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Funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy the Korea Fashion Association and magazine Fashion Insight held the opening ceremony for 2018 Indie-Brand Fair at Setec in Seoul. It provided a chance for young indie fashion brands to expand their trade networks. The Indie-Brand Fair is the largest get-together for Korean indie fashion brands, where they get a chance to show their designs with buyers, put their works on the runway and listen to experts share their thoughts on the fashion industry at seminars held on site. The fair defines indie brands as those that have been active for less than seven years and lack the ability to promote themselves despite their potential.
The fair features a total of 200 indie brands 87 women’s clothing brands, 31 menswear brands and 82 accessories, shoes and bags brands. In order to include the largest number of brands designers from 36 brands will stage a runway show.
Clariant and Tiangang Auxiliary are constructing a world-class production facility in Chian for stabilizers for plastics and textiles. The facility combines the technology and production knowledge of both companies to provide even better process and light stabilizers for various growing industries in China, including automotive and textiles.
Clariant is a world leader in specialty chemicals. Tiangang is a manufacturer of light stabilizers and UV absorbers, with two plants in China that are backward integrated with production of key intermediates. China is a key market for Clariant high-end process and light stabilizers, which include the state-of-the-art Nylostab S-EED chemistry – invented by the company – a unique multifunctional hindered amine light stabilizer.
The facility is expected to come on-stream in the first half of 2019 and start serving the growing demand for high-end additives solutions in Asia even faster. The zone where it is located is an ideal production base for additives, with very good access to necessary raw materials and other support.
Apart from this Clariant has opened plants for Ceridust micronized waxes and AddWorks synergistic additive solutions in China. Clariant is committed to sustainable growth in China and therefore continues to invest across the country to increase its local production capability and competitiveness.
Mahlo GmbH + Co KG will participate in the upcoming CINTE Techtextil show, to be held from September 4 to 6, 2018 in Shanghai. The show is considered to be one of the most important trade fairs for technical textiles and nonwovens in Asia. The company will display its latest developments in measuring and controlling of quality critical parameters within the running web.
The centrepoint of their showcase will be web gauging system Qualiscan QMS-12. The tool gauges parameters such as basis weight, thickness or moisture across the entire width. To achieve this, up to five sensors are traversing simultaneously on sturdy scanners, constantly collecting data and transmit them to the interface. In use are radioactive sources as well as infrared, laser, microwaves and air permeability sensors.
The company anticipates a strong interest in its infrared sensor Infrascope NIR. The sensor measures the absorption of infrared energy while identifying basis weight and moisture at the same time. Those important parameters can be measured and controlled precisely in a spun lace unit. Due to a very high spectral resolution, the sensor can distinguish between components with very similar IR absorption. This capability allows the highly selective individual measurement of a specific component or layer in the web without interference from other components all without the use of radioactive isotopes.
India’s cotton yarn exports to China have been affected by tariff. China imposes a duty tariff on cotton yarn imports from India of 3.5 per cent to five per cent. This means Vietnam has emerged as a major competitor for India in terms of the export of cotton yarn to China. Vietnam gets the advantage of duty free access to that country.
A major chunk of mills from China shifted to Vietnam in the last five years, making it a conversion centre. Yarn produced in Vietnam thereby enters China without duty tariff. Though India remains the largest exporter of cotton yarn in the world, the country’s share declined to 25 per cent in 2017 from 30 per cent in 2015. In the same period, cotton yarn exports from Vietnam, the second largest exporter with a 19.94 per cent share in the global market, grew by 252 per cent.
India is making efforts to bring down the duty tariff so as to regain the advantage. But various issues of refunding related to embedded taxes, as in the form of duty for electricity and petroleum products used in the cotton textile value chain, need to be addressed if exports have to pick up.
There is growing interest amongst Chinese manufacturers to set up facilities in Myanmar. This is mainly owing to the 25 per cent tariff imposed by the US on upto $50 billion Chinese products. In a retaliatory move, Beijing too imposed a 25 per cent tariff on $34 billion tariff worth of US goods to China.
Recently, the US also threatened to levy an additional 10 per cent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese products. If imposed, the move would place around half of China’s $505 billion worth of exports to the US under tariffs. Therefore, a rising number of Chinese manufacturers want to produce out of Myanmar, enabling them to bypass US tariffs. Mainly, businesses from China wish to set up their facilities in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone, which has been equipped with necessary power and transport infrastructure for ease of doing business. Out of the 94 companies in Thilawa SEZ, just one, garment manufacturer Lu Thai Co, is from China.
Green Building Council of Sri Lanka (GBCSL) with support from Brandix, organised a week-long environment awareness campaign that culminated with an island-wide sapling planting initiative and a ‘Green Walk’ in Colombo. Themed ‘Go Green – Change tomorrow, today,’ the campaign was conceptualised to celebrate World Environment Day 2018.
The ‘Green Walk’ attracted over 3,000 participants, including the Mayor of Colombo. The campaign was targeted at the general public, green business-related organisations and sustainability adopted products and service suppliers. It was organised to create enhanced awareness on the importance of environment protection and to enlighten participants on practical solutions such as savings through green building practices, conservation of the environment, and driving sustainable development to control the harmful effects of climate change and other environmental degradations.
The Green Building Council of Sri Lanka is a consensus-based not-for-profit organisation committed to developing a sustainable property industry for Sri Lanka by encouraging the adoption of green building practices. It is diverse and possesses an integrated representation from all sectors of the property industry and academia.
"China’s leading position is continuously being threatened with the arrival of low coast production regions like Bangladesh and Vietnam. A Euratex report states even though emerging countries are gradually gaining market share, it should be noted that some of the businesses are actually Chinese companies that have relocated. Mediterranean countries, which have long benefited from their proximity to the EU-28, have held the same position for the last few years. Contrary to China, SAARC and ASEAN zones have grown slowly but surely since 2010, improving gradually their share in EU textile & clothing imports. In 2017, these four zones still accounted for over 86 per cent of total extra-EU textiles and clothing imports."
China’s leading position is continuously being threatened with the arrival of low coast production regions like Bangladesh and Vietnam. A Euratex report states even though emerging countries are gradually gaining market share, it should be noted that some of the businesses are actually Chinese companies that have relocated. Mediterranean countries, which have long benefited from their proximity to the EU-28, have held the same position for the last few years. Contrary to China, SAARC and ASEAN zones have grown slowly but surely since 2010, improving gradually their share in EU textile & clothing imports. In 2017, these four zones still accounted for over 86 per cent of total extra-EU textiles and clothing imports.
China losing ground
As for products, China prevailed as the main supplier of woven garments. However, its share continued to decline only to the benefit SAARC and ASEAN regions whose shares went up. Traditional suppliers of the EU-28, the Mediterranean countries expanded their market share. In import of knitted garments, China was again overtaken by the SAARC region whose share now make up one third of total EU imports.
Clothing accounted for more than half of EU-28 exports in 2017, due to sharp rises of exports to EU’s top customers. In 2017, extra-EU exports went to
four main defined country groupings whose respective shares were Mediterranean countries: 13.3 per cent; Group of autonomous countries: 12.4 per cent; EFTA group of countries: 16.4 per cent; NAFTA group of countries: 17.0 per cent. These four groups accounted for 59 per cent of extra-EU textile and clothing exports in 2017. Woven fabrics were the major textile product in EU-28 textiles exports. The NAFTA zone and the Mediterranean countries are the biggest purchasers of textile goods. Articles of clothing accounted for more than half of all exports, almost two thirds of which was woven items. EFTA and NAFTA areas make up the two main buyers. Items of apparel continued to interest developed countries and certain consumer categories in developing countries with increasing purchasing power.
Tirupur will be organizing an international textile fair this year. This is aimed at encouraging the development of the textile industry in Tamil Nadu, including exports. Tirupur hopes for Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with the European Union, the US, UK and Russia.
Exporters in the textile hub feel lack of access to key markets is hampering the growth of the sector and making India lose market share to its main competitor China. China, by using the advantages available to countries with predominant EU and US markets, has increased its exports and circumvented the Indian industry’s growth prospects in the global market.
Till such time as FTAs are signed, Tirupur wants incentives to be available to the readymade garment sector, which will help create a level playing field for the industry compared to competing nations.
Exports in the last financial year went down 5.6 per cent compared to previous year. Among the reasons are the changes in duty and tax structure such as GST. There is no customs duty levied in other countries, especially Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, on import of yarn to produce fabric and garments meant for exports, except in India.
About six lakh employees work for 6,500 knitwear and apparel units in Tirupur.
The US, in the last year and half, has not only disengaged from the WTO but is also undermining its authority by blocking the appointment of the WTO Appellate Body’s judges. In response to this, the EU is strengthening its trade relations with the rest of the world. It recently signed trade agreements with Singapore, Vietnam and Japan. These four countries are part of the trans-Pacific partnership agreement (TPP) involving other seven Pacific-rim states including Canada, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand.
In April, the EU also finalised negotiations for a new trade agreement with Mexico. The agreement also features - for the first time - provisions on anticorruption and a stand-alone chapter on animal welfare. Besides economic benefits, such agreements include provisions on labour and environmental standards as well as mechanisms to allow civil society to monitor their implementation.
The Tayal Algero-Turkish textiles complex, whose first plant commenced production in March, completed first export of semi-finished products to Turkey. Located in the Sidi Khettab (Relizane) industrial zone, on a 250 hectare, the new textile complex was built in accordance with the 51/49 rule governing foreign investment in the country. The shareholders of this joint venture are made up of state-owned clothing and apparel companies (30 per cent) and Texalg (21 per cent) for the Algerian part. The remaining 49 per cent of the capital is held by the Turkish company Intertay, a subsidiary of the Turkish group Taypa.
The first phase, involves the construction of eight integrated textile factories and a training school in the textile trades. Textile with annual production forecasts of 44 million linear meters for weaving, 12,200 tonne for spinning and 30 million pieces for various products, including trousers, knits and shirts. It should be completed by 2019 and create 10,000 jobs. According to the same forecasts, 60 per cent of the volume of production will be destined for export, while the remaining part will meet the needs of the local market. The
