NATIONAL
INTERNATIONAL
Textile Raw Material Price 2016-11-07
|
Item |
Price |
Unit |
Fluctuation |
Date |
|
PSF |
1042.55 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
VSF |
2343.90 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
ASF |
1892.86 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
Polyester POY |
1099.49 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
Nylon FDY |
2351.29 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
40D Spandex |
4362.46 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
Nylon DTY |
2173.84 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
Viscose Long Filament |
2055.53 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
Polyester DTY |
1308.74 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
Nylon POY |
2550.93 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
Acrylic Top 3D |
5575.08 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
Polyester FDY |
1338.31 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
10S OE Cotton Yarn |
2068.84 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
32S Cotton Carded Yarn |
3359.83 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
40S Cotton Combed Yarn |
3833.05 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
30S Spun Rayon Yarn |
2942.81 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
32S Polyester Yarn |
1734.63 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
45S T/C Yarn |
2587.90 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
45S Polyester Yarn |
3105.48 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
T/C Yarn 65/35 32S |
2277.35 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
40S Rayon Yarn |
1863.29 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
T/R Yarn 65/35 32S |
2232.99 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
10S Denim Fabric |
1.36 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
32S Twill Fabric |
0.84 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
40S Combed Poplin |
1.17 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
30S Rayon Fabric |
0.67 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
|
45S T/C Fabric |
0.65 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
11/7/2016 |
Source: Global Textiles
Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.14788 USD dtd. 7/11/2016)
The prices given above are as quoted from Global Textiles.com. SRTEPC is not responsible for the correctness of the same.
Indian e-commerce marketplace Kraftly has partnered with the Ministry of Textiles to engage with weavers and groups from Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Assam and Andhra Pradesh, and promote handlooms. Kraftly has signed a memorandum with the Development Commissioner of Handlooms from the Ministry of Textiles, which will enable it to sell products directly from weavers and artisans. Kraftly has signed a memorandum with the Development Commissioner of Handlooms from the Ministry of Textiles, which will enable it to sell products directly from weavers and artisans. These products will come under the ‘Indian Handloom Brand’ for authenticity. The ‘Indian Handloom Brand’ is an initiative launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote quality handloom products and encourage weavers and artisans to showcase their artwork for the rest of the country.
Commenting on the partnership, Saahil Goel, co-founder and CEO, Kraftly, said in a statement: “We are looking forward to enabling the artisans and weavers to promote their products directly through the Kraftly platform and help in building an online presence for these sellers. “We have got the ‘Indian Handloom Brand’ and ‘Handloom Mark’ logo on our website as well, and aim to create an additional source of livelihood for the weavers and craftsmen, and further promote the dying arts and handicrafts of India.” Kraftly will also provide the craftsmen and weavers with infrastructural support in marketing, customer acquisition and data analytics to scale up their business. This includes helping these artisans in difficult areas such as payment automation, proper packaging, transportation and brand building exercises, making it convenient for their crafts to reach their audience. Chief Business Officer, Kraftly, Akshay Ghulati, said: “The handloom sector plays a vital role in our country’s economy. It is one of the largest economic activities, which is providing direct employment to over 65 lakh people who are engaged in weaving and allied activities. “With this initiative, Kraftly is aiming to remove the middleman between artisans and consumers, making it possible for craftsmen to sell products directly without a mediator.”
SOURCE: The India Retailing
The two private container terminals at Chennai port run by Dubai Ports and PSA Singapore witnessed a 7 per cent drop in combined container handling in the first half to 7.48 lakh TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) from 8.04 lakh TEUs in the same period last year. Congestion, competition from neighbouring ports, especially Adani container terminal at Kattupalli in Ennore, and sluggish market conditions have been the factors behind the drop at Chennai port, sources said. The volume at Kattupalli port is steadily increasing while Krishnapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh is offering better rates and container freight station rebate. They are adding to the woes of Chennai port, which is witnessing cost escalation. It is also facing congestion despite wider access road to the port, sources said. At Kattupalli port, the Adani group has managed to more than triple container handling to 1.79 lakh TEUs in the first half of this fiscal from 56,000 in the first half of last year. “Chennai port’s loss is Kattupalli’s gain. There has been a significant drift in container handling from Chennai to Katupalli. This trend will only increase in the days to come,” said an industry source.
Adani terminal at Katupalli added four new vessel services this year. Maersk Line’s Colombo Salalah Shuttle service shifted from Chennai to Kattupalli in April 2016. The other services calling at Katupalli are CCG (Chennai-Colombo-Gulf) service operated by Evergreen Line and Simatech, MD1; Singapore-Port Klang feeder operated by BTL, Wanhai and OOCL; and ACS service operated by HMM Line. Katupalli port has got six weekly vessel calls connecting coastal ports and global transshipment ports, making it an ideal gateway for the domestic and Exim trade in the region, sources said.
SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line
India Intimate Fashion Week (IIFW), the country’s first ever fashion week dedicated to lingerie and intimate wear, will be held on January 14 – 15, 2017 in Mumbai. It is conceptualised to provide a big platform to the intimate apparel industry. The event will showcase lingerie, bridal lingerie, loungewear, sleepwear, legwear and more for both men and women. The first edition of IIFW is a platform designed to shed a powerful spotlight on all facets of the intimate apparel and personal care industry. It will bring together emerging and established Indian and international lingerie brands, lingerie designers, lingerie e-commerce, lingerie stylists and experts, next-generation lingerie talents, intimate wear bloggers, sponsors, manufacturers and distributors and numerous unique visitors from diverse fields. “Intimate wear, such a big sector, rather world’s largest sector, deeply rooted in every person’s life across the globe is still unexplored in India. However, India is now opening up to all kinds of evolutions, revolutions, entrepreneurships and experiments on fashion. Despite this, we were unable to find any worthwhile fashion platform that promotes, showcases intimate wear and its related talent,” said Niraj Jawanjal, director and founder, IIFW. “Surprisingly, percentage of Indian students considering it as a career option is also very low in India. It is from this need gap and to ensure India’s representation in a world reckoned category with significant growth potential that IIFW was born,” he added.
Wedding (bridal) lingerie and wedding couture is taking a big leap due to its massive acceptability in India. This segment will also be included along with premium evening/nightlife couture on this glamorous ramp to make it even more alluring and relevant. “In India, intimate wear and lingerie fashion is still in its nascent stage with communication being limited and constrained. With IIFW, we intend to plug this need gap and drive engagement, high decibel idea exchange and conversation amongst all potential stakeholders - brands, customers, designers etc.,” said Amit Pandey, media head and associate partner, IIFW.
Speaking about the social media strategy for the premium venture Pandey further added, “Our social media campaigns are focused at breaking the mindset barrier and facilitating open conversations around the category. This is a category that is poised for significant growth and we are confident of great participation from the industry this year. We hope to able to take this towards international scale and standards over the next three years.” IIFW is intended to emerge as a platform that represents both emerging and established brands from around the country and gradually across the world.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
The Maharashtra government expects the four-tier rate slabs, decided between the Centre and states for the coming national goods and services tax (GST), to help consolidate its position as a prominent centre for manufacturing and logistics. Manufacturing, engineering, construction and logistics together constitute a third of the gross state domestic product. State finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar told this newspaper, “There will be growth in manufacturing and logistics. The share of state GST in total GST will be slightly more than what it is today in VAT (value added tax). The gain in services tax as part of the GST will be a total gain for all states.” The higher tax revenue from GST will be used for development of infrastructure, he said. He noted octroi and local body tax, two major levies, would now be subsumed in GST. The Centre’s assurance on compensation for revenue loss for the first five years is important — the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation, for instance, gets Rs 7,000 crore annually through octroi.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
The ranking of states in the ease of doing business index – a joint initiative of the World Bank and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) – might not be truly reflecting the states’ ability to implement projects. An analysis of data on the DIPP website has shown that some states that figure high in the recently published index for 2016 have a poor track record of project implementation. On the other hand, others with a lower rank in the list have done much better in terms of converting project proposals into actual investments. Ease of doing business ranking may not be reflecting ground reality Among the top five states in the current year’s ease of doing business list, Andhra Pradesh – which topped the list along with Telangana – received total investment of Rs 8,564 crore against the proposed Rs 21,926 crore in the first six months of FY16. This entails an implementation ratio of 39%. The ratio is worse for Telangana, which has seen implementation of projects worth Rs 2,202 crore out of Rs 19,577 crore of proposals it received during the same period.
Similarly, with actual investment of Rs 4,146 crore out of proposed investment of Rs 44,411 crore, Gujarat, which is at third spot in the list, has clocked 9% implementation ratio. Chhattisgarh reported actual investment of Rs 605 crore from a kitty of Rs 11,659 crore proposals, while Madhya Pradesh did Rs 1,721 crore out of Rs 14,477 crore in the first six months of the current financial year.
In contrast, Tamil Nadu, which figures at 18th spot in the list, displays 67% implementation ratio by receiving Rs 2,804 crore out of Rs 4,163 crore intended to be invested in the state during the period. Maharashtra, at 10th spot in the index, has seen Rs 39,219 crore being invested across 50 projects out of Rs 30,266 crore proposed to be invested in the state. West Bengal, ranked 15th on the list, recorded an implementation ratio of 50% during the first half of FY17. The state has received investment worth Rs 2,378 crore from Rs 4,695 crore worth of proposals.
In terms of attracting investment, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra are considered to be the top three states. However, barring Gujarat, the other states are placed way below in the ease of doing business index. “The rankings are on the basis of 340-point business reform action plan and their implementation by states. The states are only required to comply with this action plan in pen and paper for the purpose of scoring marks in the ranking process. But, the ground situation for investment in many states is different. The bureaucracy, particularly at the lower level, are not in tune with the changed business facilitation rules. Industries face the same problem at the ground level. That is why investors still rely more on their experience in doing business in a particular state instead of the rankings for their business decisions,” said R P Panda, an industry analyst.
Being a new concept, ease of doing business ranking has unleashed competition among states to attract investment by simplifying the formalities and offering other ingredients required for setting up of businesses, says a senior official with the industry department. “It will take some time for stakeholders to get used to these reforms and create an impact on the investment ecosystem.”
SOURCE: The Business Standard
Despite a host of companies having done well India Inc’s performance for the three months to September so far has been less than ordinary. With the benefits of softer commodity prices fading away and revenues growing at a very modest pace, profits remain under pressure. The ratio of raw material costs to sales — for a clutch of 563 companies — fell just 17 basis points in Q2FY17 compared with falls of 282 bps, 192 bps and 484 bps in the previous three quarters. With total expenditure rising after several quarters, the operating profit margin for the sample of 21.5% was the same as in the June quarter though better than in the March and December quarters. However, analysts believe there is “low possibility of further expansion in gross and ebitda margins given commodity prices have either firmed up or have been steady in the past six months. Zinc prices, for instance, are at five year highs. Moreover, gross and ebitda margins, they point out are already at very high levels; so, for instance at Mahindra &Mahindra, for instance, ebitda margins are expected to go up by just about 10 basis each in the next few years. At HeroMoto, operating margins are estimated to fall in FY18 and FY19 after rising in FY17 to 16.2%. “The question is whether companies will be able to sustain the margins at higher levels of commodity prices and have to reduce margins to grow volumes if economic recovery disappoints,” Kotak Institutional Equities wrote in a report.
High frequency indicators show demand remains weak and anecdotal evidence suggests the festive season hasn’t seen any fireworks. Sales of commercial vehicles (CV) have slowed sharply over the last few months with less-than-anticipated cargo to be ferried. The uptick in demand for trucks in the busy season might be muted, analysts say. Meanwhile, railway freight traffic continues to fall for more than six months now. Critically, in a sign that industrial growth remains weak, the import of non-gold, non-oil imports has contracted in 12 of the 13 months to September. There are, however, some bright stops — air passenger numbers, for example, continue to trend up as does the production of steel.
However, competitive intensity and a slowing global economy continue to be headwinds. The good monsoon could help boost consumption demand but trends from the core sector suggest sluggishness. Almost all cement companies have fared poorly in Q2FY17. Ambuja Cements reported a 7% y-o-y drop in volumes resulting in a fall in stand-alone revenues of 4% y-o-y and ebitda of 6% y-o-y. ACC reported a 10% y-o-y fall in cement sales, a new low for the company, which has been hard pressed to grow volumes for many years now. With costs rising –freight up 8% y-o-y—the firm saw a drop in ebitda, down 15% y-o-y.
JSW Steel reported average numbers with good volumes but unless steel prices rise meaningfully, profits could be under pressure;Q2Fy17 saw a sequential drop ebitda /tonne following a fall in steel prices. Other firms in the infra sector continue to fare poorly; Adani Power reported weak numbers even though it has accounted for compensatory tariffs which are yet to be finalised. At ABB, while revenues were weak, order inflows were strong, rising 30% y-o-y.
Consumers remain shy of spending on big ticket items. Most housing finance companies have reported a fairly sharp slowdown in disbursements in Q2FY17 to sub-15%. They have also indicated a moderation in the retail segment over the next few quarters. Even HDFC’s disbursements to individuals although good at 20%, was lower than in Q1FY17. Two-wheeler manufacturers are unlikely to post any unusually good sales volumes during the festive season; one player indicated the industry growth would be limited to single digits. Demand in the rural markets remains muted. HUL’s domestic consumer business grew just 2% y-o-y, thanks to a fall of 1% in underlying volumes and weak 1% growth in net operating revenues missed expectations. Analysts estimate earnings for HeroMotocorp’s will grow by just 6% compounded between FY17-FY19 given volumes are likely to grow at this pace during this period.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
To provide stability to taxpayers, the government will include the rates of the tax and the cess under Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the model legislations, which will be introduced in upcoming Winter Session of Parliament. “The rates of tax will be included in the legislations on the lines of the schedules given for Central excise duty and service tax,” said a senior official, adding that it will be included in the Centre and State GST Bills. Sources also said that the CGST, SGST and integrated GST Bills will be introduced in Parliament and State assemblies as Money Bills.
Ring-fencing the rates of GST has been one of the key demands of the Congress party, which had earlier sought that the Constitution Amendment Act for GST should cap the rates at 18 per cent. “This will ensure that the rates are not changed arbitrarily but only in case of a genuine requirement,” said the official. But, to give more flexibility to change rates in case of a crisis, there would be a provision to allow the GST Council to notify a change in rates.
Sources said the government is hopeful that the inclusion of these provisions will ensure smooth passage of the Bills in the Winter Session, beginning November 16, to ensure that the GST meets its targeted roll-out date of April 1, 2017. The GST Council in its meeting last week finalised four rates of 5 per cent, 12, per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent for the new indirect tax levy. Officials from the State and Centre have begun working on four draft model legislations on the CGST, SGST, IGST and compensation. These are expected to be finalised by November 15 and will then be circulated to States for feedback.
The GST Council is likely to take up the draft Bills for approval in its next meeting on November 24 and 25, in time for their introduction in Parliament and State legislatures in the Winter Session. Meanwhile, the proposed Bill on compensation will include the rates of the cess that will be levied on tobacco, pan masala and aerated drinks, as well as luxury cars. It will also include a sunset clause stipulating that the cess will be in operation for a period of five years as well as details of the compensation fund into which the proceeds from this cess will flow in directly.
SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line
India has managed to convince all other countries involved to negotiate the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — a proposed free trade agreement between 16 Asia-Pacific countries including China and Australia — as one package. New Delhi’s key demand to negotiate goods, services and investments together, for which there was no commitment in the last ministerial in August, was met in the just concluded meeting of trade ministers of the 16 countries including 10 members of Asean plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. “The ministers…underscored the urgency of a swift conclusion of the RCEP negotiations as a single undertaking, which will provide a much needed boost to confidence for the global economy,” said a joint statement from the talks held in the Philippines on November 3 and 4. This commitment reassures India that other members will not lose interest in its demands on liberalising services trade and easing investment norms once New Delhi accepts their demands for tariff concessions on goods. There has been concern that India has given away too much on the goods side in its other agreements without managing much on the services side where the country has a competitive edge. RCEP is a comprehensive free trade agreement subsuming goods, services, investment, competition, economic and technical cooperation, dispute settlement and intellectual property rights.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
The UK is "eager" to have a free trade agreement (FTA) with India as the pact is expected to further boost economic ties between the two. "Yes, they are eager to have an FTA. They certainly look at India as one of the potential FTA partners. We are also happy to engage with them," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here. She added that India is conscious of the fact that after triggering Article 50, the UK needs 24 full months before they actually exit the European Union (EU). Triggering of this article will formally start the process of the UK's exit from the EU. Formal negotiations for a free trade pact between the two countries can not start before UK's exit from the EU. The UK Prime Minister pointed to invocation of this article some time in the first quarter of 2017, Sitharaman said, adding that India too is keen to engage with the UK for a trade deal.
During the meetings, she said, India asked the UK side about what is the picture they have before them post Brexit and "what is the picture with which they are moving forward". Further, she expressed happiness that the UK is supporting India's concept paper on negotiating a trade facilitation agreement in services at WTO. "I am grateful that UK Prime Minister and trade minister support India at WTO on TFA in services," she said. The paper is moving forward as the WTO Director General had asked India to work on it at the mini-ministerial meeting in Norway last month. "We will be taking it forward to WTO. And the UK offering support to us fully on that proposal is a good augury for me," she added.
India is pitching for this agreement with a view to reducing transaction costs by doing away with unnecessary regulatory and administrative burden on trade in services. During the annual ministerial meeting of India UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) here, both sides reviewed the progress held in the two existing joint working groups (JWGs) - smart cities and technological collaboration, advanced manufacturing and engineering. The two sides decided to create a new JWG on trade to discuss and resolve trade-related issues. The group will do all that is required for auditing the situation in goods services and investments on the trade front between India and the UK and to see what are the early and easy goals that both the sides can achieve. It will also identify challenges and find opportunities for better trade, she said. Both the sides also signed an MoU to establish bilateral cooperation activities in intellectual property (IP) and ease of doing business.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
India and Britain on Monday signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on intellectual property rights (IPR) and ease of doing business following delegation-level talks led by Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Theresa May. "Advancing business through agreements. The two leaders witness exchange of MoUs in Intellectual Property and Ease of Doing Business," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted. The MoU on IPR envisages establishing a mechanism for furthering cooperation between the intellectual property offices of India and Britain in the field of intellectual property and related information technology services, according to the External Affairs Ministry. It will include exchange of best practices, experience and knowledge of intellectual peoperty awareness among the public, businesses, industry, research and development organisations and educational institutions, as well as on processes for disposal of applications for patents, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical indications.
The MoU on ease of doing business intends to make expertise from different departments of the British government which have led the ease of doing business drive in the Britain available to the relevant departments and agencies of the Indian government, according to the ministry. It includes exchange between the officials, sharing of best practices and technical assistance for effective implementation of the initiatives of GOI to improve its ranking in the ease of doing business. Important areas of cooperation include support to businesses and start-ups, tax administration, regulatory regimes, and competition economics. Earlier on Monday, Modi and May addressed the India-UK Tech Summit here. This is May's first bilateral visit outside of Europe since she assumed the Prime Minister's office in July this year. She took over the prime ministership after David Cameron resigned following the historic referendum in June in which Britain voted to exit from the European Union. Cameron rooted for Britain to stay in the EU. May's visit comes a little less than a year after Modi's visit to Britain in November last year. May, who arrived here late on Sunday night on a three-day official visit to India, will also visit Bengaluru on Tuesday.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
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$ 43.08 per barrel (bbl) on 07.11.2016. This was higher than the price of US$ 43.01 per bbl on previous publishing day of 04.11.2016.
In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket increased to Rs. 2874.94 per bbl on 07.11.2016 as compared to Rs. 2869.75 per bbl on 04.11.2016. Rupee closed weaker at Rs. 66.73 per US$ on 07.11.2016 as against Rs. 66.72 per US$ on 04.11.2016. The table below gives details in this regard:
|
Particulars |
Unit |
Price on November 07, 2016 (Previous trading day i.e. 04.11.2016) |
Pricing Fortnight for 01.11.2016 (Oct 13, 2016 to Oct 26, 2016) |
|
Crude Oil (Indian Basket) |
($/bbl) |
43.08 (43.01) |
49.53 |
|
(Rs/bbl |
2874.94 (2869.75) |
3309.10 |
|
|
Exchange Rate |
(Rs/$) |
66.73 (66.72) |
66.81 |
SOURCE: PIB
Bangladesh’s Denim export to the United States has seen a 5.84% jump to $299 million in the first eight months of the current year compared to the same period a year ago. However, Denim product export to European Union (EU) counties rose by 6.86% to €568 million in January-June period of the current year.Denim products contribute about $6 billion to $28 billion RMG exports, which is expected to reach $7 billion by 2021. Of the total amount, EU and US import lion’s share of Bangladesh’s denim products.
According to the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) data, Bangladesh earned $299 million, exporting denim products, which was $2,8240 million in the same period a year ago. In the year 2015, Bangladesh earned $439.80 million. According to the data of eurostat, in January-June period of 2016, Bangladesh exported denim products of €568 million, which was €531.50 million. Last year, Bangladesh earned €1.18 billion from the denim export.
Bangladesh exports Blue Denim Trousers WG, Blue Denim Trousers MB, Blue Denim Skirts, Blue Denim Jackets, Blue Denim Suit Type Coats MB, Playsuits and Sunsuits, Etc to the US markets. According to the study by Cotton Inc, 71% of people in Europe and Latin America enjoy wearing denim, followed by 70% in the US, 58% in China and 57% in Japan. According to the sector people estimation that close to 1.9 billion units of denim jeans were sold in the world in 2015, and by 2021 the yearly sale of jeans will cross two billion units. There is a huge scope for Bangladeshi denim manufacturers to grow and play an important role in global denim market. The country’s capacity to meet local demands is increasing but it requires more investment, Abdus Salam Murshedy, managing director of Envoy Textile, a denim fabric manufacturer, told the Dhaka Tribune. For grabbing more market share in the global market, Bangladesh has to concentrate on washing as it adds value as well attracts buyers, he said. Since, it costs huge to establish a textile mills, foreign investment and low cost fund from home and abroad can help boost the industry, said the manufacturer. The government has to ensure utility service including gas and electricity supply for the sector to attract investment, Salam suggested.
SOURCE: The Dhaka Tribune
With the deftness of decades of experience, Abu Mohammad wove thick green thread with a wooden loom in northwest Syria, creating a vibrant geometric pattern renowned among Arabic textiles. It was the last day before the weaver in his 50s would be forced to close the workshop, leaving the last five remaining looms in his hometown of Ariha in Idlib province to gather dust. "This trade is dead now... Today is our last day of work on the loom, as we don’t have any more thread," he said.
Weaving has been devastated by Syria’s five-year civil war, with thread becoming too difficult to procure from Aleppo, once the country’s artisanal hub now ravaged by fighting and bombardment. The city, 70 kilometres northeast of Ariha, was the main provider of the rough thread needed to weave textiles, versatile fabrics turned into rugs, furniture covers, and other household items. But now Aleppo’s rebel-held eastern districts are besieged by government forces, making it impossible to obtain thread from there, and materials from the government-controlled west are too expensive, Abu Mohammad said. On his last day, he worked as enthusiastically as he had since his teens, pulling down wooden levers to lay down colourful acrylic fibre across a white base. The sound of the panels smacking against each other was interrupted only by Abu Mohammad’s nasal singing, or a brief tea break with fellow weavers reclining on a shabby couch. "Ariha, in Idlib province, is the most well-known in making this product," said Abu Mohammad, gesturing to the green-and-red blankets and pillow cases hanging on the wall behind him. "We make all household items, from rugs for bedrooms to covers for the Quran. We would furnish entire houses. "Before the war, there were more than 100 looms in Ariha, but the only ones left are the ones in this shop," he said.
As the siege on Aleppo’s east tightened and supplies of thread became more difficult to acquire, only three looms in the Ariha workshop remained active. "Before the war, our trade was booming. We could buy thread for pennies from Aleppo," Abu Mohammad said. He pulled out a small box containing dozens of spools of colourful thread. "This is all we have left." Today, a kilogramme of the blend of cotton and polyester used for the textiles costs 3,500 Syrian pounds (Dh60), up from 175 Syrian pounds before the war. Abu Mohammad pointed to a rug hanging on the wall: "Before, I could make this whole rug with just 200 Syrian pounds." Another lifelong weaver, 40-year-old Abu Mostafa, said he began working a loom when he was 12. He tried to find stable work in another field but never felt comfortable doing anything except weaving, he said, as he pumped the wooden panels below his loom. "I went to Lebanon and worked in construction and then to Turkey for a few months, but I couldn’t hold any job that kept me away from a loom for too long." Abu Mostafa beamed with pride as he reminisced about the robes and pillow covers he would produce. "No one else could make the pieces we made. They looked as if they were printed," he said. "I challenge any computer to make something like this." The products from rebel-held Ariha were once sold across Syria. Even as the war raged, they were exported to areas controlled by government forces such as Damascus and Hama, as well as regional markets such as Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. But today transporting the woven goods, whether in or outside Syria, takes between two and three months and is exorbitantly expensive. "We used to send our products to Damascus at 10:00 am and they would get there by 2pm," Abu Mohammad said. Despite the pressures, textile production will resume eventually, the veteran weaver said. If there was enough thread, "we could work 100 looms at once. The looms are all ready, we just need the thread." "It’s a shame it’s going to end like this."
SOURCE: The National
China based yarn manufacturer Zhejiang Huafu Melange Yarn has been awarded the STeP by Oeko-Tex certification by Switzerland based Testex AG. The Chinese yarn manufacturer has been a customer of Testex since 2008, when it first certified its yarns based on Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and in 2009, was awarded the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000 certification. The STeP by Oeko-Tex certification is mainly for sustainable textile production and is tailored to the needs of textile production facilities of all processing stages from fibre production to readymade apparel and also logistics. The certification system consists of the six individual modules which include chemicals management, environmental performance, environmental management, social responsibility, quality management and health & safety. “STeP can help global operations, brand and retail enterprises to find the right suppliers which meet the operations' environmental and social responsibility requirements” Sun Wei Ting, CEO at Zhejiang Huafu Melange Yarn observed.
SOURCE: The Global Textiles
The Malaysian textile industry is far from being a sunset industry as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) holds promise of growing investment. International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) secretary-general Datuk J.Jayasiri said Malaysia could capitalise on the yarn-forward rule of origin and serve the needs of textile and garment makers, as well as consumers among the signatory countries. The "yarn-forward" rule stipulates all fabrics produced in a garment from yarn made by TPP member states qualify for the trade agreement's duty-free status. "TPPA members are required to source the input from members, creating investment opportunities to manufacture the inputs. "In fact, before the agreement comes into effect, we have already seen (foreign) investors coming in as they find Malaysia a better choice to produce input supply to this market," he said, adding that local producers were also expanding operations in manufacturing yarn forward items. He was speaking to Bernama and TV3 on the sidelines of a three-day seminar themed "Unboxing TPPA for Business Strategy for the Textile and Apparel Industry" organised by the Malaysian Textile Manufacturers Association.
Jayasiri said the industry offered wide range of opportunities and Malaysia could grab hold of the manufacturing of synthetics-based products and high-end garments, which were high value-added products, that the country needed to promote. He said as the agreement specified a provision of short supply list, providing an exception for TPPA member states to buy raw materials from non-members, Malaysia would benefit from it to a certain extent. "Industry players must aim to be more innovative, productivity-driven and cost competitive in order to take advantage of the opportunities under the TPPA," he added. He said Malaysia's current exports of textiles to the TPPA market stood at RM5.3 billion and they were expected to grow significantly in two years' time when the trade pact came into force.
On the opposition to the TPPA by US presidential candidates, he said Malaysia was notified recently that the US Administration was working hard to push the trade deal through the Congress. It is said that US President Barrack Obama could table the TPPA Bill to the Congress even before the new president is inaugurated and if it is approved the new president will have to carry the decision through, Jayasiri said. "The US ratification and participation in the agreement are important as it carries 85 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) among the 12 member countries. "All member countries must ratify within 24 months off the signing and if that does not happen, the next condition is that at least six countries, accounting for 85 percent of (total) GDP, could still bring the agreement into force," he added.
SOURCE: The Astro Awani
On 11 September 2012, in the Baldia industrial area of the Pakistani city of Karachi, a fire broke out in a textile factory. Two hundred and sixty workers died. Trapped in by barred windows and blocked emergency exits, they were either burnt alive or suffocated to death. Thirty two survivors were left seriously injured. Like many textile factories in the region, the Ali Enterprise factory that caught fire that day makes up orders for western companies. Some 70 per cent of this factory’s output went to KiK, the low-cost German textile giant that has 3,400 shops throughout Europe, a turnover of €1.8 billion (US$2 billion) and factories in China, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Pakistan and Cambodia. Only 4 per cent of its merchandise is made in Germany.
Four years after the deadly inferno, a compensation agreement was finally reached on 10 September 2016 between the German enterprise and representative of the victims and their families. It foresees the creation of a US$5 million compensation fund, on top of the US$1 million that the group paid out immediately in 2012 to aid the victims. The negotiations, carried out under the aegis of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the IndustriALL global union, the NGO Clean Clothes Campaign and a representative of the German government, dragged on for years. Frustrated at the failure to make any progress, in February 2015 the Baldia Factory Fire Affectees Association decided to suspend the discussions. One month later, four of its members lodged a complaint against the company in the German courts. “More victims would like to have made a complaint, but collective “class action” complaints are impossible in Germany” notes Anabel Bermejo, from the NGO European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), which supported the complaint. “It is a complaint under German civil law, a very standard procedure for physical damages.” Three of the complainants are victims’ parents. Muhammad Jabbir lost his 22-year-old son in the fire. He earned about €120 (US$134) a month. Saeeda Khatoon also lost her 18-year-old son in the factory, where he earned €100 (US$111) a month. The son of Abdul Aziz Khan, Yousuf Zai, was only 17. The fourth complainant, Muhammad Hanif, 26 years old, worked in the factory himself and earned between €155 and €175 (US$138 and US$156) per month. He has severe respiratory problems as a result of the accident. Each are demanding €30,000 (US$26,850) in damages from KiK.
Does this complaint, lodged with a German court by Pakistanis about a disaster that took place at a sub-contractor’s factory, have any real chance of succeeding? The first hurdle was cleared, at any rate, on 30 August. A German court in Dortmund declared itself to be competent to judge the complaint and has granted legal aid to the plaintiffs. It’s a first. The decision opens up the possibility for a German enterprise to be tried in its own country for the working conditions at its sub-contractors, even if they are on the other side of the world. The short time between the decision by the German court and KiK’s announcement of its compensation for the victims suggests that it was the former that prompted the company to do the latter. KiK says otherwise. “It has been claimed that KiK was influenced by the complaint that has been brought. That is not true. The negotiations had begun long before the complaint. An agreement could have been reached much earlier if the victims’ representatives had not suspended the discussions to prepare their complaint,” the press office of the German textile group told Equal Times.
KiK refuses to accept any responsibility for the 2012 fire. It repeated this at the time of the Dortmund court decision and the announcement of the 10 September agreement. The compensation was about “KiK voluntarily taking responsibility for the victims” wrote the company in a press release. “The agreement is really positive progress,” says Berndt Hinzmann, from the Inkota network, an NGO that is part of the international Clean Clothes Campaign, which followed the negotiations. “But it is hard to say whether this is really an improvement in KiK’s attitude, because for years the company totally denied any responsibility for the disaster.” The German textile group is also one of the western companies that were clients of the Bangladeshi factory Rana Plaza which collapsed in April 2013, killing more than 1,100 people. The compensation agreement reached last month for the Karachi victims is based on the same model as the one devised for the Rana Plaza victims that was finalised in 2014 under the guidance of the ILO. “Working conditions in the sub-contractors’ factories is a structural problem in this industry,” insists Hinzmann. “This concerns both the discounters, such as KiK, and the luxury brands. We have situations where there are very low salaries, discrimination and trade union repression”. With disaster after disaster the structural failings in the textile industry are becoming so acutely apparent that an “alliance for a sustainable textile industry” was created in Germany two years ago. It includes textile companies, NGOs and representatives of the German trade unions and German government, who together are seeking “social, ecological and economic improvements in the supply chain”.
Since its creation, the alliance has come up with two action plans aimed at setting common standards for the whole industry. But nothing specific has been defined as yet. And the future standards will not be legally binding. For Hinzmann, this is not good enough: “If we are to achieve structural change in the industry, companies have to be held accountable. The law has to change. But there isn’t the political will for that, even though the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights adopted in 2011 explicitly call on states to enshrine in law the responsibilities of enterprises with regards to human rights.” “Unfortunately we still have to rely on the good will of each company,” laments Niema Movassat, a representative of the left-wing Die Linke party in the German Bundestag. Last year the member of parliament and her parliamentary group tabled a bill that would make German companies criminally responsible for the working conditions at their sub-contractors. The German government has not yet seen fit to debate the bill.
SOURCE: The Equal Times
The headline fabric this winter is velvet. “And I’m so pleased it’s back,” says Natalia Miyar, London-based interior designer. “It’s luxurious, incredibly inviting and responds to your touch.” Lush, rich velvet fell out of favour in the mid-Nineties, as minimalism replaced bohemian romance. Textiles specialists such as Dedar of Italy continued to produce it, and in recent years the material has found favour again in projects for the five-star Four Seasons hotel in Kyoto, and Bulgari boutiques. It has been Dedar’s number one seller for the past five years. Cox London’s Christopher Cox has used a matt green velvet on his new bronze dining chairs, because “it holds its own in an Art Deco apartment or an Elizabethan country house”. But why is velvet making a comeback now? Light and texture are current design watchwords, says Martin Waller, founder of Andrew Martin interiors, who cites wider Art Deco and Fifties design influences as part of the fabric’s renewed appeal. “Velvet looks different when light hits the yarn from a different source. So you get subtle variations of tone — it doesn’t look like one big block of colour.”
Waller says the new velvets differ from their Eighties and Nineties counterparts thanks to “brighter colours, a move away from the traditional shades of the past, and it is great to print on”. He offers Navaho and ikat prints on velvet cushions, as a humorous take on East meets West. Elsewhere Anna Burns Studio has produced digital representations of precious stones on velvet’s surface. And Sé has a significant offering of velvet on products from interior designers such as Nika Zupanc this season. Included is a bi-coloured textured velvet that widens the appeal of the fabric.
SOURCE: The Homes & Property
A team of engineers at the University of California (UC) San Diego has developed a magnetic ink that can be used to make self-healing wearables and textile-based electrical circuits. The ink can repair tears as wide as 3 millimeters, a record in the field of self-healing systems, in about 0.05 seconds and does not require any outside catalyst to work. The key ingredient for the ink is microparticles oriented in a certain configuration by a magnetic field. Because of the way they are oriented, particles on both sides of a tear are magnetically attracted to one another, causing a device printed with the ink to heal itself. “Our work holds considerable promise for widespread practical applications for long-lasting printed electronic devices,” said Joseph Wang, director of the center for wearable sensors and chair of the nanoengineering department at UC San Diego.
Engineers used the ink to print various devices including wearable and textile-based electrical circuits. They then damaged these devices by cutting them and pulling them apart to create increasingly wide gaps. Researchers repeatedly damaged the devices nine times at the same location. They also inflicted damage in four different places on the same device. The devices still healed themselves and recovered their function while losing a minimum amount of conductivity. The nanoengineers also printed a self-healing circuit on the sleeve of a T-shirt and connected it with an LED light and a coin battery. The researchers then cut the circuit and the fabric it was printed on. At that point, the LED turned off. But then within a few seconds it started turning back on as the two sides of the circuit came together again and healed themselves, restoring conductivity. “We wanted to develop a smart system with impressive self-healing abilities with easy-to-find, inexpensive materials,” said Amay Bandodkar, one of the papers’ first authors, who earned his Ph.D. in Wang’s lab and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University. The paper called ‘All-printed magnetically self-healing electrochemical devices’ was published in Science Advances. Engineers who worked with Bandodkar and Wang on this research include Christian S. Lopez, Allibai Mohanan, Vinu Mohan, Lu Yin and Rajan Kumar from the Department of nanoengineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. The research was supported by the NIH and Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
Over the past decade, there has been much talk of global imbalances, and of the need to correct them in an orderly way. But perhaps these imbalances are already moving towards some correction. The biggest sources of the imbalances were the large external deficits of the US economy, which have been reducing for several years now. But one counterpart of that deficit was large external surpluses in China, which were also associated with extremely rapid GDP growth. China’s blistering pace of economic growth over the past three decades has certainly transformed both China and the global economy, but there are now clear signs that the pace is slowing.
The quarterly rates of GDP growth (relative to the same period the previous year) have reduced to around 7 per cent or even slightly less in the past year, compared to rates higher than 10 per cent in several quarters in the period after the Global Financial Crisis. Despite the reduction, these are still high rates of growth. It is certainly the case that the kind of accelerated expansion of economic activity that China showed especially from the turn of this century would be hard if not impossible for any economy to sustain. In China’s case, this growth was driven by extraordinarily high rates of investment, in the range of 45 per cent of GDP (and sometimes even more), which have also been historically unprecedented. Since savings rates were (amazingly) even higher, the associated current account surpluses allowed for the accumulation of huge foreign exchange reserves, at one point crossing $4 trillion in value.
Debt all the way
China responded to the Great Recession from 2008 onwards with a stimulus package that put even more emphasis on investment, and relied on ever-rising levels of debt in all major sections of the economy. Previous editions of MacroScan have highlighted this issue, and the concern that ever more debt is now required to generate smaller increases in income. There have also been concerns about whether this current focus on investment — especially in housing and other construction — would be successful in moving the economy towards a more consumption-led (and more sustainable) economic trajectory in future. This is obviously an ongoing process, but an examination of the composition of the growth in economic activity since 2009 suggest that in fact it has been quite diversified. The industry (including manufacturing as well as infrastructure and utilities) has accounted for a healthy 28 per cent of the growth. And FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) has accounted for only 18 per cent of the expansion.
What is more, this period has been marked by continuous increases in wages. The workers’ real wages have risen quite sharply, reinforcing the argument that many have made about China reaching the Lewisian turning point after which the presence of large amounts of surplus labour no longer prevents real wages from rising with aggregate economic expansion. Of course, wage increases also reflect political economy considerations and the relative power of workers vis-à-vis employers, which is also critically affected by government policies. (The Chinese experience is very different from the Indian case; in India, real wages have actually fallen recently even as GDP growth is estimated to be well over 7 per cent.)
The real wage index only for urban employees with the state or state-owned or collective enterprises and other non-private employment, so it may not reflect the conditions of the labour market for other workers in private units or those who are self-employed. But the index of real earnings of migrant workers (currently estimated to number around 176 million, largely from rural to urban areas) also shows very buoyant growth over this period.
From this perspective, it appears that the deceleration of growth may be part of the desirable rebalancing of the economy towards one based on employment and wage growth, thereby generating consumption-led rather than investment-led growth over time, and reducing the extremely heavy dependence on the external economy that had marked the previous expansion. But some caveats are necessary. First, much of the recent expansion has been driven by rapid accumulation of debts that may well become unsustainable and certainly will require careful management in the immediate future. Second, since many of these debts were taken on for the purchase of housing and real estate, what happens in these markets is going to be very significant. Third, while the importance of exports is diminishing, they still remain significant, and the continuing slowdown in the global economy and in world trade will definitely have adverse effects on export-oriented enterprises and the large number of workers they employ. Fourth, all this ignores another serious threat to the Chinese growth process: the rowing environmental pressures, particularly resulting from pollution and degradation of natural resources, that are now affecting both production and the quality of life.
Trade surplus
There is a further issue that is of great relevance for the rest of the world. While some significant changes are certainly under way in China, thus far they do not point to a rebalancing, at least in terms of the external account. Indeed, the trade surpluses generated by China show no signs of diminution, and have even increased in the recent past. The quarterly trade indicators from the first quarter of 2014, and it is evident that while exports over all have not grown and have declined over the past year, imports have declined even faster. From January to September this year, exports fell 7.5 per cent but imports fell even more, 8.2 per cent. Over a two year period, the picture is even worse. Since their peaks in the last quarter of 2014, exports have fallen by 15.8 per cent in the most recent quarter, but imports have declined by as much as 22.6 per cent. So, far from reducing, the trade surpluses have been rising again — but this time because of import compression rather than export expansion. This is obviously bad news for China’s trading partners, and particularly for those in developing Asia. China is no longer a source of positive stimulus either for the global economy or for the Asian region, at least in trade terms. And that is going to have severe consequences that are still not factored in by most analysts.
SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line
