E-textiles-enabled wearables for healthcare
Better demand, rise in raw material price drive poly yarn in India
'UP to play key role in emerging India’s journey to prosperity'
Celebrating sustainability and Indian handcraft
FTA with UK will enhance competitiveness of Indian textile sector
New leadership team takes charge of US-India Business Council
INTERNATIONAL
Vietnam's Vinatex sets conservative goals in 2023 business plan
China suspends registration system for firms engaged in foreign trade
Vietnam becomes source of largest trade surplus for Korea
Trade deficit narrows, easing pressure on forex reserves
The New Role of the Textile Mill
NATIONAL
It has been surveyed and projected by MarketsAndMarkets that the healthcare solution market will reach US $ 46.6 billion in 2025. The market today is dominated by healthcare gadgets (hard goods), while e-textile-based medical systems and smart clothing are gaining gradual acceptance across the world. This can be comprehended from the survey results furnished by IDTechEx since 2017. The analysed data from 2017 to 2021 can be found in my post on the LinkedIn page.Healthcare wearable market A smart wearable device is categorised in two ways – one as medical grade only if certified by FDA, and the second is categorised as consumer-grade product. This adds challenges to the growth and popularity of these devices in the healthcare market. The vitals captured through a consumer-grade product need to be cross verified and correlated with vitals captured by medical-grade devices and the former can only be used for preliminary monitoring. There do exist few products in the market prepared out of E-textile enabled wearables for healthcare usage, which have been approved by FDA. Few of the products offered in healthcare related e-textile enabled wearables include Skiin product range by Myant, SimpleSense from Nanowear, Sports Bra and Undershirt from Emglare, smart socks from Sensoria, smart T-shirt from Xiaomi, QNanotech gloves from Quantic Nanotech among many others. BellyBand developed at Drexel University is amongst the few currently seeing further developments in the laboratories before being commercialised. So as learnt from the product range, they mainly consist of patient gowns, vests, fitted caps, gloves, brassieres, briefs, T-shirts, etc.
SimpleSense device and User Interface
SimpleSense device is a non-invasive wearable which utilises a textile-based nanosensor technology. The garment is designed for easy donning and doffing. This device captures parametric data namely two channels of ECG and thoracic impedance, heart sounds near the apex of the heart, activity and posture. These data are combined with demographics data for prediction of the heart functioning. The data captured during product development are used for training, validation and testing and later used for prediction of situations requiring medical attention, through Machine Learning (Artificial neural network in specific). The technology utilised in this device has cleared the FDA certification step. However, the role of textiles in this product is minimal and may be categorised accordingly under first generation products as discussed in the prior article of the series. Similar manner Cardiogram T-shirt by Xiaomi is capable of capturing ECG signals of the wearer along with the heart rate and communicating it through mobile app which is connected via bluetooth. It is made up of an innovative fibre trademarked as Cotech, which has the ability to non-inductively capture the microcurrents from the human body. It is also integrated with a lighting alert to alarm the user about unsafe range of heart rate values.
ECG captured by Xiaomi ‘s Cardiogram Shirt and depicted through mobile app
Sports Bra by Emglare is yet another product to capture ECG signals and heart rate, which claims to be the first-of-its-kind owing to all electronics integrated in the clothing (not required to be removed and inserted back) including the power source, sensors and switches, with a 100 per cent polyester fibre content along with conductive yarns at locations selectively required. Washing instructions are similar to any conventional delicate textiles. Capturing of vital is triggered as soon as one puts on the Bra and need not manually switch it off or on. It is priced at US $ 249 on the official website of Emglare. They come in various sizes like conventional brassieres. Emglare offers a similar solution for men: a vest (undershirt) which works on the same principle.
Schematic representation of embedded electronics in the Emglare Sports Bra
In similar manner, Smart Socks from Senoria enables improving speed, pace and cadence of an amateur athlete. It also helps prevent injuries. They are integrated with textile based pressure sensors which monitor foot landing technique while running. It provides a heat-map through a bluetooth enabled mobile application. This way it also enables a runner to compare his shoes and its performance objectively. This product was awarded as Best New Wearable Technology Device by IDTechEx. Smart Shirt developed by Myant under its SKIIN range monitors blood pressure. The important feature of the product is that it is washable and allows 24X7 continuous monitoring along with automatic data tracking. The majority of Myant’s Skiin product range are knitted using E-textile to embed them with sensors and actuators to impart the wearable with the ability to sense and react to the human body. Myant Inc., Ontario, CA is in the process of developing a rehabilitation solution which will utilise sensors and actutors knitted in textile and data captured to be analysed through the Machine Learning platform of Myant Inc. The data analysed will enable flagging serious deviation from baseline and alarm the care provider to initiate the therapy required. The platform will also keep the closed ones connected through this wearable who would remotely be able to connect with the individual.
Myant platform and ecosystem
Well, that’s the brighter side of the story. By the time you come to the end of this feature, you yourself would have realised the minimal role of textiles in these commercially existing products. As we learn more about products for similar applications with increased contribution of e-textiles in them, they end up existing in the research Labs and are yet to be commercialised. Let us hope we will soon get to see BellyBand, flexible knitted wearable sensors and other similar healthcare products spin off the labs and get launched in the market.
Source: Apparel Resources
Polyester yarn prices improved in Indian markets today due to better buying amid tight supply and rise in prices of raw material. Last Friday, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest player in polyester value chain, has increased prices of PTA, monoethylene glycol (MEG) and MELT. However, the prices of polyester-cotton yarn remained stable. According to trade sources, better buying in yarn market drove polyester fibre and yarn prices upwards. There were better sentiments in market after more export orders were received by the industry. Ashok Singhal, a trader from Ludhiana market, told Fibre2Fashion, “Poly spun yarn gained in market as mills increased prices after rise in the price of raw material. Tight supply also improved market sentiments.” In Ludhiana, 30 count poly spun yarn was sold higher by ₹3-5 per kg at ₹153-160 per kg. The price of recycled polyester fibre (PET bottle fibre) was noted at ₹80-82 per kg. However, prices of polyester-cotton (PC) yarn remained stable. 30 count PC combed yarn (48/52) was sold at ₹210-215 per kg (GST inclusive), while 30 count PC carded yarn (65/35) was priced at ₹180-185 per kg, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro. In Surat market, the price of poly spun yarn increased by ₹4-5 per kg due to better buying. A trader from Surat market said that there was better buying in cotton yarn and polyester yarn after new export orders, but viscose was still bearish. Viscose yarn (30 count) was sold lower at ₹200-205 per kg. 30 counts poly spun yarn was traded at ₹137-138 per kg (GST extra) and 40 counts poly spun yarn at ₹153-155 per kg. The prices gained ₹3-4 per kg in last few days amid better demand and increase in raw material prices. For the current week, RIL had fixed raw material prices as: PTA ₹79.70 per kg (+1.10), MEG ₹55.90 per kg (+0.40) and MELT ₹87.55 (₹+1.09) per kg. RIL had also increased prices of PSF by ₹4 to ₹103 per kg for the current fortnight. Meanwhile, prices of cotton also increased in north India due to better demand. The prices increased by ₹25-50 per maund of 37.2 kg. According to local traders, cotton arrival did not improve, and it was estimated at 11,000 bales of 170 kg. The natural fibre was traded at ₹6,150-6,300 in Punjab, ₹6,150-6,300 in Haryana and ₹6,350-6,425 per maund in upper Rajasthan. Cotton was sold at ₹60,500-62,000 per candy of 356 kg in lower Rajasthan.
Source: Fibre2Fashion
Economy is the vital yardstick for measuring development. Adequate availability of infrastructure like roads, electricity, and water as well as industry and employment are the basis of evaluating a government’s performance. And if this economic progress is coupled with a strong will to end corruption and inspiring leadership, then the future is truly glorious. My experience in , in investing in data centres is nothing short of extraordinary. UP accounts for eight per cent of the country’s GDP and is poised to embark on a progressive and transformational path. Over the years, UP has significantly improved its business environment by providing competent policy support and world-class infrastructure. The state has emerged as a dream destination for investors following PM Narendra Modi’s motto of “Reform, Perform, and Transform”. UP has a consumer base of more than 16 per cent of the country’s total population and boasts of having the youngest workforce. Under the leadership of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh has come out of its old image of a state of crimes and criminals to become a state with the most potential for development and has become free of corruption. Our journey of idea to reality turned out to be quicker than we anticipated. In 2020, one of the largest tech companies in the world approached us to give them data centre capacity in the National Capital Region – this was in the middle of Covid pandemic – August 2020. In September, we approached three states in that area. UP responded fastest, that is, in 48 hours. As you will recall, there was a strict lockdown at that time. Using drones, because we couldn’t visit the site, we finalized the location and completed all the due diligence in 30 days. We applied to the UP Government in September and by October we were given the letter of allotment. In November, the Chief Minister virtually conducted a ground-breaking ceremony and in December, we signed our first contract for a portion of the facility. At that time, not knowing the demand, we intended to invest Rs 1,600 crore in phases. By the end of February, we received all permits, and we broke ground in early March. We received a tremendous customer response and we expanded our plans to about Rs 7,000 crore in phases. We received many more customer confirmations by July 2022. Proof of the pudding is in the eating. We completed the first phase of the facility in October 2022 which the CM graciously inaugurated. It has gone live and construction for the second phase has started. Can you imagine building a project in India and not having a local goonda or a local hafta lobby asking you to appoint security agencies or contractors affiliated with her or him? Our journey remains amazing. While our allotment process was rapid, the UP government has now launched the “Online Incentive Management Portal” and ‘Customer Relationship Management Portal (Nivesh Sarathi)” portals to further simplify investor concerns and industry requirements. While a lot of our chief ministers are well intentioned to echo “ease of doing business mantras” and make efforts, it has been incredible to see it working on the ground at every level of government, not just at the top and that gives me tremendous hope about not just UP’s, but India’s future as a whole. I travelled with the Invest UP team to London and shared my experience of investing in Uttar Pradesh. Be it Europe, Nadella's Microsoft too is party to Modi's Make in India dreams 1 India's new standard seeks startups in nooks & corner 2 New Delhi to force key sectors toe the 'green' line 3 America, or Gulf countries, for every big investor who is willing to invest in India, UP is a key choice of consideration. British companies were brimming with excitement about investing in Uttar Pradesh in my interaction with them. While the UP government has incredible policies, their biggest strength is mindset. I had several interactions with the CM where he did the virtual foundation stone, did the inauguration ceremony when the facility went live and at numerous other events. We interacted in several of the Invest UP programmes. In the entire endeavour – I met the hon’ble chief minister one on one only once to discuss our project to hear if he had any concerns. I didn’t have any issues. His team itself is so effective. Why did we succeed? Transparency in our interactions. What we need, when we need it, why we need it. With that in mind, once they gave us the green light, they have ensured that we encounter no delays. What they promised me, they’ve delivered and they’ve shocked us private enterprise folk in terms of what they can get done. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s focus is on providing protection and necessary cooperation to all the investors for a hasslefree setting up of their ventures in the state. The Yogi government has changed the perception about UP that bureaucracy does not want to work there. Having placed a large investment bet in UP, I have been closely following Uttar Pradesh’s other development steps. Not only does the UP government have an umbrella industrial investment policy but has 25+ sectoral policy covering EV, textiles, pharma, start-ups, data centers, IT&ITeS, electronic manufacturing, defence and aerospace, MSMEs, bio energy, solar energy, film production, and tourism which have launched ahead of the investor’s summit. The state government is establishing clusters for semiconductor manufacturing and fab units. The state has been classified as a ‘leader state’ by the Government of India in the Startup India Ranking (2021). Over 7,600 startups have been registered in UP as part of the ‘Startup India’ programme, and six centres of excellence have been approved. Educational institutes like IIT-Kanpur, IIT-BHU, and IIMLucknow, among others, provide many opportunities for venture capitalists, incubation centre developers, and skill development. To add to this advantage, the state is planning several industrial projects. One of the two Defence Industrial Corridors in the country is being developed in UP. The Yogi government is hosting the UP Global Investors Summit (UP GIS 2023) from February 10 to 12 to boost UP’s economy and increase employment prospects in the state. Team Yogi embarked on a global tour to invite industries to During the meetings, MoUs worth more than Rs 7.12 lakh crore were signed. There have been discussions with representatives of industries in 21 cities of 16 countries. Huge investments are going to pave the way for a golden future of India. In the past six years, under the leadership of CM Yogi Adityanath, the UP administration has launched several initiatives in this area. UP is significantly contributing to PM Narendra Modi’s goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by accelerating towards becoming a $1 trillion economy in itself. If India’s most populated state can accelerate economically, it is a beacon of hope for the entire nation.
Source: Economic times
Taking the ideas of sustainability and Indian handcrafting ahead, award-winning textile designer Gaurang Shah will host Carvaan — an exhibit of 20 talented Indian designers, and artisans who value innovation and development of India’s traditional handicrafts. The show will be held at the Gaurang’s Kitchen. The exhibit aims to invigorate the weaving traditions of India and bring fresh ideas, design, and colour to the Kashmiri Pashmina. Other featured brands include AVE, Andraab, VRISÁ, Avacara, Weavers Studio, Twenty Nine, Paiwand, Purvi Doshi, Purvi Patel, Silver Streak, Sonchiraiya, Purabh Paschim, Behind the seams by Tanvi and Sonali, Loka, Revival, Kalam Creations and Deepa Gurnani. These brands are dedicated to preserving the handcrafted traditions of India, upcycling textile waste, and bringing sustainable and cruelty-free fashion to the world. In addition to its focus on handcrafted textiles and traditional cuisine, the Carvaan exhibit also featured the finest selection of luxury couture, bridal, print, and accessories from the heart of India in both New York and Bengaluru. Visitors will have the opportunity to choose from the best fashion labels and browse a wide range of Indian traditional and contemporary wear from leading designers at the multi-designer store. Gaurang Shah, a textile maverick, has been traversing the country for the last 20 years, invigorating the weaving traditions of India. Bringing forth relentless creative and aesthetic ideas. As the mastermind behind Carvaan, Gaurang Shah believes in the power of the exhibit to invigorate the weaving traditions of India and bring forth relentless creative and aesthetic ideas at the intersection of art, craft, and design. Through the finely handwoven textiles and fine vegetarian cuisine offered at the exhibit, visitors will have the opportunity to immerse into the vast handcrafted heritage and food arts of India.
Source: New Indian Express
The Indian textile industry is very eager to see Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in place with the United Kingdom. The industry expects that it will be able to better compete with neighbouring Bangladesh once there is duty-free access to the large garment market. Both India and the UK have indicated that they are working for early conclusion of FTA negotiations. Last month, Indian commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and UK secretary of state for international trade Kemi Badenoch met for the sixth round of FTA negotiations after a gap of more than four months. They directed their negotiators to not to stick with sensitive issues but iron out the differences and move ahead. “The proposed trade deal with the UK is very important for Indian industry as UK is a large market and Indian textile industry will have duty-free access to the important market. It will provide much needed boost to the industry,” Sanjay Jain, managing director of TT Limited and former chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industries (CITI), told Fibre2Fashion. He expects the trade deal to get signed in the first half of 2023. Indian industry expects the FTA to provide a level-playing field with Bangladesh, which has duty-free access to the UK due to preferential treatment on the basis of its Least Developed Country (LDC) status. Currently, Indian apparel exports to the UK attract around 10 per cent duty. K Vel Krishna, managing partner of Deiveegam Dyers, had said during a session of CII’s Texcon conference held recently in New Delhi, “Proposed FTA with the UK is expected to be landmark development as it can provide better edge to Indian exporters. They will be able to offer competitive prices to UK’s buyers. They will also get duty-free access to the market similar to Bangladeshi exporters.” Raja M Shanmugham, former president of Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA), told Fibre2Fashion, “FTAs are very important trade arrangements between the trading countries in this era of universal market. The proposed trade deal with UK is important because it will open large consuming market further. It would also be followed with similar trade arrangement with Europe.” He said that speedy completion of FTA negotiations with all the prospective trading countries would help the Indian economy too. K Selvaraju, secretary general of South Indian Mills Association (SIMA), told Fibre2Fashion, “The proposed trade deal with the UK is expected to open doors to an important market. Indian textile sector, more specifically the garment industry, will get a boost as Indian exporters will be able to export there without duty. However, Indian government needs to ensure raw material security. Currently, Indian cotton is costlier than ICE cotton which is paralysing competitiveness of Indian exporters.” As per trade data, India is the fifth largest garment supplier to the UK, while Bangladesh is the second. According to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro, UK had imported garments worth $20.889 billion during 2021. With garment supply of $3.019 billion, Bangladesh accounted for 14.45 per cent in UK’s total apparel imports. China’s share was 21.57 per cent. Turkiye and Italy also had a share greater than India’s 5.24 per cent ($1.094 billion) in 2021. Once the FTA is in place, India can expect to improve its share in the UK market.
Source: Fibre2Fashion
Aashish Vij, Group Director of Pan Overseas, a Panipatbased seller of floor coverings and chenille bedspreads, has seen a 35-40% drop in his textile export business this year. Vij, who gets 80% of his business from the US market, attributes this to a number of reasons, including higher grocery bills in US, soaring raw material prices, high inventory levels and a cut back in discretionary spends. “Immediately after the pandemic crisis abated in 2021, the market really boomed. But it has slowed in this financial year. The next six months will be very important. We have to wait and watch. If things keep going on at this pace, many of us will have to exit our business,” he says. The exporter’s views are reflective of the problems hurting India’s $200-billion textile industry. The segment is grappling with a situation where big markets such as the US and Europe are tightening their purse strings amid high inflationary pressures. This seems to have had a large impact on textiles. Though the Indian economy remains relatively strong and is an outperformer among the major economies, the textile sector is a notable exception, says a Reuters news report. Order flow suggests the downturn will continue well into 2023, raising the risk of layoffs in an industry that employs more than 45 million people. “Exports, which constitute about 22% of the industry, have fallen for five months in a row — declining over 15% year-on-year in November to $3.1 billion,” the report adds. With discretionary spending down and buyers spending only on essentials, textiles are not getting as much of a preference as earlier. Also, more focus on cotton textiles over the years has created a dent in demand as newer segments have come up. The textile and apparel sector is integral to India’s export growth as it has about 10.33% share in the export basket, according to official statistics. Therefore the dismal numbers paint a bleak picture. What is making textile exports from India lose their competitiveness? Change of mindset Atul Gupta, Partner, Deloitte India, says textiles have not really helped in pushing our exports up; in fact, its share in the export basket has just reduced over the years. One of the main reasons is the thought process that cotton textiles alone will get us through. “The world has moved on to man-made fibre (MMF). That is one area where we don’t have a distinct advantage. We don't have a big share in technical textiles, home textiles, fabrics, etc, compared to yarn and readymade garments where we have a bigger hold,” he says. The MMF segment accounts for 70% share in global fibre consumption, with demand for it steadily increasing in the world market. Gupta emphasises that India’s product mix needs to be realigned with global market demand. Only then will the textile sector see some changes for the better. “Thatis where innovativeness, superior design and value addition is more substantial. There is no point in fulfilling the cotton fibre demand of the world without any superior quality. Cotton yarn is an ‘also-ran’ product. We are competing with everyone in that segment,” he says. Incidentally, the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for textiles in 2021, with a budgetary outlay of Rs 10,683 crore, is seeking to fill this gap by promoting domestic production of high-value MMF fabric, garments and technical textiles. “The incentive structure has been so formulated that industry will be encouraged to invest in fresh capacities in these segments. This will give a major push to growing the high-value MMF segment, which will complement the efforts of cotton and other natural fibre-based textiles industry in generating new opportunities for employment and trade,” a Press Information Bureau release had stated. Gupta says that while these are steps in the right direction, these alone won’t help make India a leading textile exporter. “Even for textile machinery, we are dependent on overseas manufacturers and suppliers. Our top exporters don’t even use any Indian machinery. They use imported ones. We are still a rudimentary market. We need to get out of the mindset that textiles, as an industry, has to be labour intensive. Instead, a focus on modernisation and digitisation should be the key so that our products are superior in quality and get better visibility,” he adds. More value addition Industry experts are of the view that India also has an opportunity to scale up in categories that have traditionally not been our forte. KK Lalpuria, Executive Director and CEO, Indo Count Industries, a Kolhapur based home textile manufacturer specialising in bed linen, draws attention to higher value-added products that can hold India in good stead. “India is not doing well in certain categories of exports such as swimwear, lounge wear, athletic wear, leisure wear. We are not participating in those categories but more in basics like t-shirts and other simpler products in apparel. Our presence has been more in low-hanging fruits. Now there is an opportunity to achieve the numbers China had done in the past by participating in the relevant categories. We have a chance to gain much more market share,” he says. Reflecting on the recent trend in the textile sector, Lalpuria says that it is evident that the trajectory has been on a downward curve. This despite the fact that it is the holiday season — traditionally the time for robust sales in stores. “November showed more of a downward trend than September or October. In the quest to liquidate inventory, retailers came up with discounts from October onwards and everyone finished shopping before the season itself. However, on the bright side, we are hearing that the inventory pipeline of brands and retailers is drying up. If that is the case, things should start normalising post holiday season,” he adds. Anomalies in export But besides such factors, there are other aspects as well that don’t make it a level playing field for India’s textile exports. Lalpuria refers to the anomalies in export, which make it difficult for industry players to compete with international counterparts on an equal footing. “For instance, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan have duty-free access to Europe and the UK, whereas India is paying a 9.6% duty. Once FTAs (free trade agreements) with the EU, the UK and Canada are implemented, Indian textiles will have the opportunity to gain further market share. These should be signed quickly as time is of essence. India should not lose out on that,” he says. The FTA with the UK is expected to give a fillip to Indian exports in a range of labour-intensive sectors such as leather, textile, jewellery and processed agriproducts. It also aims to double bilateral trade between India and the UK by 2030. Affirming such views, Gupta of Deloitte India says that FTAs can help the sector to a great extent as the country suffers on custom duty rates. “FTAs or bilateral trade treaties will help in doing away with the uncompetitiveness that we face vis-a-via the competing economies. That is why FTAs are important,” he says. Getting through the crisis In the meantime, exporters have lined up strategies to tide through this lean period. Pan Overseas’ Vij has tried some innovations to diversify its core offerings. “We provide anti-skid treatment to our bath rugs. We imported more specialised machines to improve our quality and got a good response on it. We introduced the product in more colours. This helped us get more market. Besides this, we took our floor covering capability and transformed it into making storage products — essentially baskets and containers. That has given us a tremendous response,” he says. The exporter says they had not thought of such addons earlier as floor coverings were running at full capacity. “This was the time to use spare capacity towards more innovative lines. I turned my rug capacity into making baskets.” Home furnishings brand Maspar Living is looking at geographies beyond the US and the UK to capture a wider customer base right now. “We are getting to other markets such as the UAE and Africa. We have a wider customer base across countries and we are consciously looking at that as well,” says Abhinav Mahajan, MD, Maspar Living. With India nursing an ambition to achieve $100 billion in textile exports by 2030, a rehaul of strategies and policies will play a pivotal role in meeting such objectives. A recovery in the sector may not be immediately visible, experts say, but there are reasons to be bullish about the next financial year. “As inflationary conditions cool off and retailers exhaust their stocks, added by the growing preference of importers to move away at least part of their sourcing from China, Indian textile exporters should see good demand from the second half of 2023,” says Arun Roongta, MD of HGH India, a trade show platform for home textiles, home décor, houseware and gifts.
Source: Economic times
A new leadership team has taken charge of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) from January 2, 2023, to oversee its operations in New Delhi, the US Chamber of Commerce announced. Alexander Slater, who is a globally recognised expert in law, economics, and business, will serve as the managing director of USIBC, while Shreerupa Mitra, veteran of policy and government, will serve as the deputy managing director. Ambika Sharma, USIBC’s current managing director, will move to a new role as the principal advisor to USIBC president Ambassador Atul Keshap, the Chamber said in a press release. Slater served as USIBC’s deputy managing director in New Delhi since December 2019, managing the day-to-day operations of its India-based team, and leading its financial services, tax, and real estate vertical. During his tenure, Slater helped facilitate significant gains in USIBC membership, especially in venture capital and private equity, areas central to fuelling India’s startup ecosystem and cross-sector growth. Mitra served as USIBC’s senior advisor in New Delhi since September 2022. With deep expertise in the government of India and strong connections to business leaders in the energy, defense, and advisory sectors, Mitra will lead USIBC’s activities around India’s G20 presidency in 2023 and support the US Chamber’s leadership in the B20. “As the next managing director of USIBC, I’m very grateful for the opportunity to continue the organisation’s 48-year mission of strengthening trade and investment ties between India and the US,” said Slater. “During this volatile period for geopolitics and geoeconomics, I am focused on making sure we provide our members and both governments the best advice on how to capitalise on these conditions to enhance the commercial activity that underpins the bilateral relationship.” “US- India bilateral cooperation, including trade, is broad-based and multi-sectoral. Although current geopolitical challenges will significantly impact global growth prospects, this can be a particularly fertile circumstance for India and the US to enhance trade relations and iron-out roadblocks. I feel particularly grateful to lead a team that the Government of India considers a critical stakeholder in this space,” said Mitra. “The US-India Business Council is a trusted and powerful driver of ever closer commercial and strategic cooperation between the world’s two largest democracies,” said Keshap. “We’re ecstatic to have two policy innovators—Alexander Slater and Shreerupa Mitra—serve USIBC’s new India leadership team. Their deep expertise and substantial global networks across the public and private sectors in the US and India will power our organisation to even greater heights and serve our over two-hundred member companies well.”
Source: Fibre2Fashion
INTERNATIONAL
The Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), whose consolidated revenue and profit rose by 15 per cent and 14.6 per cent year-on-year respectively in 2022, recently announced its business plan for 2023 with many conservative goals. This year is anticipated to be a challenging year for export-oriented sectors, particularly textiles. Since October 2022, the major export markets for Vietnam's textiles and apparel have shown signs of severe deterioration. "In 2022, as the global economy swung in a complex manner, the textile and apparel business faced several obstacles in terms of consumer demand, and beginning in the third quarter, orders decreased precipitously," general director of Vinatex Cao Huu Hieu was quoted as saying by a Vietnamese media outlet. "However, Vinatex still accomplished its goals with expected consolidated sales of $830 million, an increase of 15 per cent year-on-year. The anticipated consolidated profit reached $46 million, up 14.6 per cent," Hieu said. The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) foresees two growth scenarios this year, with the optimistic scenario predicting a turnover of $47-48 billion and the pessimistic one anticipating $45-46 billion. In 2022, the entire industry had a total export turnover of more than $44 billion. The industry's troubles include low demand for yarn and its low selling price, large yarn stocks, rising storage costs, congested working capital flows and and intense price competition for orders. In addition, most units are under-loaded by 35 to 50 per cent. A decline in global buying power is anticipated to lead to pressures on the country’s clothing sector to cut orders by an average of 25 to 27 per cent this year. Since 2022 began, the total labour force of the industry has decreased by 5-7 per cent and that trend is anticipated to continue this year as the status of orders has not been restored along with intense competition from other industries. General solutions identified in Vinatex's 2023 business plan include forming a package knitting production chain by choosing the most suitable and essential items and completing the production chain progressively. It plans to invest in green growth, raise investments in innovative technologies, save energy, limit the usage of chemicals, reduce emissions, utilise renewable energy sources, raise manufacturing of recycled items and aim for a digital transformation for key tasks.
Source: Fibre2Fashion
Commercial authorities in China cancelled registration requirements for businesses engaged in foreign trade activities from December 30 last year following a revision of the country's Foreign Trade Law, according to the ministry of commerce. However, whether this is applicable to all trades or not has not been disclosed by the authorities. Market entities will no longer be required to provide foreign-trade operator registration material while applying for import and export licenses, registration certificates of technology import and export contracts, quotas, state-owned trade qualifications and other relevant documents. It is an important institutional innovation for the government to promote trade liberalisation and would help optimise the business environment, release the potential for foreign trade growth and promote high-quality trade development and high-level opening up, the ministry was quoted as saying by an official media outlet.
Source: Fibre2Fashion
Vietnam has become the source of Korea's largest trade surplus for the first time as the economic partnership between the two countries has expanded over the past few years amid shrinking trade with China, according to data released Wednesday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Korea posted a surplus of $34.25 billion in trade with Vietnam in 2022, with exports to the Southeast Asian country totaling $60.98 billion and imports from it amounting to $26.72 billion. The nation's trade surplus with the United States ranked second at $28.04 billion, followed by Hong Kong ($25.79 billion), India ($9.98 billion) and Singapore ($9.86 billion.) "The data shows that Korean businesses have actively advanced into Vietnam as it emerges as a manufacturing hub for global enterprises," the ministry said, adding, "Such a presence by the Korean firms thus has helped the two countries to grow into closely-connected economic partners." Korea and Vietnam established diplomatic relations in 1992, overcoming the past hostility triggered by Korea's participation in the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s as a U.S. ally. It has been a major investment destination of Korean firms since then, including Samsung which accounts for around 20 percent of Korea's exports to Vietnam. Thanks to political stability and a young population, Vietnam is rapidly substituting China as a major manufacturing site. Vietnam's statistics agency estimates the country's economy grew 8.02 percent in 2022, which is the highest since 1997. The trade volume between the two countries soared 164 times since 1992 to $80.7 billion. The amount of mutual investments also jumped 145 fold to $2.5 billion. Bilateral trade was heavily concentrated on textiles, clothing and other labor-intensive goods in the beginning, but now encompasses high-value-added products, according to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA). Among them are semiconductors and wireless communication devices. Korean business investments in Vietnam were mainly focused on the manufacturing sector, but over time, has expanded to banking, insurance and e-commerce, among others. Meanwhile, Korea's trade surplus with the U.S. increased by 14.5 percent year-on-year in 2022, with exports surpassing the $100 billion mark for the first time. China ranked 22nd, falling from third place in 2020 and 2021 and second place in 2019, in terms of Korea's trade surplus. Korea's surplus in trade with China totaled $1.25 billion last year, with exports declining significantly due to the COVID-19 lockdowns in major Chinese cities while imports of raw materials increased compared to previous years.
Source: Korea times
In the first five months of the fiscal year 2022–23, Bangladesh's trade deficit decreased by six percent year on year to $11.79 billion -- a development that is likely to relieve pressure on the country's foreign exchange reserves. According to data from the Bangladesh Bank shipped $20.74 billion worth of goods between July and November of the current fiscal year, up 11.75 percent from the same period last year. In the fiscal year 2022–2023's July–November period, imports increased by 4.4 percent year on year to $32.5 billion from $31.1 billion the previous year. With the falling trade deficit, Bangladesh also registered an improvement in its current account balance, a record of a nation's transactions in trade and services with the rest of the world, during the period. Current account balance which was swelling until recently, declined to $5.6 billion in July-November of this fiscal from $6.2 billion a year ago, according to Bangladesh Bank data. Some improvement in the current account balance was expected by the October-November period in view of the measures taken by the central bank to discourage imports, said Towfiqul Islam Khan, senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue. The declining trend of key imported commodity prices in the international market also contributed to a fall in import bills, he said.The central bank's measures to discourage import will ease pressure on the current account balance, but to recover the overall balance situation the nation needs to attract foreign direct investments, enhance foreign aid flow as well as timely recover loans provided to the private sector from the foreign exchange reserve, he said.
Source: The daily star
We are presently living at a time when the world is undergoing rapid and radical fundamental change and it is very difficult to predict where the industry will be next Tuesday much less in the next 12 months. Still, I give here simple professional opinion.
We will be looking at two trends:
· The evolution of the home furnishing sector.
· The fundamental changes which have created an for textiles mills to move from simple suppliers to retailers.
The Evolution of the Home Furnishing Sector
The soft-furnishing sector began with advent of ‘garment sourcing’. Previously, the industry operated through ‘garment buying’ whereby the garment factory supplied all the fabric and trim, with the result that the customer (retailer/brand) had no relationship with the textile mills. Garment sourcing brought a great change because the customer started working directly with the mills - negotiating prices and placing contracts. Once the customer had a direct relationship with the fabric suppliers, home furnishing became a natural extension of their business: They had the consumers, the designers, the marketing skills, the venues and now the suppliers. Indeed, they had everything required to enter the soft home furnishing sector with no additional costs. For the consumer, home furnishing was, for the most part, a form of do-it-yourself (DIY) interior design. The big retailers selling to middle and lower income consumers did very well. Soft home furnishings quickly became the great low-cost high-profit sector. Home furnishing peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers everywhere were in a state of lockdown. With no place to go, retail garment sales fell, while demand for home furnishings rose as consumers were stuck at home.
Fundamental Changes Which Have Created the Opportunity for Textile Mills to Move From Simple Suppliers to Retailers
The global economy has changed bringing new existential challenges.
Declining Demand: We are living in a time of stagflation when prices are rising, while at the same time, incomes are falling. As a result, consumer demand for both garments and home furnishing is falling and will continue to fall for the next few years. Due to this, the pie for both customers (retailers) and suppliers (factories) is becoming smaller. Those who develop new strategies to meet the new challenges will become the new industry leaders.
The Great Resignation: During the COVID-19 lockdown many people were stuck in their homes, unable to travel to their offices. While this resulted in many problems, there were some real advantages: The cost of living fell, while for many, increased family time brought lifestyle improvement. When the lockdowns ended, many did not want to return to the office. This included middle class workers such as technicians, professionals and managers. It now appears that the great resignation is here to stay. As a result, we can expect reduced demand for clothing against increased demand for home furnishing.
Global Warming: This is the greatest problem facing humanity and the situation will become worse each successive year. We can expect people’s demands for sustainability to increase every year, far into the future. This will lead to a shift in the home furnishing sector. Those retailers and brands that move to sustainable products such as reprocessed and/or artificial fibre will grow to become the market leaders while those who fail to move ahead will become the losers.
The Evolution of the Industry has Brought the Supplier Side to the Forefront
Seventy years ago, in the early days, the customer (retailer and brand) was king. The customer made demands and everybody else - supplier (factories) and middlemen (independent agents) - replied ‘Yes Sir! Yes Sir!’. In the middle 1970s the situation changed as a new generation of retailers, such as Inditex and H&M, began to recognise that they faced serious problems such as poor quality assurance (QA) and increased markdowns which the retailers on their own could not solve. Indeed, these new generation retailers recognised that the solution rested with the factory. And so, the best factories moved up from simple product makers to more sophisticated service providers. As a result, the service-providing factory and the new generation retailer became partners, albeit with the factory as a junior partner. This trend has not only continued but has moved into a third iteration whereby, the entire industry structure, customer-middleman-factory is about to transmogrify. The names may well remain, but the functions will change completely. In this new industry, the factory supplier can become the factory-supplier/retailer. Much of this is due to the advent of e-commerce which has given a low-cost venue to would-be retailers.
Cutting out the middleman who took most of the money: think music record companies and movie theatres.
Creating new sectors that reduced sales of both retailers and suppliers: think vintage clothing and online fashion clothing rental. However, the greatest change is the result of the retailers’ failure to meet the demands of the consumer. To a great degree, what retailers are now offering are overpriced boring products. After 70 years, the door has opened to a new sector: Factory Direct. This can be the future, where textile mills will dominate soft home furnishing because the mill can offer a greater variety of products, faster delivery, and at half price. Most importantly the mill, and only the mill, can ensure high levels of sustainability through development of reprocessed and artificial fibres. At this moment, the consumer is looking for a new retail model that will meet their demands. Today a new generation of more educated, more sophisticated consumers are looking for sustainable higher quality products at reasonable prices. With regard to the soft home furnishings, the mill and only the mill can meet those demands.
Source: Fibre2fashion
