FW
DuPont has launched Intexar smart clothing technology, which is a new generation of stretchable electronic inks and films for smart clothing.
With Intexar, ordinary fabrics can be transformed into active, connected, intelligent garments that provide critical biometric data including heart rate, breathing rate, form awareness and muscle tension. The newly achieved technology offers superior stretch and comfort and is easily integrated into garments to make smart clothing.
Wires and bulky devices that don’t stretch and move with the body when playing sports are things of the past. Intexar is a game-changing technology that will truly move the needle in making smart garments as comfortable as regular fitness clothing. Available as a suite of premium and high-performing stretchable electronic inks and flexible substrates, Intexar is seamlessly embedded directly onto fabrics using standard apparel manufacturing processes to create thin, form-fitting circuits. Garments powered by Intexar can endure over 100 washes and continue to perform through repeated stretching and demanding performance.
DuPont has two smart clothing garment brands powered by Intexar technology. This garment embeds DuPont Intexar to enable real-time monitoring and data collection, such as, for instance, heart rate, breathing and muscle movements. The second OMsignal, displays two products: a high-end fitness sports bra and a comfortable, attractive lifestyle bra.
Punjab and Maharashtra have asked cotton farmers to step up pesticide sprays to ward off potential harmful bug attacks. Despite plentiful rains in most parts of the country, monsoon has been patchy in some areas of Punjab and Maharashtra. Dry weather conditions encourage pest attacks like the plant-eating whitefly.
While Punjab is not a major producer of cotton, Maharashtra is the second-biggest grower of the fiber. Farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions have been asked to be vigilant for the next eight to ten days, when the crop is vulnerable to pest infestations. Whitefly hit cotton crops in Punjab and neighboring Haryana in 2015, when India suffered back-to-back drought years for only the fourth time in over a century.
India grows cotton on 11 million to 12 million hectares and is likely to have harvested 33.63 million bales in the 2016/17 season that started on October 1, slightly down from 33.78 million bales a year earlier. Cotton output has jumped fourfold since India allowed the genetically modified variety in 2002, transforming the country into the world’s top producer and second largest exporter of the fiber. Monsanto's lab-grown seeds yield nearly all of the cotton produced in India.
Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals saw sales for the first half of 2017 rise nine per cent. Organic growth amounted to five per cent driven by higher volumes. Growth was most pronounced in Europe, Asia and North America. Sales in Europe rose eight per cent while recorded 11 per cent growth in Asia supported by the strong sales development in China. Sales in North America increased 14 per cent. Latin American sales were three per cent lower against a strong comparable base and also reflect the macroeconomic environment which remains challenging.
Net income soared by 20 per cent. This expansion was supported by improvement in absolute Ebitda before exceptional items as well as lower finance costs. Good growth dynamics in June and the expected favorable demand in coming quarters led to higher net working capital. This factor together with changes in other current assets and liabilities offsets the positive influence of the Ebitda improvement.
Net debt increased slightly. This reflects the usual seasonal increase seen in the first half of the year. For 2017, Clariant is confident of achieving targets i.e. growth in local currency, progression in operating cash flow, absolute Ebitda and Ebitda margins before exceptional items in spite of a temporarily weaker cash flow in the first half.
Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry is concerned over the congestion at Chittagong port. Feeder vessels are leaving the port without using their full capacity. This port handles around 80 per cent of the country’s total apparel exports. Delivery of imported raw materials from the port is delayed. This makes it difficult to produce and ship products on time. It takes 15 to 20 days for un-stuffing the LCL (Less than Container Load) containers from ships while berthing of vessels is being delayed by seven or eight days.
So it becomes necessary for the apparel sector to make costly air shipments mainly to meet lead times. Many feeder vessels miss mother vessels due to the slow pace of loading and unloading. Before the war of liberation there were 13 jetties at the port. But only seven jetties have been added in the last 46 years.
Businessmen have been pressing for enhancing the capacity of the port through installing more jetties and yards and increasing handling equipment. Since 2004, the capacity of the port has not been enhanced though export and import activities have increased significantly. For now, the industry is losing work orders as delivery of samples is taking time due to the congestion.
"The three-day Denim Day event will take place from September 29-October 1, with a one-day speaker series and a two-day shopping event in New York’s Chelsea nabe. Just like the Amsterdam event, the festival will include interactive displays and workshops from brands, designers and denim mills alongside in-store events, a vintage denim market, parties and panels to give consumers access to their denim heroes and brands. Andrew Olah, Kingpins Show Founder and New York Denim Days co-founder, said it should be the greatest days for shopping for jeans of the year."
The three-day Denim Day event will take place from September 29-October 1, with a one-day speaker series and a two-day shopping event in New York’s Chelsea nabe. Just like the Amsterdam event, the festival will include interactive displays and workshops from brands, designers and denim mills alongside in-store events, a vintage denim market, parties and panels to give consumers access to their denim heroes and brands. Andrew Olah, Kingpins Show Founder and New York Denim Days co-founder, said it should be the greatest days for shopping for jeans of the year.
The rundown on the event
The event will start with an invite-only seminar series on first day, Denim Talks, hosted at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Katie Murphy Amphitheatre. Fashion and students of denim and the media will have access to great denim minds, including Adriano Goldschmied, Diesel USA CEO Stefano Rosso, 3×1 Founder and CEO Scott Morrison, Not Just a Label Founder and CEO Stefan Siegel and Sanjeev Bahl, the founder and owner of Saitex. The denim festival would continue from September 30 to October 1 with a ticketed event at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea combining a hands-on learning experience with shopping. The event will close with a New York City street festival on 18th Street that will include food trucks, live entertainment, children’s activities and more.
Olah says attendees at the weekend event will see denim weaving, indigo dye techniques, embroidery, chain stitching and more. Leather goods companies, vintage dealers, mills and other key players in the supply chain will set up activations and opportunities to shop and collect knickknacks. Tenue de Nîmes, which famously custom indigo dyes Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers during Amsterdam Denim Days, is rumored to recreate their set up in the Big Apple.
Jean Shop will be displaying rare vintage jeans, selling product and a leather bracelet that shoppers can customize with dye and hand-stamps. The retailer will also indigo dye bandanas to add to the festival’s DIY experience.
Amsterdam Denim Days organisers Modefabriek and Kingpins Show in collaboration with House of Denim and HTNK Fashion recruitment and consultancy are the force behind the New York festival. Organisers began shopping around with the idea of a New York event with US-based brands and retailers last Fall. Since 2014, Amsterdam Denim Days has become a must-attend event for global denim heads. In the last two years, the event has doubled its attendance to 10,000 visitors, drawing consumers, brands and buyers to celebrate and share their passion for denim, innovation and sustainability.
Olah believes a lot more can be achieved through consumer events like Denim Days as he says “We are just scratching the surface. These are the kind of things you need to try. It is the future of our industry, he said, adding that future New York Denim Days will coincide with Kingpins New York, similar to the way Kingpins Amsterdam and Amsterdam Denim Days are scheduled. With the goal to showcase a completely New York perspective on the global denim scene.” Olah believes New York Denim Days will have its own style. While Amsterdam Denim Days appeals to diehard denim aficionados and ‘hipsters’, the New York event will be a festival that anyone who likes a good pair of jeans will enjoy.
GST on garment job work may be lowered to five per cent from 18 per cent. Likely to be removed are anomalies where intermediate goods are taxed at the highest bracket than the tax on the final output. The cess rate on cigarettes may be hiked.
Currently, services by way of job works in relation to textile yarns (other than man-made fiber/filament) and textile fabrics attract five per cent GST. Other job works in relation to garments attract an 18 per cent levy. This may be streamlined and all job works, including for making garments from fabrics, may be brought under the five per cent slab. This would help the textile sector as the final product was taxed between 5 to 12 per cent.
In the textile category, silk and jute fiber have been exempted, while cotton and natural fiber and all kinds of yarns will be levied a five per cent GST. Man-made fiber and yarn will, however, attract 18 per cent tax rate. All categories of fabrics attract a five per cent rate. Man-made apparel up to Rs 1,000 will attract five per cent tax and those costing above Rs 1,000 will attract 12 per cent.
Taiwanese garment manufacturer Roo Hsing says it would be the world’s largest jeans provider from Aug. 1 after a merger with China-based JD United Manufacturing. Jeans production at JD United is four times that of Roo Hsing, which will bring the annual jeans output to 84 million pairs, or 7 per cent of the world’s supply, points out Roo Hsing, VP, Hsu Chung-jung. Hsing’s board in 2015 agreed to buy out JD United for $388 million, which was raised in full on June 20 this year.
The merger allows integration between Roo Hsing’s suppliers in Cambodia and Nicaragua, as well as JD United’s suppliers in Myanmar, Tanzania and China, says Hsu. The new supply chain is to cut costs and waste for Roo Hsing, which supplies Levi Strauss, Gap, Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing and Hennes & Mauritz.
Germany-based Südwolle delivers transseasonal performance and sustainability from wool for the sports and outdoor industries. The company is regarded as a global leader for worsted spun yarn for weaving, circular and flat knitting in pure wool and wool blends. It produces approximately 60 per cent in Europe and 40 per cent in Asia. It does not weave or knit but is a spinning, dyeing and treatment specialist. Being experienced in a broad variety of technologies, it has the same quality standards in all its facilities worldwide – from Germany, Italy, Poland, Rumania and Bulgaria to China.
The group produces 15 collections including Südwolle for weaving, Biella yarn for flat knitting and Stöhr for technical yarns. Südwolle offers a comprehensive stock service on pure wool and blended yarns. Sustainability is a key factor within the Südwolle group. Its yarns have latest eco certifications including Bluesign and Oeko-Tex standards.
Sudwolle blends wool with a broad range of other fibers –mohair, alpaca and silk to polyamide, viscose and aramids – to enhance its natural properties and be able to have a solution for every customer’s inquiry. Especially for sports and outdoor the company has developed great high performance yarns by blending merino with cordura, thermocatch or trevira performance polyester.
For the half year, Coats’ revenue was up five per cent. There was a strong growth of seven per cent in the industrial division across both apparel and footwear (five per cent) and performance materials (18 per cent). Adjusted operating profit was up 14 per cent with group revenue growth further underpinned by margin increase across both industrial (50 basis points) and crafts (260 basis points).
Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market. Return on capital employed increased 400 basis points to 34 per cent mainly as a result of higher profitability. There was good operational progress on identified focus areas of simplification, innovation and enhancing digital capabilities.
The company has continued to increase its market share in the apparel and footwear segments. It has had a customer-led approach to innovation, digital solutions and corporate social responsibility. It continues to leverage its global footprint and customer base in performance materials business, develop new product solutions for customers, and sees a good contribution from Gotex business which was acquired in 2016. Coats’ strong cash generation allows it to service various stakeholder capital demands, while allowing for increased investment in its existing asset base which is scheduled in the second half of the year.
Between fiscal year 2016 and 2017 Pakistan’s textile exports fell two per cent. Although raw cotton, cotton yarn and cotton cloth saw a decline, there was an increase in shipments of knitwear, bed wear and readymade garments. Exports to the US fell one per cent, China fell 15 per cent and to the UK 0.6 per cent. On the other hand, exports to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands increased.
The GSP Plus status awarded by European Union to Pakistan may have averted a decline in exports to the 28-nation bloc. Similarly, exports to Turkey rose 16 per cent and shipments to Thailand increased more than 40 per cent. Exports to Indonesia and South Korea too went up more than 21 and 34 per cent respectively.
