGIF) this year more than 80 per cent of new customers were from smaller towns.Customers got access to crores of product selections from sellers including unique items from lakhs of small and medium businesses. More than 35,000 sellers saw their highest-ever single-day sales; over 650 sellers became crorepatis and 23,000 sellers became lakhpatis.

The performance of Indian cotton spinners moderated in the second quarter due to inflationary pressures and uncompetitive prices. So says rating agency ICRA.

However, absolute profits are projected to remain healthy, supported by a higher scale of operations. For the first half of the financial year, inventory levels for most players have come down with the cotton stocks from the previous harvest season getting extinguished and sharp volatility in cotton prices affecting the buying power of spinners. And with higher raw material prices exerting cost pressures, operating margins remained flat. In the second quarter revenue and margins dipped for Indian spinners amidst macro headwinds, while for the apparel segment revenue and margins remained flat, with recessionary conditions in key markets.

Most players faced a decline in inventory levels in the second quarter after cotton stocks from the previous harvest season started to reduce and cotton prices saw a sharp volatility, resulting in players becoming cautious on buying. A recessionary environment in key export markets affected discretionary consumer spending leading to lower export sales. For the first half of the fiscal year, inventory levels for most players had reduced. This was in line with large retailers who focused on reducing inventory due to a weak demand scenario and recessionary pressures in key exporting regions.

Tens of thousands of Vietnamese factory workers have been laid off.

Almost half a million others have been forced to work fewer hours as orders fall in the southeast Asian country, one of the world’s largest exporters of clothing, footwear and furniture.The cost-of-living crisis in Europe and the United States -- major markets for Vietnamese-produced goods -- has seen the buying power of Western shoppers plunge.Women factory workers, who make up 80 percent of the labour force in Vietnam’s garment industry, have been hit the hardest.

Since September 2022, more than 1,200 companies -- mostly foreign businesses in the garment, footwear and furniture sectors -- have been forced to sack staff or cut working hours. Compared with last year, orders are down 30 per cent to 40 percent from the United States and 60 percent from Europe, where inflation and energy bills have soared because of the war in Ukraine.More than 4,70,000 workers have had their hours slashed in the last four months of the year while about 40,000 people have lost their jobs -- 30,000 of them women aged 35 or older.

The slowdown has come as a shock because export businesses in Vietnam were running at full capacity for the first half of 2022.

The second edition of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme is being finalized.

The scheme for garments, made-ups and home textiles will have lower minimum investment and turnover requirements so as to attract small and medium entities. The incentives on offer may slightly be lower than what was offered under PLI 1. But the scheme would still be attractive. The PLI scheme for textiles (first edition), introduced in 2021, is divided into two parts and is available for the production of manmade fiber fabrics and apparels as well as technical textiles.

The minimum investment requirement for the first part is Rs300 crores with a minimum turnover requirement of Rs600 crores. Investors are entitled to an incentive of 15 per cent of the minimum turnover in the first year, which is to go down by one per cent over the next four years.

Part two requires a minimum investment of Rs100 crores with a minimum turnover requirement of Rs200 crores. The incentive here is lower at 11 per cent in the first year, which is to be reduced by one per cent over the next four years.The second edition of the PLI scheme will be available to cotton items also.

Coloreel’s technology for thread dyeing reduces water consumption by 97 per cent. This provides significant environmental benefits for the textile industry. The company's sustainability operations are now quantified and third-party verified.

Coloreel uses one single white thread to create millions of colors and intricate patterns. It unlocks new design possibilities, while providing environmental benefits. By dyeing a 100 per cent recycled polyester thread in real time, water consumption is reduced by at least 97 per cent compared to traditional dyeing methods. In addition, the technology significantly reduces thread waste. By instantly colouring thread during production, Coloreel produces no wastewater, minimises the use of chemicals and reduces thread waste.

Coloreel, based in Sweden, is a textile innovation brand that has developed a ground-breaking technology for embroidery that enables high-quality colouring of textile thread on demand, unlocking a world of potential. When Coloreel launched its ground-breaking technology for digital thread dyeing, the aim was to streamline an embroidery industry characterized by slow processes, difficulty in creating complicated designs and an excessive use of resources.

Traditional thread dyeing produces 50 times more wastewater than Coloreel's direct dyeing does. The company is currently focusing on further reducing the amount of energy and ink used in production.

Seidensticker uses Coats Digital to provide full visibility of its capacity planning and critical path.

This will enable Seidensticker, an European manufacturer of men’s shirts and women’s blouses, to respond quickly to smaller, more complex order requests and reduce the time and cost challenges involved in meeting customers’ last-minute change requirements.

The solution offered by Coats Digital, called FastReactPlan, provides total visibility to global capacity planning and workflow processes which allows business-critical decisions to be made quickly and ensures early discovery of potential delivery challenges. FastReactPlan significantly improves production efficiencies, increases OTDP and reduces workloads as well as reduces last-minute firefighting for planning teams across the whole business.

Coats Digital helps brands and manufacturers optimise, connect and accelerate business critical processes from design and development to method-time-cost optimisation, production planning and control, fabric optimisation and shop floor execution. Used in over 3,000 factories globally, Coats’ end-to-end apparel, footwear and textile software and SaaS solutions improve agility, speed to market, efficiency, transparency and sustainability.

FastReactPlan is an apparel production planning software solution, supporting a faster, more reliable order confirmation process and production plan which is optimised for delivery, speed and efficiency.The highly visual, flexible drag and drop approach to planning allows effective master planning across multiple factories, as well as fast, detailed and accurate scheduling of manufacturing lines/machines.

Istanbul Fashion Connection will take place in Turkey, February 8 to 11, 2023.

Some 25,000 visitors from 100 nations are expected, from all sales channels, from department stores and boutiques to online platforms, from eastern Europe, the central Asian markets and the Arabian Gulf region, alongside buyers from Turkey.

The goal of the event is to offer a one-stop shopping solution that shows the creativity of the Turkish fashion scene, enables access to new sales markets and at the same time establishes the connection to potential production partners for supply chain optimization.

The clearly structured fair with over 600 exhibitors in nine halls gives an overview of the new collections in the areas of women’swear, men’swear, children’s wear, denim, shoes, leather and furs. Separate platforms are LinExpo for lingerie and hosiery and FashionIST with a wide range of wedding dresses, evening wear and suits. IFCO Sourcing, a new area, offers the opportunity to find numerous companies for sourcing capacities.

Turkey has long been a global player in the fashion business.The competitive advantages of production in Turkey are short delivery times, high production quality, young and well-trained employees, the possibility of small minimum order quantities and a vertical textile and clothing industry that allows one-stop shopping.

Inditex’s nine-month profit rose by 24 per cent.

Inditex raised prices by five per cent to offset rising costs. The price rises helped offset weakening global demand for clothing.The world’s biggest fashion retailer’s store and online sales rose 19 per cent from a year ago.

Known for its ability to quickly deliver the latest designs to consumers thanks to its flexible sourcing, Inditex has lately been offering more high fashion Zara pieces designed for special occasions.The approach has allowed it to sell higher-priced items and attract shoppers from the luxury segment of the market. Sales increased 11 per cent during the third quarter, a slower pace than in previous months, reflecting a weakening consumer environment. The company’s second quarter sales increased 16 per cent from the same period a year ago.The fashion giant’s sales between the start of November and December 8 increased 12 per cent from a year ago. Sales were positive in all geographic areas. But the company will have to deal with more cost increases over the coming months including pressure from workers for higher salaries.

Inditex is the parent company of brands like Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear and Bershka. Zara continues to be the strongest brand in Inditex’s mix.