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Better Cotton Initiative, DuPont, Hyosung, Invista and Lenzing will be present at Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics, China, October 11 to 13, 2017. Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is a global not-for-profit organisation with more than 1,000 members from the entire cotton sector. At Intertextile Shanghai, its pavilion will feature spinners, weavers and more.
DuPont will focus on stretch – particularly as it applies to performance sportswear, work wear and athleisure clothing. While a number of polyurethane fibers exist to meet the stretch requirements of garments such as these, DuPont’s Sorona stretch fiber offers a superior solution in terms of production time and cost, stretch recovery and color fastness.
Hyosung will display the Creora Fresh odor neutralising elastane. Creora Fresh has been demonstrated with nylon and polyester fibers to perform better than traditional antimicrobial finishes.
Invista will feature latest possibilities offered by Lycra Moves bras, leggings and hosiery. A special session outlining the latest woven bottom trends will also be hosted by Invista experts.
Lenzing’s partner mills will showcase a wide range of their innovative products but a particular highlight this edition will be their Lenzing EcoVero branded viscose fibers – a new standard in eco-responsible viscose offering the lowest environmental impact in the industry.
Archroma has announced solid progress on phases 3 and 4 of REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of Chemicals) with more than 60 per cent commercial products active in EU complying already with the June 2018 requirements. In total, 369 different chemical substances are within the scope of the REACH phases 3 and 4. These include 135 dossiers where Archroma has a lead registrant position in the EU.
In the first two phases – completed, respectively, in November 2010 and May 2013 – the company recorded a total of 60 chemical substances that are produced in or imported to the countries of the European Union with volumes greater than 100 tons per year. In the third and fourth phase of REACH that is currently under way, all the remaining chemical substances of more than a ton per year must be registered by June 1, 2018. Archroma is a global leader in color and specialty chemicals.
With its expert chemical management system, Archroma, unlike many EU importers of textile and paper chemicals, controls the composition of its formulations and can therefore ensure full REACH compliance of each ingredient in its products. With its broad product portfolio, Archroma is one major registrant of substances relevant to the textile and paper industries at the European Chemicals Agency. The company expects the total investment needed to be REACH ready to amount to 14.5 million dollars.
As per the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 even a decade after the global financial crisis, economies are still at risk and are ill-prepared to face the next wave of innovation and automation. There has been a failure by leaders and policymakers to put in place reforms needed to fortify competitiveness and raise productivity.
The financial system is yet to recover from the shock of 2007 and is declining further in some parts of the world. This is worrying as it plays a key role in facilitating investment in innovation related to the fourth industrial revolution.
Moreover, there is a need to create conditions to withstand economic shock and support workers through transition periods with vast numbers of jobs set to be disrupted due to automation and robotics. Third, the imbalance between investments in technology and efforts to promote its adoption throughout the wider economy needs to be addressed as those lead to failure of innovation to ignite productivity. Switzerland is the most competitive economy, narrowly ahead of the United States and Singapore, for the ninth consecutive year. Other G20 economies in the top ten list are Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan. China tops among the BRICS group of large emerging markets. These are the findings of the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018.
World cotton production is projected to increase by 10 per cent during 2017-18. Higher cotton prices during 2016-17 and better cotton price ratios to other competing crops during the 2017 planting campaign resulted in an expansion of cotton area by an estimated three million hectares.
The US will have the largest gain in production at 23 per cent. Production is projected to increase in all other major producing countries including India, China, Pakistan, Brazil, Francophone Africa and Turkey.
Global cotton mill use is projected to increase at an improved growth rate of 2.7 per cent reaching 25.2 million tons. In comparison, during 2016-17, world cotton mill use grew by 1.6 per cent. Mill use in China is projected to grow by 1.5 per cent. Cotton mill use is also projected to grow moderately in India, Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Brazil.
In 2017-18, world trade is projected stable at eight million tons and the US will remain the largest exporter, accounting for 40 per cent of world shipments. Bangladesh will remain the largest importer, accounting for 18 per cent of world imports. Because world production is projected to edge over mill use, world ending stocks could increase moderately with the stocks to use ratio remaining little changed.
"McKinsey's biannual Chief Purchasing Officer (CPO) survey has brought out the most important trends in apparel sourcing. These include: the need to balance cost, compliance, and capacity; navigating volatility; and exploring the growth opportunity in sourcing regions such as Bangladesh and East Africa. The 2017 survey focusses on digitisation, a topic of critical importance to apparel companies worldwide. It is also an area where many companies need a major step-up. Most of the CPOs in apparel sourcing are far from being digital."
McKinsey's biannual Chief Purchasing Officer (CPO) survey has brought out the most important trends in apparel sourcing. These include: the need to balance cost, compliance, and capacity; navigating volatility; and exploring the growth opportunity in sourcing regions such as Bangladesh and East Africa. The 2017 survey focusses on digitisation, a topic of critical importance to apparel companies worldwide. It is also an area where many companies need a major step-up. Most of the CPOs in apparel sourcing are far from being digital.
Some companies have started taking digitization seriously and are deploying technology to reduce lead times, boost innovation and collaboration, and better understand and serve customers’ needs. The McKinsey survey reminds that digitisation will end in disappointment if it is not integrated into a broader transformation to a customer-centric operating model. In order to bring in greater speed and agility, companies will need to redouble their efforts to optimise four key factors of success: country selection, supplier collaboration, compliance and risk, and end-to-end efficiency. These factors still represent massive improvement potential across most of the apparel industry.
Way ahead to drive growth
The survey reflects the perspectives of 63 participating CPOs, who together are responsible for a total sourcing value of over $137 billion. The survey offers an outlook and way ahead for CPOs to drive growth. The key elements include:
Apparel executives must continue dealing with a volatile, fast changing environment along with heightened competition and increasingly savvy consumers. That is driving an urgent search for greater efficiency and flexibility along the end-to-end sourcing chain. In recent decades, apparel buyers have relentlessly shifted sourcing to lower-cost countries – ‘the next stop of the sourcing caravan’. Today, the search for the caravan's next stop is as active as ever, but there are new dynamics at play. Some traditional low-cost countries are losing their attractiveness, while sourcing executives are showing keen interest in newer markets - particularly Vietnam, Myanmar, and Ethiopia. As companies seek to step up their agility, however, there is also fresh focus on proximity sourcing and re-shoring.
Digitisation could enable apparel companies to achieve a step change in performance, transform to a customer-centric operating model, and create transparency throughout their global supply chains. The apparel industry is still at the beginning of its digitisation journey. Companies need to accelerate digitisation and integrate it into their broader transformation. Those that succeed will break down silos between sourcing and product development, shorten lead times, lower costs, and increase transparency to manage sustainability.
Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics will be held in China from October 11 to 13, 2017. Over 4,500 exhibitors from 32 countries and regions are taking part in this edition. It covers the entire spectrum of apparel fabrics and accessories and boasts of a number of trend forums, seminars and panel discussions.
Lenzing’s partner mills will showcase a wide range of their innovative products but a particular highlight this edition will be their Lenzing EcoVero branded viscose fibers – a new standard in eco-responsible viscose offering the lowest environmental impact in the industry.
Invista will feature the latest offered by Lycra Moves bras, leggings and hosiery. A special session outlining the latest woven bottom trends will also be hosted by Invista experts. DuPont will focus on stretch – particularly as it applies to performance sportswear, work wear and athleisure clothing. While a number of polyurethane fibers exist to meet the stretch requirements of garments such as these, DuPont’s Sorona stretch fiber offers a superior solution in terms of production time and cost, stretch recovery and color fastness.
Hyosung will display the Creora Fresh odor neutralising elastane. Creora Fresh has been demonstrated with nylon and polyester fibers to perform better than traditional antimicrobial finishes.
Indorama Ventures has bought Dura Fiber Technologies. Dura Fiber is a Mexican producer of durable technical textiles for industrial, tire reinforcement, and specialty applications.
This acquisition is aligned with Indorama’s strategy of pursuing accretive growth opportunities in the high value-added automotive segment. Dura Fiber is the sole domestic tire cord fabric producer in Mexico and has a broad customer base and a long-established relationship with major global tire companies.
This acquisition expands the breadth of Indorama’s tire cord fabric products and provides the opportunity to leverage its global scale and assets to capture synergies and vast market opportunities. It is an opportunity to strengthen its presence in the fast growing markets of Mexico and Europe, and further enhance the company’s leading position in the automotive segment. With the acquisition of Dura Fiber, it will be best positioned to address a wide range of applications in the automotive fiber market and expand capabilities to deliver best-in-market services to customers.
This highly differentiated value proposition will deliver greater benefits for its customers and drive forward Indorama’s next phase of strategic growth as the leading fiber partner for the automotive industry. The automotive fiber market is growing at six per cent CAGR in 2017-2021.
Greenpeace says its ‘Detox’ campaign efforts could be ruined by the circular economy idea promoted by large global brands. The argument is an effective six year-long effort to reduce hazardous chemicals from the textile global supply chain could be ruined by a premature circular economy, where recycling happens before detoxing processes and materials occur, while the overall growing intensity of production continues to pose a serious threat to the environment.
Since 2011, the NGO’s Detox campaign has been calling on major brands to phase out 11 chemical classes of concern by 2020. It says without eliminating the use and release of harmful chemicals from production chains the circular dream could well become a toxic recirculation nightmare.
It says this is also a prerequisite for high quality circularity by ensuring that clean materials are available for recycling. However, it adds, the current rates of excessive production and consumption in the industry as a whole are probably outweighing any gains that are being made.
Greenpeace warns a circular future for the fashion industry would rely even more on environmentally harmful polyester and still seek growth in material output without questioning the overproduction, overconsumption and the subsequent decrease in the quality and longevity of clothes.
Digitisation will boost India’s GDP growth by 50 to 75 basis points in the next decade and may lead India to become a $6 trillion economy, the third largest in the world says a Morgan Stanley report ‘India's digital leap - The multi-trillion dollar opportunity’. The study further states real and nominal GDP growth is expected to compound annually by 7.1 per cent and 11.2 per cent respectively over the next ten years.
Despite some short-term teething problems, including implementation of GST, there is scope for visible shifts in economic activity starting in 2018, which would eventually lead India to be among the top five equity markets in the world and the third-largest listed financial services sector globally.
India’s consumer sector is also likely to add about $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. However, GST is expected to disrupt smaller businesses causing job losses and a general slowdown in economic growth. There are also risks related to political stability and the privacy debate over the Aadhaar unique identity number.
Gross foreign direct investment inflows amounting to $120 billion by fiscal 2026-27 and robust stock markets should drive stronger corporate earnings growth. The country is also likely to witness strong domestic participation in equities. <br/
European brands don’t always source from Asia. Many go to countries like Tunisia, Greece and Portugal. These countries have provided an ecosystem that’s supporting European brands’ speed to market needs. Tunisia is prominent. The country is known for its trousers followed by intimates, swimwear and sportswear, and technical textiles.
There are 1,700 factories making textiles and apparel in Tunisia, and annual turnover in 2016 was $2.75 billion. Zara, H&M, Boss and United Colors of Benetton are some of the brands that have already picked up on that potential of sourcing in Tunisia.
In Greece, manufacturers like DMiss cater to clients like Asos, VF and Guess with fast fashion. Eighty per cent to 90 per cent of the fabrics DMiss uses in its products are made in Greece, which also keeps the supply chain short. The country is known for its jacquards and cotton quality.
More than good quality for the price, brands benefit from a much shorter supply chain, which means fewer leftovers and greater flexibility. Meanwhile Portugal is also gaining attention. It has the know-how for apparel sourcing. Somani Sociedade Textil in Portugal produces in three main categories: toweling products, nightwear and loungewear, and baby wear and nursery products. Scandinavia is one of the company’s biggest markets, followed by Germany and France.
