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Canton Fair will be held in China from May 1 to 5, 2017. Top Chinese textile and garment suppliers, all key players in the global space showcase latest and best functional and environmentally-friendly products. More than 5,000 suppliers will exhibit men’s and women’s clothing, kids' wear, underwear, furs, leather, downs, fashion accessories and fittings, home textiles, textile raw materials and fabrics, sports and casual wear, carpets and tapestries.
The exhibition is in response to increasing demand for premium textile products. Textile and garment suppliers are shifting from OEM to ODM suppliers to focus more on stylish design and technological enhancement. The Canton Fair has upgraded from a trade show to become an integrated platform for information exchange in the industry. It helps partners achieve business objectives in every aspect. Attendees gain a comprehensive and diverse vision of the current global textile and garment trade. They can visit upstream and downstream manufacturers to establish or help maintain long-term cooperation. They can also find newly-introduced stylish designs from France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and more, as well as attend forums and summits to explore the latest fashion trends.
The ultimate chance for buyers and suppliers is not only to provide and find premium quality products but also visit factories and get acquainted with the latest fashion designs.
Cambodia’s garment exports rose 14.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, from the same period in the previous year. Considering factories have been shutting down and few new ones are opening, this comes as a surprise. Indeed, overall production capacity has reduced but the total value of the country’s exports has been still going up.
Therefore, in the first quarter of 2016, Cambodia recorded 122 factory closures compared to just 12 new garment and footwear factory openings. Cambodia lacks a commercial upstream textile sector and the industry needs to import almost all its raw materials. Roughly 60 per cent of fabric imports are from China, followed by South Korea and Taiwan, which are around 15 per cent each.
But Cambodia is looking into diversifying its raw material import markets. When it comes to exports, Europe accounts for around 45 per cent of while the US makes up 25 per cent, followed by Canada, Japan and China. The country has favorable trade access to major developed markets like Europe, China, Japan and Canada.
Additionally, Cambodia is taking part in negotiations over forging a possible free trade agreement between the 10 members of Asean and Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
Intertek Hong Kong has launched a High-Performance Textile Testing Center at its Garment Centre premises. The innovative facility is one of the best-equipped testing centres in the region, providing a wide-ranging range of advanced technology performance testing for global brands, retailers and manufacturers.
Intertek is a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide. Through their network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices and over 42,000 people in more than 100 countries, the Group is re-defining the industry with our Total Quality Assurance proposition. It’s developing a complete range of testing methods, including for comfort and protection and easy care. With global sportswear retail market is expected to reach $185 billion by 2020, combined with increased trend for athleisure, has led to the need for leading brands and manufacturers to deliver high performance functionality and increased performance testing to meet global standards.
With a focus on delivering innovation and superior customer service, the Intertek Hong Kong test centre offers over 200 high-performance tests and unique testing technology including compression-sock testing and non-destructive down-fiber penetration resistance testing accredited by the Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (HOKLAS).
And as Christina Law, Chief Executive, North East Asia, Intertek points out customers are keen on integrating high-performance features into their products, but are often faced with many challenges, including sourcing, technical and compliance issues. “Intertek Hong Kong has always been a innovator in origination and in launching this new state-of-the-art facility, it supports the foremost position to offer total peace of mind to the customers through our Total Quality Assurance solutions, and signifies a new chapter in every accomplishments."
Quang Viet Enterprise, a Taiwan-based garment manufacturer, has increased their shipment forecast for the year 2017 from 10 million units to 10.5 million units. The figure is nearly 15 per cent higher than last year’s 9.1 million units.
The company manufactures down jackets, PrimaLoft and ThermoBall jackets. Adidas was its biggest customer in 2016, accounting for 32 per cent of overall sales. Quang Viet has also received new orders from other renowned brands such as Nautica, Aigle and Converse.
Sales aggregate in the first two months of this year decreased five per cent from a year earlier as customers are yet to finish inventory digestion. However, the company expects sales to pick up in the second quarter — a high season for down jacket manufacturers.
Quang Viet also has factories in Vietnam and China. It operates 305 production lines, which can produce 9,50,000 garments each month. To fulfill consumer demands, 15 new production lines will start operations. Quang Viet is one of the world’s leading suppliers of garments for the outdoor sports industry. It began operations in 1995. One of its strengths is its willingness to seek out efficient methods in executing new ideas and technology on seam sealed, thermo ball, padded, bonded, soft shell and down jackets.
The power loom sector in India makes up 80 per cent of woven fabric production, 60 per cent of total fabric production and provides direct jobs to 63 lakh people especially people below the poverty line, rural masses and women. Power loom sector meets the clothing needs of entire population in the country apart from fetching sizable forex earnings. Hence, competitiveness across the value chain depends on the performance of the power loom sector.
In the last seven years, the power loom sector has been facing numerous challenges due to sluggish global and domestic market conditions. Though capacity has increased by 12 per cent in the last seven years, fabric production went up only 2.4 per cent. High production costs, labor shortages, transport costs, five state VAT, mass closure of dyeing units, exorbitant cost of machines and manmade fibers, hank yarn obligations are some of the major challenges.
Also the GST Plus agreement signed by Pakistan and EU in 2013-14 has had a huge impact on India’s power loom fabric exports with 9.6 per cent duty advantage given to Pakistan. Meanwhile, subsidy schemes have been devised for the sector including TUFS and subsidy for conversion of non-automatic looms, semi-automatic looms.
The Italian apparel industry has a well-established reputation for premium fashion products. The apparel and the textile industry, in Italy plays an important role in the country’s GDP and export earnings. The sector employs over 4, 10,000 workers in just over 50,000 apparel companies spread across the country. More than half of its sales in 2015 were generated from international markets.
As one of the top 10 export categories in Italy, apparel made up nearly four per cent of the total annual exports. The US, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Turkey, and Russia are some of the largest exporting destinations for Italian apparel products. Women’s wear is the largest segment in the apparel industry and growing by 2.3 per cent year on year. In comparison, men’s wear is increasing at 0.9 per cent.
The country plans to promote its fashion and apparel industry as well as fashion exports globally. Their plans include funding trade shows and multichannel marketing and distribution, expanding Made in Italy brands into more department stores and e-commerce platforms around the world. The total value of Italy’s apparel market was estimated at $36.6 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $42 billion by 2020.
Madura Coats, in collaboration with Permess, has opened a studio in Bangalore to meet the sampling requirements of customers and help them quickly launch new products and designs. The studio will provide a range of garmenting solutions rather than just trim components. It is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and equipment with in-house sewing, fusing, washing and testing facilities to provide all the required technical and back-end support for garment manufacturers and brands.
Madura Coats is part of Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer. Permess, based in the Netherlands, makes dot coated woven, knitted and nonwoven fusible fabrics for garment interlining applications from cotton, viscose to polyester. Coats will be able to provide samples and technical support within the demanding lead time requirements of the industry. An in-house Embroidery Service Center provides embroidery solutions to brands and manufacturers.
The studio will enhance Permess’ ability to demonstrate the suitability of specific interlinings to different garment applications and also help customers choose the specific feel and handles their needs. Madura Coats and Permess had earlier partnered in 2016 to jointly promote, sell and distribute interlining products for the Indian market and deliver the full range of superior woven, non-woven and tricot interlinings catering to both exporters and premium domestic manufacturers.
Designers are experimenting with color changing clothing. Researchers and designers around the world are developing techniques and technology with exciting possibilities. Color-changing textiles are still in their infancy but knowledge around them is beginning to spread. However, thermochromic inks have been used for decades, from novelty items such as mood rings, to packaging that indicates when food or drink is at the right temperature, to more utilitarian applications such as thermometers and battery indicators.
One such technology is Ebb that uses color-changing threads that respond to electrical charges. The threads are conductive and coated in thermo chromic pigments. Developers are weaving and crocheting these threads to create different designs and effects. While the color change is currently slow, they hope to eventually make it as fast as e-ink, which would open up many possible applications.
Working with leuco dye-based thermo chromic inks, researchers have developed methods to allow colorful patterns to appear on solid-colored fabrics in response to environmental temperature changes. Leuco dyes are colored when below their activation temperature and clear or very light above that temperature. They are usually blended with other pigments, which allows them to change from one color to another. Researchers have experimented with different blends to create inks that look similar to each other when below the temperature threshold, but reveal multiple hues when warmed. They have also created designs with inks that activate at different temperatures, creating textiles that change multiple times as the temperature rises.
Belarus-based company Mogilevkhimvolokno, the largest producer of polyester fibers and yarns in Europe, is building a new industrial cluster. The new cluster will operate on a full cycle basis, from processing of raw materials to manufacturing finished products. During the first stage of the project the new cluster will focus on production and processing of technical yarns. The second stage involves production of a wide range of products mostly intended for export, including tent cloth, rubber technical goods, and others.
Among the products to be produced are fire hoses, preforms, special clothes, and chemical coatings. The new cluster will also house new R&D facilities that will focus on the design of new products. The cluster is expected to contribute to the rise of profitability of the entire Belarussian technical textile industry.
Belarus aims to be a technical textile production hub in Europe. It hopes to increase exports of finished products to the EU and in particular to Germany, where the demand for nonwovens and technical textiles has significantly increased in recent years. In addition to the EU, part of the production of the new cluster will be exported to North American region.
"Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) recently approved a Rs 12 million grant to facilitate the wind-up process of Pakistan Textile City, which was inaugurated in 2011 at Port Qasim Karachi. This textile city never produced a single meter of cloth. On the other side, the Xinjiang Textile Park was inaugurated in the border province of China-Pakistan. Xinjiang now grows 60 per cent of Chinese cotton."
Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) recently approved a Rs 12 million grant to facilitate the wind-up process of Pakistan Textile City, which was inaugurated in 2011 at Port Qasim Karachi. This textile city never produced a single meter of cloth. On the other side, the Xinjiang Textile Park was inaugurated in the border province of China-Pakistan. Xinjiang now grows 60 per cent of Chinese cotton.
Only in 2016, 22 new enterprises were opened in Aksu Textile Park in southern Xinjiang, producing 10 million metres of cotton cloth with 800,000 spindles every year. China plans to add another 100,000 new jobs in textile manufacturing in Xinjiang alone, which already saw 112,300 new workers hired in 2016. While the Pakistan Textile City intended to produce 80,000 new jobs, and in turn created only administrative jobs in the headquarters. Built with around Rs 1.2 billion in an area of 1,250 acres, around 774 industrial plots of various sizes were developed in Pakistan Textile City. To develop the area by constructing a 3 km road, water tanks, etc., a loan of Rs 2.5 billion was also taken from the National Bank of Pakistan. These two cities present a stark contrast in the way both countries look at textile as a sector.
Tough times for Karachi textiles sector
Looking at the plight of textiles in the city, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) issued a statement saying, “The anticipated glut of textile and garment from the Xinjiang textile park in the export as well as domestic markets of Pakistan poses a serious threat to Pakistan’s textile sector already struggling to remain afloat. Setting up of the textile park at Xinjiang will give a heavy blow to Pakistani textile exports.”
In 2015, a presentation was made on how Lawrencepur Brand, Pakistan’s premier brand of clothing, was forced to move operations from Pakistan to China. Lawrencepur is now made in China. According to analysts, the city is losing business, market share and jobs. This shift has really happened because of the adoption of new technology, innovation and new industry, forcing old industry to shut down. In the present scenario, local companies in Pakistan are either closed down or taken over by the Chinese shareholders. In all these things, Chinese companies can’t be blamed because they are ruling by applying the principle of ‘survival of the fittest’.
What needs to be done?
If Pakistan textile entrepreneurs want to remain in business, they have to sharply redefine their business methods. There is a need for a clearly defined textile by the government for the upliftment of sector. Having said that, despite government support, Pakistan’s textile industry lags behind Malaysia’s MATRADE (similar to Pakistan’s Trade Development Authority), which is a great example of how its officers work tirelessly to gain global access.
