India's annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), increased to 6.55 per cent for February 2017 over corresponding month of the previous year. The index for textiles sub-group rose by 0.2 per cent to 142.6 in February from 142.3 in January 2017 due to higher price of tyre cord fabric (4 per cent) and man-made fabric (2 per cent).
Build up inflation rate in the financial year 2016-17 so far stood at 5.82 per cent compared to a build up rate of minus 1.14 per cent in the same period of the 2015-16. Annual rate of inflation was 5.25 per cent for January 2017 and minus 0.85 per cent in February 2016.
PI for all commodities (Base: 2004-05 = 100) for the month of February, 2017 rose by 0.5 per cent to 185.5 from 184.6 for the previous month, according to the provisional data released by the Office of the Economic Adviser, ministry of commerce and industry.
The index for manufactured products (weight 64.97 per cent) for February, 2017 remained unchanged at its previous month's level of 158.8. The index for textiles sub-group rose by 0.2 per cent to 142.6 from 142.3 for the previous month due to higher price of tyre cord fabric (4 per cent) and man-made fabric (2 per cent). However, the price of jute sacking cloth and jute sacking bag (1 per cent each) declined.
The index for primary articles (weight 20.12 per cent) rose by 0.9 per cent to 258.1 from 255.7 for the previous month. The index for fuel and power (weight 14.91 per cent) also rose by 1.3 per cent to 203.8 from 201.2 for the previous month due to higher prices of coking coal, aviation turbine fuel, bitumen, kerosene, high speed diesel, LPG and lignite.
The Government of India has taken a number of measures to control inflation. The steps taken, inter alia, include, (i) increased allocation for Price Stabilization Fund in the budget 2017-18 to check volatility of prices of essential commodities, in particular of pulses; (ii) created buffer stock of pulses through domestic procurement and imports; (iii) announced higher Minimum Support Prices so as to incentivise production; (iv) issued advisory to States/UTs to take strict action against hoarding and black marketing under the Essential Commodities Act 1955 and the Prevention of Black-marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980; (v) imposed 20 per cent duty on export of sugar; and (vi) reduced import duty on potatoes, wheat and palm oil. (RKS)
(Source: Fibre2Fashion, March 14, 2017)
A SCIENTIST from the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) here has developed what is reported to be the shortest-duration cotton variety in the world. Requiring only 100-120 days for maturity, the new variety could emerge as the solution to the problems of dryland cotton farmers in regions like Vidarbha and Telangana.
“This is by far the most exciting development I have experienced in my career spanning over 25 years as a cotton scientist… When this variety becomes available to farmers after two years — after we complete field trials — India will have moved from the longest-duration cotton variety to the shortest-duration one,” said CICR Director Keshv Kranthi.
Explaining the importance of the variety, he said: “One of the main reasons for repeated failure of dryland cotton crop is its long duration. In India, the period generally extends for 170-240 days, while it is about 150 days in countries like Australia and China. So, the duration here extends well beyond the monsoon months. These plants then go without water during the crucial time of flowering and fruiting, suffering weak uptake of nutrients due to lack of water.”
“Why this variety will be the one that we need for our dryland farmers is because it fits into the monsoon period, making water available for the critical time of flowering and fruiting phases,” he said, adding that “long duration crop also attracts more pests.”
Developed by Santosh H B from the crop improvement department of CICR, the variety has been tentatively named “Yugank”, after the son of Dharwad cotton scientist S S Patil, who provided the original material — Patil’s son died in a mishap last year. It will be available in both Bt and non-Bt forms.
“Another advantage of shorter-duration cotton is that the fibre quality is better. The longer the duration, the weaker the fibre,” said Santosh.
The variety has proved to be resistant to sucking and other pests and has a large boll size too. “One plant gives up to 20 bolls, which is way below the average hybrid yield of 60-70 bolls per plant. But if used in high-density plantation system, the number of these plants is at least six times higher. So the new variety will give higher yields within a short time period,” said Santosh.
“I have arrived at this variety through the process of selection of the best traits over the last four years,” he said.
Source: The Indian Express
The environmental impact of our clothing has now been mapped in the most comprehensive life cycle analysis performed to date. For the first time, this makes it possible to compare the environmental effects of completely different types of textiles. The results will be used to create a practical tool for clothing manufacturers that want to lighten their environmental load.
Every year, 100 million tonnes of new textiles come onto the market and the textile industry has one of the highest turnovers in the world. It has long been understood that textile production has major environmental impact. But it has been difficult for textile companies to determine what choices they can make to reduce the environmental load, due to the wide variation in production processes.
Now the industry is being given entirely new opportunities. Researcher Sandra Roos has taken an overall approach to the clothing life cycle with her doctoral thesis at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the research institute Swerea, within the research programme Mistra Future Fashion. Over the course of her five-year project, she studied 30 different sub-processes in textile production.
'I have also assessed the toxicity of the chemicals used in the processes,' says Roos. 'This is an area where, until now, there were huge knowledge gaps. The sub-processes I studied extend from techniques as different as entirely synthetic textile fibres made of plastic, to cotton production – where farmers cultivate the soil, plant and harvest the cotton, before ginning and preparing it.'
The life cycle perspective she used involves an overall assessment, from production to the user phase and product waste management. The effect of background processes such as electricity consumption and mining are also included. The results make it possible to compare textile products that are extremely different to each other, which was not possible before.
Mistra Future Fashion is a collaborative project between the fashion industry and researchers in Sweden. Their next step will be to transform the results of the thesis to a practical tool that clothing manufacturers can use to improve the environmental performance of their processes and products. The tool is expected to be ready sometime in 2017. This is an important step, since the majority of the environmental load in the clothing life cycle is created in the production phase.
Unsurprisingly, Sandra Roos's research shows that conventional cotton growing, where large quantities of insecticides are spread directly on land, stands out as a particularly heavy burden on the environment. Another of her conclusions was more unexpected.
'At present, most environmental indices are based on the type of textile fibre used: wool, nylon, polyester or cotton. But that is not where the major environmental impact is found, which is actually in the post-fibre processing stages: spinning, weaving, knitting and, above all, in the dyeing – the wet processing. All the chemicals used in these processes actually make it as hazardous as cotton growing.'
Shopping trips cause one of the biggest climate effects of clothing
Roos's research has also yielded conclusions about which consumer actions are most effective in reducing the environmental load of clothing.
'If you want to be as eco-friendly as possible, there is only one thing you need to remember: use your clothes until they are worn out. That is more important than all other aspects, such as how and where the clothes were manufactured and the materials they are made of.'
But in industrialized countries, only a tiny percentage of garments are worn 100 to 200 times, which is usually the potential lifetime. In Sweden, for example, consumers buy an average of 50 new garments per person and year. Similar figures apply to the rest of Europe and the United States.
Such high consumption makes how the clothing is produced more important. But it is difficult for consumers to get information about the most important aspects – those related to processing of the textile materials. Instead, Sandra Roos has another recommendation to the average consumer who wants to live greener:
'Think about how you travel to the clothes shop. When it comes to impact on the climate, this is the factor that is the easiest to influence, other than buying fewer garments, and one that has substantial effect. Since many shopping trips are taken by car, consumer travel accounts for a large share of the climate load during the clothing life cycle.'
More conclusions from Sandra Roos's research
For consumers, how long they use their garments is the absolutely most important factor from an environmental perspective. As an example, Sandra Roos has calculated how much longer you would need to use a black cotton shirt made of conventionally grown cotton compared to a black polyester shirt to compensate for the spread of toxins in cotton production and the dyeing of cotton to dark colours, which is the worst aspect for the environment. As a rule of thumb: three times longer. If you wear the polyester shirt only 10 times, but the cotton shirt 30 times, the average load on the environment is equal from a life cycle perspective.
You can also make sure the garment is used throughout its life cycle by giving or selling clothes you no longer want to someone else, who then continues to use them. But donating clothing via a collection bin is not an obvious solution to the problem. There is a huge surplus of collected garments and only a small percentage will continue to be used as clothing. On the other hand, when consumers buy used clothing instead of new, the environmental benefit is substantial.
Textiles that are made of cellulose from trees and plants are an important track in research and development to close the loop so that the textile industry becomes sustainable. Viscose, modal and lyocell/Tencel are examples of such textiles that are already available and whose environmental performance is often good.
Laundering clothes at low temperatures is not important from an environmental perspective because the additional heating of water accounts for a very small share of energy consumption over the clothing life cycle. In addition, you lose the entire environmental gain if you wash a garment at 30 degrees and can only use it once before it has to be washed again, compared with if you had been able to use the garment twice because you had washed it at 60 degrees so that it was thoroughly clean. Every wash causes wear and shortens the life of the garment. Tumble-drying causes even more wear to the garment and uses five times more energy than washing. But the total climate impact of washing and drying the garments is much less than that of consumer shopping trips in Sweden (see illustration). A similar pattern applies to the rest of Europe and the United States.
Choosing eco-labelled clothes makes a difference. There are several cotton labels, including BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) and GOTS. However, eco-cotton labels only indicate that the cotton was organically grown – they say nothing about the rest of the production process (dyeing and treatment).
On-line shopping is generally a very good alternative from the environmental perspective. But only if you do not end up buying clothes you like less – and hence wear less – or returning lots of garments. E-retailers do not always put returned garments back in stock to be sold again.
Source: Phys.Org,
Snapping a trend of last four months, both inflation numbers based on the consumer price index (CPI) and the wholesale price index (WPI) moved in the same direction, rising in February against the previous month.
While WPI inflation jumped to a 39-month high of 6.55 per cent in February compared to 5.25 per cent in the previous month, the CPI inflation rose to a three-month high of 3.6 per cent from 3.2 per cent.
The data justified the Reserve Bank of India's caution on loose monetary stance amid expected increase in interest rates in the United States in the next few days. The likelihood of RBI cutting the policy rates in April remained subdued.
The inflation numbers were up on the back of expensive food and fuel items, even as manufacturing products saw a decline in inflation.
With this gap between WPI and CPI which have been widening in the last few months would narrow down a bit.
However, the rise in WPI was much sharper than CPI.
"WPI inflation recorded a much sharper uptick in February 2017 relative to the sequential rise in CPI inflation. Some of the factors that led to the spike in WPI inflation are not part of the CPI basket, for instance commodities such as crude oil and coal," said ICRA principal economist Aditi Nayar.
She said the lagged revision in the minerals sub-index, particularly for crude oil, contributed to the sharper-than-anticipated spike in WPI inflation.
Sunil Kumar Sinha, Principal Economist, India Ratings & Research, also attributed this trend to the escalation in the prices of minerals and fuel prices.
In CPI, food inflation rose to two per cent in February from 0.6 per cent in February.
In WPI, food items saw inflation of 2.7 per cent in February from deflation (fall in prices) of 0.6 per cent in January.
However, vegetable prices kept falling in both the CPI and WPI, but the rate of decline came down in February compared to January.
In terms of retail price index, the deflation stood at 8.3 per cent in February against 15.6 per cent in the previous month.
In terms of WPI, deflation in vegetables (decrease in prices) came down to eight per cent in February against 32.3 per cent in January.
Pulses saw fall in retail prices at the rate of 9 per cent in February against 6.6 per cent in the previous month, while these witnessed WPI deflation of 0.8 per cent against inflation of 6.2 per cent.
Cereals and fruits turned expensive at the rising rate in both the indices in February against the previous month.
Similarly, fuel items turned expensive, but the rate was higher in WPI than CPI. In WPI, fuel inflation rose to 21 per cent in February against 18.1 per cent in the previous month, while in CPI it rose to 3.9 per cent against 3.4 per cent.
However, manufacturing products saw inflation falling to 3.66 per cent against 3.99 per cent in WPI.
Explaining the reasons, ICRA principal economist Aditi Nayar said the rupee had strengthened against the dollar in February against January which made imports of these products cheaper. A dollar was equal to Rs 68.1 on an average in January, while the value came down to Rs 66.9 in February.
Also, global metal prices trends were mixed against the rising spree it saw in earlier months, she said.
Various sorts of services such as education, health, recreation, personal care and effects saw inflation cooling in February against January in terms of retail price index. WPI does not measure services.
Source: Business Standard
As many as 35 clusters, accounting for half of all freight movement, have been identified for building multimodal logistics parks (MLPs) to improve transportation and warehousing in the country.
Of the total number of proposed parks, 15 would be developed across Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
The proposed parks would reduce transportation cost by a tenth for industries in the 35 clusters, enabling freight movement on higher sized trucks and rail, Union road transport, highways and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari told Business Standard.
Locations for development of MLPs have been prioritised based on the level of production and consumption activity in a particular city, as measured by freight flows, quality of road and rail connectivity to there and its importance in international trade, he said.
The first MLP would come up in the next two years. "Given the scale of the investment and the complexities involved, the timelines are challenging. However, we are confident of achieving this,” Gadkari said.
Increased freight movement on higher sized trucks and rail will result in reduction in freight vehicles. In addition, shifting of warehouses and wholesale markets, currently being operated inside the city, to logistics parks would free up urban spaces and further reduce warehousing costs.
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) would be the nodal agency for development of the first set of MLPs. It would form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with state governments. Within the SPV, states are expected to provide land for the MLPs. The NHAI will be responsible for developing the required trunk infrastructure, in collaboration with railways and other ministries/ authorities.
Central government authorities would have to develop dedicated trunk infrastructure connectivity -highways, rail or port connectivity to the MLPs. The parks themselves would be developed and operated by private players.
Source: Business Standard
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stunning performance in the recent Assembly elections puts him in the sweet spot to pursue economic and administrative reforms that can substantively boost investments and jobs, his core poll promise since 2014. Several of these reforms are low-hanging fruit, and others may be tougher and demand a longer term agenda. Both varieties are, however, within the realm of possibility in the afterglow of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) huge popular mandate in India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh and the fact that it now controls more than half the country’s state legislatures, on its own or through alliances.
Among the critical agenda items in the first category is a policy that does away with the absurd distinctions between “single brand” and “multi-brand” retailing and the niggling conditions like local sourcing attached to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector. A 2015 Budget statement to allow FDI in food retailing is yet to take concrete policy shape. Over 2015 and 2016, the government made headway by setting out rules for e-commerce, allowing for 100 per cent FDI, but this, too, was hedged by restrictions that are unlikely to make this policy a game changer. The government’s cautious progress on retail was partly on account of its hesitation to alienate the trader and middleman communities, hitherto a large and powerful support base for the BJP.
The election results have shown that the gamble with demonetisation has ensured that any diminution of support from this lobby has been balanced by approval from the poor, who absorbed Mr Modi’s message of a blow against the rich. The transformative nature of a liberalised, comprehensive retail policy can scarcely be overstated, not just in terms of the explosion of demand for supply chain infrastructure with all its concomitant efficiencies for consumers but also in the potential to enhance agricultural incomes by directly linking farm to fork. And it is in the countryside that the potential to create jobs is larger than in the manufacturing sector, where corporations increasingly turn to automation to maximise margins.
The government has been working to improve India’s rankings in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” indicators. Mr Modi can go well beyond these limited metrics to tackle the critical issues that will offer domestic and international investors genuine confidence in the security and enforcement of contracts. This will involve addressing the vexed issue of reform in the police and judiciary, two institutions that scarcely inspire confidence in India, least of all in Uttar Pradesh. Granted, the pushback from these two power players will be formidable. But the power of a popular mandate suggests that even modest progress here will reap big gains for India. On agriculture-related reforms, the government will do well to revisit the Shanta Kumar Committee report on a range of issues relating to procurement, storage and distribution of grain. The committee also recommended the way to go for restructuring the Food Corporation of India, which is plagued by functional and cost inefficiencies.
Mr Modi’s overwhelming mandate also presents him with an invaluable opportunity to tackle the deep-rooted problem of bad debts in state-owned banks by taking tough steps of write-downs and sell-offs, thus, kick-starting the lending cycle for industry. The job creation from this alone ought to nullify the “suit-boot ki sarkar” jibes.
Source: Business Standard Editorial
MUMBAI: RBI intervened in the currency market on Tuesday to dampen exuberance stemming from BJP's electoral showing and limiting a spike in the rupee, dealers said.
Overseas investors have turned bullish on Indian assets amid expectations of a rapid acceleration in reforms by the government, which is emboldened by the strong showing, especially in the political crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
The rupee surged to a 16-month high against the dollar, closing at 65.82, a level last seen on November 6, 2015. It strengthened 79 paise, or 1.19%, from Friday's 66.61 close.This is the highest single-day gain since September 19 four years ago.
RBI was seen intervening through state-owned banks that bought dollars, a move aimed at checking the rupee's wild swings, dealers said. The central bank, which could not be contacted immediately, typically doesn't comment when asked about such interventions.
It also doesn't have a view on the rupee's value but acts to curb volatility, experts said. “Currency market was euphoric amid bullish sentiment, boosted by election results," said Keta Kurkute, vice-president, forex risk advisory, at consultancy Mecklai Financial.
“The momentum is likely to sustain unless there is global surprise emanating from the US Federal Reserve. Custodian banks were seen selling the dollar on behalf of their overseas clients but some state-owned banks were seen buying dollars that initially helped check the rupee's sharp rise." The rupee is likely to trade in the 65.75-66.45 range over the next week, dealers said.
The state election results are seen as a ringing endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies, drowning out the criticism against the demonetisation drive that was aimed at curbing corruption and black money.
This will give him more political space to pursue policy changes that would otherwise have been hard to implement besides eventually helping BJP to bolster its numbers in the Rajya Sabha, where it currently lacks a majority. This will make it easier for the government to pass reforms legislation.
During the day, the rupee gained to as much as 65.78 against the dollar. A Monday ET poll of 15 market participants had said the rupee may rise to as much as 66, reversing any sharp falling trend.
Besides traditional dollar buying from the domestic spot market, there was a tweak in the intervention strategy, dealers said.
State-owned banks made 'sellbuy' derivative deals, converting spot dollar buying transactions into forward deals, dealers said, deferring delivery of dollars through such forwards deals. Banks sell dollars they bought in the spot market and then they buy the same unit in the next leg as a forward transaction, keeping the net position at 'buy'.
“The approach is aimed at limiting rupee liquidity in the system," said the head currency dealer of a mid-size bank.
ARBITRAGE OPPORTUNITIES
With a buzzing currency market, arbitrage opportunities have expanded between onshore and offshore markets.
“Overseas inflows are primarily driving the rupee now,“ said Anindya Banerjee, currency analyst at Kotak Securities. “With the rupee hitting a fresh high, many speculators, who went long on the dollar, have hit stop losses. This has added to further dollar sales, which has been further exacerbated by large corporates cutting derivative deals."
Currency speculators seem to have cottoned on to the market trend.The premium gap between overseas and local contracts on the Indian rupee has nearly doubled for short-duration forward deals.
For offshore or non-deliverable forwards and onshore forward contracts between one and three months, the premium gap for the rupee-dollar pairing rose to 6-17 paise from 5-9 paise earlier, dealers said.
The premium difference helps traders make money when spread betters, with a bullish rupee outlook, short-sell the dollar against the rupee in the domestic forwards and buy the same unit from the overseas derivative market.
Many companies and hedge funds were seen to be active participants in these trades, seeking to benefit from the arbitrage opportunities presented by mega-events, such as the latest polls.
“The rupee has bucked the trend among emerging markets," said KN Dey, an independent currency consultant based in Mumbai. “While the Chinese yuan in a trade-surplus country has depreciated in the past few months, the rupee has gained despite being a trade-deficit country. Market volatility will rise now with exporters having unhedged positions expecting a weaker rupee."
Some exporters have already approached currency houses seeking to hedge positions while importers are now showing little interest in covering payment liabilities from currency risk. Foreign portfolio investors invested a net Rs 4,100 crore in equities on Tuesday, according to provisional BSE data.
Source: Economic Times
Trade Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Spring Edition 2017, the world's largest event for the spring summer season will play host to over 3,300 exhibitors from 26 countries and regions. Yarn Expo Spring, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Spring Edition, CHIC and PH Value fairs will also take place concurrently with Intertextile in Shanghai.
The three-day fair that will begin on March 15, is being organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT and the China Textile Information Centre.
"With 2016 certainly a challenging year for some in the industry, we found that this fair became even more important for our international exhibitors and buyers as a key meeting place where business was still being conducted. After strong growth in recent years, the current scale and quality of the fair, particularly with the industry-leading brands that both exhibit and source here, now makes this event an unrivalled business platform for the global industry to connect with the Chinese market, and vice versa," said Wendy Wen, senior general manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd.
The Salon Europe section of the International hall will house the Milano Unica Pavilion, as well as the France & Germany Zones. In addition, Asian Pavilions from India, Japan, Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan, and Group Pavilions by Dyetec, Convergence Institute of Natural Materials and Lenzing will feature alongside individual exhibitors from numerous countries.
Key products groups are located in distinctive zones in order to ensure ease of sourcing for buyers and increased exposure for exhibitors. In the International hall, All About Sustainability, Functional Lab, Premium Wool Zone and Verve for Design feature the latest products, technologies and trends in these respective sectors, while Beyond Denim and Accessories Vision are in halls 6.2 and 8.1, respectively. Chinese exhibitors are grouped by product end-use along with a number of regional and association pavilions, said the organisers in a press release.
Adding to the product diversity is the fair's fringe programme, which features a range of seminars and panel discussions along with four S/S 2018 trend forums: the Intertextile Directions Trend Forum and three Fabrics China Trend Forums for Fashion Focus, suiting and ladieswear.
SOURCE: Fibre2Fashion
China has been one of the major contributors to the growth of the global luxury apparel market , representing the largest share of 33% in the global luxury products market in 2015. Although China’s dominating position in the market is very much likely to continue, the consumption of luxury apparel in China is expected to slow down, mainly because of the economic downturn and other factors.
According to a report from Reportlinker, the total consumption of luxury apparel in China reduced by 4.6% year on year to RMB72.62 billion in 2014, mainly because China continued to promote anti-corruption policies and China’s economic growth was slowed. After another fall in sales in 2015, it is estimated that the total consumption of luxury apparel products in China will continue to shrink through 2016-17. Currently, clothing is one of the top segments of luxury products in China, accounting for over half of the total luxury sales every year. Despite the overall decline in luxury apparel consumption over the last few years, several luxury apparel brands have maintained steady growth. Armani, Burberry and Chanel saw continuous sales growth in women’s clothing; Bvlgari, Cartier and Chow Tai Fook in jewelry, and Chanel, Dior, Estée Lauder in cosmetics.
In contrast to the decreasing sales of luxury apparel in China domestically, tourism shopping and luxury spending from Chinese consumers are increasing in the global markets. Hong Kong used to be the most popular luxury apparel shopping destination for Chinese consumers, but now more and more Chinese consumers prefer to go to Japan, South Korea and Europe for shopping, due to lower VAT than in China. Japan was a particularly popular destination, as sales in luxury items are estimated to have increased by 251% since 2014. The significant increase in luxury items purchased by Chinese shoppers in Japan is also attributed to a more open visa policy, which has attracted more Chinese tourists over the last few years.
In order to cope with the global economic downturn and Chinese consumers’ changing spending behaviours in regards to luxury apparel products, some of the world’s top luxury apparel brands such as Burberry, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada, have already taken action over the past two years to change their sale strategies in China, including adjusting price spread, reducing the number of stores, and integrating E-commerce. The Italian luxury fashion house Prada has reduced the prices of clothing, bags and other products by about 10% over its 40 exclusive stores in 24 cities in Mainland China since 2015. As the most popular luxury fashion brand in China, the British brand Burberry achieved a market value of USD5.87 billion in 2015 as the sixth-largest global luxury brand. As of the early 2016, it had opened 59 stores in China, a decrease of 10 stores from 2014. While the French luxury giant Chanel raised the prices of bags, leather goods, clothing and other products in the European market by 20% in 2015, prices of the above commodities in China were lowered by 20% in the same year.
SOURCE: Reportlinker
Global Luxury Apparel Market Continues Steady Growth
The global luxury apparel market has enjoyed a moderate level of growth over the last five years, and this steady growing trend is set to continue. The total revenue of global luxury apparel market totalled US$75.4 billion in 2016, and is expected to reach around $77.8 billion in 2017, marking a 3.3% growth year on year, according to the report from Technavio. The women’s luxury apparel segment has been dominating the global luxury apparel market, representing over half of the market share. However, the men’s luxury apparel segment is catching up quickly and is estimated to be the fastest growing segment in the global luxury apparel market over the next five years. Due to the dominance of women’s wear in the luxury apparel market, sales of some of the key players in the women’s luxury apparel segment, such as CHANEL, Yves Saint Laurent, PRADA, Gucci, and Dior, are growing. Active wear and haute couture showed strong growth in the women’s premium apparel segment. In 2015, the women’s luxury denim segment dominated the global premium denim jeans market with a share of 55.41%. Men’s luxury apparel is expected grow steadily as luxury fashion houses have recognized that men are no longer content with dedicated floors or corners of apparel stores; the number of men’s only stores have risen in the last five years. Examples include Ralph Lauren’s latest men’s only store in Hong Kong, Loewe’s store in Singapore, and Gucci’s and Tod’s stores in Italy. The men’s stores of Alexander McQueen and Dolce&Gabbana focus primarily on tailoring and bespoke designs. Brands have also started re-positioning their products as luxury ones through fashion weeks and shows; examples are Ermenegildo Zegna and Corneliani. Chinese consumers are major players in the growth of luxury apparel spending worldwide, accounting for the largest share, 33%, in the global luxury products market in 2015. The Americas followed with approximately 25% and Europe with 16%. The accessories segment was the leading product category in the personal luxury goods market, with a share of 29%. The apparel segment followed with a share of 25%. Innovation is an important factor for enhancing sales in the luxury apparel market. With consumers looking for high quality in design and material used, vendors are introducing products made with materials such as rare leathers and mohair, and also reintroducing classic fashions in modern renditions.
SOURCE: Technavio
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The top 10 world’s largest apparel companies list has seen the luxury fashion house Christian Dior, sportswear giant Nike, and high street fashion retailer Inditex Group being named the world’s largest apparel companies in 2016, according the Forbes Global 2000 list 2016. Among all the top 2,000 companies named by Forbes, 29 apparel companies made the final list. After measuring their revenue, profit, assets and market value, Christian Dior, Nike and Inditex have been crowned the top three spots in the global apparel market.
Top 10 world’s largest apparel companies 2016
|
Rank |
Company |
Country |
Sales |
Profits |
Assets |
Market Value |
|
1. |
Christian Dior |
France |
$41.6 B |
$1.7 B |
$68.1 B |
$31.4 B |
|
2. |
Nike |
U.S. |
$32 B |
$3.8 B |
$21 B |
$100.1 B |
|
3. |
Inditex |
Spain |
$23.1 B |
$3.2 B |
$18.8 B |
$103.2 B |
|
4. |
Cheil Industries |
South Korea |
$11.8 B |
$2.4 B |
$36.1 B |
$22.9 B |
|
5. |
TJX Cox |
U.S. |
$30.9 B |
$2.3 B |
$11.5 B |
$50.7 B |
|
6. |
H&M |
Sweden |
$21.7 B |
$2.3 B |
$10.3 B |
$60.8 B |
|
7. |
Kering |
France |
$12.8 B |
$708 M |
$25.9 B |
$21.5 B |
|
8. |
Adidas |
Germany |
$18.8 B |
$739 M |
$14.5 B |
$25.2 B |
|
9. |
VF |
U.S. |
$12.4 B |
$1.2 B |
$9.6 B |
$27.1 B |
|
10. |
Swatch Group |
Swtizerland |
$8.8 B |
$1.1 B |
$13.3 B |
$18.6 B |
Christian Dior is the world’s largest apparel company. It took the top spot in the apparel group of Forbes’ Global 2000 list, thanks to its significant $41.6 billion sales, $1.7 billion profit and $68 billion worth assets in 2016. Through its over 40% stake in luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, Christian Dior’s also benefits from the financial performance of respected product lines such as Dom Pérignon, De Beers, Veuve Clicquot, and Givenchy. Nike is named the second largest apparel company in the world. The US sportswear giant recorded more than $32 billion in sales and $3.8 billion in profit over the fiscal year ending 2016. With an intensive list of celebrity athlete endorsements inclduing includes Serena Williams, LeBron James and FC Barcelona – Nike’s financial performance in the global market is expected to be even better over the next few years. In third place, Industria de Diseno Textil Gourp, also known as Inditex, owns some of the world’s most popular high street fashion brands, such as Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti etc. The company achieved $23 billion revenue in 2016.
SOURCE: Forbes Global 2000 list 2016
