FW
Indian textile machinery industry has tremendous growth potential buoyed by growing domestic and global demand. The only need is to identify untapped opportunities. The size of the domestic textile machinery industry is expected to touch Rs 35,000 crores in the next five years from the present Rs 22,000 crores.
Global textile machinery market is witnessing tremendous growth and is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 14.02 per cent till 2018. Major manufacturers are: Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, France and China. One of the major trends in the global textile machinery market is the growing number of technological innovations.
India is a major importer of textiles machinery. Demonetisation affected the entire textile chain. Textile machinery suppliers faced the immediate impact as orders were badly hit for a month. Bigger companies had a lighter impact on the topline as they were already under the organised sector and payments were effected through banks. The most affected was the unorganised sector which took some time to change to digital cash or online transactions. Demand reverted to normal within next the few months with an improvement in liquidity.
The textile sector is one of the largest contributors to India’s exports, accounting for approximately 11 per cent of total outbound shipments.
Exporters from Tirupur will organize a R&D conclave in Coimbatore. Products of R&D associations of India, as well as innovative technology, will be displayed at the upcoming conclave. The event aims at giving commercial value to research-based products of various Indian textile research associations.
The conclave will benefit stakeholders textile industry as well as research associations as they don’t have such a platform yet which can connect them with the industry directly. The R&D conclave is being viewed as a support to Indian research associations as their products will be displayed at the event and hence commercialised. This will attract textile and apparel manufacturers and push them to explore how these products can be promoted in Indian and overseas markets.
Industry and research associations will also get an opportunity to exchange views about their existing and upcoming research projects to make the products more viable from the industry perspective. There are eight such textile research associations: Northern India Textile Research Association, Ghaziabad; The Bombay Textile Research Association, Mumbai; South India Textile Research Association, Coimbatore; Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association; Wool Research Association, Mumbai; Indian Jute Industries’ Research Association, Kolkata; Man-Made Textile Research Association, Surat; and Synthetic & Art Silk Mills’ Research Association, Mumbai.
Uniqlo’s entry into India may be delayed by up to two years. The brand was planning to open stores in India in 2018.
Uniqlo, based in Japan, produces a billion units a year. It’s planning to boost production to five billion units. Uniqlo is the third largest company globally on a sectoral basis.
The group is targeting sales worth 50 billion dollars in 2020 and hopes to open a 1000 stores a year. It currently reaches customers through 1427 stores in 16 countries. Its business volume in 2013 was 14 billion dollars while it grows at a rate of 20 per cent on an annual average.
The group has seven brands. The major one is Uniqlo, which accounts for a 30 per cent share in the group. Fast Retailing is the parent company of Uniqlo, Theory, and J Brand.
Uniqlo started as a chain of suburban roadside stores in Japan. In Japan alone the company operates over 840 stores. It has over 400 stores in Greater China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). The company has a relatively small European presence: one in Germany, 10 stores in the UK, 8 stores in France and five stores in Russia.
Uniqlo will make Turkey its production hub for the company’s exports to Europe.
Like Accord and Alliance, garment makers in Bangladesh want to form a factory inspection and remediation agency to strengthen workplace safety in the apparel sector.
The proposed platform will be called Shonman. All decisions would be consensus-based.
New factories registering after December this year would have to pay for their inspections based upon the square footage of their facility.
Arbitrations will be governed by the country's laws and administered by the Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre. Thorough, credible safety inspections of new factories and routine monitoring of old ones shall be carried out by skilled personnel selected by and acting under the direction of the implementation board.
From 2021, Shonman would become fully self-financing.
Garment makers came up with the Shonman proposal soon after Accord, the inspection and remediation platform of more than 200 retailers and brands, mostly European, disclosed plans to extend its stay in Bangladesh for three more years.
Accord is a legally binding platform formed in May 2013 after the Rana Plaza building collapse with a five-year tenure for building inspection and remediation. Its tenure expires in June next year. Garment owners have opposed the extension.
Accord and Alliance, a platform of North American retailers and brands, have been working in Bangladesh to strengthen workplace safety in the garment sector through remediation of fire, electrical and structural loopholes.
A new initiative called Global Luxury Pashmina Dialogue, spearheaded by entrepreneur-cum-pashmina artist Babar Afzal with support from several private luxury brands and the Jammu and Kashmir government, will soon start covering six Indian cities to showcase the lost sheen of the luxurious fabric and to raise funds for the pashmina weaving community of Kashmir.
Pashmina is an extremely fine wool variety harnessed from mountain goats in Kashmir’s Changthang plateau and Malra region. Pashmina goats are also found in parts of Himachal Pradesh, Nepal and northernmost areas of Pakistan.
The series of events in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Udaipur and Kolkata aim to revive the Rs 1,700-crore ( US$ 265 millions) pashmina industry in India and will bring together the largest importers of pashmina — Canada, Germany, Monaco, France and the United Arab Emirates.
Art auctions, exhibition of pashmina products, and exclusive fashion shows will be part of the dialogue that aims to go international later.
Besides antique collection from the Mughal courts, two dozen pashmina artworks, each costing between Rs 20 lakhs and Rs 50 lakhs, will be showcased. Sozni pashmina shawls, which take around six to seven years to be made and cost around Rs 70 lakhs, will be exhibited as well.
India has topped the Global Retail Development Index in 2017, overtaking China.
The retail real estate segment across key cities in India is growing exponentially. While global brands continue to evaluate and consider quality retail developments in the top cities, with growing globalization, smaller cities are also gaining prominence and witnessing traction. The overall market sentiment is positive.
Several hypermarkets too were in expansionary mode, including Big Bazaar, which opened new stores in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. Clothing retailers such as Max and Pantaloons were also active during the period.
Demand for quality retail space will remain strong especially from fast fashion, department stores and sports and leisure. Rentals continue to vary across key high streets in major cities.
During the first six months of the year, 70 new homegrown brands appeared in India. They marked their presence in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bangalore.
Seven new global brands entered the country and investments in the segment by private segment firms or wealth funds touched 200 million dollars. Additionally, several retail developments were completed across select cities resulting in about 1.5 million sq ft of fresh supply entering the market.
During the first half of the year, demand for quality retail space remained robust with a majority of this supply concentrated in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi-NCR.
Trade volume growth is expected to be above trend in the third quarter of 2017.
The latest reading of 102.6 is higher than the previous reading of 102.2 issued in May this year, suggesting sustained momentum for trade growth. Strong performances in air freight, export orders and container shipping are balanced by weaker results in other indices.
Strong growth in export orders, air freight and container shipping is leading the upward trend in the indicator as economic activity picks up around the world.
Results for agricultural raw materials and electronic components trade have been weaker, but both indices have turned up recently.
Meanwhile, weak growth in automobile production and sales is a cause for concern as it may signal weakening consumer confidence. Global export orders also show signs of plateauing, which could mean that upward momentum in trade growth may have peaked. If this is the case, trade growth would be expected to moderate later this year.
The unpredictable direction of the global economy in the near term, and the lack of clarity about government action on monetary, fiscal and trade policies raises the risk that trade activity will be stifled.
Growth in the volume of world merchandise trade is expected to rebound this year from its tepid performance in 2016, but only if the global economy recovers as expected and governments pursue the right policy mix.
A LED summit will be held in the US, October 18 to 19, 2017 for brands and retailers. The event will explore new ways to achieve value while limiting risk when switching to LED lighting.
Industry experts from around the country will gather to light up the stage with instrumental information for working in harmony with LED lighting. There will be an analysis of the changes that LEDs bring to users in terms of color, controls, and integration.
There will be updates on international color and lighting standards and discussions of the basics of light and color and the impact of light source spectrum on product appearance and sales.
This year’s program is tailored to the individual needs of brands and retailers. Networking opportunities and panel discussions will be included to ensure that all participants have an opportunity to be part of the action.
Companies, regardless of how far they have transitioned to LED lighting, can obtain tremendous value in attending this conference.
The retail industry is moving rapidly to LED lighting. This change directly effects what consumers see and ultimately purchase and ensures that retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers are not left in the dark.
LED light bulbs are 80 per cent more energy efficient than other bulbs and produce far less heat than incandescent light bulbs.
India’s first special storage facility for handling raw cotton has opened at Thoothukudi port, Tamil Nadu.
The facility set up by the port estate can house around 500 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units of 40 feet containers. International traders can stock raw cotton at the facility for a period of 30 days free of cost.
There will be a world-class infrastructure for warehousing of raw cotton, state-of-the-art equipment, transportation and handling facilities, commercial office space, water, power, communications and connectivity, and one-stop clearance of import and export formalities.
The facility would help textile mills get cotton at international prices within a week, thereby increasing yarn production in Tamil Nadu. The facility would have a ripple effect by strengthening the textile value chain particularly knitting, weaving, garment, textile processing, apparel sector etc. The initiative will also help spinning mill owners buy cotton at competitive prices in the Indian market.
It is expected the warehouse will attract global raw cotton traders to Thoothukudi and boost the textile business in the southern peninsula as international cotton traders from Africa, Pakistan and other countries have been sending raw cotton to ports in Malaysia.
The aim is to have a free trade warehousing zone at Thoothukudi port.
About 1,500 industrial units and 30,000 employees are involved in Iran’s clothing sector which has a capacity for producing 3,40,000 tons of garments per year.
The country has taken measures aimed at renewing the country’s garment manufacturing industry, in a bid to enter international markets. Exporting apparel products to neighboring countries, including the CIS and, in particular, Azerbaijan, is on the agenda.
Iranian manufacturers have developed plans to export about 30 per cent of their total output.
Public interest in domestic products has dramatically surged over recent months.
Currently, 9,818 industrial units are active in Iran’s textile and apparel industries, constituting 11 per cent of all industrial entities in the country.
These units have created more than 2,90,000 direct jobs, accounting for 13 per cent of all industrial jobs in Iran.
With the aim of limiting imports, boosting domestic production and making the price of Iranian clothing more competitive, the country is now planning to set up a new apparel industrial town. Some 45 hectares of land have been bought for the new apparel industrial park. The hope is that such an apparel industrial park will be highly beneficial as it will lead to transfer of know-how, increase in quality and lowered production costs.
