Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign was not just a government policy but a national spirit, a sentiment flowing in the hearts of the common folks.
In his monthly radio address, Mann ki Baat, the PM lauded the huge contribution of science towards making India self-reliant an achievable dream.
“Today is National Science Day. It is dedicated to the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’ by Dr CV Raman. Our youth should read a lot about Indian scientists and understand the history of Indian science. The contribution of science is huge in Atmanirbhar Bharat,” the PM said and stressed the need to make science more popular.
It cannot be limited to physics-chemistry and labs, he said, and called for expanding science with a mantra of ‘Lab to Land’.
“When every citizen feels proud of indigenous products and connects with the idea of self-reliance, then Atmanirbhar Bharat does not just remain an economic programme but becomes the national spirit,” he said.
Modi expressed happiness that the mantra of self-reliant India is reaching the villages and cited several examples of people from small towns and villages using innovative techniques to emerge as shining examples of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Seeking to woo the electorate in Tamil Nadu, where assembly elections are due in April, the Prime Minister regretted that he could not make much effort to learn Tamil, the world’s oldest language.
He said he had been asked by a listener as to whether there was something he felt he had missed out on during his long years as prime minister and earlier, Gujarat chief minister.
“I pondered this over and told myself…I could not make myself learn Tamil! It is such a beautiful language which is popular all over the world. Many people have told me a lot about the quality of Tamil literature and the depth of the poems written in it. India is a land of many languages, which symbolises our culture and pride,” he said.
Stressing the importance of collective responsibility towards water conservation, Modi said, “In most parts of India, rainfall begins in May-June. Can we right away start a 100-day campaign for cleaning up water sources around us and conserving rainwater? With this very thought in mind, in a few days from now, Catch The Rain is being initiated by the Jal Shakti Ministry,” Prime Minister Modi said.
Source: The Indian Express
KK, a leading manufacturer of zippers and fastening products, synonymous with innovation and technology, is set to present its spring/summer 2022 collection digitally, in response to the ongoing global pandemic. The format will include new features such as a 3D and colour options simulator, alongside virtual previews, and online presentations.
At the heart of the collection is an offering of sustainable solutions which includes Natulon, AcroPlating, and Vislon Nylon, tackling the ecological footprint issue in a very concrete manner. Recycling is neither simple nor cheap, and a zip is a complicated accessory, made up of multiple elements that are difficult to separate. Furthermore, the zip itself is not easily separated from a garment. For easier recycling, YKK is now offering a mono-plastic material zipper, Vislon Nylon. Due to the almost entirely polyamide structure, the zip can be easily recycled together with the nylon garment on which it is sewn, without the need for prior removal, YKK said.
AcroPlating snaps and buttons use a new and exclusive YKK plating technology. Studies in partnership with Peterson Projects and Solutions has shown a significant reduction in the environmental impact, compared with any conventional plating.
The environmental benefits with AcroPlating include the significant reduction in the use of chemical consumption, GHG emissions, sludge generation, thermal energy, and water use. The AcroPlating snap and buttons are available in six different colour variations and are suitable for all market segments, thanks to their strong resistance to corrosion and dry cleaning, according to YKK.
The Natulon series aims to reduce the use of petroleum-derived materials, emission of greenhouse gases, and disposal of plastic waste by using recycled polyester yarn for the tape material. Natulon Ocean Sourced and Green Rise, a partially plant-based zipper, are part of YKK’s commitment to sustainability through facilitating the recovery of materials and help reduce the consumption of virgin raw materials to limit the use of precious resources, the company said in a press release.
Source: Fibre2Fashion News
The current bilateral trade with China at USD 78 billion is heavily tiled in its favour and this would need a reset, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla said.
India on its part is simultaneously working on diversifying its sourcing to ensure a more resilient supply chain in the future, he also said.
He was speaking at the penultimate panel discussion titled 'India as Global Partner' at the fifth Asia Economic Dialogue (AED) 2021, jointly hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Pune International Centre (PIC).
On the Indo-US relations, Shringla said that India had an element of continuity with the US and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had close relations with former presidents, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
"While China continues to be one of India's most important trade partners, the balance of trade is skewed in favour of the former. With recent disturbances in eastern Ladakh and the ongoing process of disengagement, there is introspection on our part in making our supply chain more resilient... a normal bilateral relationship with China is calibrated on peace and tranquillity on other fronts," the foreign secretary said.
"We are trying to work out details of various proposals that have come in. How we can work together in the Indo-Pacific? This included maritime security," he also said.
Source: OneIndia News
GST collections crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for the fifth month in a row in February, rising 7 per cent annually to over Rs 1.13 lakh crore, indicating economic recovery, the finance ministry said on Monday. Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections had risen for two straight months to touch record Rs 1,19,875 crore in January and Rs 1.15 lakh crore in December.
The gross GST revenue collected February 2021 is Rs 1,13,143 crore, of which Central GST is Rs 21,092 crore, State GST is Rs 27,273 crore, Integrated GST is Rs 55,253 crore (including Rs 24,382 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 9,525 crore (including Rs 660 crore collected on import of goods).
GST revenue in February last year was Rs 1.05 lakh crore. “In line with the trend of recovery in the GST revenues over past five months, the revenues for the month of February 2021 are 7 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year.
“During the month, revenues from import of goods were 15 per cent higher and the revenues from the domestic transaction (including import of services) are 5 per cent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year,” the ministry said in a statement.
GST revenues surpassed Rs 1 lakh crore-mark fifth time in a row and crossed Rs 1.1 lakh crore for the third consecutive month post-pandemic. This is a clear indication of the economic recovery and the impact of various measures taken by tax administration to improve compliance, the ministry said.
GST collections, which directly reflect the state of economic activity, had plummeted to a record low of Rs 32,172 crore in April 2020, after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the finance ministry has released Rs 1.04 lakh crore GST compensation to states since October to meet the shortfall in revenue.
The lockdown, categorised by several agencies as one of the strictest in the world, pummelled the economy as demand dried up and non-essential businesses were shuttered. In the April-June quarter, the economy contracted by the steepest ever 24.4 per cent, and 7.3 per cent in the September quarter. However, in October-December it came back in positive territory with 0.4 per cent growth.
As restrictions were gradually lifted, many parts of the economy were able to spring back into action, although output remains well below the pre-pandemic levels.
Icra Principal Economist Aditi Nayar said while the growth of GST collections eased mildly in February 2021, it remained healthy, in line with the consolidation in the momentum of economic activity observed across a variety of lead indicators. Subsequently, a favourable base effect is likely to result in the CGST collections expanding by 18-23 per cent in March 2021.
Deloitte India Senior Director M S Mani said, “In addition to the stabilisation of economic activities, the continuing trend of high GST collections for the past few months is also on account of the data analytics approach adopted by the authorities, which has led to significant detection of evasion and incorrect ITC availment. With the gradual opening up of the services sectors, economic activity is expected to pick up, leading to improved collections in the next month as well”.
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co Partner Rajat Bose said the various measures taken by the government to ensure compliance also seems to be paying off. “Hopefully, the worst is over and this should definitely bring a cheer to the government which desperately needs the fiscal resources to implement its policy commitments.”
PwC India Partner & Leader, Indirect Tax, Pratik Jain said: “It is expected that the trend of increasing GST collection would continue as we approach the financial year-end and audits become more rigorous. This should give much-needed confidence to the government to consider rate rationalisation”.
Source: The Financial Express
VF Corporation has been recognised by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as one of the 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies. VF Corporation is one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear, and accessories companies connecting people to the lifestyles, activities, and experiences they cherish.
The company has been recognised for the past five years and is the only honouree in the apparel industry to be named this year. In 2021, 135 honourees were recognised spanning 22 countries and 47 industries, according to a press release by VF Corporation.
“We’re very proud to be recognised for the fifth consecutive year as one of the world’s most ethical companies and the only honouree in the apparel industry. This recognition demonstrates the deep commitment of our associates around the world to lead with integrity and transparency. As we continue to transform our business to be a more consumer-minded, retail-centric and hyper-digital organisation, we’ll also maintain our relentless focus on managing our global operations with the highest ethical standards,” Steve Rendle, VF’s chairman, president, and CEO said in a statement.
“While addressing the tough challenges of 2020, we saw companies lead, above all other institutions, on earning the trust of stakeholders through resilience and a commitment to ethics and integrity. The World’s Most Ethical Companies honourees continue to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to the highest values and positively impacting the communities they serve. Congratulations to everyone at VF Corporation for earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies designation,” Timothy Erblich, Ethisphere's CEO said.
The Ethisphere institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success.
Source: Fibre2Fashion News
As the apparel industry is on its way to digitalisation, each of the stakeholders is actively reaching out for solutions and there is no exception for fashion brands. In fact, brands are the first stakeholder to initiate the trend of digitalisation to cut costs, while the manufacturing suppliers often have more concerns before adopting the digitalisation process.
However, different brands might have different concerns and attitude toward the trend, depending on the characteristics of their products.
So, now there are some open questions to look into! What are the factors that drive an apparel brand to embrace digitalisation? What is the scale of the brand’s operation? What are the product categories that it caters to? What are the regions the brand has presence in? Why is there more customer leaning towards tech-based approach of fashion retail? Or, is it the attitude of the brand towards achieving long-term profitability?
If a broader scenario is analysed, the first thing that can be easily seen behind the apparel brands’ perspective in the journey of digital transformation is their product’s characteristics and then comes the rest. For instance, the most recent digital transformations in last decade have been done by the sports brands such as Nike, adidas, Under Armour etc. or the brands which have more fixed styles (similar SKUs) such as Uniqlo. These brands are adopting ‘high’ level of digitalisation in their production as well as supply chain processes.
Approach of brands towards ‘high-level digitalisation’
As the material used in apparels is more fixed in sportswear brands, they tend to go towards opting digital technologies to cut the cost down throughout the supply chain. Because of such factor by their side, they are able to do mostly successful strategic/investment partnership to cater to fixed and long-term ordering cycle by maintaining supplier turnover rate at below 5 per cent.
On the other hand, with half strategic partnership and middle-term ordering, apparel brands such as H&M are opting for ‘mid-level digitalisation’. These fast fashion brands, which require more flexibility with fewer orders of each piece, would need a more centralised digital solution instead of adopting a long-term solution and ordering from a few suppliers.
So long as the supplier can provide a solution with higher efficiency, higher quality and lower cost, brands will be more than happy to apply digitalisation. The suppliers like Shenzhou International Group – which is the biggest supplier of Nike, Uniqlo, adidas, Puma in China – apply digital transformation themselves as the brands they supply usually have similar SKUs, thus the innovation and the R&D cost will be more cost-effective in the long run.
For example, Uniqlo is a brand famous for its digitalisation progress. Unlike other brands that usually encourage the suppliers to adopt the digital transformation themselves, Uniqlo has initiated lot innovations at its own end first!
Case Study: Uniqlo’s Digital Transformation Journey
Four years ago in February 2017, Uniqlo opened a 200,000-square feet headquarters on top of its distribution warehouse in Tokyo. This project was aimed to drive the new strategy to transform its business model from ‘Selling what we produced’ to ‘Producing only what we can sell’.
According to Tadashi Yanai, CEO, Uniqlo, the strategy represented a shift from ‘Made for All’ to ‘Made for You’ through digital integration of planning, manufacturing and sales. The new headquarter was designed to foster such integration by placing its 1,000 employees from different divisions in the same workspace, which means locating all of the planning, marketing, production and logistics divisions on the same floor, and connecting them through a common digital platform as well.
Until the new HQ opened, it took 6 to 12 months for Uniqlo to decide the design, procure material, manufacture products and deliver them to its retail stores which resulted in a mismatch between customers’ needs and the products as well as caused a loss of sales opportunities and excessive inventories.
But then, the company began to instill RFID tags to all of its products, and connecting RFID data to its digital platform. With this new system, Uniqlo’s goal was to make accurate daily sales forecasts at each retail store, and to plan and produce its products in real-time.
Another development of Uniqlo towards digitalisation is the IoT project for its manufacturing plant in China. The project enables Uniqlo to start IoT-based automated production system and share the real-time production status with Uniqlo’s headquarters in Tokyo. This way Uniqlo’s whole supply chain – from production to retail – is connected to its digital platform.
The most recent tech intervention of Uniqlo is its own Supply Chain Management software called G1 (Global One) SCM system, which covers the management of the complete supply chain, starting from raw materials to delivery and inventory. Moreover, all the selected suppliers are required to adopt the G1 SCM system for better monitoring. As there is no integrated system solutions that can cover all sections in the supply chain, the G1 SCM system is a good demonstrator of the ideal flow of digitalisation in the apparel industry.
With the continuous advancement in this project, the whole value chain and supply chain of the Japanese brand are closely connected and transparent. With a comprehensive integrated software system, Uniqlo undoubtedly represents one of the industry pioneers in the digital transformation journey.
“Digitalisation makes demarcation of industries useless. In such a world, data is the most important source of competitiveness. As fashion and apparel products are the data itself, Amazon and Google will have a great power in this industry too. In order to overcome such challenge from these digital giants, we need to transform our supply chain system by using digital technology,” commented Tadashi Yanai.
The way forward…
Just for the sake of going digital will not deliver results and that’s the bottom-line. Only when the manufacturer and the brand themselves realise the importance of digitalisation, it is possible for them to enjoy the benefits together. After the discussion between the manufacturer and the brand, they would know what KPIs they are targeting after the digitalisation adoption, such as reducing cost, increasing productivity, optimising supply chain processes and improving operational efficiency. Therefore, understanding the need for digitalisation and prioritising the KPIs are the first two steps to take. And, that’s where Uniqlo has a stronghold on as it discusses its tech investment plans with its partner factories.
Source: Apparel Online
Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Sunday termed the production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes designed by the government as pathbreaking and interesting as they sought to create global giants in chosen sectors.
This seems to be a well-thought-out, long-term plan for encouraging industry, he said. “We see the strong influx of investment dollars,” Birla said.
He said it was more important to get the private sector to make capex investments than getting foreign investments into India. India is much closer to becoming a global hub for manufacturing, has had a history of building global-size businesses in software, pharma, metals and auto, and has a track record of global excellence and scale, he said.
Birla was speaking at a fireside chat at the three-day Asia Economic Dialogue 2021 organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Pune International Centre.
About the prospects of GDP growth of 7-8%, Birla said there should be no doubt or apprehension about the growth momentum in India. The plumbing is already done and the country had undertaken bold reforms to push it to a high trajectory, he said. He predicted a sharp recovery with double-digit growth, with consumer and business confidence coming back.
After turbulent times, crazy gyrations in economic variables, high price volatility and commodity prices on a roller coaster, Birla said there is no long-term structural setback to the Indian economy. His group is quickly moving from resilience to renewal as he sees a lot of buoyancy and business optimism, with most of their businesses reporting growth in the third quarter, he said.
Enthused by the national infrastructure pipeline, he predicted an investment boom and multi-decadal growth. His group is making new bets with investments of around $2.8 billion across businesses in the last two months. These include $800 in the UltraTech cement business and $1 billion for doubling capacity at Hindalco in downstream part of the business. Flagship Grasim has identified paints as a new sector of growth. Novelis has completed a $2.8 billion acquisition right in the middle of the pandemic, he said.
The earlier government stimulus, topped with an even stronger fiscal stimulus in the Union Budget, will fire up risk capital and energise the private sector, he said. Birla said he has not seen such a sustained euphoric reaction to a budget, weeks after the Budget was presented. “The year 2021 is the new 1991 in terms of the impact of reforms and I think the 2020s will be India’s decade,” Birla said.
On the global front, Birla said regionalism is becoming more of the norm than globalisation, and national concerns are coming to the fore, he said. So instead of the traditional wisdom of one large capacity, there will be smaller capacities build across continents and nations, Birla said.
About India staying away from the RCEP trade agreement, Birla said groups like theirs and many others will not quibble over free trade or opening up of borders. However, he said there is a need for a sense of equity among players, and when there is large-scale dumping below cost, free trade is subverted. He cited the case of dumping of copper in the country. The RCEP will not be effective if these concerns are not addressed and there is no safeguard against malpractices, Birla said.
Source: The Financial Express
Noida-based GHCL, one of the leading textiles and home furnishing companies, is expanding and will set up a textile mill in Tamil Nadu.
The company has plans to invest Rs. 150 to Rs. 200 crore in Tamil Nadu in FY22. It already has two textile mills in the state.
Leading English daily, The Hindu, has quoted R.S. Jalan, MD of the company that they have aggressive plans for expansion and a team is working on them.
It further added that the company will look at expanding capacities at its yarn production facilities near Madurai and Tiruchirapalli and also in solar power.
It is looking at putting up weaving infrastructure too.
Along with home textile products, the company also produces cotton and synthetic yarn.
As per the report, the textiles business had been doing well in the third and fourth quarters of this fiscal and was expected to continue the performance. As per the website of the company, GHCL has achieved a CAGR of 14 per cent in the top line of its textile business for the last 8 years. It is also known for its sustainable products.
Source: Apparel Online
Welspun India has embarked on the next phase of its comprehensive digitisation journey, working with digital innovation and technology implementation firm Stycheco to deploy the BeProduct platform and to revitalise its international design, development, and production processes. Welspun India, a part of Welspun group, is a global leader in home textiles.
The Welspun group has embarked on a company-wide digital transformation project that spans from sales and marketing to sourcing. Welspun’s partnership with Stycheco and BeProduct quickly became a vital part of that digital transformation for its textile business, according to Stycheco.
“Our objective was to serve our customers better by transitioning all of our data, systems, processes, and people, across the entire value chain, to digital. It was therefore essential to us not only to find a new common IT platform, but to create secure, sustainable ways of working that would allow our design teams in New York to collaborate with their colleagues in India. From that point of view, Welspun’s digital transformation initiative relied on us finding the right technology, but also the right technical and cultural implementation partner. I’m thrilled that we found Stycheco; with their assistance our digital transformation and growth goals are now in reach,” chief marketing and merchandising officer of Welspun India, Christopher Mooney, said in a statement.
“As digital transformation strategies go, Welspun is one of the boldest we have ever worked with. The scope and the scale of the digitisation is gigantic, which is why we were thrilled to be able to step in and assist the Welspun team with defining, executing, and building on their ideas for digitisation,” Darioush Nikpour, founder of Stycheco said.
Built by the brains behind some of fashion’s biggest technology install bases, BeProduct helps brands and retailers inhabit the things they make.
Source: Fibre2Fashion News
In what comes as a big boost for the apparel industry in the city, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the ministry of commerce and industry, on Thursday notified Noida as a ‘town of export excellence (TEE)’ for apparel products.
Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY said that with this Gazette notification, Noida will be eligible for many export promotion schemes of the central government, which include central assistance of States and market access initiative. “It’ll also provide support in strengthening infrastructure, simplifying rules and procedures, besides developing production infrastructure relating to design, R&D packaging, logistic support, etc. Since Noida is in the TEE category now, the ministry will also provide awareness and information about international marketing, which will pave the way for further export promotion in the district,” he said.
Lalit Thukral, the president of Noida Apparel Export Cluster (NAEC) said that the notification is a great achievement for the apparel industry here. “It’s the second big recognition for the city, after getting declared as ‘city of apparel’ by the state government. It’ll certainly accelerate the NAEC’s mission to develop Noida as a distinguished destination for apparel products,” he said.
“As per the present scheme of the centre, an area/cluster that realizes an annual export turnover of ₹1,000 crore or more will be notified as TEE. However, for TEE in handloom, handicraft, agriculture and fisheries sector, the threshold limit is ₹150 crore. Getting the TEE status means the city has immense potential for growth in exports of key items like handloom, agriculture, textiles, handicraft and fisheries. The DGFT notifies a town in this category to enable them to move up in the value chain and tap new markets,” he said.
When contacted, a joint secretary in ministry of commerce and industries said that at present, there are altogether 35 towns in India notified as TEE for their unique exportable commodity. “The TEE towns get benefits from many promotional programmes launched by the centre. One of such schemes is the market access initiative (MAI) to recognize export associations, under which financial assistance is provided for export promotion activities on focus country, focus product basis to different industry associations there.
These activities include market surveys, setting up of warehouses, participation in international trade fairs, publicity campaigns, brand promotion, reimbursement of registration charges for pharmaceuticals and testing charges for engineering products abroad,” the officer said, asking to remain anonymous.
Source: The Hindustan Times
Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the charges for testing quality of products should be reduced for MSMEs and initial phase of startups and women entrepreneurs to encourage them to get their products certified and meet standard norms.
Goyal, who is also railways and commerce minister, virtually presided the 3rd Governing Council meeting of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), an official statement said.
Addressing the meeting, he said there is a need to change the approach of the country towards standardisation.
"Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given the three mantra for faster economic development i.e. Speed, Skill and Scale. Now it is time to add fourth dimension of 'Standard' in to this," the minister said.
Goyal said the fee for testing of standards should be reduced drastically "throughout" for the MSMEs and in the initial years for the startups and for women entrepreneurs.
This will encourage them to get their products certified and also encourage the ease of doing business, he added.
Goyal directed the BIS to go in for massive expansion and modernisation of testing labs so that entrepreneurs don't have to travel far to get the testing and certification of standards.
"We have to ensure that no one has to travel far for quality check for want of testing labs," he added.
Goyal said the products manufactured in India should be of international standards whether it is manufactured for local market or for international market and further added that the quality should not be diluted to give advantage to any person or institution, whether private or government.
He said that it is a challenge for BIS to fast track the standard setting processes, especially for these programmes of national priority.
BIS must therefore ensure that its technical Committees develop the required new standards in the quickest possible time for products where presently none exist, or review and revise existing standards whenever required, the minister said.
Goyal reviewed the process of making Indian Standards and their implementation with officials from BIS, different ministries and regulators, among others.
Wide ranging discussions were held on how standards are set and what can be done to make their implementation/ enforcement better. It was emphasized that there should be 'One Nation One Standard' and Indian Standard should be set as per global benchmarks.
Goyal instructed BIS to create a customer charter to usher in highest transparency in its certification process and inspections.
BIS has already formulated various Indian Standards comparable with the International Standards such as the Electric vehicles, Fuel blends, Smart City Digital Infrastructure, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Manufacturing, Technical Textiles, Aerial Ropeways, etc.
The bureau is operating more than 37,000 product certification licences all over the country. 55 new products have been covered for the first time under the Product Certification Scheme, since April 1, 2020.
A consumer engagement portal has been launched to facilitate interaction with consumer organizations/groups for conducting various consumer oriented programmes and activities of BIS.
An upgraded version of android mobile app - BIS CARE is in place to facilitate stakeholders to verify authenticity of ISI mark, registered jewellers and marked electronic goods under Compulsory Registration Scheme (CRS).
The app also facilitates users in submitting complaints.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Rao Saheb Patil Danve and Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Leena Nandan.
Source: The Economic Times
DBS Bank has collaborated with Inditex, a fashion retailer which owns brands such as Zara, Pull&Bear and Bershka, to launch an organic cotton procurement financing pilot programme in India with an aim to scale its organic cotton industry. While India is the largest producer of cotton, organic cotton comprises around 2 per cent of the total cotton produced.
India has the greatest land area used for cotton cultivation in the world. With growing focus on climate risks and social inequality, the global cotton industry offers huge opportunity to invest for positive impact, said Terence Yong, group head of Western Multinational Corporations, DBS Bank. “Globally, our clients are increasingly mindful of looking for ways to add societal and environmental value through their business decisions, with many taking the leap to digitalise their supply chains to enhance transparency and traceability of transactions made,” said Yong.
“The pilot programme forms an integral part of DBS India’s larger plan to build its priority sector lending business. Priority sector covers under-banked sectors which the Reserve Bank of India (India’s central bank) considers important for the overall development of the economy – including agriculture; small businesses; affordable housing; education and renewable energy,” said Arvind Sharma, head of Priority Sector Lending, DBS Bank.
Currently, key challenges for India’s organic cotton industry include a highly fragmented farming community comprising close to 170,000 farmers scattered across mainly nine states, with the majority comprising small-scale cotton growers with limited financial means and knowledge to invest in and implement sustainable farming practices; a disconnect in demand and supply due to a lack of transparency in supply chains with much of the trade remaining manual in nature; and a lack of traceability and integrity as to whether the organic cotton has been farmed and processed in a sustainable manner resulting in farmers being unable to transact at a premium.
To address these pain-points, DBS through its partnership with Inditex, will leverage the network of local Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to reach more than 2,000 farmers in Inditex’s supply chain to evaluate their financing needs. Under the pilot programme, DBS will then arrange financing for the FPOs to procure organic cotton from the farmers in a timely fashion. This provides farmers greater visibility of their cashflow, enabling them to better plan their business needs and in turn, grow their sustainable farming operations.
Transparency is also another benefit of the pilot programme as it eliminates the middlemen in the organic cotton supply chain. The pilot programme combined with other tracking mechanisms enable Inditex and cotton spinners in its ecosystem (which comprise the main buyers of cotton from farmers) to trace the source of the cotton directly and ascertain if it had been farmed sustainably, ensuring farmers secure a higher premium for their organically harvested produce vis-à-vis traditionally farmed non-organic cotton.
In terms of environmental impact, traditional farming practices have resulted in soil fertility challenges across India. With easier and faster access to funds facilitated through the pilot programme, DBS, in partnership with Inditex, is hopeful that this will encourage more farmers to farm organic cotton and to adopt sustainable farming practices.
Source: Fibre2Fashion News
Under the flagship scheme ‘Mission Shakti’ of Uttar Pradesh Government, various garment factories across Uttar Pradesh are continuously organising awareness seminars in their premises and supporting the State Government as well as their women workers.
Leading apparel export house CTA Apparels, Noida also organised seminar in its one of the factories.
Dr. AK Singh, Assistant Labour Commissioner and Chief Guest of the event guided the female workers about the various policies/schemes like Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam technical education scheme, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Puraskar Yojana, Jyotiba Phule Kanyadan Yojna, Raja Harishchandra Mritak Dependant Yojana, Dattopant Thengri Funeral Expenses Yojana, etc.
Ajay Kumar Mishra, GM-HR and compliance was facilitator of the event and he described about the benefits for female employees under the provisions of various acts like the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, as amended in 2017, The Factories Act-1948, etc., enacted by the Government for the benefits and regulations.
During the event, labour enforcement officers Hans Raj, Suresh Singh also expressed their views and motivated the women workers to enjoy the benefit of various government schemes.
It is pertinent to mention here that Mission Shakti was launched last year with an aim to reduce crime against women in Uttar Pradesh. Its focus is on spreading awareness on women safety and dignity.
Source: Apparel Online
As per Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, during the July-January period of the current fiscal year 2020-21, Bangladesh earned $639 million, up by 44.34% compared to $443 million in the same period of last fiscal year. In the FY20, the sector brought $759 million home.
On the other hand, exports earnings from the RMG sector fell 3.44% to $18.40 billion during July-January of the FY21, which was $19 billion in the same period of last year.
Of the total earnings, bed, kitchen toilet lines earned $305 million, which was $267 million in the same period last year. Other products earned $334 million.
Home textile products include bed linen, bed sheet and other bedroom textiles, bath linen, carpets and rugs, blankets, kitchen linen, curtains, cushions and cushion cover and covers for quilts.
As per the data, the United States of America imported home textile products worth $156 million, the highest, followed by Germany 68.5 million, India $60 million, United Kingdom $58 million and Canada $48 million.
Why home textile exports rose
“The sales of clothing products fell in retail stores in the European and American markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, exports of apparel goods also declined but the shipments of home textile increased,” said Rashed Mosharraf, General Manager for Marketing and Head of Operations of Zaber & Zubair Fabrics.
This is because of the rise of demands fueled by increased use of the items. As the pandemic restricted people’s movement across the world, they stayed longer at home and joined the office from home to avert infection of the COVID-19 virus.
As a result, the usage of home-wearing products and bedsheets, towels and others went up, which helped to gain even amid the pandemic, said.
Since Bangladesh has quality products at affordable prices, exporters have been able to take the advantage of higher demands, he added.
“We have strong backward linkage for the home textile sector and manufacturers are capable of meeting the demands of raw materials from domestic sources. That is why, amid the pandemic, the supply chain here in Bangladesh was not disrupted fully,” Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) president Mohammad Ali Khokon.
However, the rise in cotton price is a threat to sustaining growth. For the sake of the sector the buyers should adjust the prices of products already placed as the cost of raw materials went up, he added.
“While the apparel exports were in sliding mode amid the pandemic, the rise in exports earnings from home textile is inspiring for the exporters. The growth is very significant for Bangladesh’s economy and it needs to retain for sustainable export-led growth,” Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem told Textile Today.
In the present context, it is clear that a diversified export basket will be very crucial for the development of our economy which is reflected during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, said the economist.
The government should revisit its policy towards the promising sector to diversify the export basket and to reduce dependency on few items, said Moazzem.
On the other hand, manufacturers should explore new areas to sustain the growth and focus should be given on non-traditional markets, he added.
“The growth is laudable and the credit goes to our resilient entrepreneurs, who are very passionate and dedicated towards the development of the sector,” M Shahadat Hossain, Chairman of Bangladesh Terry Towel and Linen Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BTTLMEA) told Textile Today.
But exporters are facing tough competition in the global markets as our rivals are enjoying extra benefits due to their weakening currency against the US dollar, said the trade leader.
Our currency gains against the US dollar, while our competitors’ currencies are devalued. So the government should think about it or offer a special rate for the exporters, he added.
Source: Textile Today
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) Government has invited Vietnamese players to invest in the textile sector and enjoy the support being offered by the State Government.
Easing tax compliance for setting up MSME units in the state, schemes like One District One Product (ODOP) are some of the various lucrative facilities for the organisations that wish to invest in the state.
Addressing a virtual event India-Vietnam Trade and Investment Connect, Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary, MSME of the state said that UP has liberalised the policies and brought many changes in the ecosystem with various potential growth areas for tie-ups.
The event was jointly organised by the Indian Industries Association (IIA) and Embassy of Vietnam in India.
“We can collaborate and take advantage of each other’s strengths, as Vietnam is good in electronics and UP is good in textile. We have 60 products under One District One Product (ODOP) which we are exporting in large numbers to other countries. This type of meets can be a good platform provided by the embassy where industry to industry kind of interaction can be done.”
“Whatever we can do for support and collaboration we will definitely do so. If Vietnam is interested then we can establish an ecosystem, subsidy on capital and GST reforms, labour, technology, hand holding process, land availability, airports, proper connectivity, power availability,” he added.
This virtual meet made entrepreneurs aware of the opportunities and scope of investment for expanding their business in Vietnam which will help them to make their presence in the global market.
Source: Apparel Online
GHCL, which has two textile mills in Tamil Nadu, plans to invest ₹150-₹200 crore in the State in FY22
R.S. Jalan, MD, told The Hindu that the company ‘has aggressive plans for expansion and a team is working on them.’
The company will look at expanding capacities at its yarn production facilities near Madurai and Tiruchirapalli and also in solar power.
“We are looking at putting up weaving infrastructure, too,” he said. The company makes cotton and synthetic yarn in the mills.
The textiles business had been doing well in the third and fourth quarters of this fiscal and was expected to continue the performance. GHCL exports home textiles and yarn. Mr. Jalan said India had grown in the textiles segment in terms of exports.
The levy of import duty on cotton, as announced in the Budget, would affect the growth of textiles exports as several units imported cotton, mainly branded and extra-long staple, to make and export premium textile products, he added.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet captains of India Inc on March 5 to deliberate on various production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes that were announced in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak to draw investments from large companies and boost manufacturing.
The industry leaders who are expected to attend the virtual meeting include N Chandrasekaran (Tata Sons), RC Bhargava (Maruti Suzuki India), Sajjan Jindal (JSW Steel), TV Narendran (Tata Steel), Gopal Vittal (Bharti Airtel), Pawan Goenka (M&M) and Sangita Reddy (Apollo Hospitals), Satish reddy (Dr Reddy’s), Manish Sharma (Panasonic India), Manoj Kohli (SoftBank India), Hemant malik (ITC) and RS Sodhi (Amul). Their feedbacks will be used to further bolster the implementations of these schemes, said a government official.
Shedding the historical, costly bias in favour of small companies, the government has earmarked big bucks for big firms under the PLI schemes. The total incentives under 13 such schemes, covering sectors including telecom, electronics, auto part, pharma, chemical cells and textiles, stood at Rs 1.97 lakh crore over a five-year period.
The idea was to lure mainly large companies to create “global champions” out of India that have the potential to grow in size using cutting-edge technology and can, thereby, penetrate the global value chains.
The virtual meeting is part of the Modi government’s various initiatives to fast rekindle growth impulses through a virtuous cycle of investments and soften the Covid blows to the economy. The Prime Minister has already addressed a series of webinars on various proposals of the Budget for FY22 to ensure proper and swift implementations.
Investments remain critical to the country’s resurgence story, as private consumption has been badly bruised by income losses in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Although a contraction in gross fixed capital formation reversed a 46.4% year-on-year slide in the first quarter to register a rise of 2.6% in the three months through December, it still remained far below trend. Private consumption, meanwhile, shrank at a faster pace of 2.4% in the December quarter.
With the businesses going through the reset phase after the substantial lifting of the lockdown curbs, the government hopes to make a sustained push now to draw investors.
Addressing a virtual round-table of mostly foreign investors, Prime Minister Modi, in November 2020, promised “whatever it takes” to make India the engine of global growth. He invited the top executives of 20 global pension and sovereign wealth funds that together manage about $6 trillion in assets to be part of the country’s “exciting progress ahead”.
Source: The Financial Express
Manufacturing sector continues to record good performance as the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) clocked 57.5 in February, almost similar to 57.7 recorded in January. However, the employment problem is still not out of the woods as payroll numbers saw a decline for the eleventh successive month. Also, cost inflation has seen a surge.
Manufacturing sector has a share of around 15 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP). It is one of key sources of employment.
Commenting on the latest PMI number, Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit, said that Indian goods producers reported a healthy inflow of new orders in February, a situation that underpinned a further upturn in output and quantity of purchases. Still, “the data indicated that production growth could have been stronger should firms have appropriate resources to handle their workloads. This was evident from a quicker rise in outstanding business and another decline in inventories of finished goods,” she said,
Manufacturing PMI is compiled by IHS Markit from responses to questionnaires sent to purchasing managers in a panel of around 400 manufacturers. A diffusion index is calculated for each survey variable. The index is the sum of the percentage of ‘higher’ responses and half the percentage of ‘unchanged’ responses. The indices vary between 0 and 100, with a reading above 50 indicating an overall increase compared to the previous month, and below 50 an overall decrease.
The headline PMI is a weighted average of the following five indices: New Orders (30 per cent), Output (25 per cent), Employment (20 per cent), Suppliers’ Delivery Times (15 per cent) and Stocks of Purchases (10 per cent).
De Lima further added that some companies indicated that capacity expansion through hiring was not currently possible due to existing restrictions on labour working hours. However, many hope that such controls will shortly be removed as the vaccination programme widens. Once larger parts of the population are immunised against Covid-19 and restrictions start to be lifted, companies expect a gradual improvement in economic conditions which they hope will translate into output growth.
“The overall degree of business optimism was the joint-highest for three months.
The upbeat mood supported the fastest increase in input buying for almost a decade as companies focused on rebuilding their input stocks to fulfil demand growth. February data showed the sharpest monthly rise in pre-production inventories in the survey history,” she said.
According to the report accompanying PMI, February data pointed to the strongest increase in input inventories in the survey history as firms reacted to rising production needs by lifting purchasing activity. The expansion in input buying was the fastest in almost a decade.
The report noted that robust demand for inputs led suppliers to hike their fees. Survey members noted greater prices for a number of items such as chemicals, metals, plastics and textiles. The overall rate of cost inflation hit a 32-month high. Although factory gate charges also increased in February, the rate of inflation was modest and eased from January's 13-month high. Supplier performance broadly stabilised in February, after worsening in each month since last March.
Latest data pointed to heightened capacity pressure among goods producers, with backlogs of work rising at the fastest pace in three months. Concurrently, payroll numbers fell further amid the observance of government guidelines aimed at halting the spread of Covid-19 by implementing shift work. The decline was the eleventh in successive months, the report said.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
Some companies with low performance records made their way into the top gainers' list of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) yesterday, in contradiction to investors' hopes to see high-flyers following steps taken by the regulator.
The companies in question are Savar Refractories, Shyampur Sugar Mills and Familytex (BD).
Familytex (BD) is one of five companies whose board of directors were to be reformed, as decided by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) recently.
The remaining four are C&A Textile, United Airways, Al-haj Textile Mills, and Ring Shine Textiles.
The new boards would try to raise the performance, so investors see some hope in the horizon, said a stock broker.
But the investors should realise that the task is tough, so they should not invest blindly in these stocks without considering their potential, he said.
It is definitely a good step by the regulator, but the investors are misjudging the potentials, which is indicated by the way they are buying the stocks, said the broker.
The DSEX, the DSE's benchmark index, dropped 11.59 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 5,404.79 yesterday.
Turnover, an important indicator of the stock market, dropped 11.5 per cent, to Tk 660 crore.
A total of 102 stocks rose, 120 declined and 126 remained unchanged.
Anwar Galvanizing topped the gainers' list rising 9.99 per cent followed by GQ Ball Pen Industries, Zeal Bangla Sugar Mills, eGeneration, and Savar Refractories.
Beximco topped the turnover list with trade worth Tk 131 crore, followed by Robi Axiata, British American Tobacco Bangladesh, Summit Power, and LankaBangla Finance.
Prime Finance shed the most, dropping 6.08 per cent, followed by Beximco, LankaBangla Finance, Golden Son, and United Insurance Company.
The port city bourse also fell yesterday. The CASPI, the general index of the Chittagong Stock Exchange, was down 46.80 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 15,603.
Among 229 stocks to witness trade, 75 rose, 80 dropped, and 74 remained the same.
Source: The Daily Star
The worldwide attention given to the plight of the Uighurs in the Chinese Xinjiang province has led to a conscious policy adopted by the US retailers, who are now worldwide, to shun all products that may be tainted by the forced labour of the Uighurs. Recently the Hindustan Times of India reported that the buyers of Ikea and H&M have “stopped new cotton purchases from Xinjiang province.
” Most exporters of textiles to the US in Pakistan have also been asked to explain the “source” of their cotton and yarn. US law stipulates that products made from slave, forced, or even badly paid, or poorly treated workers shall not be sold in the US. Most retailers pride themselves on their being socially and environmentally correct. Any hint in the press of a retailer tainted by a suspect supply chain brings about a strong consumer reaction.
Consumers boycott not only the suspect products but the whole retail chain as well. The disclosures of poorly treated Bengali workers in the factories supplying to Nike and other western products a few years ago is a conspicuous example.
Almost all the cotton grown in China is grown in its Xinjiang province. This is very substantial and comprises almost 20% of the world crop. A boycott like this means that any firm who has any exports to the US market will not buy any products made from Xinjiang cotton or cotton yarn. So the Chinese exporters have started looking for yarn suppliers abroad to feed their factories. Consequently, the prices of cotton yarn in Pakistan and worldwide have shot up.
At the same time, the Chinese spinners are shunning Xinjiang cotton and are trying to import their requirements from the rest of the world. Coupled with this is the short crop in Pakistan and the US over the last winter. Along comes the snow storm in Texas, the prime cotton area. It’s like snow in our Multan area. What will happen to the next cotton crop of the USA, the biggest producer of cotton in the world? The NY price of cotton has shot up from the level of 64 cents/lb to 93 cents this week. We are all set for a disastrous year for our value-added textile industry that provides the bulk of our textile exports and employment.
The Indians on the other hand have had a good crop and have prospects of a better crop next year. Their export industry is in a bind because of the mishandling of the Covid pandemic and the resultant shutdowns. It will suddenly wake up to a bright future as all competitors get knocked out. All the gains made in the last six months by the Pakistani exporters will be washed away and we will be back to square one.
What can be done to protect ourselves?
For sure any industry must have plentiful and cheap raw material to flourish. For the value-added textile industry this means plentiful and reasonably priced cotton yarn. We have enough spinning capacity but now it is getting booked out by Chinese importers. While the spinners, especially those who have already stocked up on the years requirement of cotton will reap fabulous profits, the downstream industry will be ruined. The export value of cotton is about 80 cents per kg, cotton yarn is about two dollars per kg, while value-added products range from USD 4.4 to USD 8/kg. Not only do they add value but also provide the bulk of the employment in the industry.
It is reported that all the Pakistani crop has been sold out. This means that about six million bales have been purchased by the industry. In addition to this, the industry has imported another five million bales over the last half a year. So it has covered more than 80% of its annual requirements.
We cannot grow cotton in a jiffy, but we do need to get down to promoting our cotton farming. We have to give them the best inputs we can manage as well as put resources into improving our seeds and cultivation methods. These are long-term measures, but we need to start now. This is the real solution all others are palliatives. We now have to make sure that our value-added industry gets a reprieve from the current stranglehold. This can be done by a number of short-term measures and the government must listen to all suggestions and then make a short-term policy for this year.
1. Firstly, imports of cotton and cotton yarn must be allowed freely from any origin, including India and possibly China.
2. To break the price spiral a regulatory export duty should be imposed on cotton yarn exports.
Adviser for Commerce Razzak Dawood is an experienced businessman, he should convene a conference of all stakeholders to decide on the course of action.
Source: Business Recorder
The Kyrygz market is open to Pakistani businessmen and investment in it would be profitable, said Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan Erik Beishembiev on Saturday.
Addressing the business community at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), he urged the businessmen to take advantage of this opportunity through joint ventures in pharmaceutical, rice agriculture, education, tourism and various other sectors.
The Kyrgyz ambassador added, “Kyrgyzstan is not developed in pharmaceutical sector and offers great opportunities to Pakistani pharma companies.”
The ambassador said that his country greatly valued relations with Pakistan and that was why it sought further diversification and strengthening of the relations. He said that Kyrgyz-Pakistani historical relations could be traced back centuries ago.
He said that direct flights between the two countries on a regular basis would help improve trade and cooperation in the tourism sector. He said that both countries were rich in mineral resources, had high skilled human resources, excellent opportunities for developing industry and agriculture, attracting foreign investments for joint production and supply of goods including for export.
Beishembiev said that Kyrgyzstan was interested in development of short transportation links through its territory between Central Asia and China and Pakistan with access to the Gwadar and Karachi ports, using railway and automobile roads, which were being constructed in the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“Today, shortest automobile roads connect China to Kyrgyzstan through two border mountain passes in Kyrgyzstan - Torugart in the north and - Erkeshtam in the south, located only about 200-km from the Chinese city of Kashgar,” he added.
Responding to a question from the LCCI president, the ambassador said that Pakistani businessmen could invest individually or through joint ventures in Kyrgyzstan. He said that Pakistan could use Kyrgyzstan as a gateway to enter into the European Union market and could avail benefits from GSP Plus status.
Also speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah appreciated the Kyrgyz ambassador for keeping good liaison with the Lahore Chamber to find new avenues for increasing trade and economic ties between the two countries.
He asserted that very few items were being traded between Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan for the last many years. The main reason for such a low level of two-way trade, which stood at $2.2 million in 2019, was little knowledge about each other’s markets.
Misbah said that Pakistan’s exports to Kyrgyzstan were just $2.17 million while global imports of Kyrgyzstan were touching $5 billion. “There is great scope for Pakistan to enhance its exports to Kyrgyzstan in sectors of pharmaceuticals, value added textiles, agriculture products, surgical instruments, and sports goods. Pharmaceutical sector deserves a special mention as Pakistan has made great strides in this sector after the Covid pandemic,” the president added.
He said that Kyrgyzstan could also help Pakistan enhance its exports to the EU under the GSP Plus regime. “We will certainly like to encourage Pakistani investors to explore joint ventures in Kyrgyzstan to promote exports to EU countries and Central Asia,” he added.
He said that they had been talking about exploiting the untapped potential of trade in Central Asian Republics. He said that Kyrgyzstan and China shared a long border, therefore, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan should make good use of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for attaining better connectivity to deeply explore each other’s markets.
Misbah said that once the Covid situation improved, both sides should plan for the exchange of business delegations. The regular flights between the two countries would also help in improving bilateral trade.
Source: The Express Tribune
Britain's government plans to launch the world's first sovereign green bonds for retail investors as part of its push to create a net-zero-carbon economy by 2050.
The savings bonds will fund projects in areas such as renewable energy and clean transportation and will go on sale this year, the Treasury said.
Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has also committed to the launch of so-called green gilts, aimed at institutional investors, as part of his borrowing plans for the 2020/21 financial year, which will be announced in his budget statement on Wednesday.
The Treasury said late on Saturday that Sunak would also use his budget statement to announce three programmes that will receive funds from the government's 1 billion pound ($1.4 billion) Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.
They include a competition to develop long-duration energy storage prototypes, which will be allocated 70 million pounds.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to host world leaders at a U.N. climate conference in November to try to agree on action to stabilise the planet's climate.
Last year, Johnson laid out laid out a 10-point plan for a "green industrial revolution". The opposition Labour Party said it was not ambitious enough to reach the 2050 net-zero target. ($1 = 0.7178 pounds)
Source: Energyworld.com
The global technical textile market was valued at $201.2 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $274.1 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.1% from 2020 to 2027.
Technical textile is well-known for its technical (mechanical, electrical, durable, and thermal) and functional properties, rather than decorative and aesthetic characteristics. It is used for technical applications such as protective clothing in the chemical industry, defense sector, automotive interiors, and others.
The market is growing owing to various factors such as rise in demand from the healthcare sector. In addition, the technical textile has huge consumer base in countries such as the U.S., China, Germany, and others. This is attributed to established sectors such as healthcare, automobile, construction, military &defense, and others. However, some of the factors that hamper the market growth are high cost of raw materials and high toxic waste production.
On the contrary, in coming years there may be significant demand for industrial protective wears, owing to industrial growth in developing regions.
The global technical textile market is segmented on the basis of material, process, application, and region. The material segment is categorized into natural fiber, synthetic polymer, mineral, regenerated fiber, and others. On the basis of process, it is divided into woven, knitted, non-woven, and others. Based on application, the market is classified into MobilTech, InduTech, SportTech, BuildTech, HomeTech, ClothTech, MediTech, AgroTech, ProTech, PackTech, OekoTech, and GeoTech. By region, the market is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.
KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS
The report provides an extensive qualitative and quantitative analysis of the current trends and future estimations of the market from 2020 to 2027, determining the prevailing opportunities
A comprehensive analysis of the factors that drive and restrict the growth of the market is provided
The market size is provided in terms of volume and revenue
Porter’s five forces analysis helps analyze the potential of buyers & suppliers and the competitive scenario of the industry for strategy building
Profiles of leading players operating in the market are provided to understand the competitive scenario
The report provides extensive qualitative insights on the significant segments and regions exhibiting favorable growth
KEY MARKET SEGMENTS
KEY MARKET PLAYERS
The other players in the value chain include Bruck Textiles, Gelvenor Textiles, Lanxess, NIKOL Advance Materials Pvt. Ltd, Sanrhea Technical Textiles Limited, Arville Textiles Limited, L. van Heek Textiles bv, HiltexTechnischeWeefsels B.V., Delcotex, Aurich Textiles GmbH, and others.
Source: NYmarketreports
Pakistan’s inflationary pressures have been increasing in recent months mainly because of imports of essential food products, petroleum group, textiles and other raw materials.
The prices of petroleum crude have gone up from $35.6 per barrel in October 2020 to $47 per barrel in January 2021 so its prices surged by 31.9 percent just in three months period.
Now Goldman Sachs is even more bullish on oil, expecting Brent Crude prices to hit $75 a barrel in the third quarter this year, on the back of faster market rebalancing and lower expected inventories.
In the wake of expected rising prices of oil in the international market, the domestic prices are bound to go up in months ahead so the CPI based inflation is also expected to increase.
This rising inflation through imported items is going to lead the Consumer Price Index (CPI) substantially for the ongoing month (February 2021) ranging to 7.5 to 8 percent against 5.7 percent for January 2021. The analysis done by official circles revealed that the imported items are fueling inflationary pressures manifold as the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) had already witnessed unprecedented spike in prices of essential food items.
In the food group, the palm oil prices in US dollar terms have gone up from 706.9 per ton in October 2020 to 848.4 per ton in January 2021 so it witnessed a 20 percent surge in prices. Now the prices of palm oil have further gone up to $950 per ton so the overall price increase surged by 30 percent. It has resulted in increasing oil/cooking oil prices in the domestic market manifold in recent months for different brands.
The prices of Soyabean oil have increased from $708.9 per ton in October 2020 to $1,200 per ton in January 2021 per ton so it went up by 69.3 percent. It is being used in feed for chicken so the domestic prices of feed increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 per bag in the domestic market. The prices of chicken in the domestic market are not coming down from Rs 220 per kg.
The refined sugar has gone up from $442.3 per ton in October 2020 to $689.8 per ton in January 2021 so the prices surged by 56 percent. It had resulted in increasing domestic prices and now crossed Rs 100 per kg mark in the domestic market.
The prices of pulses have been increased from $446.2 per ton in October 2020 to $588.7 per ton in January 2021 so the prices became dearer by 32 percent. The price of tea has gone up from $2.1 per ton to $2.2 per ton in the last three months and witnessed a surge by 6.6 percent.
The raw cotton (metric ton) has gone up from $1.6 per kg in October 2020 to $1.7 per kg in January 2021 so it witnessed an increase by 7.4 percent. The synthetic fiber has gone up from $1,106.1 per ton in October 2020 to $$1,391.3 per ton in January 2021 so witnessed surge by 25.8 percent.
The imported fertiliser prices have gone up by 32 percent in the last three months period. The plastic material witnessed 18 percent increase, iron steel and scrap 8.3 percent and iron and steel 5.7 percent in the last three months period.
Source: The News
Sweden-based TreeToTextile recently invested EUR€35M (approx. US$42M) in constructing a demonstration plant in Sweden to upscale the production of new sustainable textile fiber.
Owned by H&M Group, Inter IKEA Group, Stora Enso, and LSCS Invest, TreeToTextile, a purpose-driven technology development company, is a member of Textile Exchange. as well as a supporting organization to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Fashion charter, working in the raw materials group.
The company has recently invested in a new demonstration plant that will be built at Stora Enso’s Nymölla mill in southern Sweden with construction beginning in spring 2021.
The aim of this plant is to commercialize a new sustainable textile fiber through scalable technology and low manufacturing costs and for this, the production capacity of the plant will be 1500 tons of fiber per year.
By committing to help brands and companies, TreeToTextile offers a new technology that will produce affordable regenerated cellulosic fiber, biobased textile fibers that are produced from renewable and sustainably sourced raw materials from the forest thus having a low environmental footprint.
In a press release seen by Green Queen, TreeToTextile’s CEO Sigrid Barnekow said: “Our technology has the potential to reduce the environmental footprint of the textile industry significantly. With our owners’ support, innovative agendas, know-how, and size, we assess that TreeToTextile can play an important contributing part globally, in enabling the textile industry to become sustainable and circular.”
The plant will cost EUR€35M (approx. US$42M), and will be funded with an investment of EUR€27,4M (approx. US$33M) from the owners. TreeToTextiles also received a grant of EUR€7.6 million (approx. 9.2M) from the Swedish Energy Agency.
The company further claims that the wood can be traced back to its origins and where the forests were harvested, replantation efforts will be carried out thus continuing to conserve and protect the biodiversity of that area. This is in tandem with its advocacy efforts that aim to eliminate forest degradation and deforestation and manage regenerative projects on degraded land, deforested areas, and agriculturally cultivated areas.
A third-party verified Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) study confirms the company’s sustainability performance and the process is designed to have a lower energy demand and will use fewer chemicals and this along with water will be recycled and reused from time to time with zero sulfur emissions during production.
Roxana Barbieru, chairwoman of TreeToTextile; and vice president of Emerging Businesses and Alliances Management Biomaterials at Stora Enso said that the key to creating real change is cooperation. “We are a young organization and at the beginning of our operations, but by investing in a demonstration plant, we are finally on the go. With it we are turning years of R&D into reality to increase the biobased share on the textile market to support climate action. That is why this is an important point in time, not only for TreeToTextile.”
As consumer demand for alternative and more sustainable products has increased, animal-free and sustainable textiles are slowly gaining momentum.
For instance the H&M group has also offered its support to another company, Infinited Fiber Company, a Finnish biotech that has developed a circular solution that turns discarded textiles into high-quality, bio-based regenerated fibers. The fashion giant joins other leading names – Bestseller, PVH, Wrangler, Suominen, and Patagonia, that are also supporting this biotech.
Another biotech, California-based Bolt Threads has attracted big fashion players, launching a new consortium alongside Adidas, Kering Group, Lululemon, and Stella McCartney to introduce its vegan mushroom leather dubbed ‘Mylo’ to consumers.
In May of last year, a new nonprofit organisation, Material Innovation Initiative (MII), launched in an effort to accelerate innovation in the sustainable and vegan material space with the use of plant-based ingredients as well as lab-grown technology and incorporate them into a range of industries, including fashion, furniture and automotive sectors.
Source: Green Queen Media
The Disposable Medical Textiles Market report provides in-depth knowledge and insights into the Disposable Medical Textiles market in terms of market size, market share, factors influencing growth, opportunities, and current and emerging trends. The report has the updated and latest information on the Disposable Medical Textiles market that has been further validated and verified by industry experts and professionals.
The Disposable Medical Textiles market report provides historical, current, and forecast estimates of sales generation and profit for each segment and sub-segment of the Disposable Medical Textiles market in every key region around the world. The report also highlights the emerging growth opportunities in the business that are designed to support market growth.
The report covers the following key players in the Disposable Medical Textiles Market:
• J&J
• MedtronicCovidien
• Ahlstrom
• Braun
• Dupont
• 3M
• Cardinal Health
• KOB
• TWE
• Techtex
• Medline
• Dynarex
• Hakuzo
• Smith-nephew
• Vilene
• Medpride
• Winner Medical
• ALLMED
• JianErKang Medical
• Zhejiang zhengde medical
• WU HAN DI YUAN
Segmentation of Disposable Medical Textiles Market:
The report provides an in-depth analysis of various market segments based on the product line, applications, major regions, and key companies in the industry. In addition, the report has a single section that provides a detailed analysis of the manufacturing process and includes information gathered from primary and secondary data collection sources. The main source for data collection is interviews with industry experts who provide accurate information about the future market scenario.
By the product type, the market is primarily split into:
• Non-woven fabrics
• Woven
By the application, this report covers the following segments:
• Medical protection
• Surgical dressing
Disposable Medical Textiles Geographic Market Analysis:
The latest business intelligence report analyzes the Disposable Medical Textiles market in terms of market reach and customer base in key geographic market regions. The Disposable Medical Textiles market can be geographically divided into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
This section of the report provides an accurate assessment of the Disposable Medical Textiles market presence in the major regions. It defines the market share, market size, sales, distribution network and distribution channels for each regional segment.
Key Points of the Geographical Analysis:
** Data and information on consumption in each region
** The estimated increase in consumption rate
** Proposed growth in market share for each region
** Geographic contribution to market income
** Expected growth rates of the regional markets
Key Highlights of the Disposable Medical Textiles Market Report:
** Analysis of location factors
** Raw material procurement strategy
** Product mix matrix
** Analysis to optimize the supply chain
** Patent analysis
** R&D analysis
** Analysis of the carbon footprint
** Price volatility before commodities
** Benefit and cost analysis
** Assessment and forecast of regional demand
** Competitive analysis
** Supplier management
** Mergers and acquisitions
** Technological advances
Source: The Bisouv Network
