INTERNATIONAL
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The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) will very soon take a MMF delegation from India to the US and will be meeting top American Companies to increase exports of manmade fibre textiles and technical textiles, informed Mr Bhadresh Dodhia, Chairman, SRTEPC, here. The Council, he said, is working on this delegation visit in consultation with the office of the Consulate General of India in Mumbai. US is also a source of supplies of high quality raw materials like speciality yarns, aramid yarns, filter fabrics etc. that are required by the Indian manufacturers of technical textiles, pointed out the SRTEPC Chairman. Stating that the US is one of the leading export markets for textiles and Clothing from India, Mr. Dodhia noted that PM’s recent visit to US has certainly boosted the image of India not only in the US but across the globe which will lead to significant increase in exports of Textiles & Clothing from India, according to Shri Dodhia. He said that the visit of PM to the US received unprecedented response from the US President Joe Biden and the Americans clearly indicate that India is a growing power and is on the rise The visit would mark a “milestone” in the bilateral relationship between the two countries and would lead to significant investments in India and development of trade, SRTEPC Chairman added.
Source: Tecoyo Trend
India is mulling mega trade fairs for food, textiles and auto components, on the lines of Messe Frankfurt, Gulfood and Canton Fair, to achieve 12% growth in goods exports by 2030. These suggestions figured in a meeting held by commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal with industry and exporters on Monday. Officials said investment promotion arm Invest India, which is also drawing up the country’s trade strategy, has identified 100-odd companies across 30 sectors and 30 countries, and around a 100 more being shortlisted as part of the Strategic Investment Targets Initiative. Besides, sectoral targets have been set for $1 trillion goods exports by 2030 The commerce and industry ministry has identified 12 priority countries including the US, Canada, Germany, Brazil and South Korea where Indian exporters would do global exhibitions. “There is a need to scale up our exhibitions and invite foreign companies to exhibit here,” said an official. The push for export promotion activities comes amid falling outbound shipments.
Source: Economic Times
Textile Minister Shivanand Patil said the State Government would attempt to create a brand for handloom goods like Ilkal and Udupi sarees. Patil said that a Government decision about the weavers’ demand for 20 HP electricity during a meeting of state-level weavers and representatives from the Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation (KHDC). “We will ensure that weavers get facilities on par with unorganised sector workers. We will discuss with banks to provide hassle-free loans to weavers. We will conduct another survey to add all weavers’ names to the Nekar Samman scheme,” he added. He also said that transport, police, forest and other departments’ employees purchase uniforms from weavers. “We will also request the education minister to procure school uniforms from weavers. We will re-develop Priyadarshini showrooms and provide an online platform to sell handloom products in the next 2-3 months,” he stated.A reserve fund of Rs. 1,000 crore has been requested by weavers from Dharwad, Belagavi, Gadag, Bagalkot, and other areas. They have also asked for free public education for the children of weavers, health insurance, access to nationalised bank loans, etc. There were also other officials and weaver leaders, including the commissioner of the textile department, Kumar, the KHDC MD and Dharwad DC Gurudatta Hegde, joint director BR Yogesh, and others.
Source: Apparel Resources
The commerce ministry on Monday asked exporters to focus on potential key sectors such as food, electronics and engineering and 12 major markets to boost exports, an official said. It was also suggested to focus on organising fairs and exhibitions at global scale, the government official said. These issues among others were discussed during a meeting called by the ministry with the industry and exporters. The meeting was chaired by commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal. The six sectors which hold huge potential to increase the country's exports include food, textiles, engineering, electricals and electronics, medical devices, pharma and auto components. The main global destinations where exports could be promoted further Japan and Russia. An industry representative, who participated in the meeting, said that emphasis was given on both trade and investments. Increasing investments will help in promoting trade through integration with global value chains. The meeting assumed significance as the country's merchandise exports have been contracting for the last four months due to demand slowdown in the global markets. An exporter said that the export figures for June are also looking "disappointing" due to the global economic uncertainties. "Trade and investments need to be promoted parallelly," the exporter added. Exports declined for the fourth consecutive month by 10.3 per cent year-onyear to USD 34.98 billion in May, while the trade deficit widened to a fivemonth high of USD 22.12 billion, according to the ministry data. Cumulatively, exports during April-May this fiscal contracted by 11.41 per cent to USD 69.72 billion, while imports declined 10.24 per cent to USD 107 billion. Demand slowdown in major markets, high inflation in developed economies and the Russia-Ukraine war are impacting the country's exports. Representatives from different export promotion councils from sectors such as apparel and medical devices participated in the meeting besides Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) and industry associations. Last month, commerce secretary Suni Barthwal has stated that the ministry is working on a trade strategy to promote exports. As part of that, the Department of Commerce, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Invest India and Indian missions abroad would focus on 40 countries. These countries, including the US and European Union nations, account for 85 per cent of India's total exports.
Source: Economic Times
Ambaram.ai, one of the leading B2B SaaS platforms, is transforming the fashion and textile industry with its innovative product development and design solutions. The platform offers a range of features and benefits that streamline collaboration, accelerate time-to-market, improve design quality, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction. With the purpose to provide cutting-edge solutions for the fashion and textile industry, Ambaram.ai has quickly gained recognition as a game-changer in the market. One of the standout features of Ambaram.ai is ‘THE WALL,’ which serves as a centralised hub for designers, buyers, and stakeholders to collaborate and share ideas seamlessly. The platform also offers virtual team functionality, reminders, and customisable design assets, all aimed at enhancing collaboration and optimising workflow. Ambaram.ai has prioritised user experience and designed its interface specifically for fashion professionals. The user-friendly interface ensures a smooth and intuitive experience, allowing users to navigate the platform effortlessly and make the most of its features. By leveraging Ambaram.ai, fashion companies can significantly reduce design time, enabling them to respond to customer demands more quickly. Real-time feedback, access to trends, and collaboration tools contribute to improved design quality, aligning products with market trends and customer preferences. In addition to these benefits, Ambaram.ai empowers fashion companies to achieve cost savings by reducing.
Source: Apparel Resources
The agricultural textiles market which is worth around US $ 15.9 billion in 2023 is expected to be worth US $ 20.2 billion by 2028. Reportlinker.com’s report Agricultural Textiles Market by fibre Material, Fabric Formation Technology, Product type, Application and Region – Global Forecast to 2028 has claimed that this market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8 per cent. The agricultural textiles market has been segmented based on fibre material like nylon, polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene, natural fibre, biodegradable synthetic fibres, and others while by fabric formation technology it covers woven, knitted, non-woven, and others. By product type it includes shade nets/cloths, mulch mats, anti-hail nets and bird protection nets, fishing nets, and others and by application it covers outdoor agriculture and controlled-environment agriculture. Asia-Pacific is forecasted to be the fastest-growing agricultural textiles market during the forecast period as it is the largest agricultural textiles market globally. This is due to the increased demand for agricultural products, which is caused by shifting consumer tastes and an aging population. The key textile companies in this segment are Beaulieu Technical Textiles (Belgium), Belton industries (US), HyTex (UK) Limited, Diatex SAS (France), and Garware Technical Fibres Limited (India). Textiles used for outdoor purposes need high resistance to abrasion and resistance to weather conditions. The Fishing nets application segment is forecasted to be the fastest-growing of the agricultural textiles market. Fishing nets have been used for a long time and are easily available in markets. However, they pose a great threat to the marine ecosystem and are responsible for most water pollution. With advanced technology, biodegradable fishing nets are being developed to solve this problem. Fishing nets have become a staple and cannot be replaced without an effective alternative. The demand for agricultural textiles is expected to increase in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia and New Zealand due to the significant production and utilisation of agricultural textiles expected in these countries between 2023 and 2028.
Source: Apparel Resources
Telangana, growing its footprint in apparel manufacturing has added another achievement as apparel manufactured by by Green Needle, a manufacturing unit in the Sircilla Apparel Park has directly been exported to New York. Almost 1.17 lakh boxes of intimate apparel made by organic cotton for US-based brand GAP have been dispatched. Green Needle which is a Bengaluru-based textile company started production in the state last year. Happy with the development, KT Rama Rao, State Industries Minister shared this information on Twitter. It can be mentioned here that the state is pushing apparel export and factories like Gokaldas images, Kitex and Texports Industries are in the process to start production in the state.
Source: Apparel Resources
The Commissionerate of GST, Coimbatore, registered almost 13% increase in revenue from April to June this year compared with the first three months of last financial year, said A.R.S. Kumar, Principal Commissioner, Coimbatore. Mr. Kumar told the media here on Saturday the GST revenue received from April to June, 2022, was ₹739 crore as against ₹830 crore during the same period this year. The Commissionerate registered ₹3,003 crore revenue in financial year 2022-23 and added 7,000 new tax payers. The total assessees now were 77,484. The new assessees included those starting new businesses and those crossing the threshold limit to come under GST coverage. The Commissionerate refunded ₹772 crore in the last one year and if the claim documents were right, the refunds were cleared in a month. The GST Commissionerates across the country focused on fake invoices and claims from May 15 and the drive would continue till July 15. As many as 212 assessees were verified and 186 were found to be fake companies. Of these, licences were suspended for 84 cases and registration cancelled for 17. For 63 cases, the input tax credit amounting to ₹13.72 crore were blocked. Compliance to returns filing improved to 97% by the end of March this year from 87% at the beginning of last April. “Revenue in Coimbatore is widespread and we are doing a fine balance of revenue augmentation and facilitating ease of doing business,” he said. The Commissionerate conducted post budget awareness sessions, organised MSME trade facilitation committee meetings once a month, interacted with the trade and industry regularly, he added. Top tax payers in the region were felicitated at the GST Day programme held here on Saturday.
Source: The Hindu
INTERNATIONAL
The case for delivering a circular economy for textiles is stark and imperative. Estimates suggest that the fashion industry is currently responsible for around eight to ten per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions and – if left unchecked – could account for over 25 per cent by 2050. The disappearance of the Aral Sea in central Asia is also attributed by many to the over-irrigation of cotton farms. Despite this being one of the world’s biggest environmental disasters, it is largely unknown and unreported. At the same time, it is said in China that you can tell the colour of this season’s fashion just by looking at the colour of the rivers as effluent from the dye houses is released straight into the rivers. Yet, because much of the environmental impact of fashion is realised at the production end, this means that reusing items and keeping clothing in use for as long as possible results in major environmental benefits.
Used textiles in the UK
A recent report by the European Recycling Industries Confederation (EuRIC) concluded that buying an item of used clothing is 70 times better for the environment than buying brand new and, once an item is worn out, recycling the fibres delivers significant environmental savings. So reuse followed by recycling has a fundamental role in delivering a circular economy for textiles and delivering these major environmental goals. In terms of actual amounts of used textiles collected per person, the UK is just about the highest in the world. We have an extensive network of clothing/textile collection banks like many other Northern European countries, but we also have a unique benefit of an extensive network of over 10,000 charity shops. Charity shops and textile banks account for around 85 per cent of all the estimated 620,000 tonnes that are collected annually in the UK. But we cannot celebrate this because we are also one of the biggest consumers of fast fashion. The Environmental Audit Committee has stated that we buy more new clothing per person in the UK than any other European country, and compared to some twice as much. We are still throwing away an estimated 336,000 tonnes of clothing in household bins annually and 921,000 of textiles in total. We might collect more than our European neighbours, but we are much bigger consumers of fast fashion, throwing much more away. Furthermore, much of what we put in the bin is not necessarily bad quality, but just worn out. Systems need to be in place to effectively segregate the reuse and recycling grades. But where will these recycling grades go?
The status of textile recycling
At the moment, most textiles are mechanically recycled by pulling or cutting the items. They are manufactured into products such as insulation for heat, sound and impact, and wiping cloths or blankets which are made out of recycled shoddy (wool) yarn. However, because of the presence of dyes and finishes, and the shortening of fibre length during the pulling/cutting process, the possibility of recycling textile items back into similar items is severely limited. To be recycled, the textiles have to be sorted by colour and fibre type and then blended with virgin fibres. With current techniques, only up to about 20 per cent of the total fibre content in a garment can come from recycled textiles before the performance of the item is affected. Some of this recycling takes place in the UK, but most has now off-shored to Pakistan, which has an established specialised mechanical recycling industry. India is also a significant market. What is difficult to do at a commercial scale is to recycle textile items back into similar types of textile items. To do this we need to commercialise recycling techniques that can remove the dyes and finishes that are applied to the textiles, deal with the non-textile items such as buttons and zips, separate out the different blends (e.g. polyester from cotton in a polycotton blend) and maintain the fibre length. There are a number of actors that are developing chemical recycling processes for textiles that could deliver this, but these are still largely in the lab or demonstration plant stage. Plus, with the values of recycling grades likely to remain low until a critical point in demand is met, it will make little economic sense for sorters to separate out low-value recycling grades to the required standard, even where it is technically feasible. Currently, sorting is still largely done by hand by trained professionals. So we need to improve the economics of sorting for recycling as well, which is why a number of businesses are working on developing automated sorting techniques for recycling grades. Some use near infra-red technology to identify fibre types which then whisk the garment along a belt before being separated off into an appropriate compartment. Progress is being made in this area, but new garments are still not being designed for recycling and blended fibres and dark colours remain an issue. Other sorting technologies are being developed around tagging and scanning, but there is a legacy issue here and consumers often cut these types of things out.
The future for sustainable textiles
There is a lot of work to be done in this area and for many years our sector – with some encouragement from our government – has been taking the lead in these matters globally. Just recently, we welcomed the public announcement by UK Research and Innovation of a £4 million funded project to develop an automated sorting and recycling demonstrator plant for the UK, and the Textile Recycling Association (for whom I work) is proud to be part of this project. Furthermore, UKRI has allocated a further £11 million to be spent on other R&D projects in this area in the current spending round. We can expect to hear an announcement on the allocation of £6 million pounds of this later this year. This research is of course very welcome, but on a policy level, our government’s recent lack of action is giving the whole clothing and textile supply chain cause for concern. Textiles was identified as one of the five priority materials to be consulted upon for Extended Producer Responsibility and other sustainable business models in the Waste Strategy in 2018. In 2021, we were promised that this would be completed by 2022. To date, this has not happened. In a recent letter to the Textile Recycling Association, Minister Rebecca Pow acknowledged the significant impact of textiles and said that the Government remained committed to making progress in this area but also cited that the government has also needed to recognise current departmental resources as well as risks of the cumulative burden on business. As a result of this, the Secretary of State confirmed to the Environmental Audit Committee that Defra is not exploring Extended Producer Responsibility for textiles in the near future as they are focusing their efforts on delivering EPR for packaging. This is of course very disappointing. We do not want to take anything away from the important work that my colleagues and compatriots are doing to deliver packaging reforms and DRS. However, our government keeps saying that they are taking climate change and their net zero targets seriously, and – to do so – they need to allocate the necessary resources that will deliver a sustainable fashion and textiles industry.
Legislation to improve textile recycling
The Textile Recycling Association stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our supply chain partners in organisations such as Textiles 2030, UK Fashion and Textiles, the British Fashion Council and the Institute of Positive Fashion. We all want an effective mandatory EPR scheme on clothing and textiles and other relevant policy interventions. Without legislative backing, we will not achieve what needs to be achieved. The pioneers of a sustainable fashion industry will continue to do what they can but, without the law on our side, we will continue to have businesses that choose to do nothing and continue with their damaging business practices. The rest of Europe is now overtaking us in terms of policy development. The Netherlands has just become the second country in the world to enact an EPR scheme for clothing. Additionally, the EU textiles strategy will be setting out a framework for such schemes covering all EU member states going forward and from 2025 it will be compulsory for all municipalities within the EU to have separate collections of textiles. We were promised when we left the EU that our environmental standards would match and be better than that of the EU. I want to see this happen.
Source: The resource.co
From circular knitting machines and braiders via upgrades to digital solutions, Mayer & Cie. presented at ITMA 2023 a wide range of solutions that make circular knitting machines and braiding machines even more durable and thereby more valuable, for which the long-established firm received a most positive visitor response. Mayer & Cie. is confident that its comprehensive (digital) approach will enable it to maintain and extend its leading position in the market. So, the company’s verdict on the trade fair was accordingly very good to good.
From machinery manufacturer to solution provider Three circular knitting machines – a Relanit 3.2 HS, an SF4-3.2 III and the OVJA 2.4 EM – and an MR-15/18C/Single Deck braiding machine took up about half the floor space of Mayer & Cie.’s ITMA stand. That reflected the weighting of the trade fair presentation. Along with hightech circular knitting and braiding products the Mayer & Cie. focus at this year’s ITMA was on solutions that increase the value and durability of its machines. They were, in particular, the digital platform knitlink, the new Control 5.0 machine control system, the camera-assisted error recognition system knithawk, almost a dozen upgrade kits for existing machines and the new oiler system Senso Blue RS. “We had an extremely wide range of exhibits at ITMA this year and were able to show our visitors much that was new, especially in the areas of digitization and service, upgrade kits in particular,” said Mayer & Cie. Managing Partner Benjamin Mayer. “Our approach, that of giving existing machines a longer and sustainable life,” he added, “was seen and welcomed by our visitors as making sense.”
Trade fair debut for Mayer & Cie. braiding machine Mayer & Cie. exhibited a braiding machine at ITMA for the first time. The company has integrated the braiding division at is Albstadt headquarters since 2019. “Braiding machines are a part of textile machinery,” said Benjamin Mayer, “but we nevertheless saw presenting the MR-15/18C/SD braider at ITMA as an experiment – and are satisfied with the result. The machine attracted a great deal of attention and we were able to make interesting contacts.”
A positive conclusion on ITMA 2023 Expectations of this year’s ITMA were moderate, Benjamin Mayer said. “War, high energy prices, inflation and recession are the signs of the times. Not even an ITMA is going to change that.” In addition, there had been serious problems with the issue of visas that had made it impossible for many potential visitors to attend the trade fair. The Mayer & Cie. management therefore judged its success not by the general demand but by the positive visitor feedback. “For us that was an indicator of our future competitiveness,” said CEO Benjamin Mayer, “and we can definitely be sure of that with our developments.” So, Mayer & Cie.’s verdict on ITMA 2023 is very good to good.
A remarkable team performance “That we were able to present such a wide range of innovations at ITMA testifies to our team’s high level of competence and commitment,” Benjamin Mayer said. “We thank all of our colleagues for their input before, during and after the fair.”
Source: Textile world
