FW
Mafatlal will make a foray into the apparel business by introducing ready to wear fashion at affordable pricing.
The company is basically into textiles. It produces shirting fabrics, whites, prints and school uniforms. In shirtings, it is the leader in the white fabric category, which is used for shirtings, kurta pajamas etc. Then comes polyester cotton and cotton blends. It does a fair amount of prints, too, cotton prints and viscose prints.
Mafatlal is one of the large manufacturers of denim in the country and it supplies to domestic brands and international brands.
For the apparel business, the company has identified three or four anchor categories like T-shirts.
Mafatlal Industries is part of the Rs 1300 crore Arvind- Mafatlal group.
The company has a strong base on the retail front with over 100 Mafatlal Family Shops across the country, and this will be further strengthened.
Mafatlal registered significant production and sales increases in the denim business which benefited a lot from the increased dyeing capacity. Sales grew by 38.3 per cent during the year under review. The product base also shifted to the higher end value-added products with dobby constructions and light weight denims. A number of new finishes were also introduced.
Mafatlal is at the higher end of the market so the products are value added rather than basic stuff.
Buoyed by the good prices this season, farmers in India are expected to plant 15 to 20 per cent more cotton in the 2017-18 season.
Tightness in domestic supply is also boosting imports, as farmers hold off on deliveries in the hope of achieving higher prices later in the crop year.Usually Indian mills import cotton in the second half of the crop year as domestic supplies dwindle. But this year they began importing in January as local prices jumped due to limited supplies.
The last time cotton imports touched a record high was in 2001-02 when they were 25 lakh bales. In the 2015-16 season, India had imported 20 lakh bales of cotton.
Cotton exports which were brisk at the start of the season, touching 30 lakh bales, have become subdued with international rates coming on par with India’s.
In the coming season, the country is likely to export some 5,00,000 to 8,00,000 bales of cotton to China.
Traders anticipate the export of some five or seven lakh bales before the start of the new season. There is good demand from Vietnam. Some demand is also coming from Indonesia and Pakistan. A major portion of the export has happened to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam and China at the start of the season.
The Centre is exploring certain “grey areas’’ in World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules to see if it can continue with its export subsidy schemes for some more time despite the fact that India will cross the low-income threshold this year.
According to the WTO rules, when a member’s per capita gross national income (GNI) crosses the $1,000 threshold for the third consecutive year, it is no longer eligible to give export subsidies.
As per the government official it is unclear that’s whether India will be entitled to an eight-year phase out period that is allowed under certain conditions. If there exists such a possibility, they may very well demand it.
In the meantime as per the figures released by the WTO’s Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, India’s GNI crossed the $1,000 mark for 2013 and 2014 this means that not only export subsidies for the textile sector which is anyway going to graduate out in 2018 as it breached the sectoral criteria of 3.25 percent of global exports in 2010 but even sops for other sectors would have to go.
With the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015-20 up for a mid-term review later this month, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has asked the Trade Policy Division of the Commerce Ministry to examine the WTO rules minutely to see if India can make a case for an eight-year phase out period for its subsidy. According to figures released by the WTO’s Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. According to figures released by the WTO’s Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
Popular schemes, like the Merchandise Export Incentive Scheme, Advance Authorisation Scheme and the Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme, may need to be discontinued once India crosses the GNI threshold.Exporters were promised certain schemes for five years when they very well knew that India’s status was about to change at the WTO. Popular schemes, like the Merchandise Export Incentive Scheme, Advance Authorisation Scheme and the Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme, may need to be discontinued once India crosses the GNI threshold.
The WTO rules say that when a member’s per capita gross national income (GNI) crosses the $1,000 threshold for the third consecutive year, it is no longer eligible to give export subsidies.
India has doubled the compensation for the death of power loom workers.The insurance coverage – two lakh rupees in case of a natural death and four lakh rupees for an accidental death – was rolled out this month, in addition to a disability compensation of two lakh rupees.
A single person, working 12 hours or more, often tends to six to nine looms inside cramped spaces, exposed to loud noise and injuries from the shuttle that moves at a high speed across the loom.
Workers often put in long hours because of erratic power supply, an issue that is being addressed by providing solar panels to factories. Workers are exposed to more than 100 decibels of sound - equivalent to the sound of a jackhammer or lawnmower - putting them at severe risk of hearing loss. Most workers die after they are no longer able to work and have returned to their villages.
Power looms contribute around 70 per cent of the total jobs in the textile industry, employing around 6.5 million people. Nearly 60 per cent of the fabrics and produced is exported.
The worker protection scheme, called PowerTex India, was launched in April and includes a helpline for workers and subsidies for employers to upgrade their machinery.
Demand for smart clothing is picking up in Japan, promising a potential new source of income for the industry. Asahi Kasei will develop smart clothes that can monitor wearers’ health and maybe save their lives.
The Tokyo-based chemical company will partner with US subsidiary Zoll Medical to apply Asahi’s Roboden elastic wires to wearable devices. Potential uses include critical care and health monitoring.
Toray, known for carbon fiber, and telecom operator Nippon Telegraph & Telephone have developed the Hitoe polyester material that can detect faint electrical signals from the body’s surface. As well as measuring heart rate during sporting activities, the fabric is also used to measure the physical strain on factory workers laboring in hot environments. Hoping to capture new demand, Toray plans to begin sales of medical-use clothing for electrocardiography this year.
Textile maker Toyobo’s film-like Cocomi material contains a conductive layer that functions like an electrode. It is being tested in wearable products for bus and truck drivers with the aim of preventing sleeping at the wheel.
Fabric producer Kurabo has begun working with a transport operator to test a product aimed at preventing heatstroke.
Much more than strapping gadgets to wrists, faces, ears and feet, smart clothing can constantly track heart rate, monitor emotions and even pay for coffee. All without grabbing a phone or even tapping a smartwatch screen.
Kufner’s product line XShield is a solution to protect from electro-magnetic radiation and unauthorized access to RFID data and may be applied to various market segments from fashion and leisure wear, home textiles, automotive, military, sports, medical to construction and electronics industries.
Kufner’s TIP security system provides effective support. Valuable freight, from documents or computing equipment to large-scale, even oversized, items, can be effectively protected against theft and unauthorized access with this sensor-based fabric. In case of damage due to mechanical or chemical impact, an alert is triggered that can be forwarded upon request to the nearest police station including exact positioning indication via an app. The alert technology is compatible with various systems so that individual scenarios can be created according to customer needs.
Kufner has various smart, textile-based products for a variety of solutions and applications. Kufner’s blend of textile expertise and engineering competence leads to ever more exciting new products and applications. Kufner is one of the leading companies for interlinings in the apparel industry. Based in Germany, it has four sites on two continents producing about 150 million meters each year. The vertical integration includes weaving, knitting, finishing and coating as well as production of thermos-bonded nonwovens and warp production.
As a global provider of technical solutions, Kufner has over 20 distribution companies and a worldwide service network in over 60 countries that guarantees short delivery times.
Diesel has appointed Stefano Rosso as CEO of the label’s North American business. Stefano is Renzo Rosso’s son, and since 2005 he has held various positions within Rosso’s OTB group, which owns Diesel as well as other labels including Marni, Maison Margiela and Viktor & Rolf.
Stefano Rosso, 38, is a graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, and worked in marketing and manufacturing at Diesel, before leaving the denim brand in 2011 and joining OTB.
There he first acted as director of corporate development, before being appointed co-CEO in 2013, with the specific responsibility of managing the group's corporate governance and guiding the People & Organisation function, with the goal of building the managerial team of the future.
Stefano Rosso will start in his new post in July, taking over the North American leadership from Tommaso Brusò, who has joined the Benetton group as COO.
In the USA, Diesel currently operates some twenty mono brand stores and fifteen outlets.
Diesel is an Italian denim brand. The new 887 square meter Diesel Planet opened in Italy has a new digital format. The shopping experience it offers is revolutionary and interactive. In addition to offering interior design inspired by the idea of an apartment with vintage furnishings, Persian carpets and wooden ceilings it also launches a new digital retail model with avant-garde technologies like various touch-points to enrich the purchasing experience with interactive content and information about the product.
N. Schlumberger, the world leader in spinning lines participated at the expo. Patrick Strehle, sales director of N. Schlumberger also presented a collaboration for processing Para-aramid fibres and carbon fibres.
Elias Junker, an area sales manager, described how a recycling and nonwoven eco-friendly solution was tailor made for Nova Fibers (Grupo de Todos) in Guatemala. Hubert Ttretsch, Superba marketing manager explained how a new yarn style was developed in collaboration with a leading Turkish carpet manufacturer.
A new textured yarn style, required by fashion trends, was aimed by this major Turkish producer. The demand was developing for textured (frieze) yarns, but the yarns produced with the existing machines showed too high frieze effect, too randomly curved. A light, and especially even frieze effect was sought by the customer and the end-user. David Fauconnier, sales director of Dollfus & Muller, presented 3 key belts and felts developed in close partnerships with European textile machinery manufacturers.First an innovative non-marking and non-sticking dryer belt, second, a special endless palmer felt for ultra-sensitive fabrics with a felted soft surface and third a non-marking and non-sticking dryer belt for digital printed fabrics.
Zimbabwe is expecting a sharp increase in cotton production. Cottco, the country’s sole authorised cotton buyer, has set aside 44 million dollars to buy the crop. Cottco has set up 433 buying points across the country where farmers can sell their produce.
The expected increase in production can be attributed to the steps taken to revive the industry. To boost cotton production, free inputs were provided to growers during the 2016-17 cropping season.
During the current buying season, Cottco would initially pay 40 cents per kg, and after grading the crop it will pay additional grade-related price adjustment of 15 cents for Grade A, ten cents for Grade B and five cents for Grade D.
So cotton growers can expect to receive a price between 40 cents per kg to 55 cents per kg depending on the quality of their cotton.
Production of cotton had significantly declined in recent years owing to the high cost of production and unending fights over pricing between farmers and merchants.
During the 2016-17 cropping season, the government provided growers with free cotton inputs worth 36 million dollars to boost production of the crop.
Zimbabwe’s textile and clothing sub-sector consists of three components: production and ginning of cotton, transformation of lint into yarn and fabric, and the conversion of fabric and yarn into garments.
Chinese investment in Bangladesh has experienced very high annual growth in recent years. Two factors are driving Chinese investment into Bangladesh. One is that labor cost in China is getting higher. Second there are opportunities in Bangladesh, in power, infrastructure, rails, roads and bridges.
Many of China's labor-intensive export processing units have been shifting to other countries.
Standard Chartered Bangladesh has been involved in facilitating Chinese investment into the Bangladesh economy and has been acting as a bridge between Chinese investors and investment opportunities in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh's exports to China are heavily concentrated on garments despite having duty-free market access of over 4,700 items.
Of nearly 800 million dollar exports to China this fiscal year, 84 per cent were garments.
The trade gap between China and Bangladesh is in favor of China. The Chinese are looking to invest in export-oriented manufacturing, where Chinese companies will make their products in Bangladesh for shipping back home.
Chinese companies would undertake joint ventures with local companies as this would decrease their costs while also providing them with local knowledge.
A lot of Chinese investment in Bangladesh comes via Singapore, Hong Kong or the US. Garments, shoes and toys are some of the labor-intensive industries that may relocate to Bangladesh.
