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China, Vietnam and Bangladesh continue to be the largest apparel exporters to the United States. During January to April 2017 apparels exported from these three countries constituted around 59 per cent of total apparel imports by the US.
China was in the first place with a 37.18 per cent share of total US apparel imports. Vietnam was in second place with a 14.10 per cent share. Bangladesh remained in the third position with a 7.7 per cent of total US apparel imports.
However, China and Bangladesh fell in value terms significantly on a year-on-year basis. China recorded a downfall of 3.45 per cent in values whereas Bangladesh noted a 6.30 per cent drop. On the other hand Vietnam continued its robust performance in value-wise apparel exports to the US as it was up by a massive 8.16 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
There is a change in the attitude of US consumers, who now prefer spending more on electronic gadgets compared to clothes. The US election has also impacted retail sales negatively. Global apparel exports to the US declined 6.44 per cent year-on-year in 2016.
All nine out of ten top apparel exporting nations of the world experienced negative growth in shipment to the US in 2016. Only Vietnam's apparel exports increased 0.30 per cent year-on-year in 2016.
The EU has decided to screen imports from Bangladesh. Shipments, by air or sea, will be screened by bomb-detecting dogs and devices at some intermediate points like Dubai or Istanbul or Doha or Colombo or Singapore.
Some air shipments from Bangladesh are already being routed through Dubai, Istanbul or Doha for screening, and some sea shipments are going through Colombo or Singapore.
The move makes Bangladesh the thirteenth country designated as high risk for EU commerce. It is likely to make it costlier for businesses in Bangladesh to sell products to EU nations.
Last year, Britain, Germany and Australia banned direct cargo shipments from Bangladesh. The country has suffered a string of deadly attacks in recent years claimed by extremists targeting perceived enemies of Islam, including bloggers, rights activists, atheists, religious minorities and foreigners.
Business leaders are worried about the possible delays in screening, when they are already scrambling to fulfil large orders on short notice despite frequent power outages that shut operations down.
Screening in a third country adds to the cost. Fresh screening will take at least ten days, at a time when factories are struggling to ship goods on time for many reasons.
Bangladesh’s garment exports to the EU are 60 per cent of the industry’s exports.
Although Bangladesh’s overall export earnings rose 3.67 per cent in the first eleven months of fiscal year 2016-17, the growth in export earnings slowed to 1.39 per cent. Of the total export earnings in the July to May period of 2016-17, the readymade garment sector grew by 2.16 per cent.
The slow rate of growth in export earnings is due to weaker demand in global markets for the readymade garment sector – the lifeline of Bangladesh’s economy in terms of export earnings. It is thought this will adversely impact backward linkage industry, production and even the Gross Domestic Product.
Bangladesh’s production capacity in the readymade garment sector has also gone down due to the ongoing remediation, which may be another reason.
Of the total export earnings in the July to May period of the current fiscal year, knitwear posted 4.91 per cent growth but woven garments witnessed negative growth and were 0.33 per cent down compared to the previous period. Earnings from jute and jute goods posted a 9.84 per cent rise while the home textile sector posted 6.72 per cent growth. Leather and leather goods earned 9.17 per cent more than they did the previous year.
500 outstanding business leaders growing their companies in the harshest of startup environments to challenge the stereotype of a typical company boss and inspire women globally this includes from a Peruvian trout farm manager to the head of an Indonesian meatball company.
Launched today at foundation500.com, the list is a reference to the famous Fortune 500 list by Fortune Magazine. The list, an initiative of humanitarian agency CARE and the non-profit H&M Foundation, mirrors the Fortune 500 list of U.S. Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of Swedish retailer H&M that founded the H&M Foundation, says If the world is to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals on Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality, the time to act is now.
He added that the entrepreneur is the hero of the time, and it is estimated that over the coming years over 1 billion women will enter the workforce – a majority through entrepreneurship. But women rarely make the covers of business magazines. With the Foundation 500 list he wishes to re-define what a business leader looks like.
The H&M Foundation, privately funded by the Persson family that founded retailer H&M, a women's empowerment program started with CARE in 2014 in Latin America, Asia and Africa. It pledges 120 million Swedish krona ($14 million/€12 million) to support over 200,000 women entrepreneurs from emerging markets.
The women on the Foundation 500 list are part of this program, which in its first phase has reached over 100,000 women in Burundi, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Yemen and Zambia. In Burundi, the average rate of increase in income among women in the program was 202.8 per cent, the lowest being 104 per cent and the highest 401 per cent. Due to the success, a renewed three-year commitment is made.
Turnover, orders and foreign trade are on the upswing for the German textile and clothing industries. Textile turnover for the first quarter of 2017 was up 0.8 per cent. Clothing turnover was up 0.4 per cent. Both sectors combined showed an increased turnover of 0.6 per cent.
For the entire 2017 the combined turnover is expected to rise by 1.7 per cent –two per cent for textiles and 1.5 per cent for clothing.
In the two sectors there are 0.3 per cent more people employed than in 2016. Effective working hours increased in March 2017 by 2.1 per cent (textiles 2.7 per cent and clothing 0.9 per cent).
Domestic production was up in textiles by 4.3 per cent in the first quarter, and 7.1 per cent for the clothing sector.
The order intake situation has markedly improved in the textile sector and in the clothing sector. At the end of March the figure for textiles was 15 per cent and for clothing 3.8 per cent.
Producer prices were up in both segments over the past months, and as per March 2017, the price levels increased by 0.3 per cent in both sectors.
Textile imports fell in the first quarter by 5.6 per cent whereas clothing imports improved by 0.9 per cent.
Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) organised the PolyU Fashion Show 2017 that was held on 6th June it featured creative and talented designs of graduating students. For the students, families and friends, the industry and general public this event was a unforgettable and rewarding experience.
25 graduating students from the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Scheme in Fashion and Textiles presented hundred creative outfits on a runway that measured nearly 80 metres in length, the works were also made available to the public for pre-order on an electronic platform, also for the first time.The annual event, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre more than 1,600 guestsfrom prominent industries, fashion designers, media etc. attended the show.
The Hon. Felix Chung, Legislative Council Member (Functional Constituency - Textiles and Garment) and Professor John Xin, Head and Chair Professor of ITC, graced the occasion as the officiating guest. Eugene Leung, Founder and Creative Director of the Hong Kong-based brand Injury, was the VIP judge. They had to select the recipient for the Overall Grand Award. Besides, there were many other judges also.Representatives from the event sponsors that provided seven awards and travelling scholarships were also present at the event.
For the first time ITC had worked together with Goxip, a Hong Kong-based fashion discovery app, that featured the works of the 25 finalists on a shoppable Instagram platform and app. The collections of the even carried a wide range of themes, from military, environmental to spiritual themes and many more.
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.
