Surat: Union minister of state for textiles Ajay Tamta will be on a two-day visit to the Diamond City on Wednesday. Textile industry leaders hope to meet the minister to discuss issues concerning traders, power loom units and processing sector related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and central government’s help in boosting the sector, which generates highest export turnover and provides employment to millions of people. Industry sources said the textile ministry has recommended constituting an inter-ministerial panel with a fund of Rs 1,000 crore to boost research and development and technology transfer in the silk sector. At present, the man-made fabric (MMF) sector is lying on a deathbed because of negative impact of GST. Sources said production of polyester fabric has been drastically reduced from 4 crore metre per day to just 2.5 crore metre. More than 1.25 lakh conventional power looms have been sold in the scrap market and more than 40,000 workers rendered jobless. Federation of Indian Art Silk Weaving Industry (FIASWI) chairman Bharat Gandhi said, “FIASWI and some power loom weavers will be meeting Tamta on Thursday. Recently, linen yarn spinning companies have filed a case for imposing anti-dumping duty on import of yarn from China. If this happens, then the weavers will not get yarn at competitive rates. Other issues remain the same as that of the input tax credit to power loom sector.” The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) and Global Fabric Resource and Research Centre (GFRRC) have jointly organized a seminar on ‘future opportunities in textiles’ under the leadership of Ajay Tamta, where managing director of Sangam India Ltd, Bhilwara, S N Modani will be the guest of honour. Head of GFRRC Girdhargopal Mundra said, “We have invited the minister to show us the way forward on future opportunities in textiles. We are not going to put forth any demands or representations before the minister. He has accepted the invitation as a chief guest and is in the city to attend some private events.” Power loom industry leader Ashish Gujarati told TOI, “We have been told that Tamta will not meet representative from textile associations and federations. Still, we believe that he will talk about the situation prevailing in the industry at the SGCCI’s event. We hope the central government to seriously study the impact of GST on Surat’s textile sector.”
Source: The Times of India
India, china, trade boost, india china investment India and China have agreed to renegotiate a bilateral investment agreement, apart from working on a road map to reduce the massive trade imbalance in favour of the world’s second-largest economy, as the two countries pledged to bolster relations amid threats of a worsening global trade war, official sources told FE. India and China have agreed to renegotiate a bilateral investment agreement, apart from working on a road map to reduce the massive trade imbalance in favour of the world’s second-largest economy, as the two countries pledged to bolster relations amid threats of a worsening global trade war, official sources told FE. China has also pledged to look into the sticky issue of greater market access to Indian farm products and agreed to resolve any issue that hurts the prospect of Indian pharmaceutical exports to that country, at a meeting between commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu and China’s trade minister Zhong Shan on Monday. The meeting under the aegis of the China-India joint-group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science & Technology came amid threats of an escalating global trade war following the US plan to impose tariffs on $50-billion worth of Chinese goods, over and above an earlier plan to tax supplies of steel and aluminium from select countries, including China and India. Analysts said the China-India bilateral investment treaty remained in effect since August 2007 until its termination in July 2017, after India made it clear to all countries, with which it had similar agreements, that it wished to base such investment pacts on a new model text, mainly aimed at reducing litigations. The two countries now want to renegotiate to create a more stable and transparent regime for each other to catalyse greater flow of investments in a legally protected environment, the official sources said. The Chinese side agreed to improve market access for Indian agricultural products pertaining to non-basmati rice, rape-seed meals, soyameal, pomegranate, banana and other fruit and vegetable and bovine meats expeditiously. India, too, showed its willingness to examine any sticky issue hindering the supplies of apples, pears and tagetes seeds by China. The two ministers reiterated commitments to promote a balanced and sustainable bilateral trade. India’s goods trade deficit with China has steadily worsened over the years — from just $0.6 billion in 2000-01 to a massive $52 billion in the first ten months of the current fiscal. Official data shows that China’s exports to India were 1.8 times of India’s outbound shipments to the country in 2000-01. But at $63.2 billion, what China exported to India in the first ten months of the current fiscal was more than six times of what India shipped out to China. The Chinese side noted India’s concern regarding ‘the long existing trade imbalance and requests for market access of Indian products and services and expressed its commitment to address these concerns through the broad framework provided by successive joint economic groups and the FiveYear Development Programme for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and India’, the commerce ministry said in a statement. The two sides also reaffirmed commitment to rules-based, multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organisation framework, it said. Both the countries decided on medium and long term roadmap with action points and timelines for increasing bilateral trade in a balanced and sustainable manner, the ministry said. The two countries taken together account for 35% of the world’s population and around 20% of the global GDP, but the relative volume of bilateral trade is less than 1% of world trade.
Source: Financial Express
GST, GST revenue, GST February, revenue stagnant Goods and services tax (GST) collections for February fell to Rs 85,174 crore from Rs 86,318 crore a month earlier, heightening the government’s anxiety over revenue being far below projections. Goods and services tax (GST) collections for February fell to Rs 85,174 crore from Rs 86,318 crore a month earlier, heightening the government’s anxiety over revenue being far below projections. The average monthly central GST (CGST) collections in July-February has been just Rs 23,177 crore while the Centre’s monthly GST revenue for FY19 is budgeted to be more than double that at Rs 50,325 crore. Of course, integrated GST (IGST), roughly half of which has to go to the Centre’s kitty eventually, would give it another Rs 10,100 crore a month, going by the trend so far. But even that would take the Centre’s average monthly GST revenue so far to only Rs 33,300 crore, two-thirds of the budget estimate for next year. States are to be compensated for any revenue shortfall from the level a 14% annual growth from the 2015-16 base would entail, so subdued GST buoyancy is less of an immediate threat to their revenue. Analysts felt that lower-than-expected GST revenue for the first two months of 2018 might force the government to hasten the introduction of anti-evasion measures such as invoice-matching and reverse charge on transactions with unregistered dealers, besides the e-way bill, which is slated to be rolled out from April 1. The stagnation in collections might also lead to tighter scrutiny of residual transitional credits and a slower pace in refunding the tax to exporters. The Central Board of Excise and Customs recently launched countrywide camps to manually rectify exporters’ entry in the GST Network portal to expedite refunds worth over Rs 10,000 crore. As FE reported earlier, the indirect tax department has instructed its field formations to carry out a more detailed verification of transitional credit claimed by the top 50,000 assessees. This is second round of verification after the earlier, more cursory attempt failed to find large divergence between claimed and invalid transitional credit, which stood at Rs 1.6 lakh crore at the end of the deadline. “The collection figures for February being lower than expected would lead to several anti-evasion measures over and above the imminent e-way bill launch on April 1. We should now expect the relaunch of reverse charge on transactions with unregistered dealers , invoice matching, more return scrutiny etc,” said MS Mani, partner, Deloitte India. According to a government statement, 59.51 lakh GSTR 3B (summary) returns had been filed for February, till March 25. This is 69% of total taxpayers who were required to file monthly returns, the government said. About 1.05 crore taxpayers now registered under GST so far. Out of these, 18.17 lakh were composition dealers, which are required to file returns every quarter, and the remaining 86.37 lakh assessees are required to file monthly returns. The total collection of CGST and state GST stood at is Rs 27,085 crore and Rs 33,880 crore, respectively, in February, which included transfers from IGST by way of settlement. An amount of Rs 7,317 crore was collected in the month as compensation cess. GST collections dwindled from a high of over Rs 92,000 crore in July to around Rs 80,000 crore in November before rebounding to Rs 86,703 crore in December again fell marginally in January to Rs 86, 314 crore.
Source: Financial Express
On the one hand, US President Donald Trump says the World Trade Organisation (WTO) does not provide a level playing field, and so threatens unilateral trade barriers. India fears he will abandon the rulesbased framework of the WTO, which has served the world well for decades. On the other hand, the US has just sought to use that very WTO framework against India. Trump has dragged India to the WTO dispute mechanism for failing to abolish wide-ranging export subsidies forbidden by WTO rules. India’s defence is rather weak, and its chances of winning the case are not high.
Sop Bar on Growth Highway
After World War 2, the US promoted multilateral free trade through seven rounds of mutual tariff cuts in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt), the predecessor of WTO. Developing countries got mostly a free pass on tariff cuts because they were poor, had a small share of global trade, and were outside the Soviet bloc in the Cold War. This ‘special and differential’ treatment for developing countries complemented foreign aid. The West viewed developing countries as objects of charity, meriting non-reciprocal concessions. These concessions were to be phased out as poor countries grew richer, and moved towards developed country status. This scenario changed dramatically in the 1990s with the end of the Cold War, and emergence of economic muscle and competitiveness in developing countries. Some developing countries — above all, China — began to look like economic threats rather than objects of charity to the West. In the Uruguay Round of Gatt, which led to the creation of WTO, more reciprocity was demanded from even the poorest countries, especially in patents and copyright. US economic dominance eroded in the 2000s, and even more in the 2010s. WTO became deadlocked on most issues. Its rules mandated unanimity in decisions, which were difficult to engineer, and gave a veto to any obstructionist (India was a major culprit). Disillusioned, the US switched focus to bilateral trade deals where it had more bargaining power. Trump blames wage stagnation in the US on unfair trading practices of China and other countries. He has announced protectionist measures that have, rightly, been condemned in India and elsewhere. Trump is on stronger ground in complaining that developing countries have excessive advantages through ‘special and differential’ WTO rules, and should graduate out of these much faster. Referring to Brics (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer complained that five of the six richest countries in the world were seeking concessions on the basis of self-proclaimed development status. India is now the third-largest economy in the world in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. It has liberalised its trade, but it continues to give a wide range of modest export subsidies. Indeed, every export sector in India keeps demanding a better package of incentives. The US has pointed out that, under WTO rules, countries that exceed a per-capita income threshold of $1,000 for three years in a row should end export subsidies to any sector having over 3.25% of global exports. By International Monetary Fund reckoning, India crossed this threshold in 2015. Yet, it continues to give subsidies.
Who Moved My Protein Shake?
India’s commerce minister Suresh Prabhu says that when WTO enacted this rule, countries already above the threshold were given eight years to adjust. So, he argues, India, too, should be given eight years of grace. But the rules do not actually provide for such a grace period. In the old days, the US was willing to wink at many Third World subsidies. Those days are over. In its new mood, the US no longer views developing countries as objects of charity. Growing up has consequences. India takes pride in having become the third-largest economy. But higher status implies moving from being a taker to a giver. That is politically inconvenient in a democracy where all parties keep making crazy competitive subsidy promises. But it is no less inconvenient for Western democracies. Political parties need to accept that global rules are good for all, even if they prove inconvenient when confronting certain vote banks. Prabhu recently said that some countries had exceeded the $1,000 per capita limit but were not being subjected to any regulation. “So, it should not single out India because we are growing,” he added. Alas, that is an argument for subjecting all other errant countries to the WTO rule, not for exempting India. Ironically, if the US wins the case, it may help persuade Trump that the WTO has fair rules that he, too, should abide by. Keeping the US in WTO is a worthy aim. India needs to accept that subsidies are not the way to promote exports. Indian exports are uncompetitive and high-cost thanks to land made expensive by acquisition laws, interest rates made high by populist schemes that stoke deficits and inflation, labour rates made high by labour laws, industrial power tariffs kept high to subsidise farmers, and freight rates kept high to subsidise passengers. If India loses the WTO cases, politicians might finally agree to reform these high-cost policies that hit exports.
Source: The Economic Times
KOLKATA: Amid a fast increasing import of garments made of Chinese fabrics from Bangladesh, the Indian textiles industry is seeking "tweaking of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) rules of origin" to make use of yarn and fabrics of Indian origin mandatory for exporting apparel to India, an official said on Tuesday. According to the official, India allowed duty free import of readymade garments from Bangladesh under SAFTA in 2006 and this facility was limited to eight million pieces. However, in 2010, this quantitative restriction was lifted. "Bangladesh imports Chinese fabrics and converts them into garments using its cheap labour. It exports these garments to India without the need for paying any import duties. "Since import of made-in-China fabrics is meant for export, Bangladesh imposes no import duties on them. This is actually facilitating backdoor entry of Chinese textiles into India," Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI India) Chairman Sanjay K. Jain told IANS. He also said the duty-free facility given to Bangladesh on grounds of it being a Least Developed Countries (LDC) was actually benefiting China's textile exports. Indian domestic garment manufacturers have to pay a 20 per cent import duty if they use the same Chinese fabric, he added. According to CITI India, India's garment imports from Bangladesh increased from $106.72 million during April-December period of 2016 to $124.14 million in the corresponding period of 2017. "We have demanded tweaking of SAFTA rules of origin to make the use of yarn and fabrics of Indian origin mandatory for allowing duty-free quota-free market. "This is expected to prevent China from taking undue advantage of a facility that is meant for LDCs," Jain said on the sidelines of a seminar on "Recent Trends on Eco-Friendly Textiles & Sustainable Fashion" organised by the J.D. Birla Institute. This measure is also expected to give a fillip to India's export of yarn and fabrics to Bangladesh and other LDCs which at present are being supplied by China, he said. "India has now extended this duty-free quota-free facility to all 49 LDCs on a non-reciprocal basis and again without any sourcing restrictions. So, it is expected that in the coming future, we may have more Bangladesh-type situation," Jain said. Citing the international practices of imposing sourcing restrictions, he said the US imposed sourcing restriction under NAFTA for accepting duty free import of garments from Mexico and other NAFTA members. "India itself has accepted sourcing restrictions imposed by Japan that hurt its apparel exports to Japan under India-Japan CEPA," he added. In the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime, the industry has been under severe stress with increasing imports of garments from Bangladesh and other countries. "In the pre-GST scenario, import of garments from Bangladesh and other countries were attracting a CVD (Countervailing Duty) of 12.5 per cent and education cess of 3 per cent. "However, post-GST, the same has been removed, hence there is no cost for import of garments from Bangladesh and for other countries," Jain said.
Source: The New Indian Express
The Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) has urged Indian minister of commerce and industry Suresh Prabhu to initiate steps and offer incentives to the readymade garments sector till free trade
agreements (FTAs) are signed with the United States and the European Union (EU), creating a level playing field for the industry compared to competing nations. In a letter to the minister, the association has requested him to enhance the duty drawback rate, the benefit under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and the interest subvention for export credit to 5 per cent and clear the heavy backlog of pending rebate on state levies (ROSL) payments. The MEIS benefit now is 4 per cent of the free on board (FOB) value of exports and interest subvention for export credit is offered to the tune of 3 per cent. TEA also requested the minister to either hold discussions with the office of the US trade representative (USTR), which has decided to challenge the legality of India’s export promotion schemes at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), or announce a scheme compatible to WTO regulations for apparel exporters. TEA feels exporters will lose global competitiveness once the schemes are done away with. Due to the delay in ROSL payments, duty drawback and goods and services tax (GST) refund, many export units are unable to repay their dues to banks and run the risk of bad credit rating and may be declared non-performing assets (NPAs) in future, the letter said. ROSL dues have been cleared till May 2017 only. The association also requested changes to the condition in fulfillment of obligation through a third party to boost modernisation of factories; doing away with manual GST refund claims that is both cumbersome and is leading to corrupt practices; and exempting exporters from international GST (IGST) payment while importing accessories that are cleared through export performance certificate (EPC) issued by the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) or allowing payment of IGST using MEIS duty credit scrip. (DS)
Source: Fibre2Fashion
Hyderabad: Telangana caters to 60 per cent of India’s seed demand. In recent times, it has been noticed that unscrupulous fly-by-night seed companies have entered the state and have been adopting unhealthy practices such as sale of spurious seeds, illegal cultivation of HT cotton etc. and this has been worrying the state authorities since the state is the seed hub of India and may also cause irreparable damage to farmers. Seeds being the most critical agricultural input, any defect can turn it into a dangerous gamble. Thus in a major move, the state has constituted 50 task force teams headed by the district collector and the superintendent of police to trace out illegal companies and to book cases against them. These teams will also include officials from the agricultural and cooperation department. Telangana is the major seed producing state in the country. Presently, more than 400 seed companies, including multinationals have established themselves in the state. The climate and soil types are best suited and are highly congenial for quality seed production for most of the crops and also for processing, grading and storage. Spurious seeds is high because the companies make a large margin by selling fake seeds. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, C. Partha Sarathi, agricultural production commissioner, explained, “This year, another issue in cotton growing states has surfaced with rising illegal cultivation of HT cotton or unapproved GM crops in the market.” “The reason for this is illegal marketeers or fly-by-night operators. The HT cotton seed might be produced elsewhere in India and are brought into the cotton growing states as nobody claims this trait. The TS government is trying to curb all such illegal seeds, especially HT cotton, in several districts with the help of our task force,” he said. “These issues are increasing year by year and becoming a big challenge for the government and also for genuine seed companies. As the kharif season is approaching, the seed suppliers of different crops have started introducing the seeds in the market, villages and farmers of Telangana are also bringing in seeds from different places and introducing them in the market. The task force teams will be deployed in each district according to the extent of seed production activities,” Partha Sarathi said. The State Government took a decision to bring those found guilty of manufacturing and selling spurious seeds under the purview of the Preventive Detention Act to ensure that they were dealt with sternly. Superintendent of Police, Gadwal district, Rema Rajeshwari said that these task force teams will look out for illegal storage, selling , transport of seeds, storage godowns , shops , processing units , mills etc. “They will conduct raids if any information comes up about illegal activities and will book cases under the relevant IPC sections, Seed Control Order, Seeds Act and Essential Commodities Act,” she said.
Source: Deccan Chronicle
Ace designer Ritu Kumar says reviving Indian textiles has contributed a lot to her creative instincts as in the past she, like many others, hardly knew that such workmanship was alive. “Reviving the Indian textiles has contributed the most to my creative instincts. Nobody knew that such worksmanship was alive; not even me,” Kumar told in an email. “Someone who did higher studies in arts, I could look at their work purely in terms of arts and crafts. Through my travels, I discovered designs, embroideries and culture across South Asia and Europe which enhanced my design abilities,” she added. Kumar started her career in 1969 and has great understanding of traditional design and the innovative use of traditional crafts. She began with just four hand-block printers and two tables in a small village near Kolkata and pioneered the term "fashion" in the Indian context. With an over four-decade-long journey in the industry, Kumar was also awarded the Padma Shri in 2013 for her exceptional service in the field of fashion, textiles and craftsmanship. Her work is currently on display via an exhibition titled 'Crossroads: Textile Journeys with Ritu Kumar' at India Habitat Center. "Crossroads is a visual representation of my travels through South Asia and Europe for a forthcoming series of publications that I am currently working on. "These journeys have involved deep research and reflection on the textile arts of the regions and their unique histories. It is a personal perspective which is represented by my collection of archival textiles, vintage photographs, collages and paintings," the designer told. Talking about Indian textile industry, the designer said it is growing immensely but there are several handloom artisans who are unemployed. “I have been on the All India Handloom Board to press for softening of taxes on handicrafts and handloom. I wanted it to be put in a section where it doesn't have to compete with machine-made goods. People in India definitely understand fabric but the only thing they don't understand is that why 'it needs to be complicated',” she said. The designer said the youth loves the handloom fabric, but it's the styling that is a focus. “They definitely want shoulders, easy kind of silhouettes and even if they are going for a party, they want to underplay rather overplay lots of things, which is why textiles is perfect for them. They love handloom as long as the styling is not complicated or difficult to wear.” “If you can style it in a way that they look fun and easy the youth are game for it. Indian generation today quite appreciate and understand fabrics, but what they don't understand is why it should be uncomfortable,” she said.
Source: The Hans India
Veteran fashion designer Ritu Kumar on completing 50 years in the fashion industry and why she is optimistic about the future of Indian textiles and craft. These places look exotic, but trust me they were not. The place where these weavers and artisans were working — in Bengal — there were so many mosquitoes. In contrast, the weavers sitting under a mango tree in Banaras were better off,” says Ritu Kumar, 74, one of India’s premier textile revivalists and fashion designers, pointing at a painting placed next to a magenta Banarasi sari at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre. Kumar completes 50 years in the fashion industry this year. The landmark coincides with the unveiling of a project that the designer has been working on for a while now. Phase one of the project is an exhibition curated by textile designer and historian Mayank Mansingh Kaul. The exhibition comprises musings, travelogues and documentation accumulated by Kumar over the last half century. Titled ‘Crossroads: Textile Journeys with Ritu Kumar’, the exhibition has textiles, photographs, clothes, paintings and even printing blocks on display. The word crossroads keeps popping up as we meet the designer on the sidelines of her exhibition, where a group of about 30 people are listening in rapt attention to Kaul, as he takes them through the travels and tales of Kumar. “We are at a crossroads. We have these wonderful weaves and textiles as living forms, they are tangible, we see them, live them every day. But we are so close to losing them. The exhibition was just one small way to share that wealth, which is fast depleting. Most cultures of the world have lost their crafts, with majority now only seen in studios and museums; we are very close to that. And if we forget it, we will end up wearing the same high street labels and synthetic fibers,” she says. The Banaras section at the exhibition that features paintings, Banarasi saris and jackets. The exhibition is a sneak peak into the first of a 15-chapter book that Kumar is writing. In this, each chapter will focus on one geographical region and its textile and artisanal heritage. The first chapter of the book — on Uzbekistan — was also released at the exhibition. The exhibition includes wall panels devoted to different regions. Ikat — the geometric weave from southeast coastal India — has its own panel. The simpler Odisha ikat, which is often used as an offering to Lord Jagannath, is juxtaposed with the more flamboyant and colourful ikat from Uzbekistan. “Uzbekistan was very interesting. The rather harsh and stark landscape of the place has amazing architectural marvels. They used to have these bustling bukhara bazaars, which no longer exist. In India we still have the haats and weekly markets, where we touch and feel stuff ,” she says. Varanasi features prominently through Banarasi sari and artwork, Kashmir finds portrayal in a vintage jacket embroidered in silver thread, and Andhra Pradesh has giant etchings of kalamkari motifs on canvas. Bengal, too, has its place of pride in the exhibition, given the special connect Kumar has with the region — that’s where she discovered the magic of Indian textiles. “I had come back from my art history course in the US and was doing a course in museology in Calcutta. I had gone to the surrounding areas on field visits and that’s where I saw weaving, embroidery and printing. No young person was interested in this field. No one even knew that these things existed. Today, you at least have a Dilli Haat but in those days there was only foreign printed fabric coming into India,” she laments. A weaver in Uzbekistan while working on an ikat fabric. About five decades ago, Kumar started working out of Kolkata, and made evening and bridal wear, and in about 20 years she had a presence in the international market as well. Her label titled Label, which she launched with son Amrish about 15 years ago, was a more contemporary take on her aesthetics, comprised sharper silhouettes and western wear. She was one of the first designers to be coveted by brides for their wedding day. Today, that space has many players, something that she is happy about. “At least this way embroidery will sustain. Where is this embroidery coming from — the zardozi workers. The employment generated from these markets for this artist community is huge, we shouldn’t underestimate it. I’m looking at it in a holistic way. There is a huge demand from both India and Europe,” says Kumar, who has often spoken about the rights of 16 million weavers and textile workers and the need to make them self-sustainable. “These are just some things I’m familiar with,” says Kumar, about the vast treasury of Indian textiles, and the road ahead. “I visited Kutch and saw the Rabari women doing this minuscule, super intricate embroidery work for something that would adorn a camel’s back. There is so much I have not touched upon. Kota doriya for example. I hope somebody else focuses on it,” she says. Jackets in Uzbeki ikat patterns are more flamboyant than the sedate ones from Odisha — both have been used prominently by Kumar After spending half a century within the design fraternity, she is cautiously optimistic about the future of Indian design and handloom. “These young designers are brave and doing a lot to revive weaves and textiles. It’s very encouraging, or else we would only have high street labels from Europe flooding our markets. The weaver or the artisan can’t get their products into a store. These crafts are all rural, we need catalysts who can facilitate that access to rural India. The young lot is efficiently translating it all — be it bandhani or simple shibori, they are doing a phenomenal job,” says Kumar. ‘Crossroads: Textile Journeys with Ritu Kumar’ is in display at The Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre till April 5
Source: The Indian Express
The rupee surrendered its strong early gains and ended lower by 10 paise at 64.97 against the US currency, cutting short its three-day upmove on bouts of dollar buying by banks and exporters. A solid dollar rebound, supported by easing trade war fears and a pick-up in the US Treasury bond yields predominantly kept forex market undertone nervous and prompted the fag-end reversal. The Indian currency touched a fresh one-month high of 64.73 during early trade. Some trading caution ahead of the fiscal deficit data release tomorrow also weighed on the rupee front. The rupee opened on a stronger note at 64.76 against Monday’s close of 64.87 at the inter-bank foreign exchange here on steady dollar unwinding and well supported by bullish local equities. It strengthened further to hit a high of 64.73 briefly - the level not seen since February 23. However, the upbeat momentum was stalled during the mid-afternoon trade, pressured by the month-end corporate demand for the greenback from corporates. Moreover, currency traders avoided taking huge positions ahead of the long weekend. After retracing the 65-mark towards the fag-end trade, the Indian unit finally settled at 64.97, showing a loss of 10 paise. Bonds prices, in the meantime, staged a powerful rally induced by a surprise cut in the government’s borrowing programme for the fiscal year starting April. The government yesterday announced to borrow Rs 2.88 lakh crore in the April-September period of 2018-19, lower than Rs 3.72 lakh crore it had borrowed in the first half of the current fiscal, and introduce bonds linked to CPI or retail inflation. The benchmark 10-year bond yield crashed to 7.33 per cent from 7.62 per cent. The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.7973 and for the euro at 80.7634. The BSE-Sensex jumped 108 points to close at 33,174.39, while the Nifty rose nearly 54 points to 10,184.15.
Source: Financial Express
|
Item |
Price |
Unit |
Fluctuation |
Date |
|
PSF |
1403.18 |
USD/Ton |
-0.11% |
3/27/2018 |
|
VSF |
2353.20 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
ASF |
2782.50 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
Polyester POY |
1403.18 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
Nylon FDY |
3688.80 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
40D Spandex |
5962.50 |
USD/Ton |
-1.32% |
3/27/2018 |
|
Nylon POY |
2989.20 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
Acrylic Top 3D |
1685.40 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
Polyester FDY |
3855.75 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
Nylon DTY |
6010.20 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
Viscose Long Filament |
1650.42 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
Polyester DTY |
3418.50 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
30S Spun Rayon Yarn |
3068.70 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
32S Polyester Yarn |
2171.94 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
45S T/C Yarn |
3036.90 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
40S Rayon Yarn |
2337.30 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
T/R Yarn 65/35 32S |
2559.90 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
45S Polyester Yarn |
3211.80 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
T/C Yarn 65/35 32S |
2734.80 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
10S Denim Fabric |
1.48 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
32S Twill Fabric |
0.91 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
40S Combed Poplin |
1.27 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
30S Rayon Fabric |
0.72 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
|
45S T/C Fabric |
0.75 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
3/27/2018 |
Source: Global Textiles
Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.15900 USD dtd. 27/3/2018). The prices given above are as quoted from Global Textiles.com. SRTEPC is not responsible for the correctness of the same.
Forty-four African nations recently signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, which aims at creating a liberalized market for goods and services across the continent. The agreement, on the lines of the European Union, was signed during the 10th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Heads of State summit held in Rwanda’s capital Kigali. The AfCFTA saw the origin of the world’s largest free trade area since the World Trade Organization was formed in 1995, according to global media reports. If all 55 AU member states ratify it, the agreement will bring together an estimated 1.2 billion people with a combined gross domestic product of more than $2 trillion. Nigeria did not sign agreement, because President Muhammadu Buhari may reportedly have succumbed to pressure from local labour unions and big corporations who oppose the treaty, saying it would harm the local economy.
Source: Fibre2Fashion
KARACHI: Federal Secretary Commerce Muhammad Younas Dagha on Tuesday said that the exports target of $ 23 billion set for the year 2017-18 will be achieved. The Commerce Ministry is working on five-year trade policy, which will be announced soon. He stated this while talking to media after inaugurating three-day 19th Textile Asia International Exhibition at Karachi Expo Centre. Secretary, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, Inamullah Khan Dharejo also accompanied him. He said that the government was fully alive that Pakistani products faced the issue of high cost production and doing business. Therefore, he continued, it was considering to reduce gas and water tariffs to reduce the production cost. Pakistan needs foreign investors for achieving economic targets and this could be done by making the investment policies and business environment more attractive to them. He said that there were different opinions on devaluation of rupee. But, he was in favour because it would help improve the exports. The value of local currency would set pattern of future exports growth. He urged the local manufacturers to modernize their industrial units to capture regional markets. Commenting on Pak-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) he said that due to rising interest of China in ASEAN countries, Pakistan could not avail its real benefits. Pakistan was reviewing FTA with China and the second phase of talks on it would be held next month. He said Pakistan was trying to overcome the massive under-invoiced imports from China. Over 450 companies are showcasing 650 products at 800 stalls in the three-day international exhibition. About 1200 foreign delegates, including from China, are participating the exhibition. The participating countries included China, Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Vietnam, Turkmenistan. The event attracted a lot of visitors. Ms. LI Yang, Vice Division Director, Department of Commerce, Zhejiang province of China, on this occasion, said China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was the true reflection of friendship between the two countries. Pakistan’s had achieved good economic growth, she said. She praised textile products of Pakistan. She said that at the exhibition, Chinese companies would sign many deals with their counterparts. The economy of Zhejiang province was about one trillion dollars. It was for the first time, over 150 companies from Zhejiang province were participating at the textile exhibition.
Source: Business Recorder
Export earnings from the cut-make-pack (CMP) garment sector in Mynamar was $2.332 billion by early March of the current fiscal, according to the country’s commerce ministry. Export earnings from this sector rose from $337 million in 2010 to nearly $1 billion in 2014. Garments, which rank second in the list of export items, are a priority for the ministry. Myanmar’s financial year ends on March 31. Japan, South Korea and the European Union (EU) import CMP garments from Myanmar. In 2015, the export earnings hit US$ 1.46 billion, accounting for 10 per cent of the total export value of the country. In the same year, the garment export to EU market increased to 80 per cent, according to a report in Myanmarese news website. The commerce ministry is following a ten-year strategy for this sector in cooperation with Myanmar Garment Entrepreneurs Association. (DS)
Source: Fibre2Fashion
Like it or not, in its 70 years history, textiles is the only globally competitive stand-alone industry that Pakistan has created. The definition of standalone being that given a level playing field vis-a-vis its international competitors, the industry can hold its own both in terms of quality and pricing. However, owing to Islamabad’s limited understanding of the industry’s operational dynamics - both domestically and internationally – it is churning out rather myopic policies, which if not corrected will result in slowly but surely dismantling this all-important national industry. As the country’s textile exports rapidly lose ground – nearly15% decline year-on-year - the textile exporting community in Pakistan today stands quite confused on whether or not this government is even serious about safeguarding a sector that nationally accounts for nearly 12% of GDP, 40% of employment and 57% of exports. Textile manufacturing by its sheer structure figures relatively low on capital deployment but is highly labor intensive, making it an ideal industry for developing economies with large populations. Little wonder that economies like India, China, Bangladesh, and of other Asian countries, consciously support or subsidise respective home textile manufacturing just to sometimes simply keep people employed. Thereby, in doing so, unleashing a great game of the sort to capture more and more global textile market share and where everything to displace the competition is considered Kosher. We know of some such blatant official policies in selected Indian states who pick up a part of monthly industrial wage-bills to stave-off redundancies; unrealistic minimum-wage-level and window dressing on environmental compliance in Bangladesh; and of artificially low power bills and finance costs in China, to name only a few and all designed to beat the competition. But, in contrast what we instead see here in Pakistan is: a) an incoherent approach to counter this attack, b) a complete disconnect between ministries who in one way or the other tangibly affect our textile chain – a dedicated textile ministry is no more, and c) some embarrassingly simplistic turnaround solutions that are put forward from time to time by related ministers, albeit in isolation and not as a joint plan. And the official commentary, quite often, so far removed from reality that it tends to be a joke. Though with Pakistan’s rising unemployment and ballooning current account deficit (despite low international oil prices) one doubts if anyone really sees its lighter side! Anyway, the comedy of errors can’t be ignored: The finance minister thinks that just by zero-rating the sector – which by the way is an exercise of removing a bad operational mechanism that should not have been legislated in the first place and not of facilitation – the country’s exports will suddenly grow by $10 billion, the commerce minister thinks that mere negotiations by his ministerial team can somehow nullify Brexit’s fall out on Pakistan’s exports, the power minister thinks that in cutting power to the industry by 10 hours/day during the month of Ramadan he is somehow performing some kind of a religious duty; and on the roles of industry, agriculture and environment ministries, the less said the better. These three provincial ministries somehow appear to be the victims of the maze created by the sheer act of poorly thought through devolution process, which is now manifesting itself in provincial leaders’ dangerous indulgence in populism at the expense of industry. And the indulgence list is endless, starting from their: arbitrary announcements on minimum wage levels, unrealistic environment protection laws that in some cases even surpass the ones in Europe and the USA, absence of standards’ harmonisation between provinces leading to an erosion of possible advantages arising from economies of scale, and last but not least, overlapping of federal and provincial functions resulting in double taxation and excessive oversight that not only gets to be counterproductive but also stokes corruption. Modern day business has become a science. Like the predatory birds, astute economic mangers have a nose that can smell a kill well in advance in order to optimise opportunity arising from competition’s demise. While we commit hara-kiri by overburdening our textile manufacturing with unrealistically high taxes; excessive governmental oversight; high input costs in labour, raw materials and especially in power; and by formulating policies that destroy the natural market equilibrium, our competition is keenly eyeing our fall and is already gearing up to grab what may be lost by us. For example, India last week approved a INR 60 billion special package for its textiles & apparel sector to create 10 million new jobs in 3 years, to attract new domestic and international investment of up to $11 billion, and to generate more than $30 billion in value added & garment exports with a clear aim to overtake Bangladesh and Vietnam in garment exports and to gobble up Pakistan’s meagre global share of its different value added products. The measures approved include additional incentives for duty drawback scheme of garments, flexibility in labour laws to increase productivity, and tax and production advantages for job creation. Ironically, it is an open secret about the Indian economic strategic thinking, which believes that if Pakistan’s textile exports get dismantled, its entire economy gets dismantled! Blame game aside, our textile industry today is a victim of our own follies and the solutions also lie with us. To start with the government will do well by recognising that the remedy lies in addressing the sector as a whole. Merely pleasing one part in the entire textile chain over others - the cotton farmers or the ginners or the spinners or the value added sector - will not achieve anything in the long run. The revival strategy needs to be holistic and all the requisite production stages have to prosper in tandem. No point imposing duties on importing cotton while failing to restrict cotton exports, since an artificial shoring up of cotton prices in the domestic market will either be short lived or will take down the entire national textile chain with it, including the farmer. Providing an opening to our competitors that allows them to cherry pick local raw materials and break our production chain will just be the last nail in the coffin. Also, a revival will entail that all relevant ministries play their due role in not only facilitating the industry but in also taking preventive action where necessary. The Ministry of Water and Power has to ensure that our power rates to the industry are regionally competitive, that necessary sector al reforms are undertaken to allow direct power distribution options to the private sector, and to focus on small and medium sized textile firms which always are the real drivers of value added exports; The Ministry of Commerce has to have a re-think on how to minimise the effects of Brexit by seeking private sector’s expertise and by involving the actual stakeholders, and by reforming the trade development authority of Pakistan to enhance its capacity as a think tank cum a research body with an ability to guide the government in chalking out detailed export plans and trade strategies; The provincial industry and environment ministries have to do some serious soul searching to strike the right balance between national requirements of growth and green compliance; and lastly, the Ministry of Finance will do well by realizing that crowding out the private sector and maintaining an artificially high value of the Pak Rupee is causing the economy more harm than good. The writer is an entrepreneur and economic analyst.
Source: The Nation
In view of resources dwindling fast and natural fibres like cotton being resource-intensive to process and petroleum-based fibres like acrylic, polyester, nylon and spandex not being the most environmentally friendly, it is about time to look for sustainable alternatives when producing fibres and fabrics. In this series, FashionUnited explores the sustainable alternatives and textile innovations that are currently being pursued all over the world. New York-based AlgiKnit is a biomaterials research company that has developed a compostable yarn from readily abundant biopolymers that can be formed into wearable textiles. In other words, AlgiKnit makes a bio yarn from kelp, seaweed or algae via the readily abundant biopolymer ‘alginate’. “We aim to operate in a closed loop product lifecycle, utilising materials with a significantly lower environmental footprint than conventional textiles, to bring sustainable bio-based textile alternatives to the footwear and apparel industries”, says the company on its website. Bio yarn is renewable, closed-loop and good for the environment. AlgiKnit develops biomaterials from the most renewable and fasted growing organisms on earth - kelp, laminaria digitata to be precise, a large brown alga also known as oarweed. It grows up to 10 times faster than bamboo and is grown in aquatic farms around the world in coastal communities, often by fishermen and women, thus providing income for them during off-season. Kelp in coastal waters also absorbs nutrients from agricultural and sewer run-off that can alter coastal environments. This recaptures nutrients for the next generation of biomaterials and thus improves the environment. Kelp is thus an ideal material for the future of sustainable manufacturing. From kelp, AlgiKnit extracts alginate and combines it with other renewable biopolymers to produce yarn, which is strong enough and stretchable enough to be knitted by hand or by machine to be used in textile manufacturing. The final product can be dyed with natural pigments. “We use an extrusion process to turn our biopolymer mixture into a filament. We extrude the mixture into a salt bath that cures the bio yarn”, explains AlgiKnit. But that is not all, to minimise waste, all products are knit to shape. This technique allows AlgiKnit to produce products with little to no waste. And when the textile's life cycle comes to an end? No problem - it can be reused. “When it’s worn out or you don’t want it, it can be broken down by microorganism and the nutrients reclaimed to feed the next generation of product,” says AlgiKnit co-founder Aleksandra Gosiewski when speaking to Creative Bloq. “I envision a future where the materials we use can be transformed to feed the next generation of products.” 2018 has already been an exciting year for AlgiKnit: The early stage biomaterials startup is participating in the 2018 RebelBio Accelerator program in London. Their participation is part of a 100,000 US dollar investment deal through RebelBio and their parent company SOSV. The company has also been chosen as one of the 15 start-ups that will take part in Fashion for Good's Plug and Play accelerator initiative. AlgiKnit was founded by Tessa Callaghan, Aaron Nesser and Aleksandra Gosiewski and grew out of BioEsters, the winning team from the 2016 BioDesign Challenge. AlgiKnit is continuing to pursue a material-driven design approach to biopolymer-based materials with generous support from the Fashion Institute of Technology. It is also supported by the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), National Geographic and start-up accelerator RebelBio.
Source: Fashion United
The struggling Swedish fashion retailer has accumulated a stockpile of unsold clothing worth $5.5 billion. Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB said it's chopping prices even more this quarter after accumulating a record pile of unsold garments worth more than $4 billion ($5.5 billion). Operating profit fell 62 per cent to the lowest level in more than a decade as clearance sales failed to reduce numbers of T-shirts and jeans that customers had passed over. The stock slumped to the lowest level since 2005. "The worrying sign again comes from unabated piling-up of inventory," said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Chris Chaviaras. H&M's already-downbeat forecast for the start of 2018 was exacerbated by unseasonably warm European weather in January followed by February's cold snap, whipsawing the clothing retail industry. That forced the company to slash prices even more. Chief executive officer Karl-Johan Persson said Tuesday the company made mistakes by narrowing its assortment last year, though he expects sales to improve in the second half. Persson said H&M plans to reduce markdowns in the second half, when sales should improve and a weaker dollar will reduce garment costs. The retailer aims to reduce inventory to 12 per cent to 14 per cent of sales next year. Stock-in-trade rose to almost 18 per cent of sales in the first quarter. H&M said most of that is spring garments, though a small portion is older than 12 months. "We haven't improved fast enough," said the 43-year-old scion of the billionaire Persson family. "We're working hard to fix that." The retailer is starting a new brand called Afound to sell clothes from various brands, including H&M, at a discount, and it's adding three automated logistics centres this year to speed up deliveries. Last month, H&M forecast sales in comparable stores to drop this year before returning to growth in fiscal 2019. Persson reiterated H&M's forecast for some improvement in operating profit this year. Analysts expect a 7 per cent drop. "The next 12-18 months will be challenging," wrote Barclays analyst Alvira Rao, who said the initiatives may not be enough to keep up with increasing competition. H&M said it's maintaining its targets for sales growth of at least 25 per cent from e-commerce and new businesses this year, even though it missed it in the first quarter. Online sales rose 20 per cent while revenue from new businesses gained 15 per cent. H&M might have e-commerce in place in all its markets by 2020, Persson said. This month, the retailer began online sales in India and launched H&M on Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd's Tmall service in China. The retailer doesn't plan any more new brands this year, though could consider some next year, Persson also said.
Source: FIbre2fashion
The Yarn Expo, a leading exhibition for fibres and yarns, continues to be the industry’s most comprehensive and effective business platform for natural and manmade fibres and yarns and other specialty products. The spring edition, held from March 14 to 16 in the Chinese city of Shanghai, recorded an increase of 15 per cent buyers this year. There was a strong demand in recent growth areas such as synthetic, fancy, and specialty yarns as well as chemical fibres, while exhibitors in the more traditional cotton product group also fared well. In total, 435 exhibitors from 10 countries and regions took part (2017: 393, 12 countries and regions), attracting 25,966 tradebuyers from 88 countries and regions (2017: 22,579, 94 countries and regions). Wendy Wen, senior general manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd said, “Once again, Yarn Expo proved itself as the ideal trade fair for the industry to benefit from changing demands and product trends, especially in the Chinese and wider Asian markets. The fair has evolved in recent editions to have a much larger focus on synthetic, fancy, specialty yarns and chemical fibres, and based on the exhibitor feedback from the fair, there was an increase in buyers sourcing these products this year. What’s more, local buyers showed interest in the offerings from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, while Vietnamese cotton exhibitors reported increased orders from China due to the favourable trade policies between these countries.” Among others, Birla Jingwei Fibres had a successful event. Birla Jingwei Fibres senior vice-president Sachin Malik said, “Yarn Expo is a very important platform for Birla, to be visible to our value chain, to connect with our customers, and our own clients’ customers. We value Yarn Expo as a long-term partner for showcasing our products and connecting with the value chain. Each edition, we connect with more buyers, and more customers in the industry recognise the importance of this fair. It has developed into a premium event in the global textiles industry calendar. Usually, this edition is more quiet than the autumn fair, but the results this year saw the spring edition reach the same level. Our booth was constantly packed with buyers, and we also received more high-quality and international buyers.”
Source: Fibre2Fashion
