The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council

MARKET WATCH 8 FEBRUARY, 2016

NATIONAL

 

INTERNATIONAL

 

Open end spinning mills to go on strike

Open end spinning mills in the State, which mainly supply yarn to the power loom and handloom units, will stop production from Monday demanding early solution to the problems faced by the power loom units in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts. Nearly two lakh job working power looms in Coimbatore and Tirupur District are on strike for the last 10 days seeking payment of wages agreed by the textile manufacturers in 2014. The job working units say the textile manufacturers have reduced the total wages by 15 to 20 per cent in the last four months. According to G. Arulmozhi, secretary of the open end spinning mills association, there are 350 open end spinning mills Tamil Nadu mainly in Coimbatore, Palladam, Mangalam, Somanur, Vellakoil and Udumalpet. These units buy waste cotton from the textile mills, make yarn and sell it to the powerloom and handloom units. About 25 lakh kg of cotton waste comes out of the spinning mills in the country every day. The open end spinning units in Tamil Nadu produce about 10 lakh kg of yarn a day worth Rs. 10 crore.

With the power loom units here on strike for the last 10 days the yarn stock with the open end units has piled up. “We have yarn stock worth nearly Rs. 100 crore. Now, we are unable to proceed. Hence, we want the Government to hold talks with the power loom units and find a solution at the earliest,” he said. The open end spinning mills are already hit by issues such as export of high quality waste cotton and slowdown in the yarn market. The units have appealed to the Union Government to levy export duty of Rs. 10 a kg on the cotton waste exported. Further, with the strike of the power loom units now, the yarn prices have dropped by nearly Rs. 10 a kg (for both warp and weft yarn). “We will resume production when the power loom units start functioning,” he said.

SOURCE: The Hindu

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Technical textile event Technotex 2016 in April

The largest event of technical textile industry in India, Technotex 2016 organised by the ministry of textiles and FICCI, will be held from April 21-23 at Goregaon, Mumbai. The event will welcome participants, visitors and other key decision makers from a diverse cross section of the technical textile industry with a view to provide innovative solutions, identify new business opportunities and create an environment congenial for growth. The previous edition of the event held in April 2015, attracted 6,581 business visitors. As many as 161 companies participated as exhibitors. The event also witnessed international participants from Taiwan, China, Japan, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and the US. This year, more than 15,000 business visitors are expected at the event, which focuses on promoting the technical textile industry to make India a manufacturing hub in the area of technical textiles under the “Make in India” initiative of government of India. Focused on providing its attendees access and networking opportunities to meet CEO’s, manufacturers, industry peers, purchase managers and suppliers from India and around the globe the event provides opportunity for the visitors to develop their business further.

SOURCE: Fibre2fashion

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Malaysian Indian textiles traders seek improvement in MyEG system

The Malaysian Indian Textiles and General Stores Association (MITA) want online system MyEG improved for the renewal of foreign workers’ permit (PLKS) to benefit local Indian traders who hire foreign workers. The MyEG system would adversely affect local Indian traders who wished to renew the permit of their workers if the system was not improved. Maheswary Ramasamy, secretary of MITA claimed that MyEG which took effect on Jan 5, 2015 was not efficient as there were delays in renewing work permits for foreign workers through the system which could pose risks for them being detained by the authorities for "overstaying". Maheswary, who also runs textile shops with some 100 foreign workers in a number of states, said that there were instances where MyEG had asked her to register her company details on three occasions as the system had lost all the datas provided. She has sent the application to renew the permits of her workers to MyEG on March 4, 2015, but till today haven't received the permit sticker. Her workers' next renewal date is due on March 20, 2016. The workers will be deemed to be illegals after the expiry period and this poses a risk of being detained by authorities. Due to delayed issuance of the permit stickers, the workers are caught in a difficult situation where in case of emergencies, they are unable to return to their homeland. Until MyEG is competent to hold such a huge responsibility, the government should give an option to employers to either renew with MyEG or with the Immigration Department. The MyEG was currently closed for service until Feb 15 for maintenance. The government had apparently given exclusivity to MyEG to monopolise the business of PLKS renewal for over two million foreign workers.

SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers

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PMO wants Maharashtra government to clear hurdles for ‘Make in India’ projects

The Narendra Modi government is putting pressure on the Maharashtra government to expedite various industrial projects in the State. It wants an early resolution of land acquisition related issues so that industries can take off under the ‘Make in India’ campaign. A team of officers with deep knowledge of the law, revenue and land acquisition process is being set up so that projects do not get stalled and delayed projects get expedited. The Prime Minister would be apprised of a ground report when he arrives in Mumbai on February 13 for a ‘Make in India’ event that is being jointly organised by the Centre, the Maharashtra government and CII. A senior Maharashtra government officer told BusinessLine that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is regularly keeping a watch on all mega projects in the State. Land acquisition and the rehabilitation of the project affected persons (PAPs) is the most contentious issue for the State government.  The PMO wants to be apprised of the progress in projects such as the NTPC’s thermal power project in Solapur, the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport (MIHAN) project in Nagpur, defence production hubs, and Foxconn’s $5 billion manufacturing unit near Navi Mumbai and Pune, the official said. The official pointed that in the MIHAN project, the land acquisition process was not conducted by officers of the Revenue Department but engineers from Maharashtra Airport Development Company, which led to a number of delays and litigations. In the case of the NTPC project, the land has been acquired but the rehabilitation of PAPs is still far from over, as they are still demanding huge compensation. Delays in such projects affect the morale of the industry, he said. As land prices have risen exponentially in the last 10 years, farmers and landholders are reluctant to sell to industry. In many instances, they have unrealistic demands, that cannot be met, the official said. Actions of the land mafia, NGOs and contentious litigators only add to the delays, the official added.

SOURCE: The Hindu Business line

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Taking legal route at WTO

Given the supposed close ties between India and the US—it was president Obama’s call to prime minister Modi that made India play ball in Paris—the latter’s stiff hike in visa fees in December came as a rude shock, more so since it looked as if India had been specifically targeted by the US. A four-time hike to take visa fees for Indian IT players to $400 million a year is a big blow in itself, what makes it worse is that Indian professionals used up roughly two-thirds of H1-B visas and around 30% of L1 visas in FY14. The reason for the hike is also difficult to defend since it is to be used for healthcare needs of 9/11 victims and to set up a biometric tracking system over a 10-year period—imagine the US reaction if India were to ask US firms to contribute to funding Swachh Bharat. And this comes on top of the US not doing much on the totalisation agreement that India has been demanding for a long time—Indian IT firms pay US authorities around $1 billion each year in social security payments for employees who do not stay on long enough in the US to be able to benefit from this. Given how weak the US case is, as this newspaper reported last week, the government will do well to—as it is planning—take the US to the WTO’s dispute settlement board (DSB) and look for a legal resolution to a problem that is not getting settled through bilateral discussion.

India’s track record in the DSB is mixed, but it seems a good idea to increase the number of cases filed. While India lost to the US in the solar equipment case as well as in the ban on US poultry and eggs, it won the case where the US imposed countervailing duties on carbon steel imports from India as well as in the case where shrimp imports from India were banned. The EU decision to impose anti-dumping duties on bed linen imports, too, was successfully fought by India. Fighting such cases isn’t going to be easy and requires a significant step up in the working of the Indian mission at the WTO and, more than anything else, means using a combination of good legal resources with strong economic/competition arguments—Indian industry, too, will have to play its role in helping collect data and helping fashion convincing arguments. In the visa case, for instance, the fact that Indian professionals seem to have been targeted more than others—assuming that is found to be true—could make for a strong argument. In the shrimp case where the US ban was based on Indian fishermen not using turtle-excluder devices, while the DSB accepted the US’ right to protect the environment, it said the US had provided countries in the Western hemisphere—mainly in the Caribbean—technical and financial assistance and longer transition periods for their fishermen to start using turtle-excluder devices. If commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman is able to give a push to India’s legal fight at the WTO, it will make bilateral negotiations proceed that much more smoothly.

SOURCE: The Financial Express

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India’s proposed trade pact with Russia-led EAEU bloc on fast track

In a bid to fast-track a possible free trade agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) that could give India greater access to the vast market in Russia and its neighbourhood, New Delhi has exchanged the first draft of the joint study group (JSG) report on the feasibility of such a pact with the five-nation bloc. “This is the fastest we have ever moved while considering a free trade pact with a trading partner. The bloc itself is just over a year old. We started exploring the possibility of a JSG in July last year, just six months after the bloc was formed, we have already exchanged the first draft reports,” a government official told BusinessLine . India’s enthusiasm comes from the fact that the EAEU, which came into force on January 2, 2015, integrating Russia’s market with that of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, offers a large, mostly unexplored, market with a joint population size of 180 million and a GDP of an estimated $4 trillion. “India is interested in an extensive FTA with the region covering most goods, services as well as investments, and has mentioned it in the draft submitted to the EAEU. We have received their draft as well and are currently going through it,” the official said.

Pharmaceuticals, textiles, agriculture items and energy are some of the areas where India stands to gain by getting into a trade pact with the EAEU. If the political strain between Russia and the EU and the resulting sanctions against EU food products continue, India could gain even more, the official added. A common JSG report would be culled out of the two drafts, once the two sides go through each other’s reports. “The final JSG report will spell out the ambition of the trade pact — whether it will be a wide-ranging FTA or a preferential trading agreement involving specified goods,” the official said.

Working on ‘no-go’ areas

The Commerce Ministry is simultaneously working on the “no-go’’ areas of the proposed pact. “We will soon be ready with the areas that we do not want to include in pact and the areas where we would like to move with caution so that there is no confusion about it,” the official said. With the Indian industry not too happy with the FTAs signed with trading partners such as South Korea, Japan and the ASEAN, the Ministry wants to tread carefully in the new ones that are to be negotiated. India’s exports to the EAEU countries in 2014-15 stood at about $2.5 billion, with $2.1 billion shipped to Russia. It is just a small part of the imports made by the region, with Moscow alone importing goods worth $282 billion in 2014.

SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line

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Global Crude oil price of Indian Basket was US$ 31.06 per bbl on 05.02.2016

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$ 31.06 per barrel (bbl) on 05.02.2016. This was lower than the price of US$ 31.66 per bbl on previous publishing day of 04.02.2016.

In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket decreased to Rs 2100.50 per bbl on 05.02.2016 as compared to Rs 2147.13 per bbl on 04.02.2016. Rupee closed stronger at Rs 67.64 per US$ on 05.02.2016 as against Rs 67.81 per US$ on 04.02.2016. The table below gives details in this regard: 

Particulars

Unit

Price on February 05, 2016 (Previous trading day i.e. 04.02.2016)

Pricing Fortnight for 01.02.2016

(14 Jan to 27 Jan, 2016)

Crude Oil (Indian Basket)

($/bbl)

31.06             (31.66)

26.05

(Rs/bbl

2100.50         (2147.13)

1763.06

Exchange Rate

(Rs/$)

67.64             (67.81)

67.68

 

Source: Ministry of Textiles

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US investors pour money into Vietnam’s textile & garment industry

Just after six months after opening, a bonded warehouse in Long Binh Industrial Zone in Dong Nai province is at full capacity. It supplies dyes and chemicals, and is run by Huntsman Textile Effects. Huntsman Textile Effects’s president Paul G. Hulme said the company set up a bonded warehouse there so as to be able to provide dyes and chemicals more rapidly.  The company may consider expanding investment in the future, depending on demand in the country. He is optimistic about business performance in Vietnam, as the demand for products is expected to increase when TPP takes effect and more capital will be poured into textile projects. Vietstock quoted a report by Savills released in late September 2015 as saying that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam in the first half of 2015 accounted for 76 percent of the total FDI capital committed. US capital continues flowing into Vietnam in anticipation of the opportunities to be brought by TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) and other free trade agreements (FTAs)

According to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (Vitas), FDI capital in the textile & garment sector had reached $2 billion by the end of 2015, a record high. Meanwhile, Amcham predicted that Vietnam’s total export turnover to the US may reach $51.4 billion by 2020, including $15.2 billion worth of textile and garment exports. It believes that the textile and garment exports to the market would be as high as $20 billion by 2025.US investors, who understand the great opportunities Vietnam’s textile & garment industry can grab when TPP takes effect, have flocked to Vietnam to set up factories. Avery Dennison RBIS, belonging to Avery Dennison Group, inaugurated a $30 million factory in Long Hai Industrial Zone in Hau Giang province in January. It is expected that Avery Dennison RBIS will make labels for strong brands like Uniqlo, North Face, Nike and Adidas. The new factory in Long An province will allow the company to increase its production capacity and better satisfy customer demand. A representative of the company said TPP would lure more textile and garment manufacturers to Vietnam, and the more they come, the better the company’s business would be. In July 2015, Avery Dennison RBIS opened a product distribution center in Binh Tan district in HCM City.Nguyen Son, chair of the Vietnam Cotton and Spinning Association (Vcosa), believes that the demand for accessories, dyes and chemicals would increase in the future, when more textile and garment factories are set up in Vietnam. Vietnam now imports billions of dollar worth of products to serve the industry.

SOURCE: The Vietnam Net

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Bangladesh’s fabled fabric needs a boost

Bangladesh’s legendary muslin fabric is in need of support, participants at a discussion on reviving the marvellous material heard on Sunday. Speakers at the “Revival of Muslin: Policies and Institutions” workshop said government support as well as private initiative were needed to promote the legendary textile and protect the artisans who weave it. “A major intervention is needed from the public sector to promote muslin and to protect the livelihood of muslin artisans,” researcher and rights activist Hamida Hossain said in her address at the Begum Sufia Kamal Auditorium in the Bangladesh National Museum. The effort to revive jamdani and muslin, whose manufacture was systematically decimated by the British colonial authorities, is part of a larger process to reclaim the heritage of this textile and to promote brand Bangladesh globally, speakers said. The workshop is one of several events this month during Muslin Festival 2016, organised by Drik, Aarong and Bangladesh National Museum. In 2013, Bangladesh’s jamdani muslin was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Artisans and investors alike need government support, preferably through a public-private partnership arrangement, speakers said. One member of the audience suggested that a Tk50 crore fund be set up to support the revival of muslin.

Speakers at the discussion admitted that little was known about the international demand for the textile and said research into this was needed. The history of muslin goes back at least a millennium and the fabric’s origins are shrouded in mystery. Marco Polo described the luxurious fabric in 1298 in his Travels, saying it was made in Mosul in Iraq, from which it was said to take its name. Others have claimed that the textile was made in the southern Indian coastal town of Masulipatnam. Neither claim has ever been proven. As early as the 10th century, Arab traders described an exceedingly fine cloth originating in Bengal. What is known for certain is that in the 17th and 18th centuries, Mughal Bengal emerged as the foremost muslin exporter in the world, with Dhaka as capital of the worldwide muslin trade.

At the end of the 16th century the English traveler Ralph Fitch wrote admiringly about the muslin of Sonargaon. Earlier in the same century, Portuguese traveler Duarte Barbosa also described the muslin of what is now Bangladesh. In Central Asia, muslin is referred to as “daka,” a reference to Dhaka’s central role in the production and trade of the fabric. The fine gauze has several commercial applications and is used in cerebrovascular neurosurgery. The discussion was chaired by Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue. Speakers included Industries Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and Additional Secretary Jamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury.

SOURCE: The Dhaka Tribune

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Zimbabwe textile industry to increase capacity utilisation to 45%

The local textile industry expects to push capacity utilisation to 45% this year after the government gazetted some Statutory Instruments discouraging cheap imports of textile products into the country, an official has said. In 2015, the industry was operating at below 30% of capacity owing to an influx of cheap imports. Zimbabwe Textile Manufacturers’ Association secretary-general, Raymond Huni told NewsDay that the industry would take off well this year due to measures introduced by government to protect the industry. In his 2016 National Budget, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said a number of policies to mobilise Diaspora remittances as an important source of liquidity in the economy have been instituted. “This year we are anticipating an improvement due to a number of measures introduced by the government to protect the industry. As industry, if everything goes well we want to push industry capacity to 45%,” he said. In his Mid-Term Fiscal Policy review, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa introduced the manufacturers’ rebate of duty on critical inputs imported by approved textile manufacturers. This rebate covers spare parts, yarn and unbleached fabric, among others. Furthermore, it was proposed to remove blankets from the Open General Import Licence for a period of 24 months.

Poly-knitted fabric is currently imported in semi-processed form, hence, undergoes very limited local value addition before transformation into a blanket, which competes with locally manufactured blankets. To that effect, government increased customs duty on poly knitted fabric from 10% to 40% plus $2,50 per kg. The government also banned imports of the second-hand clothes with Huni saying if implemented would see the sector double its contribution to gross domestic product to 10%. The textile sector requires at least $20 million to revive the industry currently reeling under low capitalisation levels and an influx of cheap imports but the government does not have money.

SOURCE: The News Day

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Increase power supply, not tariff, textile workers tell Nigerian government

The National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria on Sunday said the Federal Government must ensure steady power supply before increasing electricity tariff. A statement issued in Kaduna by the Secretary General of the Union, Issa Aremu, said the group supports the planned picketing of electricity distribution companies by the organise labour. “We hereby declare our total support for the planned picketing by labour and civil society allies of all offices of the electricity distribution companies (DISCOS) nationwide, including Abuja, on Monday February 8, to protest the unilateral and unlawful hike of electricity tariff. “We commend NLC leadership for this mass action for improved power supply instead of incessant non-service charges.” Mr. Aremu advised President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently revisit the report of the 2014 national conference and implement the holistic recommendations for the power sector. He said that the Federal Government should not allow the increase in tariff “by the underperforming generating and distribution companies.” “The point cannot be overstated; Power/Energy is so strategic to the industrialisation and the wellbeing of the people,’’ the former Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress said. He also appealed to the federal government to urgently review the privatisation contracts with the electricity generation and distribution companies.

Mr. Aremu said the firms should be given a two- year time-frame “to allow them stabilise and provide efficient power supply to Nigerians before they can contemplate any tariff increase.” The General Secretary further said that there should be more transparency in all future sale of the nation’s assets. “We reject the hike in electricity tariff and hereby call on our members across the country and all well meaning Nigerians to come out and join NLC protest to drive home the fact that the unilateral and unlawful hike of electricity tariff is unacceptable.“ Mr. Aremu said the textile union instead calls for improvement in power supply. “The point cannot be overstated. Between 30 per cent and 35 per cent of textile and garment manufacturing costs are energy related expenses. “Without electrification there can be no industrialisation. “The promise and expectation that President Buhari will revive textile industry generally is not possible without electricity,” the labour leader said. According to Mr. Aremu, it is time for the Buhari administration to critically review the power sector reform with a view to increasing public sector investment.

SOURCE: The Premium Times Nigeria

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Ethiopia fails to meet textile export targets

Last week, the Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (EDITI) said exports for the first six months of Ethiopian fiscal year 2015-16 are lagging behind the plan target. EDITI said that the target was to obtain $60.07 million from textile exports, while only $41.1 million was achieved, meeting 70% of the plan. Mid last year the government revealed ambitious plans to stimulate the sector by offering attractive incentives to investors. Incentives include duty free import of spare parts of 15% of capital goods for the first five years of operation, the possibility to hire expatriates free from income tax provided they stay for no more than two years. The government also offers reconciliation of VAT for materials purchased locally during the project period if declared within six months. At the time ETIDI director general Sileshi Lemma said, “We are working to be a leading country in light manufacturing in Africa which will lay the foundation for heavy and high tech industries by 2025.

More than 152 new investments were expected and least $1 billion was anticipated from the sector’s export. The GTP II is also expected to create more than 170,000 job opportunities. The country is also building at least ten industrial zones and all of them will be set up by the government. However last week, it was revealed that while cotton production was planned on 262,000 hectares of land, only 65,000 hectares was used for cotton production. The El Nino destroyed cotton crops over 14,000 hectares of land.

Other negative factors included lack of continuous power supply, weak company linkage, shortage of manpower, and delay in implementing investment projects accounted for the weak export performance of the Ethiopian textile industry during the six-month period. Abebe Kasse,the ETIDI Planning and Information Management Director, said the government wants the textile sector to be export oriented and give emphasis to quality.  He said the Institute believes the textile industry can achieve the export target for the year in the coming six months ending June 2016. The sector has the advantage of  high quality cotton that is grown in the country, as well as duty free access to US through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the EU market. There are several foreign-owned enterprises involved in the Ethiopian textile industry, coming from the United States, China, Turkey and the EU.

SOURCE: The Busiweek

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Apparel trade under Korea-US FTA being reviewed

The International Trade Administration will accept till March 7, comments on the information collections associated with the interim textile and apparel short supply and safeguard procedures under the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Sandler & Travis Trade Advisory Services Inc. (STTAS), the world's largest customs and international trade services provider, has said. The FTA provides for the establishment of a list of specific fibers, yarns and fabrics that are not available in commercial quantities in a timely manner from producers in the US or Korea. Textile and apparel articles containing these inputs are entitled to duty-free or preferential duty treatment despite not being produced in the US or Korea. Interested entities from Korea or the US have the right to request that a specific fibre, yarn or fabric be added to, or removed from, the list of commercially unavailable fabrics, yarns and fibres. The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreement (CITA) collects information about fiber, yarn or fabric technical specifications and the production capabilities of US textile producers to determine whether certain fibres, yarns or fabrics are available in commercial quantities in a timely manner, STTAS said.

The textile and apparel safeguard mechanism applies when, as a result of the reduction or elimination of a customs duty under the FTA, a Korean textile or apparel article is being imported into the US in such increased quantities and under such conditions as to cause serious damage or actual threat thereof to a US industry producing a like or directly competitive article. In these circumstances, the US may suspend any further reduction in the rate of duty imposed on the article, or increase duties on the imported article from Korea to a level that does not exceed the lesser of the prevailing US normal trade relations/most-favored-nation duty rate for the article or the US NTR/MFN duty rate in effect on the day before the FTA entered into force. CITA collects information to determine whether a domestic textile or apparel industry is being adversely impacted by imports of textile or apparel products from Korea, thereby allowing it to take corrective action.

SOURCE: Fibre2fashion

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The 15th Textile Asia coming up in Karachi next month

The 15th Textile Asia 2016 International Textile and Garment Machinery Trade Fair incorporating clothing, Fabric and Textile Asia organized in collaboration with the Ecommerce Gateway (Pvt) Ltd to be held in Karachi. Shaikh Mohammad Shafiq, chairman of Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) announced the schedule for the fair on Wednesday. The Textile Asia has been termed as the country’s biggest B2B fair on textile, garment, embroidery, digital printing machinery and chemical and allied services. The trade fair will have more than 550 international brands displaying their products in over 700 booths and over 500 foreign delegates mainly from Austria, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, US etc likely to attend the event.The trade fair will provide an effective podium for joint ventures / collaborations to the textile SMEs and provide a platform to its international participants to meet respective Pakistani business personals to make future business leads in Pakistan. The exhibition will focus on buying and selling potential of textile and garment industry and poised to introduce overseas suppliers of textile and garment materials, accessories and parts and machinery to the textile industry of Pakistan.This will complement their efforts for high quality, value added products and assist them to further develop their business in the export markets.The three-day trade fair will be held from March 9-11, 2016 at Karachi Expo Centre, Pakistan.

SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers

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China & Asia Textile Forum to take place in March

China & Asia Textile Forum will take place on March 14-15, 2016 at the Shanghai Marriott Hotel Hongqiao, its organisers have announced. The event will be co-organised by China Chamber of Commerce for import and export of textiles and ECV International. The United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA), the Textile Association (India), and the Vietnam Cotton & Spinning Association are jointly supporting the event. The two-day conference will be attended by various textile industry experts and researchers globally who are interested in exploring the latest trends and technologies in the textile industry. The event expects the participation of more than 200 senior experts and top managers in all aspects of industrial chain. USFIA president Juilia K Hughes will speak on the impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on the industry. The event will also hear discussions on, best practices and innovation for purchasing textiles and apparel in Asia, textile factories in the future, overall situation and development trends of India's textile industry, deep interpretation of China's 13th Five Year Plan and the prospects of economic situation for China's textile industry and more.

SOURCE: Fibre2fashion

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US urged to relegate Uzbekistan over forced labour

Cottoncampaign.org The Cotton Campaign, a global coalition of human rights, labor, investor and business organizations dedicated to eradicating child labor and forced labor in cotton production, has urged the US government downgrade Uzbekistan to its lowest level in its upcoming trafficking report in response to the country's continued use of forced labour in cotton harvests. According to the Cotton Campaign report, the Uzbek government in 2015 not only failed to comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards of prohibiting, punishing, deterring and taking serious efforts to eliminate trafficking, but also continued to implement a state policy of forced labour. “The only appropriate ranking for Uzbekistan in the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report is Tier 3. The Tier 3 ranking would communicate to the Uzbek government that its policy and practice of forced labor is unacceptable and encourage the Uzbek government to implement the raft of commitments it has made to apply international conventions prohibiting forced labour,” Cotton Campaign said in its report.

The US apparel and footwear industry has also urged the American government to downgrade Uzbekistan to its lowest level in the trafficking report. The Cotton Campaign's call to downgrade Uzbekistan has been endorsed by a group of 36 industry associations, brands, and labour and retail groups including the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA). Cotton Campaign said the government of Uzbekistan continued to organize, orchestrate and benefit from forced labor on a massive scale in 2015. The government used coercion to mobilize farmers to cultivate cotton for the centralized system of production; those who failed to comply were penalized. The report went on to say that the Uzbek government remained complicit in limited instances of forced child labour for cotton production in 2015. The state forced-labour system resulted in deaths and undermined health care and education services and businesses, the report said. According to Cotton Campaign, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reaffirmed the existence of forced labor in Uzbekistan's cotton sector. The Cotton Campaign report also pointed out that the government of Uzbekistan continued human rights violations in the cotton sector despite its engagement with the ILO in 2015.

SOURCE: Fibre2fashion

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IMF projects Pak economic growth at 4.5%

Pakistan's economy will grow at 4.5 per cent in the current fiscal despite a decline in exports and challenging external environment weighing on the country's growth prospects, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) mission chief to Pakistan Harald Finger said in a statement. “A weak cotton harvest, declining exports and a more challenging external environment are weighing on the growth prospects of Pakistan,” he said. Pakistan's cotton output has been badly hit after it lost an estimated 11 million bales due to pest attack and rain. Despite these challenges, the real GDP growth is expected to reach 4.5 per cent in FY 2015/16, helped by lower oil prices, planned improvements in the energy supply, investment related to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), buoyant construction activity, and acceleration of credit growth. "Economic activity remains robust," Finger said after a meeting with Pakistani officials in Dubai for the 10th review of Pakistan's economic programme supported by a three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement. Finger said the mission and the Pakistani authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on the completion of the 10th review under the EFF arrangement. The agreement is subject to approval by the IMF management and the executive board. Upon completion of this review, about $497 million will be made available to Pakistan. Pakistan's gross international reserves reached $15.9 billion in December 2015, up from $15.2 billion at end-September the same year, and covering close to four months of prospective imports, Finger's statement said.

SOURCE: Fibre2fashion

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