FW
To make use of opportunities offered by the pact, experts suggested local enterprises prepare to meet rules set by the deal, especially those regarding product origin. Europe is a promising market for Vietnamese garments and textiles with export turnover reaching 3.5 billion USD in 2016, just behind the US.
Truong Van Cam, Vice President of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), described rules of origin as the most important thing in the agreement.
He says that, Vietnamese garment-textile firms must ensure that their products originate from Vietnam or use materials imported from the EU or the bloc’s trade partners. The local garment-textile industry is still heavily dependent on imported materials, mostly from China, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan (China), with the fabric sector.
VITAS Deputy Secretary General Vu Thi Phuong suggested domestic enterprises review their investment and business strategies to catch up with the transformation from the cut-make-and-trim production model to free-on-board and original design manufacturing (ODM) practices. According to Phuong, apart from strict rules, the agreement also offers an open mechanism to the Vietnamese side, saying that products using materials from the EU’s partner countries will also enjoy the tariff breaks.
Under the agreement, fabrics from the RoK, which has a free trade agreement with the EU, are considered as having clear product origin and are eligible for the tax reduction. VITAS statistics show that the garment-textile sector spends more than 10 billion USD each year on importing fabric, with more than half from China, about 18 percent from the RoK and 15 percent from Taiwan (China).
The association confirmed saying that if Vietnamese firms continue to import materials from China, they will find it hard to benefit from the EVFTA. European experts proposed local enterprises learn the rules and the roadmap for tariff reductions in order to better access the market.
Japan has revised its labeling laws for textile products, processed plastics and miscellaneous goods. According to the revision, washing care labeling for mufflers, scarves and shawls, and fiber composition of interlining for trousers are mandatory from April 1, 2017 while washing care labeling and fiber composition for hats, caps etc are mandatory from April 1, 2018.
There will be a one-year transition period for implementation. After the enforcement on April 1, 2017, items can be labeled either according to the requirements before or after the revision until April 1, 2018.
Most apparel and textile products are required to be labeled with fiber composition as well as instructions for care. Along with the effectiveness of the new care labeling standard implementation, textile products must be labeled with care symbols while fiber name and percentage are required. All the labeling information must be permanently attached to the textile product, either printed directly on the product or on a sewn-in label. The label must be visible, indelible and easily accessible to the consumer.
The Consumer Affairs Agency in Japan has carried out a partial revision of the Enforcement Regulations of the Household Goods Quality Labeling Act and revisions to the quality labeling regulations of textile products, processed plastics and miscellaneous goods.
The act protects the interests of general consumers.
The government has trimmed the textile and clothing export target to $45 billion for the current fiscal. The total shipments in the last fiscal missed the initial target of $48.5 billion by a huge margin. The target for 2017-18 will nevertheless represent a 17 per cent rise from the actual level of $38.6 billion in 2016-17. While garments exports witnessed a marginal rise from the year before, textiles exports dropped in the last fiscal. According to provisional official estimates in 2015-16, the overall textile and garment exports were to the tune of $40 billion.
The exports were way off the target in the last fiscal, as demand from China especially for cotton and yarn was warmish and recovery in the developed markets like the US and the EU still remained fragile. Demonetisation, too, hit the labour-intensive sector, albeit temporarily, as many workers are paid in cash daily or weekly.
Official sources says that the textile ministry has sought a quick resolution of the India-EU free trade agreement, which would pave the way for duty-free access of Indian textile and garment items to the EU, which account for more than a third of the country’s garment exports.
Talking about the Knitwear sector textile minister Smriti Irani commented that they will announce a big package for the knitwear industry which is facing several challenges in the next one month Irani, however, didn’t offer much details on the package.
The minister further added that roadshows were held in six countries the UK, the US, China, Russia, South Korea and UAE. To attract potential investors for the three-day Textiles India 2017 event, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhi Nagar on June 30.
The government has provided Rs1,900 crore so far for a new duty drawback scheme that was announced as part of a special package for the garments industry in June last year For the current fiscal, the government has budgeted Rs1,555 crore for the remission of state levies (RoSL) to the garments industry under the duty drawback scheme.
Eight years after New York City pulled the plug on a plan to do away with antiquated Garment District zoning, city hall recently came up with a new proposal that’s barely more palatable to activists who killed off the first plan.
The Economic Development would wish to drop a 1987 rule that requires landlords of larger cross street buildings in the West 30s and lower West 40s between Broadway and Ninth Avenue to earmark 50 percent of above-ground floor space for apparel manufacturing.
The EDC, property owners, the Garment Center Alliance (a business improvement district) and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) endorse the change, which would also offer manufacturers generous incentives to move to a new, modern complex in city-owned space in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.Rezoning advocates note that a mere 5,100 apparel-making jobs survive in the district, compared with 30,000 in 1987 and hundreds of thousands in the 1950s.
Scores of street-level, wholesale storefronts still display colorful dresses, sportswear and fabrics. They suggest a thriving “Seventh Avenue” apparel scene, but its deceptive most of what’s on display is made in China and South and Central America.
President Gale Brewer and Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen announced a “steering committee” made up of “major stakeholders” to weigh all the issues and make recommendations in time for an Aug. 21 Department of City Planning hearing.
If an agreement can be sewn up, DCP would enter the rezoning pitch into the city’s seven-month uniform land use review procedure.
Major area landlord Eric Gural, who owns four buildings, notes that rezoning wouldn’t require any manufacturing tenant to leave the neighborhood but purelywill offer the option of moving to Sunset Park with the help of city incentives.
A lot of the media make it sound like moving trucks are going to show up and every manufacturing company is being moved to Brooklyn but rezoning doesn’t require anyone to move says Gural.
Businessmen in the export-oriented garment accessories sector are fearing a rise in production costs due to implementation of the proposed VAT law from July despite assurances to the contrary from the revenue authority. At present, all export-oriented sectors are out of the purview of value-added tax. The new law prescribes a uniform 15 per cent VAT for most goods and services.
The VAT officials at the field levels have confirmed that if any trader buys garment accessories from the local market and sells those to the export-oriented garment factories, VAT will have to be paid at the government-fixed rate.
Zakir Hossain, deputy project director of the National Board of Revenue's VAT Online Project, says that if any accessories trader purchases goods from the local market by opening letters of credit they will not have to pay the VAT. The traders will have to pay the VAT if the goods are purchased from the local markets in cash, but the sum can be reclaimed at the end of the month in the form of rebate.
The new VAT is not well understood by the majority of the small accessories makers and traders. Md Abdul Kader Khan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association pointed out saying that at present, garment exporters are overburdened with the 0.70 per cent tax at source, assumed If the VAT is imposed the sector will be abnormally affected.
According to Khan the garment accessories makers have invested more than Tk 30,000 crore. The number of accessories making factories is nearly 1,600 also the share of accessories sector is 20 percent in the total garment export.
The local manufacturers are also supplying accessories worth nearly $1 billion in a year to some other rising export-oriented sectors like ceramics, frozen fish, flowers, crockery and pharmaceuticals. In the early days of garment business in the 1980s, Bangladesh was dependent on accessories imports from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Turkey and India.
World apparel and footwear consumption is projected to rise 63 per cent by 2030.This increases the need for the fashion industry to address its environmental and social footprint and take remedial action.
Global Fashion Agenda and Boston Consulting Group have developed a pulse score to assess the industry’s performance on environmental and social issues across fashion companies and stages of the value chain.
As of today, the sustainability pulse of the industry is weak – scoring only 32 out of 100.
The fashion industry has a clear opportunity to act differently, pursuing profit and growth while also creating new value for the world economy.
In the past decade, the global fashion industry has been an engine for global development and made progress on sustainability. Awareness is growing and individually, companies are optimising business practices to limit their negative impact.
But with current trajectories of production and consumption, pressures on natural resources and social conditions will intensify by 2030 to the point of threatening the industry’s growth itself.
The industry can move beyond fragmented individual actions with incremental results. Through collective efforts the industry can unite around an agenda for change, drive the needed systemic change and work jointly on disruptive innovation.
A Chinese online retailer will use drones as couriers. The planes will carry consumer goods to remote areas and farm produce to cities.
JD.com is China’s biggest online retailer and operates its own nationwide network of thousands of delivery stations manned by 65,000 employees. The company has 235 million regular customers. The company’s first-quarter revenue rose 41.2 per cent over a year ago. Based in Beijing, JD.com made its first deliveries to customers using smaller drones in November. Its planned drone delivery network would cover a 300-kilometer radius and have drone air bases.
Other e-commerce brands including Amazon also are experimenting with drones for delivery.
China is home to the world’s biggest manufacturer of civilian drones, DJI. Drones are part of the industry’s response to the challenge of expanding to rural areas where distances and delivery costs rise. However drone delivery in China and other countries faces hurdles including airspace restrictions and the need to avoid collisions with birds and other obstacles. In the United States, regulators allow commercial drone flights only on an experimental basis.
A one ton payload is heavier than what most drones available now can carry, though some can carry hundreds of kilograms and major drone makers are working on devices able to carry more.
Arne Arens is now global brand president, The North Face. Arne’s passion for and deep understanding of the outdoor marketplace, coupled with his management expertise and operational agility, make him ideally suited to unlock new opportunities and accelerate growth for The North Face around the world.
The North Face is a part of VF Corporation. Since joining VF in 2010, Arne led The North Face brand in Europe, Middle East and Africa, where he oversaw sales, marketing, merchandising, product development and direct-to-consumer activities.
In his most recent role as general manager of the Americas, he managed the brand’s Americas business and strategic initiatives for sales, merchandising and the direct-to-consumer business.
Prior to joining VF, Arne worked at Nike in Europe, where he spent eight years in marketing, sales and category roles. Before Nike, Arne served in consulting roles across a range of industries and geographies.
VF Corporation is an international apparel and footwear company and has brands like Wrangler, Lee.
Meanwhile the corporation has reduced its global carbon emissions by 12 per cent from 2011 to 2015.
VF achieved these reductions while seeing vast expansions to its business, adding more than 500 sites to its global operations within the five-year period – a 40 per cent increase driven mainly by retail store expansion.
Active seam is Merrow’s newest technology. It seeks to revolutionize medical and compression garment manufacturing by replacing the traditional flat lock seam with a flatter, stronger stitch.
Additionally, active seam is the world’s first branded stitch, bringing a distinctive value to retail products. With a flat profile and twice the stretch built into the seam, active seam garments are extraordinarily comfortable and do not restrict movement.
Active seam replaces flat lock with a stronger, more elastic, and infinitely more attractive seam construction that is ideal for specialized applications like medical compression garments.
Active seam is almost undetectable when applied next to skin. With more stretch built into the seam, the garment can be designed to fit the human body better without restricting athletic movement.
In fact active seam is uniquely suited for any application that entails a garment’s seams be pressed against the skin because of its extremely flat profile, flexibility, and unparalleled comfort. This is great news for anyone who utilizes compression wear, particularly compression garments or athletic apparel, as active seam substantially increases pliability and improves overall fit.
Compared to a six-thread flat lock seam with identical thread, fabric, Merrow active seam two and three thread seams prove to be 30 per cent stronger and have the ability to stretch 100 per cent further.
Merrow, based in the US, manufactures overlock sewing machines for fashion, technical and end-to-end seaming.
"Global shipments of electronic flat knitting machines soared by 99 per cent in 2016.Asia received the highest share of shipments, at 94 per cent. China remained by far the world’s largest investor for flat knitting machines in 2016 with Chinese investments having a global share of 73 per cent, according to The 39th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS), released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF)."
Global shipments of electronic flat knitting machines soared by 99 per cent in 2016.Asia received the highest share of shipments, at 94 per cent. China remained by far the world’s largest investor for flat knitting machines in 2016 with Chinese investments having a global share of 73 per cent, according to The 39th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS), released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF)
Global shipments of large diameter circular knitting machines fell slightly by three percent in 2016. Also for this category Asia is the world’s leading investor. 87 per cent of all new circular knitting machines were shipped to Asia in 2016. With 43 per cent of worldwide deliveries China was the single largest investor. India and Bangladesh rank second and third. Shipments of new short-staple spindles fell by nearly 12 per cent year-on-year in 2016. Most of the new short staple spindles were shipped to Asia, whereby shipments fell by 12 per cent year-on-year. China, the world’s largest investor of short-staple spindles, experienced an increase of nine per cent whereas deliveries to Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam rose by 97 per cent, four per cent and 31 per cent. The six largest investors in short-staple spindles in 2016 were China followed by India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Turkey and Pakistan.
Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles soared by 111 per cent in 2016. Deliveries to Turkey, one of the main investors in long-staple spindles in the last few years, jumped by 153 per cent. The majority of long-staple spindles were shipped to Europe (including Turkey). Nearly 39 per cent of long-staple spindles had Asia as destination.
Shipments of open-end rotors up
Shipments of open-end rotors rose by 66 per cent. About 92 per cent of worldwide shipments of open-end rotors were destined for Asia. Shipments to China, the world’s largest investor in open-end rotors, increased by around 92 per cent. In contrast, regions such as North America and South America recorded annual percentage declines of 72 per cent and 53 per cent. The world’s second and third largest investors in 2016 were India and Turkey.
As for finishing machinery, shipments of some machine types increased in 2016 like dyeing-lines, sanforizing/compacting machines or stenters. In contrast, shipments of washing machines, bleaching-lines, mercerizing-lines and relax drying/tumbling machines decreased.
Global shipments of single heater draw-texturing spindles jumped by 608 per cent. With a share of 57 per cent, Asia is the region were most of the single heater draw-texturing spindles were shipped to, followed by Western Europe with a share of 24 per cent and South America with a share of 19 per cent.
Draw-texturing spindles, continues the downward trend
In the segment of double heater draw-texturing spindles the downward trend continued and global shipments fell by 17 per cent on an annual basis. Asia’s share of worldwide shipments amounted to close to 84 per cent. China remained the largest investor, accounting for 58 per cent of global shipments.
Shuttle-less grows, rapier goes down
In 2016, worldwide shipments of shuttle-less looms increased by four per cent. Thereby, shipments of air-jet and water jet shuttle less looms increased by 15 per cent and by six per cent. In contrast, rapier/projectile shuttle-less looms decreased by six per cent.
The main destination of shipments of all shuttle-less looms (air-jet, water-jet and rapier/projectile) in 2016 was Asia, with 91 per cent of worldwide deliveries, of which 41 per cent were water jet looms and 32 per cent rapier/projectile looms. In Europe and North America 73 per cent and 56 per cent of shipments were for rapier/projectile looms, while the share of water-jet looms was only two per cent and seven per cent respectively. The 39th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS), released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), covers six segments of textile machinery, namely spinning, draw-texturing, weaving, large circular knitting, flat knitting and finishing. The 2016 survey was compiled in cooperation with more than 140 textile machinery manufacturers, representing a comprehensive measure of world production.
