FW
In view of China’s commitment in environmental protection, President, Xi Jinping announced targets to peak CO₂ emissions around 2030 and to increase the non-fossil fuel share of all energy to around 20 per cent by 2030, in the joint announcement with the US government on the climate change and clean energy cooperation last November.
By 2016, China’s new environmental standards for the textile and apparel industry will be implemented, which will have impacts on all textiles and garments imported and exported to/from China. GONG Yan, Professor of the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, who participated in the policy formulation, will introduce the new standards required by the Chinese government and their recommendations at a workshop to be held on October 27, 2015 in Hong Kong.
Another prominent speaker, Joyce CHAU, Chief Representative China of the Foreign Trade Association from Belgium will talk about sustainable supply chain through environmental due diligence in the academy. Open discussion chaired by Francis YUK, SVP, Centre Testing Intl Group Co will follow.
This workshop is ideal for sourcing executives of buying offices of international brands and retailers, executives involved in sustainability development, product exports and imports, textile and apparel manufacturers, suppliers or traders and service providers.
www.bift.edu.cn
The volume of US apparel imports from all countries grew 13.5 per cent year-on-year in August, up from the 7.1 per cent increase in July. Cambodia led the pack, posting a solid double-digit gain, with strong increases also recorded by China, Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Shipments from China - the largest supplier of apparel to the US - were up 19.5 per cent. Nearest rival Vietnam grew 18.8 per cent compared to the same month a year ago. Bangladesh saw apparel shipments rise 10.35 per cent. Of the remaining supplier countries, Cambodia recorded the strongest growth at 36.1 per cent, followed by Honduras (up 7.6 per cent) and India (up 6.1 per cent).
Three countries saw apparel shipments decline during August. Pakistan recorded the largest drop, followed by Indonesia and Mexico. US apparel and textile imports increased 9.5 per cent between January and August. Within this, textiles grew 11.4 per cent while apparel shipments were up 7.05 per cent.
Bangladesh’s clothing industry continues to build on its momentum as a low-cost sourcing destination. Vietnam has benefited as producers and buyers diversify their supply chains. China remains a compelling source for apparel buyers as rising prices are largely being offset by productivity gains.
At one time some regions of Tanzania stopped cultivating cotton due to diseases and pests that damaged the crop. But now there is a belief the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the country will help revive cotton growing in the country.
GMO refers to seeds implanted with certain genes to withstand droughts, pests and diseases developed by scientists using the latest molecular biology technology. The seeds or planting material are modified in laboratories to enhance desired traits such as increased resistance to diseases or improved nutritional content.
Apart from GMOs’ increasing farmers’ yields, the hybrid seeds will also improve quality hence making Tanzania being able to compete with other major cotton producers in the world. GMO cotton is resistant even to climate change and yields high quality products and hence fetches higher prices.
Genetically engineered cotton has been approved as being safe for use. Countries such as Senegal, which cultivate GMO cotton have increased yields and improved quality of the crop allowing farmers to improve their lives. Kenya and Uganda are already undertaking field trails to pave the way for commercial cultivation of GMOs. With GMOs pests like red bollworm are not expected to spread or affect the crop.
At the Première Vision show in Paris, major players that supply materials and services to the global fashion industry met for three days to present and discover the latest innovations from the whole textile industry.
Partner companies and big brands who choose to play better by the new responsible innovation rules showcased their new and amazing collections, which was witnessed by C.L.A.S.S. Since 2007, C.L.A.S.S. has been sharing this vision along with brands that lead the market with extraordinary, performing and beautiful fabrics, while innovating with consciousness. For the first time this year, responsible innovation as a great new added-value to be pursued was discussed by fashion and industry. The need for a shift in large scale industrial processes is now getting real.
Sustainability standards too are now being discussed by the most authoritative European fashion councils. Hosted by Première Vision on September 15, 2015, instigated and appointed by Giusy Bettoni, Founding President of C.L.A.S.S., Carlo Capasa, President of the Camera Nazionale Della Moda, Caroline Rush, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, and Chantal Malingrey, Director of Marketing and Development at Première Vision, sustainable innovation and development were the main topics discussed during the Smart Conversation Masterclass. ‘Smart Creation Première Vision’ was officially launched as the new platform during the show.
www.classecohub.org
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which includes 12 nations such as United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, has been concluded successfully. Almost 40 per cent of global gross domestic product is represented by these countries.
Responding to the announcement that the Obama Administration successfully concluded the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), NCTO expressed gratitude to US negotiators for their close cooperation on key issues in the textile segment.
NCTO is anxious to learn the exact details of the final TPP agreement just like all private sector stakeholders. NCTO will undertake a thorough analysis of the text to assess the impact of the agreement on domestic textile manufacturers after it’s released to the public.
Augustine Tantillo, NCTO President, who was in Atlanta for the talks said that they thanked Ambassador Michael Froman and the US government for working closely with NCTO throughout the TPP process. Their briefings at the Atlanta TPP round made them believe that US negotiators were able to achieve a well-balanced and reasonable outcome for US textile manufacturers and their partners within the Western Hemisphere, although they are waiting to examine the final details.
Tantillo said that textile and apparel exports from the current TPP countries to the US totalled $19 billion last year. Thus, there was a need for TPP to establish a yarn forward system, which would form the basis for rule of origin determinations and the setting of multi-year tariff phase-outs on sensitive textile and apparel products.
Ustr.gv/tpp
Inlegmash, the international exhibition for textiles manufacturing and processing and Techtextil Russia, the international trade fair for technical textiles, nonwovens and protective clothing will be held on the same dates from February 24 to 26, 2016 at the Expocentre fair grounds in Moscow.
The visitors and exhibitors will be acquainted with all the key aspects of the industry in the same place and at the same time to provide a unique business platform. The decision to hold both these fairs together was taken since Techtextil Russia and Inlegmash have longstanding professional experience and deep knowledge of the market. As both exhibitions are mutually supported events in the industry, they successfully complement each other.
Besides, the whole spectrum of equipment, raw materials, component parts, innovations and integrated products and services for the light industry and technical textiles in particular is represented by both the exhibitors. Russian and foreign exhibitors can use these opportunities for further development of business processes as there would be world-renowned brands at the fairs and professional organisation, beneficial terms of participation and a strong fringe programme.
Both the exhibitors are a perfect combination to lend success to the projects and represent excellent prospects for the future development of the shows on the Russian exhibition market, believe the organisers of the event, Messe Frankfurt RUS and IEC Expocentre.
www.techtextil-russia.ru
The Indian textile machinery industry is expected to touch Rs 45,000 crores by 2022. Right now the industry is worth Rs 22,000 crores. It grew by 8 to 10 per from 2013 to 2014.
The textile and apparel market in the country is growing. New projects are being planned and there is an emphasis on setting up textile parks. For textile machinery manufacturers from Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain, India remains a very important market.
India is expected to be a leading textile producing country in the world by 2020. The Make in India program is expected to help the textile sector by way of increase in demand for modern machinery. The country has the potential to become a manufacturing hub in textile machinery and has an abundance of skilled low cost labor and natural resources. But for this, sufficient focus has to be given to research and development in order to ensure that modern and innovative technologies are developed in the country.
The tenth India International Textile Machinery Exhibition will be held in Mumbai, December 3 to 8, 2016. This is the largest textile machinery and accessory exhibition in the country. It will be spread over 1,50,000 sq mts and is expected to witness participation from 93 countries.
The monthly minimum wage for Cambodia’s garment workers in 2016 is yet to be decided and workers will have to wait to know what it would be. The provisional deadline to decide how much to hike the sector’s $128-a-month pay was missed by the Labor Advisory Committee (LAC), as employer and trade union representatives continued to disagree on a number to present to the Labor Ministry. The tripartite negotiations are ongoing still.
After weeks of demands ranging from $158 to $178, most of the unions representing more than 700,000 garment workers in the Southeast Asian nation are stuck to the $168 figure proposed by them. Citing the National Social Security Fund’s increasing costs, factory owners, increased their suggestion by 0.25 per cent to propose a 3.75 per cent wage increase. Union leaders, however, were not pleased with this.
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng’s October 5, 2015 deadline was missed by the LAC. Heng Sour, ministry spokesperson, though said the government did not force a decision in the hope that the employers’ and unions’ interests would be in sync.
Cambodia’s textile and garment manufacturing is huge—around 80 per cent of the country’s exports, and they are worth more than $5 billion per year. Big, international brands such as H&M, Inditex, Primark, C&A, and Topshop go to Cambodia for supplies.
Ustr.gov
Bangladesh's exports rose 2.5 per cent in September from a year earlier driven by an increase in garment shipments. Garments are a key foreign-exchange earner for Bangladesh, where low wages and duty-free access to western markets have helped make it the world’s second-largest apparel exporter after China.
For the first quarter of the 2015/16 financial year, exports rose nearly one per cent from the previous year. Sales of readymade garments, comprising knitwear and woven items, were up 3.3 per cent in the July-September period from the year-earlier period.
Exports in the fiscal year ending in June rose 3.35 per cent from a year earlier, but that was the slowest growth since 2002, and garment sales, while higher, missed their target.
In a disturbing development, two foreigners were shot dead a few days ago in Bangladesh. There are some fears that the violence could threaten the garment industry, with exporters saying western buyers had begun to cancel visits. The garment industry, which supplies to many brands such as Walmart, JC Penney and H&M, has already been in the spotlight over several fatal accidents, such as the 2013 collapse of a building housing factories that killed more than 1,130 people and fire calamity that again claimed several lives.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has received an appeal from the Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) to restart the held up negotiations with the European Union (EU) to formalise a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) urgently. Resuming talks would help double garment exports to EU in the next three years and create more jobs.
TEA’s President Dr A Sakthivel has written to the PM stating that the EU is a traditional market for India's garment exporters, which comprises of 43 per cent of total garment exports from India. The garment sector exported readymade garments (RMG) worth $16.82 billion in 2014/15, out of which garments worth $7.16 billion were exported to the EU, he said. There is still potential to boost exports to the EU once a level playing field is provided to the sector, which can be double of what it is now in the next three years, from the existing US $7.16 billion, Sakthivel added.
He explained that with more exports to the EU, more employment will get created in the domestic market, mainly women workers and semi-literate workers from rural areas. He mentioned that being compliance oriented units, TEA is confident that the Indian RMG sector has an advantage over other competing countries and that India's market share would rise significantly once FTA is implemented.
www.tea-india.org
