FW
"Gauging development trends of digital printing ink and nozzle helps end-users to seize the initiative. In view of this, there will be a number of sharing sessions on different themes at the oncoming Shanghai International Digital Printing Industry Exhibition from April 19 to 21. The intent is to have in-depth discussions on the development of digital printing ink and nozzle. In particular, the organizers have invited Dr Tim Philips, MD, IMI Europe, to speak on latest inkjet technology for textile digital printing at the technical lecture area of the exhibition hall on April 20th."
Gauging development trends of digital printing ink and nozzle helps end-users to seize the initiative. In view of this, there will be a number of sharing sessions on different themes at the oncoming Shanghai International Digital Printing Industry Exhibition from April 19 to 21. The intent is to have in-depth discussions on the development of digital printing ink and nozzle. In particular, the organizers have invited Dr Tim Philips, MD, IMI Europe, to speak on latest inkjet technology for textile digital printing at the technical lecture area of the exhibition hall on April 20th.
Discussing the nuances of digital printing
Dr Philips will focus on the world’s leading textile inkjet technology in digital printing and share a new generation of advanced film sprinklers, single pass high-speed printing machines and paint inks. Through technology, we can overcome different challenges in different circumstances. Also on the agenda is a discussion on how to open new opportunities through the technological advances brought by industry leaders.
As founder of Catenary Solutions and Managing Director of IMI Europe, Dr Philips has extensive experience in inkjet integration projects. He has worked at Xennia Technologies for eight years, a leading inkjet solution company acquired by Sensient in 2015. He founded Catenary Solutions in 2015 to bring more digital solution development and marketing knowledge to wider audience. As the managing director of IMI Europe, Dr Philips offers a wide range of courses, including inkjet studios, inkjet ink manufacturing and digital textile printing courses. The forum will be able to convey to the audience the most advanced inkjet technology and digital solutions in TPF2017.
Knowledge sharing on textiles inks
In textile ink usage, printing problem and filtering solution has always plagued users. The reason of the breakdown of textile digital printing is extremely complex, there are ink salting out, hydrolysis, reunion, filter fibre shedding and other conventional problems, and there are issues like compatibility, ink raw materials and other problems, even the inkjet filter selection and the installation are closely related with the print quality. The organizers have thus invited senior sales manager, Mr Chen Xincan in Hangzhou Kebaite Filtering Equipment, to share knowledge about filtering of textile inks with the TPF2017 audience.
At present, paint is the second largest pigment material behind dyes in textile industry. And in textile printing, paint printing has 80 per cent market share globally. In this context, Li Jianfa, International Marketing Director in China of National Glazed Group, will speak on ‘the application and case analysis of paint ink on digital printing.’ He will also share the composition of paint ink, coating process of coating ink and application of coating ink in blended and man-made fibres.
Industry’s authoritative ink and nozzle suppliers will be especially invited to attend the seminar presided over by Dr Philips, and give insights on latest technology. The audience will get the opportunity interact with industry experts and top brands and put forward the problems encountered in application.
Shanghai International Digital Printing Industry Exhibition
The 8th Shanghai International Digital Printing Industry Exhibition, hosted by UBM China and Shanghai Longyang, will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center for three consecutive days from April 19 to 21. The exhibition is expected to attract about 230 exhibitors who will lay out the latest and perfect digital printing machines and matching ink, nozzles, software and so on. Also on the agenda are numerous forums and one to one business negotiations. Wonderful not to be missed!
"Deploying inkjet technology into the textile industry is presenting an increasingly compelling opportunity for the print industry, recent research from Smithers Pira reveals this. Double digit growth across 2016-21 is making digital textile printing one of the most exciting market opportunity in the print and textile supply. It is creating new value-adding business opportunities for fabric printers and material suppliers, as the capabilities of the latest generation of digital textile presses dovetails with evolving priorities for end users, like fashion designers."
Deploying inkjet technology into the textile industry is presenting an increasingly compelling opportunity for the print industry, recent research from Smithers Pira reveals this. Double digit growth across 2016-21 is making digital textile printing one of the most exciting market opportunity in the print and textile supply. It is creating new value-adding business opportunities for fabric printers and material suppliers, as the capabilities of the latest generation of digital textile presses dovetails with evolving priorities for end users, like fashion designers.
A booming market
Exclusive data from the new Smithers Pira shows that in 2016 only 2.9 per cent of the overall market volume for printed textiles – 30 billion mt. sq. – is produced on such equipment. Digital print’s share has been increasing rapidly across this decade, however, with total volume rising from 461 million mt. sq. in 2012 to 870 million mt. sq. in 2016. This will push through the 1 billion mark in 2017, and in 2021 will constitute 1.95 billion mt. sq. of fabric – more than four times the volume in 2012.
This rapid expansion is translating into rising revenues – from €592 million in 2012 to €1.17 billion in 2016. Smithers Pira’s extensive research and analysis forecasts that this will grow at a year on year rate of 15.7 per cent for the next five years, reaching €2.42 billion in 2021. This is in contrast to the average growth for all printed textiles – which remains principally on screen presses – of around 3 per cent.
With double-digit annual growth across the board, major printhead developers, ink formulators and press builders are increasingly looking to capitalise on this market. This is especially true as some conventional analogue markets record static or even declining revenues through to the end of the decade. This is simultaneously fuelling both business consolidation and technology evolution. As this occurs, it is having an increasing impact on the global textile supply chain and ordering models.
With conventional markets under threat global print firms are seeing digital textile print as an attractive location to invest in. One strategic means to do this is through acquisition of smaller specialist technology developers. These are typically based in the Como region of Italy, which has developed this expertise to meet the demands of fashion industry centred on nearby Milan. US-based EFI made its own acquisition in July 2015, buying up Bergamo-based Reggiani. The first fruit of this – a joint-engineered printer – was shown in June at Drupa 2016.
Fashion industry trends
As in other print segments digital’s potential is founded on its ability to produce single, short and custom runs more economically and with a much faster turnaround than conventional screen printers. These advantages are important in signage – where digital print penetration is deepest – and fashion. Haute couture and high street fashion demand for digital print is worth €190 million in 2016 and will exceed €420 million in 2021. This is being aided by the fashion industry’s shift towards multiple mini-seasons within one traditional season. This favours digital as it translates into more new designs, and multiple repeat runs of short orders. This customisation potential is now being seen in the home décor segment with bespoke interior furnishings.
Another means to produce unique designs for a customer, is to overprint details onto screen printed textile stock. The need for quick turnaround on such orders also favours relocating textile print to areas like Europe, from lower labour cost regions like the Indian sub-continent. This so-called ‘reshoring’ trend further helped by the current political instability in Turkey, has developed its own regional hub feeding European demand. Sportswear is another key segment that is growing strongly, helped by an increasing interest in high-grade athletic wear from amateur sportsmen and sportswomen, such as cyclists.
Sustainability to the fore
A final motivator for the brands using digital print is the process’s superior environmental profile. Inkjet jobs can consume as little as 20 litres of water per kg of printed substrate – for cotton this can be as much as 10,000 litres per kg, a factor of 10 is the difference quoted most often. Furthermore, polyester and polyester blends used in many digital textile applications are recyclable. Advocates in this area are now coalescing into organisations like the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), and the Textiles 3.0 consortium.
The corpus fund for yarn banks in Surat has been increased to Rs 2 crore and bank guarantee reduced from 50 per cent to 25 per cent. This means power loom weavers will be able to procure yarn at concessional rates. Yarn is the raw material for the polyester fabric.
Surat has two such yarn banks. Surat is India’s largest manmade fabric center and has around 5.5 lakh power loom machines which produce three crore meters of fabrics a day and employ around seven lakh workers.
The yarn banks provide an opportunity to weavers to arrest price fluctuations and check the presence of middlemen. The yarn banks allow weavers to procure yarn on credit and repay the amount in installments. The yarn banks get yarn samples from around the world and store them. Domestic industry can get access to yarn samples of global standards and do further research and come out with innovative products.
These banks were started with an initial corpus fund of Rs 1 crore for purchasing yarn from the open market and selling at concessional rates. Since the corpus fund at the yarn banks has been increased from Rs1 crore to Rs 2 crores, they will be able to cater to 200 weavers, while earlier it was only around a 100 weavers.
Vietnam will gain a lot from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The country's garment and textile sectors will benefit in terms of cost, market scale, and material supply. And, they will not have to bear many trade barriers. The RCEP covers 16 countries, including 10 members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations and their regional trading partners of China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.
When participating in RCEP, Vietnam will have a strategic market in Asia with three major benefits. The first, lower transportation fees due to geographical proximity. Second, RCEP market will help Vietnamese firms with raw material supplies. Third, cultural similarities among Asian countries will help RCEP negotiations and the signing processes will take place faster.
Vietnamese garment and textile exports are expected to grow 13 to 14 per cent in 2017 compared to 9.2 per cent in 2016. The industry is working on providing products with more competitive prices, higher quality, and shorter delivery times. In the first quarter of 2017, Vietnam earned $5.6 billion from garment and textile exports, up 10.2 per cent year-on-year, while spending on fabric imports was up 5.5 per cent.
Ralph Lauren is cutting jobs and closing stores. The luxury retailer is moving its e-commerce business to a cheaper and more efficient cloud platform. It plans to integrate its products from the Fifth Avenue store into the Ralph Lauren men’s and women’s flagship stores on Madison Avenue and other downtown locations.
Ralph Lauren, like other luxury brands, has been struggling as Americans spend less on apparel and accessories, resulting in falling sales in the last seven quarters. The company’s margins have also taken a knock as department stores discount heavily to get rid of excess inventory.
Ralph Lauren’s lower-end Polo and Lauren brands are facing competition from fast-fashion retailers such as H&M and Inditex’s Zara. Ralph Lauren expects to incur about $370 million in charges and save about $140 million from the new measures, which are part of a cost-cutting plan.
Fashion brand Ralph Lauren, that opened in 1967, is named after its founder. Ralph Lauren has also decided to stop working with the less profitable multi-brand stores: between 20 and 25 per cent of the label’s wholesale clients will not be served any longer. Apart from Polo, Ralph Lauren owns brands such as Chaps and Club Monaco.
World cotton production is forecast to grow by one per cent in 2017-18. Global consumption may recover by one per cent as cotton prices decrease. Cotton production in India is projected to grow by two per cent. World cotton mill use is expected to remain unchanged due largely to weak global economic growth and competition from polyester.
In China, after several seasons of decline, mill use is projected to rise by two per cent in 2016-17 and by one per cent in 2017-18. The gap between China’s domestic cotton prices and international cotton prices has decreased, making yarn imports less attractive than in recent seasons. In India, after declining by three per cent in 2016-17 due to high domestic and international cotton prices, mill use is projected to recover by one per cent in 2017-18.
During the first seven months of 2016-17, China’s cotton imports were up six per cent from the last season during the same time period. China’s total volume of imports is expected to rise by two per cent in 2016-17. Imports by Bangladesh are expected to rise by six per cent and Vietnam’s imports are projected to grow by 17 per cent in 2016-17. India’s exports are projected to decline by 23 per cent in 2016-17.
Production of nonwovens in Europe grew 2.5 per cent in 2016. While output growth in the European Union outperformed Greater Europe, some countries demonstrated impressive development. Germany, Italy and Spain all witnessed growth, with Spain being particularly impressive at five per cent while recent star performer Turkey remained stable, more than compensating for the minor decline recorded in some other European markets.
Although the primary end-use of nonwovens continues to be the hygiene market, with a 30.7 per cent share of deliveries (by weight), significant growth areas for nonwovens were recorded in other sectors like agriculture and garments (both recording double digit growth), air filtration, construction and food and beverage.
Countering this, a minor decline was recorded in the automotive industry. Medical and personal care wipes sectors both remained stable with a slight fall of 0.4 per cent. Divergent trends were also observed between the various production processes of nonwovens. The production of fiber-based materials Drylaid and Short-Fibre Airlaid technologies recorded an increase of 2.2 per cent and 2.9 per cent, while Wetlaid remained relatively stable. Spunmelt nonwovens recorded a growth rate of 3.3 per cent. The highest growth rate was observed in material produced via the air-through bonding process, with a 13.1 per cent increase.
Italian textile companies working in the fashion and accessory space have come together to form a federation called ‘Confindustria Moda’. The federation represents more than 67,000 companies, having a turnover of more than 88 billion euro and employing more than 5,80,000 workers. It includes leather manufacturers, footwear manufacturers, jewelry manufacturers, optical manufacturers and tanners.
The associations will continue to maintain operational autonomy with regard to vertical and specific themes for each sector (for example, shows and exhibitions), whereas, for the moment, Confindustria Moda will provide transversal services such as legal advice, industrial relations management and a development office.
Confindustria Moda will allow what was previously a highly fragmented galaxy of manufacturers to speak with a common voice, gaining influence and visibility. It will battle counterfeiting and affirm points of view on distribution and industrial relations.
Italian products of the textile and apparel industry are known worldwide. This sector has attracted a great deal of attention because it is rare for a wealthy and developed country to specialize heavily in fashion-oriented as well as semi-customized industrial products and to base its production system on small and very small companies. Fashion companies in Italy keep the stock market at arm’s length — especially since they are able to finance themselves through their operations.
Apparel imports by the EU were up 0.22 per cent in December 2016. Full year imports reflect a rebound in clothing demand from EU buyers after the euro stopped falling from a year earlier. During 2016, the combined imports of woven and knitted apparels increased by 5.53 per cent compared to 2015.
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam registered positive hikes in both value-wise and volume-wise apparel exports to the EU whereas India and China recorded a drop in their value-wise apparel exports to the EU in 2016.
The EU is one of the largest importers of textiles and garments in the world. China is the largest exporter of apparels and clothing to the EU followed by Bangladesh, Turkey, Cambodia, Morocco, Tunisia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Vietnam. India's readymade garment sector will continue to enjoy 20 per cent duty export preference for the next three years to EU markets.
The EU itself has a vibrant textile and clothing industry. It covers a wide range of activities like transferring raw fiber into yarns and then yarns into fabric and then finally using the fabric to produce a wide range of finished products such as wool, bed-linen, geo-textiles, clothing, and synthetic yarns.
Camira’s wool and polyester products have been awarded the EU Ecolabel. Camira is a UK-based textile group known for its fabrics Patina, Synergy, Synergy 170, Individuo and Rivet. Camira has 20 years’ experience in designing and manufacturing recycled fabrics. It’s known for classic 100 per cent recycled polyester fabrics like Xtreme and Lucia, and other products such as Aspect and Era.
Patina is Camira’s newest performance wool and flax blend available in 43 different color ways. Synergy is made from premium New Zealand wool and available in 75 shades. Panel fabric Synergy 170 is available in 24 carefully selected Synergy colors and Individuo has a fluid, graduated appearance where no two areas of the fabric are same.
Rivet is made from 100 per cent Repreve, a brand of recycled polyester made from used plastic bottles. EU Ecolabel is an independent label administered by the European Union which accredits the environmental sensitivity of products throughout their lifecycle.
Camira has also been awarded Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certification for 13 different polyester fabrics. Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is a worldwide testing and certification scheme for textiles which focuses on chemicals of concern within textile supply chains and end products to ensure the protection of human health.
