Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) apprised commerce minister Suresh Prabhu about the constraints being faced by apparel exporters towards increasing exports from India. The council spoke about the issue of non-reimbursement of embedded taxes under Rebate of State Levies (ROSL), Drawback scheme which is making the apparel industry non-competitive. The AEPC delegation led by its vice chairman HKL Magu also informed the minister about the impact of overvalued rupee on the export growth, at a meeting held in New Delhi.
Exchange rate is an important competitiveness tool and citing the issue of depreciation in the value of currencies of the neighbouring countries like China, Bangladesh and Vietnam during the last six months, the council raised the issue of erosion of the cost competitiveness of Indian apparel Industry. A strong rupee has significantly diluted the impact of the Special package of Rs 6,000 crores for apparel industry and in order to encourage exports, it is necessary that rupee is depreciated in a calibrated manner to a level where India’s exports become competitive in the global market, urged the AEPC delegation.
“The principle of zero-rating of exports is uniformly followed by all countries across the world. However, such zero-rating of exports as prescribed in the GST law will not be complete and will be limited to refunding of input taxes as there are a number of GST taxes, which are invisible and embedded in the FOB value of exports, given the design of the Indian GST. Therefore, it is important that the refund of the blocked GST taxes should not be seen as an incentive, but as an enabler of trade neutrality. The minister has assured us every best possible support for the smooth growth of industry and we are hopeful that he will look into the concerns raised by the Industry,” said Ashok G Rajani, chairman, AEPC.
In its meeting with the commerce minister, the council members made suggestions about the export policy. In its submission to the minister, the council has suggested that the export policy should address the aspects of market disabilities and policy disabilities. While the market disabilities for the apparel industry in India includes the issues related to logistics cost and time, rigid labour regulations, lack of economies of scale and discrimination in export markets arising out of preferential trade agreements for competing countries in major markets such as the US and EU, the policy disabilities include tax and tariff policy which plays a major role in export performance.
The council in its meeting informed the minister that while the government uses various ways and means to neutralise market based disabilities, the duty drawback facility is usually used to neutralise any tax and tariff disabilities. The members further suggested that for ensuring taxes are not exported a system of Central and state drawback should be envisaged for the post-GST drawback system. In central drawback system, embedded CGST taxes in the exempt/excluded sectors, basic customs duties and Central excise duties on specified petroleum products should be included while in the state drawback system, embedded SGST taxes in the exempt/excluded sectors, State VAT on specified petroleum products, electricity duties, stamp duties and registration charges, motor vehicle taxes, mandi taxes, green taxes, property taxes etc., should be included.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
India's exports rebounded in August after slowing down in July , helped by a recovery in global demand. The country's exports grew 10.3% to $23.8 billion last month. Imports outpaced exports and increased 21% to $35.46 billion, widening the trade deficit to $11.6 billion from $7.7 billion a year earlier. Growth in outbound shipments slowed to an eight-month low in July , weighed down by appreciation in the rupee and disruptions on account of the introduction of the goods and services tax regime.
Exports of engineering goods grew 19.53%, petroleum products increased 36.56%, drugs and pharmaceuticals rose 4.21% and readymade garments grew 0.56%, according to data released by the commerce and industry ministry on Friday . “In continuation with the positive growth exhibited by exports for the last 12 months, exports during August 2017 have shown growth,“ the ministry said in a statement. “A pickup in exports during August augurs well for Indian exporters who seem to be benefiting from a recovery in major global markets, including the key economies of the US and Europe,“ said TS Bhasin, Chairman of EEPC India. Oil imports grew 14.22% to $7.75 billion in August. Cumulative exports during AprilAugust rose 8.57% to $118.57 billion, while imports increased 26.6% to $181.71 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $63.14 billion in the first five months of the financial year.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
Continuing to press its demands for relief under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the textile industry has now sought refund of the accumulated input tax credit at the fabric stage, citing cost escalation of the value chain.Industry representatives have stated that delay in refund of accumulated input tax credit could lead to increased import of fabrics, resulting in job losses in the highly vulnerable sectors like powerloom, handloom, and processing.
The textile industry fears costs could escalate by anywhere between three per cent and five per cent which could further impact capacity utilisation. According to the newly elected chairman of the Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) and managing director of KPR Group, P Nataraj, this percentage share in cost escalation is proportionate to the range of accumulation of input tax credit on the sales value, especially for sectors like powerloom, handloom and processing.
In its recent representation, SIMA cautioned that there were few major problems and ill-effects due to certain GST anomalies that need to be addressed on a war footing to bring all the stakeholders of the textile industry under GST net and enable the products to remain globally competitive."The Indian textiles and clothing industry had been passing through continuous recession during the last three years mainly due to poor off-take in the global market, the FTA/PTA competitive advantage gained by the competing nations like Vietnam, Bangladesh, high tariff rates imposed on Indian textiles and clothing products in the major textile makers such as EU, US, Canada, and China. The total textiles and clothing exports had stagnated at around US$ 40 billion during the last three years," Nataraj pointed out.
SIMA and other textile bodies have appealed to the centre to refund the accumulated input tax credit at fabric stage that had been singled out to avoid cost escalation. As per the industry, apart from avoiding cost escalation, a timely refund could also avert high imports of fabrics and fall in capacity utilisation which could result in job losses. For instance, the weaving industry in Surat which houses 650,000 such powerlooms, saw over 40 per cent shut since a month, thereby incurring a loss of over Rs 1,200 crore so far.As per SIMA, the dyes and chemicals account for over 30 per cent of the processing charge that attract 18 per cent GST, while the fabric or job work is levied with 5 per cent GST.Ashish Gujarati, president of Pandesara Weavers' Association, which alone has 200,000 powerlooms, told Business Standard that the only difference has been a slight reduction in accumulated input tax credit from Rs 1.25 per metre to 80 paise per metre under a five per cent GST on twisting job work.The industry is now continuing to press for reduction of GST rate on man-made fibre (MMF) spun yarn, including sewing thread filament yarns from 18 per cent to 12 per cent.
The powerloom sector and independent weaving units that produce over 95 per cent of the woven fabric is burdened with 18 per cent GST on yarn, while the vertically integrated units do not have such a problem as they need to pay 18 per cent GST for fibres and only 5 per cent GST on fabrics and the cost difference works out to 5 to 7 per cent.The industry has appealed to the GST Council to sort out both the anomalies of refunding the accumulated ITC at any stage of manufacturing, especially processed fabrics and also reduce the GST on MMF spun yarn, including filament sewing threads from 18 per cent to 12 per cent.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
Two months after the roll out of the goods and services tax (GST) regime in July, the order books of exporters are said to have taken a hit with estimates pegging the impact to up to 15 per cent across industries and product categories. According to an assessment by the exporters' body Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), the large drop was for export orders that were meant to be delivered until October. The dip, registered over a period of two months since July, was largely on account of exporters foregoing orders due to lack of credit, said Ajay Sahai, director-general at FIEO. The liquidity crunch had forced many to use available resources to manage existing business operations rather than fulfilling orders from abroad, he added.
Bhaskar Sarkar, Executive Director at Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC), corroborated this by saying that the percentage hit was higher for exporters handling products with a longer gestation period. “Merchant exporters, as well as those whose products require 2-3 months to be sourced, processed and shipped, have been hit hard owing to their capital being tied up longer," Sarkar said.
Exporters were earlier allowed duty-free import of goods that are used for the manufacturing of export products. However, under the GST, they would have to pay the duty upfront and apply for refunds later. The issue of liquidity crunch under the new GST regime was flagged off by exporters as the most challenging issue. Their costs have risen by up to 1.25 per cent (Freight On Board value) following the implementation of the new tax regime, according to estimates. The figure is rising as late refunds pinch smaller players hard, while larger entities face difficulty in streamlining operations, say experts.
The wait for GST refunds
In addition to this, exporters have continued to point out that the difficulty in getting refunds have not eased. This is mainly because of the refund process that has been delayed due to the government extending the date of filing of refund documents. The filing of documents for GSTR 1, GSTR 2 and GSTR 3 have been extended to July 10, October 31 and November 10, respectively, the EEPC said. This extension effectively means that the July refunds will only be available in the third week of November at the earliest, added the EEPC. Similarly, exports refunds for the month of August will be pushed back to December and this is expected to have a cascading impact on the September refunds. Also, exporters have alleged that since the GST roll-out, refunds from state governments for taxes paid under the Duty Drawback Scheme have stopped.
Uproar over duty scrips
A similar issue is playing out over duty scrips, the scope of which has been reduced as a tax paying instrument. In August, the government had instituted a 12 per cent tax on the sale of scrips received for incentive schemes such as the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS), for the first time. Scrips received by exporters under the Services Exports from India Scheme and the Incremental Export Incentivisation Scheme, apart from the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, will be taxed.
The government's tax move was slammed by exporters, who said this had no justification and would hit their shipments. Subsequently, the GST Council announced last week that this was being reduced to 4 per cent. However, while scrips were allowed to be utilised for the payment of excise, service tax and the value added tax (VAT) in the pre-GST era, this may now only be applicable for payment of basic customs duty.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
As much as `65,000 crore out of the nearly `95,000 crore tax collections in July --the first month of GST -have been claimed as transitional credit by taxpayers, prompting the apex indirect taxes body the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) to order a scrutiny of all cases above `1 crore. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, which kicked in from July 1, allows tax credit on stock purchased during the previous tax regime. This facility is available only up to 6 months from the date of GST rollout.
The CBEC, the body which deals with formulation and implementation of policy concerning the levy and collection of indirect taxes, in a letter dated September 11 has asked tax officials to verify GST transitional credit claims of over `1 crore. In the transitional credit form TRAN-1 filed by taxpayers along with their maiden reinesses have claimed a turns for July, businesses have claimed a credit of over `65,000 crore for excise, service tax or VAT paid before the GST was implemented from July 1.
In light of such huge claims, CBEC Member Mahender Singh in a letter to chief commissioners said that as per the GST law, carry forward of transitional credit is permitted only when such credit is permissible under the law. “The possibility of claiming ineligible credit due to mistake or confusion cannot be ruled out... It is desired that the claims of ITC (input tax credit) of more than . `1 crore may be verified in a time-bound manner,“ the CBEC emphasised. It asked the chief commissioners to send a report to the CBEC by September 20 on the claims made by these companies.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
Current account deficit widens to 2.4% of GDP in June quarter; exports rebound in August. Four years after a currency crisis singed Indian financial assets, the country's foreign exchange reserves have surged to a record $400 billion, up 45% from the trough, bolstering the hope that there's enough cushion to face any headwinds originating in global markets.
India now ranks eighth in foreign exchange reserves in a list that's headed by China ($3.09 trillion) and Japan ($1.2 trillion). The record amount of reserves accumulated, mainly through the flow of funds from portfolio investors and foreign direct investment in manufacturing as well as services, reflects the strength of India's macro economy and investor faith in growth. But the swelling dollar corpus has meant a stronger rupee, hurting exports amid rising imports, thus posing a currency manage ment challenge for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The current account deficit (CAD) widened to 2.4% of gross domestic product in the June quarter, up from 0.1% in the year-ago period, the central bank said. To be sure, a recovery in global demand helped India's exports re bound in August after slowing in July, the government said on Friday in a separate data release. But imports outpaced exports and grew 21%, widening the trade deficit to $11.6 billion from $7.7 billion in the year-ago period. “Record high foreign reserves, mainly borne out of strong port folio inflows, reinforce investors' positive view on the economy, beyond the attraction of higher yields and a stable currency,“ said Radhika Rao, economist at DBS Bank in Singapore. “With the central bank intervening heavily in the forwards space, the reserves stock is bound to climb further as those swaps mature.“
Foreign exchange reserves stood at $400.73 billion for the week ended September 8, RBI said on Friday. Of this, about 6% was contributed by currency movements with the dollar depreciating across a range of currencies. India was among those at the receiving end of global financial turmoil in 2013 when then US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke roiled the markets with comments on the possible tapering of the quantitative easing that began after the 2008 global financial crisis. The rupee plummeted to a record 68.85 against the dollar and reserves slumped to a low of $275 billion, prompting the government and central bank to embark on a series of crisis-management measures. Among these was a special three-year deposit scheme for non-resident Indians (NRIs) with a hedge facility that brought in about $27 billion, which helped stabilise the currency. Since then, the focus on inflation containment at 4% (with a 2 percentage point band on either side), restricting the fiscal deficit and macroeconomic reforms have helped soothe investor nerves.
Foreign portfolio investments have been strong with equity investments at `42,659 crore in 2017 and `1.32 lakh crore going into debt. This has resulted in the rupee strengthening 6% this year, making it the best performer among major emerging economies. It should be noted that the rupee slumped to 68.86 in November 2016 before recovering. It closed at 64.09 to the dollar on Friday.
The currency appreciation is making imports more attractive while exports are becoming uncompetitive. The latest RBI data shows that the current account deficit, the excess of imports over exports, was at $14.3 billion in the June quarter, up from $0.4 billion a year earlier, and $3.4 billion in the March quarter. “The widening of the CAD on a year-on-year basis was primarily on account of a higher trade deficit of $41.2 billion brought about by a larger increase in merchandise imports relative to exports,“ RBI said in a statement. “The sharp surge in the current account deficit comes as no surprise, with the spike in gold imports prior to the introduction of GST responsible for half of this uptick,“ said Aditi Nayar, economist at ICRA, the Indian unit of Moody's.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
For the first time ever, forex exchange reserves crossed the $400-billion mark as on September 8 to reach $400.727 billion, data from the Reserve Bank of India show. The central bank took almost a decade to shore up its forex kitty by $100 billion to cross $400 billion from $300 billion. Compared with this, the RBI took just 11 months to reach the $300-billion mark in February 2008 from $200 billion of reserves it had in April 2007. Reserves rose by a whopping $2.6 billion as on September 8 from the week before. Foreign currency assets, which form a key component of reserves, rose by $2.57 billion from the previous week to $376.209 billion.
FCAs are maintained in major currencies such as US dollar, euro, pound sterling, yen, etc. any movement in FCAs occurs mainly on account of purchase and sale of foreign exchange by the RBI, income arising out of deployment of foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts of the government and revaluation of assets. Gold reserves remained stable at $20.69 billion. Special drawing rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund rose by $14.2 million from the previous week to $1.52 billion. SDR is an international reserve asset created by the IMF and is allocated to its members in proportion of their quota at the multilateral agency. The reserve position in the IMF rose by $21.4 million to $2.3 billion.
Currently, reserves take care of approximately 12 months of imports; in the past, reserves covered seven to eight months of imports. Interestingly, India has seen the third-highest reserves accretion globally after Switzerland and China so far in 2017. Strong foreign portfolio investment into Indian debt and equity this year – to the tune of $27 billion – and a weakening dollar gave ample opportunities to the central bank to shore up its reserves.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
India’s manufacturing needs to steadily grow at 14–15 per cent every year over the next three decades for the country to maintain a sustained annual GDP growth of 9-10 per cent, observed a recent study jointly conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and global professional services organisation EY. States, based on their own manufacturing goals, must individually look into bureaucratic hurdles and other obstructive regulations and policies on priority, the study titled ‘Sustaining India’s growth by accelerating manufacturing’ said.
States can grow by focussing on industries in which they have a competitive edge in raw material availability, demand, user industries, logistics and availability of skilled manpower, besides geographical location, an ASSOCHAM news release said quoting the report. States may set up new industries or create ancillary facilities and infrastructure. “Robust domestic demand, improved FDI (foreign direct investment), increase in exports, higher infrastructure spending and capital formation, supportive fiscal and monetary policies suggest India’s manufacturing sector is headed for a robust growth,” said the report. The government's ‘Make in India’ initiative will help elevate the country’s manufacturing sector as it aims to increase the share of manufacturing in the GDP to 25 per cent from the current 16 per cent and to create 100 million new jobs by 2022, the report added.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
We recently met with Shriram Transport Finance’s (SHTF) MD and CEO, Umesh Revankar, who remarked that business remains steady post GST, with normal freight rates and cash flows for truckers translating into good collections for SHTF. Overall, management does not expect a significant hit from the GST, given the characteristics of the customer segment. On the other hand, a series of upgrades to tighter truck emission norms could help sustain truck resale values. Overall, the company remains confident of its 12-15% growth guidance (likely the upper end) for this year and healthy growth beyond. In this context, the company is preparing to accelerate hiring to meet growth targets. While some residual margin benefit of bank rate cuts may flow through, management appears to be encouraged by improving underlying asset quality.
There was no significant update on the proposed merger with IDFC, other than that due diligence is ongoing. SHTF remains a significantly undervalued franchise, in our view, and we retain our Outperform rating. Growth outlook to lead to hiring: Management is confident of delivering at the upper end of its guided range of 12-15% loan growth for FY18. If government spend on infra projects continues, stronger growth should be possible in future years, it feels. The company is preparing to expand the employee base by 2,000 (March 2018 employee count should be up 20% y-o-y).
SOURCE: The Financial Express
In the recently ended marketing year 2016-17, the United States exported 14.9 million bales of cotton, registering the highest quantity of exports since 2005-06, when the country exported 17.7 million bales. US cotton exports during the year were well above the levels initially forecast by either US department of agriculture (USDA) or private forecasters. While upland cotton was the most exported totalling 14.3 million bales, the remaining 614,000 bales were of extra-long staple cotton, the Foreign Agricultural Service of the USDA said in its September 2017 report ‘Cotton: World Markets and Trade’. “Both rising US crop estimates and rising global consumption helped account for this increase (in cotton exports”, the report said.
For the second year in a row, Vietnam was the largest importer of US cotton, and it imported nearly 2.8 million bales. As a result, the US market share in Vietnam rose to 50 per cent last year. Exports to the Indian subcontinent also increased sharply, with India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh combined representing the second-largest US trading partner. Two years of smaller crops in Pakistan, high domestic prices in India, and extremely rapid growth in mill demand in Bangladesh all helped drive these high shipments. However, as production recovers in Pakistan and India, “it may be challenging for US exporters to maintain these levels of sales, although demand in Bangladesh is expected to continue to grow.”
China’s imports remained quota-constrained throughout the year and reserve sales introduced 14.3 million bales into private supplies. As the US market share in China recovers from the extremely low level seen in 2015-16, exports to China are expected to figure prominently in the upcoming year. Exports to traditional US-led markets such as Turkey and Mexico did not show appreciable growth during the year.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
Vietnam’s garment and textile exports may hit $30.5 billion in 2017, according to estimates by the Vietnam Textile Association (VITAS). In the first eight months of this year, exports in the sector witnessed a growth of 9.9 per cent year on year reaching $19.8 billion, VITAS president Vu Duc Giang said at the Cotton Day celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City. However, Vietnam imports 60 per cent of its fibre, as cotton farms in Vietnam have shrunk significantly and meet only 0.04 per cent of the domestic textile sector’s demand, a news agency quoted Giang as saying at the September 12 event organised by VITAS along with the US Cotton Council International (CCI).
CCI’s Cotton Day events have been held in various countries in Asia including Japan, Republic of Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand and Bangladesh. It was held in Vietnam for the first time. The US is Vietnam’s leading market, accounting for 51 percent of market share. This is also the first year the CCI has supported Vietnamese brands using US cotton. CANIFA and John Henry brands’ latest collections were shown at the event along with collections of the five contestants of the Cotton USA fashion design contest.
SOURCE:Fibre2fashion
The Nepal Yarn and Textile Expo-2017 has kicked off at Bhrikutimandap in Kathmandu from today. Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Shankar Prasad Koirala, inaugurated the Expo organized by the Nepal Yarn Producers Association to promote the locally produced textiles and yarns. Secretary Koirala said that the Ministry was ever ready to collaborate with concerned bodies for the promotion of industries in the country. He also shared that the Ministry would consider amendments the old acts related to industry. Federation of Nepalese Commerce of Chamber and Industry (FNCCI) Senior Vice-President Shekhar Golchha lashed out at the government, stating that it was only focused on revenue collection rather than promotion of industries.
Stating that the private sector had once owned 15 per cent share in the country’s GDP and now it’s reduced to 5, senior Vice-President Golchha underscored the need for the government to help secure investment on domestic industries. Association’s Chairperson Pawan Golyan shared that earlier there were six big textile industries in the countries with around Rs 10 billion investment and now they are reduced to four. According to him, these four industries have generated employments to more than 50,000 people among them majority are women. There are altogether 55 stalls displaying locally produced textiles and garments. The Expo will run through 19 September.
SOURCE: The Kathmandu Tribune
Yourmoon, Chinese manufacturer of home textiles for domestic and international retailers, has recently deployed Centric Software’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software is the leading PLM & digital transformation platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods. Yourmoon began searching for a PLM solution in 2015, and finally selected Centric from many global PLM vendors in 2016. Zhu Hua, CIO of Yourmoon said, “Yourmoon began looking for a PLM solution because we needed a platform to support our brand transformation strategy. We want be a lifestyle brand that can offer great shopping experiences to consumers, rather than just a traditional wholesaler. We needed to enhance our capabilities in product design, process management and packaging.”
“There were a number of reasons we chose Centric. They have extensive experience in the fashion and apparel industry which can be leveraged for our brand strategy in the home textile industry. Centric PLM is easy to use and very agile and the Centric team are young, energetic and professional. Centric understood that we were not looking for a regular PLM vendor, but a partner that can help us make the brand transformation strategy successful. Centric’s deep knowledge and successful experience in the fashion industry are their most outstanding competitive advantages,” he added.
Since going live with Centric in April, Yourmoon has experienced significant positive results. Zhu said, “Centric Software’s PLM solution has brought us brand new methods of product development, greater transparency in our internal and external communications, and improved efficiency. Our product development process has become more exact and consistent, and it has totally changed our way of working. Our team performs much more efficiently when data is fully visible. We are very confident in our partnership with Centric.”
Chris Groves, president and CEO of Centric Software said, “We are happy to see that Yourmoon has already experienced great results with Centric PLM. Applying Centric’s PLM capabilities to household textiles was a natural extension of our expertise and we are delighted to be able to support Yourmoon’s transformation from a wholesaler to a lifestyle brand.”
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
Oritain Global has partnered with two of the world’s largest cotton growers - the JG Boswell Company in the US and its subsidiary, Auscott Limited of Australia – as well as with one of the world’s largest home textile manufacturers, Welspun India Limited. The association will provide scientific traceability solutions to the cotton and textile industry. Using Oritain’s technology, the claimed origin of a sample of cotton can be scientifically verified which offers reassurance for brand owners and retailers alike. Oritain’s service is based on over 30 years of proven science, and is already used commercially across a range of food, fibre and pharmaceutical products around the world.
The JG Boswell Company is one of America’s largest agricultural producers and the largest US grower of luxurious Supima cotton. Auscott Ltd is one of Australia’s largest farmers and ginners of high-quality upland cotton. To complete its end-to-end supply chain solution, Oritain Global Limited has also secured an agreement with Welspun India Ltd for their home textile products.
"Oritain’s service is a true 'product test'. The distinct advantage of the Oritain technology is they test the actual fibre and don’t use any sprays, tags or barcodes. This makes it a true product test and also means from an operational point of view it a very easy solution to adopt for our business," said Auscott marketing manager for Cotton, Arthur Spellson, who led the company’s search for an effective traceability solution.
The scientific solution Oritain offers will go a long way to address the traceability challenges that have been faced by the cotton industry in recent years, said Oritain CEO Grant Cochrane. "Manufacturers, brand owners and retailers are increasingly focused on ensuring there is transparency within their supply chains. A huge part of this is knowing - and trusting - where their product comes from. This is of particular importance as brands make claims associated with provenance and want to be reassured their product – in this case, cotton - isn’t coming from undesirable sources," said Cochrane. "We have used scientific analysis to create a unique 'fingerprint' from the cotton samples that have been supplied from California (JG Boswell Company) and Australia (Auscott Limited)," said Cochrane. "The intention is to add samples from other origins around the world - like Egypt - to our database," he added. "This fingerprint analysis identifies the different levels of chemical attributes that are found within the product itself, and enables us to verify the cotton against its claimed origin. Using this method, you can test cotton at the various stages of the supply chain and verify its origin," said Cochrane. "It’s no secret that the global industry has had problems with traceability. Our customers were asking for reassurance. They want to be able to make ‘Australian Cotton’ claims and have absolute confidence to do that. We believe that the brands that use our cotton can now have that confidence," Spellson said.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
Archroma, a global leader in colour and specialty chemicals known for pioneering custom colour engineering in textile and fashion, will debut at the Première Vision 2017 expo in Paris during September 19-21. It will display its various colour-management solutions, along with other innovations that are helping to drive sustainability in the textile sector.
For the past 17 years, Archroma has been pioneering change in the areas of formulation, standardisation and management of custom colours along the entire textile supply chain. The company recognised back in 2000 that fashion designers, brands, retailers and their suppliers were all facing challenges, ranging from global sourcing to ambitious deadlines. Archroma Colour Management helps them to achieve accurate colours, and accelerate their time to market with colour management services, unique software tools and support systems.
To address these issues, Archroma launched its Colour Atlas, a colour library created to easily bring colour creativity and manageability to an entire new level for all in the supply chain. The Colour Atlas is a system that includes a "physical library" of 4,320 colour swatches, in six volumes. The accordion-fold design of the library volumes allows for quick, intuitive browsing of the cotton poplin samples. Colourful book covers indicate the shades that lie within each volume. Secure tabs help keep the swatches neat and ordered while allowing them to be easily removed. Earlier this year, Archroma also introduced the compact version of its Colour Atlas system, which includes all the same colour options, but is slimmed down from six to two volumes for increased portability.
A mobile-friendly Colour Atlas Online offers features such as “colour-on-the-go”, which allows users to capture an image using a smartphone, and identify the closest Colour Atlas shades with the possibility to purchase a colour sample instantly. Archroma has also introduced new patent-pending technology that adds swatch-specific information to each Engineered Colour Standard, giving retailers, brands and mills instant access to more colour information than ever.
Due to its close relations with textile manufacturers, brands and retailers, and as a leader in textile colours and effects, Archroma can provide solutions and expertise in colours and beyond, in particular with its cutting-edge technologies to help make industry more sustainable. Its EarthColours is a range of range of “biosynthetic” dyes for cotton and cellulose-based fabrics that are made from waste left over by the agricultural and pharmaceutical industry after extraction such as almond shells, saw palmetto, or rosemary leaves. The latest in NFC technology on product hangtags enable transparency and traceability through the supply chain to consumers.
Another product, Smartrepel Hydro is a non-fluorine-based water repellent finish with high wash durability for cotton, synthetic fibres and their blends. Advanced Denim dyeing technology allows savings of up to 92 per cent in water, 87 per cent in cotton waste and 30 per cent in energy, compared to a conventional denim dyeing process.
“With our Colour Atlas tool, we believe we are redefining the concept of a colour library for the textile industry,” says Chris Hipps, global director of Archroma Colour Management services. “With Colour Atlas and our continuous flow of new innovative solutions, we address the specific colour related needs of designers, manufacturers and the fashion industry, while constantly striving to also advance products and technologies that will make those sectors more sustainable.” (SV)
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
TUV Rheinland has extended its lead in providing chemical management solutions and services for the textile, fashion and footwear industry, as it gets accredited as a global training provider by the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Foundation. Through the ZDHC Academy, TUV Rheinland will provide brands and manufacturers ZDHC-certified training. The ZDHC-certified training will be meant to improve brands’ and manufacturers’ knowledge and promote the practice of responsible chemical management. The training is an extension of the TUV Rheinland Academy's existing OHS (occupational health and safety) training programme for the textiles industry.
Targeted at the global market, the first wave of training sessions, entitled "Introduction to Chemical Management," will take place from October to November – starting with Vietnam and followed by sessions in Bangladesh, Turkey and Italy.
TUV Rheinland has been actively promoting sound chemical management for nearly a decade, starting with the International Labour Organisation's SCORE (Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises) programme and its own Fit Five training programme that links productivity and quality with CSR. TUV Rheinland has also worked with Germany's leading provider of international cooperation services, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit), on its Resource Efficient Management of Chemicals (REMC) framework for the apparel and footwear supply chain. One of the most recent additions is a comprehensive DETOX offering, which TUV Rheinland launched as a direct response to the Greenpeace DETOX campaign aimed at uniting top textile and footwear brands and retailers to achieve zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by the year 2020. "It might seem easy for manufacturers to produce 'clean' finished products by washing and flushing out some of the undesired chemicals into the local sewerage system before delivery, but it's also extremely short-sighted. Ethical buyers and end-user customers are increasingly looking for assurance that the production process is clean from start to finish, which takes careful testing and quality training to achieve," said Holger Kunz, executive vice president, Business Stream Products for TUV Rheinland.
Kunz noted that approximately a third of the international fashion industry, including some of the world's biggest brands, are already members of the ZDHC Foundation. More are joining every day. TUV Rheinland's extensive global network of testing, inspection and certification facilities is now in the process of finalising accreditation as Accepted ZDHC Laboratories. "Although the new training programme is aimed at enterprises, each course concludes with a stringent examination. Successful candidates receive a personal ZDHC certificate to add to their portfolio of professional qualifications and improve their long-term career prospects," said Markus Dohm, executive vice president, Business Stream Academy and Life Care for TUV Rheinland.
"ZDHC's vision of using best practices to protect consumers, workers and the environment is in full alignment with our mission of promoting greater quality, safety, and economic efficiency where people, technology and the environment interact. While the focus of this first wave of training is an Introduction to Chemical Management, we are committed to working collaboratively with the industry to develop more in-depth, targeted trainings on additional topics. This will drive global progress towards achieving genuine zero discharge of hazardous chemicals," Dohm said.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
