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Greenpeace has praised Inditex, Benetton and H&M for leading the industry towards a toxic-free future” in its third Detox Catwalk campaign to eliminate hazardous chemicals by 2020. The three apparel firms topped the online ranking of 19 fashion and sportswear companies, with Greenpeace stating that they were the only avant-garde companies that were on track to clean up their chains as promised by 2020, due to them all having “credible timelines, concrete actions and on-the-ground implementation” in place.
Greenpeace says the global partnership with WWF work with other brands within the Swedish Textile Water Initiative (STWI), which aims to improve industry standards on water and chemical management and energy use, are some examples of that.
The other 12 brands, including Adidas, Burberry, Levi’s, Primark and Puma, have found themselves in the middle evolution mode, as they all have made commitments to detox and Greenpeace can see that progress to implement plans has been made, however, they believe that they need to “evolve faster” to achieve the 2020 Detox goal.
With Greenpeace adding that each brand is not banning enough hazardous chemicals and rely on flawed chemical list from the industry group Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC). This list is missing important substances like PFCs and solvents like Dimethylformamide (DMF).
American and European companies are setting up shop in Ethiopia. Until now, the majority of FDI was coming from China. Power supply and labor in Ethiopia is reliable and cheaper so it creates an attractive alternative to more commonly known manufacturing destinations. Industrial parks up and down the country are employing thousands of people. The country now has business stakes in all major sea ports in east Africa and the state-owned Ethiopian Airlines freights cargo to over 40 international destinations.
Velocity Apparelz from Dubai does textile production in Ethiopia. The factory can produce 26,300 pieces of jeans, 200 kg of knitted garments, a lakh pieces of poly-bag and 60,000 cartons a year. The workspace is automated, set up on conveyor systems, powered by wind and lit by LED bulbs with its own water treatment on-site. Other sustainable practices at the factory include waterless washing, sublimation fabric printing and laser-blast technology.
American Philip Van Heusen established a joint venture in Ethiopia in 2016 with Indian manufacturer Arvind. The PVH Arvind conglomerate will export eight million shirts annually. Over 80,000 Ethiopian people work in the textile sector and the plan is to make that two million by 2025.
Shoppers in China are encouraged to buy items that will contribute to sustainable lifestyles. Waste and pollution associated with the textile and clothing industries is a growing issue, especially in China.
In 2014, China had begun to exceed the global average consumption of new clothes, which was five kg per person. Chinese shoppers bought 6.5 kg each that year. About half of Chinese consumers buy more than they can afford. About 40 per cent make compulsive purchases more than once a week, with young, high income women being the most vulnerable.
Fashion giants have introduced clothing recycling programs. They are transparent about their textile manufacturing process, or have released clothing collections that have rebranded sustainable consumption as fashionable.
H&M, for example, has collected more than 61,000 tons of garments globally since its clothing recycling program launched in 2013. More than 2,200 tons of the clothing collected was in China. Denim backpacks are being produced from used jeans. Shopping malls have started placing clothing collection boxes. Shops sell products made from organic materials that can be reused, like cotton bags.
However, shopping habits die hard and do make eco-friendly fashion a tough sell. For instance potential customers, wary of used clothing, need convincing that items have been thoroughly disinfected.
US punitive tariffs will hit around 50 per cent of total Chinese exports to the US. Even though China will suffer some offset in export competitiveness, the significant depreciation of Chinese yuan against the dollar will provide an offset. The United States will begin the process of imposing 10 per cent tariffs on an additional 200 billion dollars of Chinese imports. The action is in response to China’s decision to impose retaliatory tariffs of $34 billion of US imports.
The Chinese export sector would be hit hard by the additional tariffs, particularly key industries such as textiles, metal products, auto parts, glass products and electrical and electronic equipment. The new US list of products subject to an additional ten per cent duty will impact a large range of Chinese textile products, including cotton and wool fabrics and yarns.
The US feels that its large bilateral merchandise trade deficit with China will help since China will run out of US products to impose retaliatory tariffs on long before the US runs out of Chinese products to apply punitive tariffs on. The US is China’s largest export market, accounting for 19 per cent of overall shipments. The wider damage of the US-China trade war will significantly increase the transmission effects to the rest of the Asia Pacific economies.
As an apparel manufacturer, Wrangler wants to improve the environmental performance of its products. To that end, Wrangler is collaborating with MyFarms, a platform built by farmers for farmers to make their jobs easier and more profitable.
Last year, Wrangler joined Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, a multi-stakeholder initiative working to increase supply chain sustainability around natural resources. Members’ combined revenues total more than 1.5 trillion dollars.
Wrangler purchases roughly half of the cotton for its products from US growers. The pilot program builds on the company’s long-standing commitment to supporting US farming communities and other programs including a commitment to 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025, zero waste facilities and manufacturing and technology improvements that have saved three billion liters of water over the last decade.
Sustainable cotton farming techniques improve crop yields and reduce costs while slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Field-level sustainability data can strengthen business relationships and results throughout agricultural supply chains.
Sustainable practices help justify a price premium for cotton growers. Even though the growers might only receive a few extra pennies at the point of sale, that premium can significantly increase farm income. For Wrangler, sustainable farming is helping drive a more sustainable supply chain for its denim.
India’s knitwear exports have been falling month on month since October 2017. For the second half of 2017-18 the decline in exports was 21 per cent. And the negative trend in export growth is continuing this fiscal.
The sector went through a challenging business environment following the implementation of GST. But now yarn prices threaten to derail the industry. This would affect the sector and also have a boomerang effect on textile mills.
Cotton yarn prices have increased by Rs 20 a kg. The impact of price increase has made textile mills increase yarn prices which ultimately affects downstream value added sectors like weaving, knitting, garmenting and made ups, particularly value added exporters, as they can not hike the price which was fixed more than three to five months back.
However, a turnaround seems as the sector is now booking orders and business has started to look up and is poised to bring back the industry from the brink after a prolonged one year lull.
Knitwear exporters want the Cotton Corporation of India to ensure the availability of enough supplies of the desired quality to protect the interests of farmers, the textile industry and also to generate employment.
While hailing the increase in MSP for cotton, the Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has emphasised on the need for Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) scheme and a Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC) in a revised format to double the income of the cotton farmers and to grow the business of the industry as well.
Cotton PSF scheme consisting of 5 to 7 per cent interest subvention, 10 per cent margin money and nine months credit limit would enable spinning mills and the Cotton Corporation of India to compete with multinational cotton traders and cover cotton during peak season.
PSF would also bring more GST revenue and boost exports. To roll out TMC (between 1999 and 2002) and introduction of Bt cotton, India emerged the largest producer of cotton. Following the government’s withdrawal of extension of TMC, farmers’ suffering began with spurious seeds, lack of seed technology and technology transfer, agronomy research, quality deterioration of the fibre at ginning stage and so on.
The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has emphasised the need for Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) scheme and a Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC) in a revised format to double the income of cotton farmers and to grow the business of the industry as well.
The textile industry, which is predominantly MSME in nature could not compete with the multinational traders in covering cotton requirement. They thus were forced to shell out 10 to 25 per cent higher cost for home grown cotton during off-season.
Monforts supplies finishing range for the denim industry. Monforts’ Eco Line for denim is based on two key technology advances: the Eco Applicator for minimum application of selected moist finishing chemicals and ThermoStretch.
As an alternative to conventional padding, especially for wet-in-wet solutions, the Monforts Eco Applicator can significantly reduce the amount of applied humidity required prior to the stretching and skewing of the denim fabric. It also allows mills to apply finishes to just one side of the fabric, or both, and even to apply separate finishes to each side, or to specific areas of a fabric, for endless denim differentiation possibilities.
ThermoStretch carries out skewing (weft straightening), stretching and drying in a continuous process. Due to these innovations, the Eco Line system reduces energy requirements and losses, increases thermal transfer and keeps the drying energy on the textile material longer. As a result energy savings of up to 50 per cent are being achieved.
Monforts will be introducing a number of new innovations for denim in the near future, including a solution for the introduction of two-way super stretch into denim in a single processing step.
Denim manufacturing consumes huge amounts of energy and resources at virtually all stages of production, but especially during shrink finishing.
There has been a huge negative impact on Indian apparel industry due to the current banking scenario. The documentation system of banks, which was fairly strong earlier, has now become more stringent. Even ad hoc limits take nearly three months to get executed, and a loan is something apparel manufacturers cannot expect easily now.
Apparel manufacturing is one business which requires hefty investments due to its capital and labor-intensive nature and longer rotation cycle. Garment manufacturers and exporters largely depend on banks for their funding. Banks are now stricter about rating and are going in for three different ratings to make sure of the credentials of a company and avoid taking any risks. Due to the change in laws in the Middle East and Dubai, buyers from these countries are now reluctant. With most of the business coming from these two markets, there has been a downfall of nearly 30 per cent in business.
Balance sheets of apparel manufacturers, especially exporters, do not look healthy. This results in a huge pressure on financial limits. In addition, after demonetisation and GST, fund availability is not as easy as it used to be. For an industry already in stress, this new attitude of the banks has only amplified the troubles. PSU banks are not lending money, and even private banks are not taking stressed assets.
Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles will be held from August 27 to 30, 2018. The quality of the participating exhibitors is always an attraction at the fair. This year, a number of top suppliers from China and abroad will take advantage of the annual event and showcase customers all kinds of competitive products.
Taking advantage of the latest innovative technology, manufacturers are able to incorporate green elements and more user-friendly properties into their products.
With growing middle and upper classes in China, consumers’ buying trends have shifted from single home textile products to a combination of items with one particular design trend. Matching this trend a number of home exhibitors who provide one-stop services, from selecting home textile products to home decoration ideas, have been under the limelight in recent editions of Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles.
One exhibitor, Mulei Textile, specialises in all kinds of linen products ranging from bedding and curtains to sofa upholstery, carpets and more and will demonstrate in its booth how to create a green, environmentally friendly and healthy living space. A supplier of Ikea, Maisons, Depot and Intratuin, Casa'I Do is another whole home exhibitor that excels at making use of color mixtures, nature and plants, metal and gold to create different themes for whole home decoration and products.
