|
Item |
Price |
Unit |
Fluctuation |
Date |
|
PSF |
932.24 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
VSF |
1887.25 |
USD/Ton |
0.49% |
2/2/2016 |
|
ASF |
1894.08 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
Polyester POY |
951.21 |
USD/Ton |
-0.08% |
2/2/2016 |
|
Nylon FDY |
2186.35 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
40D Spandex |
4782.65 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
Nylon DTY |
2459.65 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
Viscose Long Filament |
5657.19 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
Polyester DTY |
1123.54 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
Nylon POY |
2034.52 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
Acrylic Top 3D |
2076.28 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
Polyester FDY |
1024.85 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
30S Spun Rayon Yarn |
2641.84 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
32S Polyester Yarn |
1533.48 |
USD/Ton |
1% |
2/2/2016 |
|
45S T/C Yarn |
2429.28 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
45S Polyester Yarn |
1685.31 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
T/C Yarn 65/35 32S |
2095.25 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
40S Rayon Yarn |
2793.67 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
T/R Yarn 65/35 32S |
2414.10 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
10S Denim Fabric |
1.06 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
32S Twill Fabric |
0.89 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
40S Combed Poplin |
0.96 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
30S Rayon Fabric |
0.71 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
|
45S T/C Fabric |
0.73 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
2/2/2016 |
Source : Global Textiles
Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.15183 USD dtd. 03/02/2016)
The prices given above are as quoted from Global Textiles.com. SRTEPC is not responsible for the correctness of the same.
India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has maintained a stable outlook for cotton textiles for FY16-FY17. This will be led by a margin expansion in the cotton space on the back of lower cotton prices, even as revenue growth will be slower, mirroring lower sales realisations. Ind-Ra expects most of the revenue growth to come from higher production efficiency rather than significant capacity additions. However, Ind-Ra continues to maintain a negative outlook on synthetic textiles for FY17 on continuing overcapacity, falling capacity utilisations, dumping from China, and continuously falling raw material prices (led by crude prices) which could translate into inventory losses.
Revenue growth in FY17 is likely to be driven by the enhanced domestic consumption of fabrics, apparels and home textiles in view of lowering interest rates, rising discretionary income (Ind-Ra's GDP growth projection for FY17 is 7.9%), favourable demographics and moderating inflation. The stressed rural economy is however a dampener for demand in FY17. The value-added textile segment continues to witness stable demand despite the macroeconomic data not seeming to be encouraging. Ind-Ra has also maintained a Stable rating Outlook for textile companies, as working capital optimisation and low capex appetite will lead to debt containment. This combined with a margin improvement will drive the improvement in credit metrics in FY16-FY17, as reflected in the improved interest coverage ratio for listed textile companies in 1H16.
Ind-Ra believes that the export performance will be subdued over FY17 due to the Chinese demand slowdown, absence of free trade agreements with key end-markets of the US and Europe, and competitive pricing pressure. Yuan devaluation could emerge as a key concern for textile exporters as India and China cater to common large markets of the US and Europe. India is likely to lose competitive advantage against peers such as Vietnam, which has duty-free access to Europe, and possibly to the US upon the passage of trans-pacific partnership. The amended textile scheme ATUFS (Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme) is likely to encourage fresh investments into the sector which is sluggish at present, and this is positive for the existing projects which were awaiting the release of subsidy under the earlier versions. However, the total benefit to textile companies is likely to reduce due to the change in the nature and quantum of subsidy, and target segment for benefits under the scheme. Also, the possibility of large-scale greenfield capex remains low in FY17.
OUTLOOK SENSITIVITIES
Prospects of a positive outlook are limited for FY17. Fundamental issues of taxation and duty structure in synthetic textiles, need for modernisation in the weaving/processing sector, and expansion of scale need to be addressed in the long run. Global factors: A cotton/yarn price crash led by uncertainty from China on buying/stocking of cotton/yarn is a key risk, and could lead the outlook revision to negative for cotton textiles. Uncertainty stemming from China's policy and production strategy remains a threat. Stability in crude oil prices is critical for a revision of the outlook on synthetic textiles to stable.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meeting entrepreneurs from Coimbatore just ahead of a public meeting there, assured them of action on Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. The FTA is a long-standing demand from Tirupur garments makers in their stated target to double their export in three years. Nearly 35% of total ready-made garment exported From India valued $8.56 billion in first six months of 2015-15, went to the EU. "Our main competitor is Bangladesh, which is enjoying a duty-free market status in the EU. We are confident we can dent the market share of Bangladesh if the FTA with EU can be achieved, considering we have many factories with a compliance orientation at our end," A Sakthivel, President of Tirupur Exporters' Association. Sakthivel added that Modi had told them that talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been initiated on all prospective trade-related tie-ups and that he will make sure "the government does the needful." Tirupur exporters had also pitched for agreements with Australia and Canada. For Canada, garment exports from India have been in the range of Rs 1,400 crore for four fiscals now, even as those from Vietnam and Pakistan have grown on least-developed-country tariff treatment. The exporters project that national garment exports will touch Rs 2.28 lakh crore by 2019-20 from the Rs 1.12 lakh crore in 2015-16 if the trade deals with the three exporting destinations are signed.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce & Industry held a meeting today with the Chairpersons of major Export Promotion Councils to review the current trend of exports from India and to take stock of issues faced by the exporters.
SOURCE: PIB
Already hit by the global downturn in trade, Indian exporters on Tuesday raised the issue of delays in statutory clearances by the government besides seeking various incentives to boost falling exports. In a meeting with commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman, about 12 export promotion councils stated delays in environment clearance besides high energy and financial costs as issues concerning exports. "We met about 12 export promotion councils today discussing about exports issues. Many of the issues which are enablers to exports have been identified... This ministry will have some work to follow up with environment, textiles, customs for making it easy to do business from exporters' point of view," Sitharaman said after the meeting.
An official present in the meetings aid that the councils were unhappy with the process of granting green nods because many times the Central Pollution Control Board or State Pollution Control Boards failed to give sufficient reason for denying clearances. This was one of the first stick taking meetings chaired by the minister in the light of exports contracting for the 13th consecutive month in December, falling 14.75% from a year ago. The government is concerned over the dismal performance of exports, which are not expected to exceed $270 billion in the current financial year after clocking $310.5 billion in the previous year. She said the government has also identifies issues which are beyond its control such as restrictions imposed by other governments, non-tariff barriers and currency volatility a factor, that have hit exports.
Imports fell 3.88% to $33.96 billion in December from a year earlier, leading to the trade deficit widening to $11.66 billion from $9.8 billion in November. Exports fell in 15 of 30 segments, including iron ore, gems & jewellery and engineering goods. "There are concerns on the effect that the ASEAN free trade agreement has on our exports on products coming at zero duty," she said. The official said that even though the minister heard the issues of various councils, she questioned their role and asked them to come back to the government with suggestions from their respective members. "She asked the councils to collaborate and use an integrated manner to resolve their conflicts," he said.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
The ‘status quo’ maintained by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its monetary policy on Tuesday was on expected lines, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said, reaffirming the government’s commitment to the path of fiscal consolidation. The RBI kept its policy rate on hold at 6.75%, opting to wait until after the government’s annual budget on February 29 to decide on whether to cut interest rates further. The RBI’s target of 6% retail inflation for this January is likely to be met. While current trends are largely on track to meet FY17’s 5% inflation target, this faces some risks from the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission awards and if weak monsoons continues for the third year in a row in 2016. The additional spending of about R1 lakh crore, on account of pay commission award and higher pension for armed forces, could put pressure on finances of the Centre as well as on inflation in the next fiscal year. While the Centre would spell out its fiscal deficit target for 2016-17 in the forthcoming budget, Das said, “The government continues to remain committed to the path of fiscal consolidation, quality of expenditure, maximising the revenue, improving governance while ensuring projects are better implemented and growth is revived.”
Present perfect
SOURCE: The Financial Express
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government was preparing a strategy to safeguard the country's trade interests in anticipation of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) impacting the overall trade scenario, and particularly India's exports in pharmaceuticals, textiles and chemicals. The 12-nation TPP will be signed in New Zealand on February 4. "We have certainly started looking into all the implications of any possible diversion in trade ... So keeping that diversion possibility which will happen and which can negatively affect India we are certainly looking at those sectors which will be bearing the brunt immediately after the TPP comes into the force," she told reporters in New Delhi. She said the TPP could result in rising imports to India and the government was trying to identify countries where Indian investments can set up manufacturing bases. "The TPP will certainly have an impact on India's exports and it is most likely to affect sector like leather goods, plastics, chemicals, textiles and clothing," she said.
Sitharaman conceded that the investor-State dispute mechanism will have a "serious bearing" on countries like India which are not part of the TPP. India would also have to look at labour laws, rules of origin of products, intellectual property rights and product standards. She said that this trade pact could impact the overall trade scenario and countries like India would have to look at their policy stance to cope up with the implications. The Minister said the trading and manufacturing public sector units would be impacted by the TPP. She asked the industry to look at regions like Africa and CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) to enhance investments and take advantage of TPP norms and export to those economies.
Sitharaman said India is also part of a mega trade deal - Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, which is under negotiations. The 16-member bloc RCEP comprises 10 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners -- India, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. She also said that talks are on for bilateral trade pacts with countries, including Canada and Australia. "We are working on all the FTAs. So, India is not just sitting and watching the TPP. It is ensuring that it is moving in the right direction and making sure that the details of TPP are being looked into with great interest," she said. The Indian textile industry, particularly textile exporters have been asking the government to expedite FTAs with Canada, Australia and the EU. Even ahead of the TPP, Indian textile exports have been falling.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be signed in New Zealand on February 4, 2016. After all 12 members—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the US—sign the agreement, it will be ratified by legislatures of each country. The members have decided to give themselves two years for ratification by their respective legislatures. Ratifying the TPP is not going to be simple for all countries, most notably those where opposition to the controversial agreement remains vocal. US president Barack Obama has managed to obtain the fast-track TPA (Trade Promotion Authority) that empowers the US President to sign trade agreements after a ‘yes/no’ vote from the legislature. The political comfort of the TPA is in avoiding detailed and lengthy debates on the TPP. Most US lawmakers, despite their reservations on certain aspects of the TPP, might take stock of other benefits for the US from the agreement and eventually suggest ‘yes’. The Obama administration has not spared pains to highlight the geo-strategic implication of the TPP. It has been branded an effort to prevent China from writing trade rules in the Asia-Pacific. Apart from greater market access, domestic job creation and revival of ‘Made in USA’, the China factor should help the TPP to go through.
Some other TPP members might find the going tough at home. Australia is among these countries. There has been fierce resistance to the intellectual property provisions of the TPP in Australia. It was largely the resistance from Australia that made the data protection period for biologic drugs to be frozen at five years in the TPP, instead of the twelve years that was demanded by the pharma research and manufacturer lobbies in the US. Longer data protection period for biologics would delay the introduction of their generics having implications for drug prices for consumers. These implications are serious for Australia as it heavily subsidises drugs under the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) for its citizens. Drug prices have also been riling Canadians, as have been the investor-state-dispute-settlement (ISDS) provisions, low domestic content requirement for automobiles and lowering tariffs on Canadian dairy imports. The going will not be entirely smooth in the Canadian Parliament as well.
Japan and Malaysia have witnessed large-scale protests on the TPP during its negotiations. Signing the TPP has been a calculated risk for Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and a symbol of his political capacities. The majority of the TPP’s later negotiations were bilateral issues thrashed out between the US and Japan. Japan’s biggest concern was over opening up its domestic farm sector to cheaper imports. Abe was able to ride over the objection of farmers by not eliminating tariffs but agreeing to phased-in reductions. He was also able to convince the political constituencies about the benefits of joining the TPP by securing concessions from the US and other TPP members on lowering tariffs on Japanese automobile exports. At the same time, domestic value added requirement content of 45% for automobiles in the TPP helped in convincing the automobile industry. The requirement implies auto assemblers from TPP countries need to add only 45% of the total value of their vehicles from material sourced from TPP members. The rest can be obtained from cheaper sources outside. While Japanese assemblers would benefit by sourcing from other Asian countries outside TPP (e.g. Thailand, China and Philippines), Canadian and Mexican auto part-makers might suffer. US auto assemblers now can source cheaper from non-TPP members by a greater extent as opposed to obtaining parts from Canada and Mexico.
Malaysia had witnessed large protests from the civil society on various issues of the TPP. The most serious of these were on the provisions for State-Owned Enterprises. The removal of preferences in government procurement and sales for these companies has implications for Malaysia’s large government-owned firms. There is also considerable discomfort on the implications of the TPP’s competition policy rules for discriminatory preferences maintained by Malaysia towards. While Malaysia does not need to get the TPP passed by its legislature, prime minister Najib Razak, sensing the political importance of ‘selling’ the TPP to all constituencies, has called for a special session of its Parliament for discussing the agreement.
Brunei, Chile, Peru, Singapore and New Zealand are not expected to face difficulties. These have been open and outward-oriented economies with extensive network of FTAs. They are also members (except Peru) of the original P4 group, which formed the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, and which subsequently expanded to become the TPP. Mexico, too, is unlikely to face much difficulty given that it had already adopted several TPP-like rules under the NAFTA and is part of the Pacific Alliance (Mexico, Chile, Peru, Columbia), another FTA aiming to liberalise deep and wide.
The TPP, while a done deal, is going to take time to become operational. Its experience shows the difficulty of achieving consensus across a broad set of issues among members and the challenge of convincing domestic constituencies about trade policy and trade agreements. Ultimately, political stewardship and ability to carry along domestic constituencies are probably the most important factors in pulling off ambitious trade agreements: a lesson important for India.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
Members of leading trade unions in Tirupur knitwear cluster staged an agitation on Tuesday alleging that the textile associations were unnecessarily delaying the signing of new wage pact for knitwear sector workers. The earlier four-year wage agreement signed between the labour unions like CITU, AITUC, INTUC, ATP, HMS, BMS, MLF and LPF had come to an end on January 30 this year. However, the talks to finalise the terms and conditions for the new wage pact began only during the last minute which already had invited the criticisms from the trade unionists and workers. In this scenario, the trade unionists staged the protest in front of the Tirupur Exporters Association office on the day. “We wanted the textile associations to give increase from the minimum wages scales fixed by the State Government for the garment sector not from the scales fixed in the previous wages pact signed for the workers in Tirupur cluster. Similarly, we can not accept the associations’ proposal for an increase of 19 per cent on the wages over a period of four years. We wanted a 100 per cent rise considering the output given by the workers and also the escalation in cost of living”, said M. Chandran, state secretary of CITU.
SOURCE: The Hindu
The first Chinese Industrial Park will be functional by the end of 2017 near Ahmedabad. The country head of China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (CASME) in India, Kamlesh Bhadani, said that it will not be a textile park but a general industrial park with focus on textiles. "The infrastructure for the park will be ready by 2017-end and some of the companies will begin setting up their units by the same time," Bhadani told TOI. A group of senior officials of CASME and China Development Bank, including Bhadani and vice-managing director of China Development Bank Xiao Ming Zhen, had met the state chief minister last month. Zhen had said that work on the $1 billion industrial park will begin soon. The ground breaking of the project is likely to be held in the next few months. "We are looking at two land pockets — one in Sanand and other on Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway. It is going to be a general park and its developer will be CASME. Once the Chinese New Year celebrations are over, we will be conducting road shows and other campaigns to create awareness about this industrial park among the Chinese firms. The work on project will be expedited from March," added Bhadani. He further said, "Some of the interested companies have already visited Ahmedabad and few more will be coming soon. These firms would like to do due diligence before investing here. Besides bringing in investment, this park will also provide employment on a large scale."
SOURCE: The Times of India
Addressing a long pending demand by India, Bangladesh will “soon” grant India direct access to its Chittagong port even as both sides work on forward linkages. Bangladesh is working on a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which will ensure India direct access to the port, which is significant in boosting bilateral and intra-regional trade. “Hopefully, we will be realising this soon. We are working on SOPs and forward linkages on other aspects that go beyond just access to Chittagong port,” Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque told BusinessLine .
Recently, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina suggested creation of a joint consortium between both the countries in an effort to ensure better use of the port. India had been asking for a direct access to the Chittagong Port for nearly five years. Once approved, this will help Indian industry and exporters save millions of dollars by sending direct shipments to Bangladesh and by using the Chittagong port as a transit hub to access other Southeast Asian destinations. Last year, both neighbours had signed an MoU on use of Chittagong and Mongla ports. Haque said India and Bangladesh are also working on a joint maritime cooperation — a first in the history of bilateral ties.
Joint task force
“This is a new area of cooperation. A joint task force has been created to work on the modalities, which is expected to hold its first meeting in the first week of March,” he said. Haque added that this issue was extensively discussed during his meetings with Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh in June last year, an MoU was signed on the Blue Economy and Maritime Cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, which identified eight areas of collaboration. This was part of the joint declaration – Notun Projonmo, Nayi Disha – that sought to take bilateral ties to the next level. Last year, both neighbours also inked the Land Boundary Agreement. However, the issue of sharing the water of Teesta river remains a bone of contention. “We are optimistic on Teesta,” Haque said, adding that “all aspects of water management” was discussed during his meeting with Amarjit Singh, Special Secretary, Water Resources Ministry, on Tuesday.
SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line
The international crude oil price of Indian Basket as computed/published today by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was US$ 30.28 per barrel (bbl) on 02.02.2016. This was lower than the price of US$ 31.63 per bbl on previous publishing day of 01.02.2016.
In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket decreased to Rs 2054.09 per bbl on 02.02.2016 as compared to Rs 2140.77 per bbl on 01.02.2016. Rupee closed weaker at Rs 67.83 per US$ on 02.02.2016 as against Rs 67.67 per US$ on 01.02.2016. The table below gives details in this regard:
|
Particulars |
Unit |
Price on February 02, 2016 (Previous trading day i.e. 01.02.2016) |
Pricing Fortnight for 01.02.2016 (14 Jan to 27 Jan, 2016) |
|
Crude Oil (Indian Basket) |
($/bbl) |
30.28 (31.63) |
26.05 |
|
(Rs/bbl |
2054.09 (2140.77) |
1763.06 |
|
|
Exchange Rate |
(Rs/$) |
67.83 (67.67) |
67.68 |
SOURCE: PIB
Bangladesh textile millers have imported machinery worth TK71.19 billion in the fiscal year of 2014-15, a short up by over 40 percent compared to Tk50.63 billion in the last fiscal year of 2013-14 as many millers went for business expansion, said Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) president Tapan Chowdhury speaking a press conference on Tuesday. The rise in machinery imports is attributed to the prevailing political stability. He further added that the capital machinery imports by textile millers were Tk 49.83 billion, Tk 49.12 billion and Tk 46 billion in 2012-13, 2011-12 and 2010-11 respectively. The investment will further increase if the stability is maintained. The press conference was organized to announce a four-day Dhaka Textile and Garment Machinery international fair of leading brands in textiles and garment technology, machinery and parts that will begin at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Thursday. The BTMA, Taiwan's Chan Chao International Company Ltd and Yorkers Trade and Marketing Service Company of Hong Kong will jointly organize the fair.
Captive power generated through gas is crucial for the textile sector as factories cannot run entirely depending on generators in the event of power outage, the BTMA president said, adding that an uninterrupted power supply is a must. Terming the present energy situation 'challenging,' he said that the entrepreneurs are investing and also growing, but they are struggling most. It is next to impossible for a new entrepreneur to invest in such a situation. Already many factories in Narayanganj and Savar are facing low gas pressure, he hopes that the government would be able to keep its promise and solve the energy crisis within its promised two years. According to the association, more than 1,300 spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing mills in the country have invested $4.0 billion and the sector's contribution to the gross domestic product amounts to 13 percent. This sector has established a strong backward-linkage industry for the country's garment sector. As a result, the garment sector has been able to keep up its growth momentum and remain sustainable.
The BTMA President said that the fair, largest of its kind in the country, will offer an ideal platform for local exporters to interact with manufacturers, regional agents and wholesalers and source high-quality machinery, equipment and materials. Participants from Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the UK, the UAE, the USA, France, Germany, South Korea, India, Pakistan and Vietnam will attend the fair . Over 1,000 machinery makers from 33 countries, including host Bangladesh will display a wide variety of state-of-the-art textile and garment technology, machinery and parts. Judy Wang, executive director of Chan Chao International Company, said that the exhibitors, through 1,160 booths, will showcase the latest machines and technology to textile and industry people, including spinners, weavers and knitters. Global brands, such as Barudan, CTMTC, Fong's, Groz-Beckert, Jakob Muller, Karl Mayer, Loepfe Graf, Lonati, Oerlikon, Pai Lung, Picanol, Rieter, Santoni, LMW, Shima Seiki, Tajima, Terrot, Thies, Truetzschler and Zimmer will display and sell their products. Last year, at the Dhaka Int'l Textile & Garment Machinery fair exhibitors sold machinery worth $220 million.
SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers
The global economic slowdown is taking its toll everywhere, Pakistan, the 4th largest exhibitor at the Heimtextil Fair Germany, received almost half the number of order this year compared to the previous year. We represent the entire textile industry. Heimtextil is a mega event for all textile millers and exporters of the world, where this year around 220 Pakistani exhibitors participated under the Trade and Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) umbrella at the Pakistan pavilion. “Pakistani exporters have seen a massive drop in international orders lately, due to the energy crisis and the slowdown of global economy,” noted an exhibitor at the Heimtextile Fair and Ayesha Textile Mills CEO Abdulla Kamal, while talking to The Express Tribune. “One of the main reasons behind receiving fewer orders has been the exporters’ inability to dispatch consignments in time due to energy shortages,” he added. “Despite the advantages of having cheap labour and producing better cotton, the exporters’ expectations could not be met due to the energy and worsening law and order situation.”
He said international buyers were moving away from Pakistani market due to delay in shipments. “On the other hand, China is very good in timely delivery. “This year China has got the edge over all other participants; the first to take full advantage of the exhibition,” he added. The global economic slowdown has also played a key role in keeping buyers away from the recent exhibition. “Europe is passing through a low-growth phase,” remarked Kamal. He said during the peak textile season, the government severs the gas supply. This time, though, the situation was better since the government cut supply to domestic consumers in order to facilitate the industries. Moreover, he said the law and order situation in the country was another major hurdle in grabbing orders. “The recent terrorist attacks on schools and colleges have dented Pakistan’s reputation internationally. Buyers are frightened to even come visit us, let alone give orders,” he added. “Even the old ones are not visiting Pakistan due to which we have to fix meetings abroad,” he lamented, adding that this time India and Bangladesh got a far better response compared to Pakistan. Another hurdle, identified by Kamal, was the shortage of gas, “the textile mills need steam for processing the fabric.” He was of the view that the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) was not an alternative. “This winter is the first season when we are running our mills on LNG, which is very expensive. It is 25% more expensive than natural gas (CNG). That, of course, increases the cost of production.” While requesting the government to take up the issues of energy and gas seriously, he said the country had very good production capacity and machineries and if only the internal issues were resolved, the textile sector could again reach its potential capacity of $25 billion exports, compared to the current figure of $13.9 billion.
SOURCE: The Tribune
Pakistan and Thailand to conclude a free trade agreement (FTA) by May next year, which will help Pakistan, enhance its access to ASEAN region and Thailand to enhance its trade with the South Asian states as well as with the Central Asian states. Pakistan is already its second largest trading partner after India in the region. The two countries plan to use the FTA as a springboard for gaining access in the ASEAN and South and Central Asian regions respectively. An official source said that consensus on FTA was developed at the meeting of the Pakistan-Thailand Trade Negotiating Committee held on January 25 to 27. Both countries want to conclude the first phase of FTA by May 2017 and it would cover trade in goods only with substantial coverage.
After the signing of the first phase of FTA, both countries want to embark upon negotiations on services, investment and competition. To conclude the FTA, the two countries have set up working groups for trade in goods, rules of origin, legal and institutional issues, customs procedures and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and photo-sanitary measures and trade remedies. The source said that the negotiations were held with emphasis on tariff reductions, customs procedures, and cooperation in sanitary standards and trade remedy measures. The agreement should also eliminate both tariff and non-tariff barriers as well as increase investment opportunities for both countries. The bilateral trade between the two states was over $1 billion in 2014, with the trade balance in Thailand’s favour as its exports amounted to $874 million. Major import products from Thailand include fabrics, textiles, vehicles and parts, air-conditioners and parts, plastics, and chemical goods. Pakistan wants to have FTA with Thailand as it already has an FTA with Malaysia in the same region, which has been operational since 2008 as well as a PTA with Indonesia active since September 2013. Government quarters believe that in addition to textile and clothing sector, agriculture and food group products can also be easily exported to the ASEAN region.
SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers
Economic incentives for a growing textile company that has added 15 jobs in the past two years and expects to add at least 15 more jobs in another year were approved Monday night by the Columbus County Commissioners. Shodja Textiles, doing business as Whiteville Textiles, will receive incentives totaling more than $41,000 over the next five years based on an investment of more than $1.5 million in building renovations. The Company is in business since 2000, makes high-end fabrics used in the automotive industry, Chief Executive Officer Cameron Shodja told commissioners. Starting with just two employees, that number is now moved to 50 and would be further heading towards 65, with highly-trained and skilled employees currently working long hours, some 12-hours per day and six days per week. Shodja said that improvements to a new facility have taken a toll on the company's cash flow, and that the incentives will help the company.
SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers
