NATIONAL

• Duty drawback rate increase to boost textile exports from India
• India to roll out simplified GST return forms from Apr 1
• India’s FTAs with ASEAN, Japan and Korea have widened trade deficit: Study
• Govt should consider 100% FDI in multi-brand retail trade for growth: CII
• Shipping Ministry unveils platform to fast-track payments
• India to hold talks on upgrading bilateral trade pact with South Korea this week
• UK, the single largest Western investor in India, says report
• Rupee tumbles 53 paise to 71.85 against dollar

INTERNATIONAL

• Global Textile Raw Material Price 2018-12-12
• Nonwovens Industry Pledges Uptake In Use Of Recycled PET
• Indorama Ventures Announces Acquisition Of UTT
• Japanese capital pouring into textile, garments in Vietnam
• 'Textile plus' key to fashion talent cultivation: experts

Duty drawback rate increase to boost textile exports from India

The government’s decision to raise the duty drawback rates will boost textile and apparel exports, experts said. Despite several incentives offered by the government to boost textile and apparel exports, their shipment from India stagnated between $32 billion and $37 billion for over seven years. For the financial year 2017-18, India witnessed textile and apparel exports to the tune of $36.05 billion as against the target of $45 billion. Now, the government has set yet another challenging target of $82 billion by 2021. To achieve this, the government hiked the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) rate from 2 per cent to 4 per cent on various products and also offered several incentives, including interest subvention. But, these efforts did not yield desired result primarily because of preferential treatment given to small economies like Bangladesh and Thailand in the western countries, the largest market of India’s textile and apparel exports. “The revised drawback rates will lead to increase exports of cotton textiles and other products in the value chain. There is a significant increase in the drawback rates for cotton made-ups which will encourage export of value-added products like home textiles. Further, the removal of drawback cap in the case of export products where the drawback rates are less than 2 per cent will benefit the cotton textiles exporters,” said K V Srinivasan, Chairman, The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil). The Union Ministry of Commerce raised the duty drawback rates across all varieties of textile and apparel by up to 70 per cent recently.Global markets have turned favourable for Indian exporters because of the Chinese government’s decision to reduce activities in the labour and energy-intensive industries, including textile and apparel. Industry sources said China has reduced its global market share in the textile and apparel segment to 38 per cent from over 40 per cent nearly two years ago. India, however, has failed to grab the opportunity to increase its global market share which remained consistently at 1 per cent for several years. China’s vacated market share has not been fully explored because of the high cost of production and the liquidity crises in India. In fact, small economies like Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam have increased their global market share in the textile and apparel segment. Meanwhile, India’s overall textile and apparel exports recorded a marginal growth of 2 per cent to $20.8 billion for the April-October 2018 period over $20.4 billion in the corresponding last year. The share of textile and apparel in overall merchandised exports from India stood at 11 per cent for the period this year. “The increased drawback rates will provide relief to the exporters. In view of the significant duties/taxes embedded in the man-made fibre (MMF) textile segment, the drawback rates declared now need to be enhanced at least up to 6 to 7 per cent from the existing 1 to 3 per cent,” said Sri Narain Aggarwal, Chairman, The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC). The increase in the duty drawback rates would help the exporters face the competition in the overseas market. The maximum increase of drawback rates on MMF textiles is by about 1.5 per cent. Also, the product of nylon filament yarn (dyed) has been added under the drawback scheme. Texprocil, meanwhile, urged the government to increase the MEIS rate for fabrics from 2 to 4 per cent and also to cover cotton yarn under the MIES apart from a 3 per cent increase in Interest Equalization rate so that exports of cotton textiles can achieve its true potential.

Source: Business Standard

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India to roll out simplified GST return forms from Apr 1

India’s new simplified return forms for goods and services tax (GST) will be rolled out from April 1 next year, revenue secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey recently said. Confident about achieving the budgeted target for GST collection, he said the refund process is being further streamlined to make it completely online and friendly for taxpayers. Pandey was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) foundation day. In the first eight months (April-November) of the current fiscal, the government has collected over ₹7.76 lakh crore as GST. The 2018-19 budget had estimated annual GST collection at ₹13.48 lakh crore, which means a monthly target of ₹1.12 lakh crore. The revenue department, whose monthly target from GST is around ₹1 lakh crore, was short by ₹4,000 crore in GST collection in November. GST collection in November was ₹97,637 crore. The department wants to raise that monthly target to ₹1.10 lakh crore, a news agency report quoted Pandey as saying.

Source: Fibre2fashion

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India’s FTAs with ASEAN, Japan and Korea have widened trade deficit: Study

New Delhi : India’s three free trade agreements with the ASEAN, Japan and South Korea have not turned out to be favourable for the country as these resulted in growing deficits in merchandise trade, according to a study published by think-tank Third World Network. “When the analysis of the three existing Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPA) show that the balance sheet is heavily loaded against India, there is no reason to hope that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which includes 16 countries, will be any different for the country,” said Biswajit Dhar, author of the report titled ‘India’s CEPAs with ASEAN, Japan and Korea’, at a discussion on Tuesday. The study is important as the government is at present focussed on how to make India’s free trade agreements deliver more for all stakeholders and has also employed three think-tanks to analyse the on-going RCEP negotiations. India is especially anxious about RCEP as China, which is one of the bloc partners, holds the threat of flooding the domestic market with cheap Chinese goods.

Rising trade imbalance

Over the past decade, India’s trade imbalance vis-à-vis its existing CEPA partners has steadily increased, the study observed. After the initial spurt in the middle of the previous decade, trade imbalances saw a sizeable increase immediately after the three CEPAs with the ASEAN, Japan and Korea came into effect. Trade deficit with the three countries, which stood at $4.5 billion in 2004 and $16.4 billion in 2010, shot up to $29.7 billion in 2015 before cooling down a bit to $26.6 billion in 2016.“What is of additional concern is the fact that India’s exports have lagged behind at a time when its CEPA partners have been providing additional market access,” Dhar said. The three CEPAs not only resulted in rising imports but also a progressive slowdown of exports. “These trends provide a clear indication that while India’s FTA/CEPA partners were well positioned to taken advantage of an open Indian economy, Indian entities have been unable to exploit the market access opportunities offered by the partner countries,” the study said. Available trends in both exports and imports point to a hollowing out of the manufacturing base, which has prompted the present government to initiate measures for the revival of the manufacturing sector, the report added. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), in its white paper on India’s FTAs, has stated that the negative fallout of the pacts will seriously compromise investments, manufacturing value add and employment at no obvious gain in trade or economic expansion. While the study could not throw much light on services trade in the absence of comparable bilateral data, it observed that none of the pacts resulted in significant liberalisation in the movement of skilled professionals.

Source : Business Line

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Govt should consider 100% FDI in multi-brand retail trade for growth: CII

The government should consider permitting 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail trade and further improve ease of doing business for the sector to promote growth in the segment, industry body CII said in a report Tuesday. These suggestions are part of a national retail policy released by CII. It was jointly prepared by the industry chamber and AT Kearney. The report said that to overcome the barriers and enable a smooth growth and harmonious coexistence of traditional and modern retail, the government needs to adopt a single cohesive national retail policy, which adequately addresses all the concern areas. The policy has suggested several steps, including strengthening labour laws by regularising policies around part-time labour to ensure greater participation of women in the workforce; and review of food safety policies to update archaic laws governing stocking limits, weights and measures, labeling, and taxes on expired food items. It also asked for decreasing real estate constraints for retail expansion by creating dedicated retail special economic zones as well as simplify regulations and real estate approvals for kiranas to expand their stores. The government should encourage modernisation of traditional retail by subsidising these retailers to adopt technology, the report said. Improved access to capital will help retail business especially the traditional retailers, it added. "The government should also consider 100 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail trade," the report said. It said that with a simplified, cohesive policy and a focused effort on modernising traditional retail sector, government can create multiple wins such as higher growth of the sector, larger traditional retail stores under regulatory compliance, and improved back-end efficiency with a lower overall cost to serve. Although, the current foreign direct investment policy permits overseas players to hold 51 per cent stake in an Indian retail company, the BJP in its election manifesto had opposed overseas investment in the retail segment. So far, only one foreign player, Tesco, had received approval for opening stores under the multi-brand retail policy. The previous UPA government had cleared the proposal.

Source : Business Standard

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Shipping Ministry unveils platform to fast-track payments

New Delhi : Shipping sector users can now make payments to various stakeholders through a common platform which will remove dependency on bank-specific solutions. The Shipping Ministry will issue a notification soon to make this mandatory. This will lower the cost of transaction and drop the dwell time and also improve the ease of doing business. The Indian Ports Association (IPA) has launched the Port Community System ‘PCS1x’. A major feature is the deployment of a payment aggregator solution which removes dependency on bank specific payment ecosystem, it said. ‘PCS 1x’ is a cloud-based new generation technology, with user-friendly interface. The system seamlessly integrates eight new stakeholders besides the 19 existing stakeholders from the maritime trade on a single platform. It will improve communication of trade with customs. The platform offers value-added services such as notification engine, workflow, mobile application, track and trace, better user interface, better security features, improved inclusion by offering dashboard for those with no IT capability. The system offers a database that acts as a single data point to all transactions. It captures and stores data on its first occurrence thereby reducing manual intervention, the need to enter transaction data at various points and thereby reducing errors in the process.

Source: Business Line

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India to hold talks on upgrading bilateral trade pact with South Korea this week

New Delhi : India will urge South Korea to re-consider including it in the list of nations allowed to send teachers to teach English in the country as many Indians may be fit for the job. Officials from both countries are meeting for negotiations on upgrading the existing bilateral trade pact in Seoul this week. “India's demand for inclusion in the list of countries allowed to participate in the English Program in Korea (EPIK) was ignored in the harvest programme signed earlier this year. We are now insisting on it in the on-going negotiations for the upgraded CEPA,” a government official told BusinessLine. New Delhi also wants both countries to accept home country certification for identified professions pending conclusion of mutual recognition agreements for the same, the official added. India and South Korea are negotiating to upgrade the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) implemented by the two in 2010 envisaging tariff elimination/reduction in about 80 per cent of goods such as textiles, leather goods and, pharmaceuticals, opening up of sectors such as tourism and healthcare and freer movement of persons.

Early harvest programme

Both sides signed an early harvest programme in July with South Korea agreeing to eliminate tariffs on 17 more Indian products and India reciprocating by bringing down duties on 11 items. To make it easier for professionals to move from one country to the other, EHP also increased the visa duration for ICT employees to three years from one year. “India hopes for many more concessions in the services sector as part of the upgrading of the CEPA which is expected to be concluded in 2019,” the official said. New Delhi believes that its demand that EPIK be leveraged to mutual advantage by including it as a native English speaking country eligible for E2 visa by Korea is a valid one. “There is no reason why South Africa can be included in the list of eligible countries to send English teachers and not India when we don’t have any dearth of people with English speaking skills in the country. If such people have the additional skill of knowing the Korean language, they should be permitted to teach English in Korea,” the official said.

Movement of professionals

India also feels both countries should not wait for formalising mutual recognition agreements in areas such as accountancy, healthcare, nursing and architecture to allow such professionals to move freely within the region. “India wants that till the time the MRAs are finalised, home country certification should suffice,” the official added. The India-South Korea CEPA, so far, has benefited South Korea more with the country enjoying a trade surplus of $12 billion with India in 2017-18. “It is important for India to gain some leeway in services in the review exercise for the CEPA to have some balance,” the official said.

Source : Business Line

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 UK, the single largest Western investor in India, says report

New Delhi : The UK, is the largest Western investor in India, ahead of Germany and France, thanks to policy reforms, ease of doing business and huge market the country offers, said a recent report. The ‘Sterling Assets: Britain Meets India’ report by the Confederation of British Industry and Grant Thornton India reveals that the UK strengthened its investments in India to become the largest single Western investor, creating 4.2 lakh job opportunities in India since the turn of the century. Close to 38 per cent of British companies made new investments in India in 2017. Of the total FDI flows in the country, the UK directly invested $26.09 billion accounting for about 7 per cent. The UK is the fourth largest investor in India and remains the largest investor in India outside of South-East Asia and Africa. The main reasons British firms are attracted to India is the huge and growing market with an expanding middle class, easy availability of talented workers, ease of doing business policies and reforms such as the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, the report said. Vishesh C Chandiok, CEO, Grant Thornton India LLP, said in a statement, “As the 6th largest economy in the world and improved rating on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Index, India is now firmly placed as a very attractive investment destination.”

Source: Business Line

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Rupee tumbles 53 paise to 71.85 against dollar

Mumbai: The rupee staged a late rebound after plunging 110 paise in early trade Tuesday but still ended 53 paise lower at 71.85 against the US dollarNSE 0.63 % following RBI Governor Urjit Patel's shock exit coupled with the loss of the ruling BJP in key state elections. Analysts said the RBI governor's surprise resignation and the ruling BJP's loss in state elections unnerved forex traders initially but a fag-end rebound in domestic equities and dollar selling by some state-owned banks helped in the recovery of the domestic currency. The domestic unit, which saw a heavy sell-off by plunging 110 paise in opening trade, staged a mild recovery towards the end of the session but still settled in the negative territory. After opening lower at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market at 72.42, the rupee clawed back to 71.67 during the day and finally settled at 71.85, down 53 paise over its previous closing price. On Monday, the Indian rupee tumbled 50 paise to close at 71.32 against the US dollar. "Timing of the (RBI) governor's resignation and the already-cautious mood in the markets following yesterday's exit polls, to be followed by today's actual count for the state elections, will dampen sentiments. INR is likely to weaken past 72/USD as NDFs suggest, with Monday's equity sell-off to seek further downside," Radhika Rao, Economist at DBS Bank and Philip Wee, FX Strategist at DBS Bank, said. Meanwhile, benchmark indices pared all early losses to end with robust gains Tuesday. The 30-share Sensex climbed 190.29 points, or 0.54 per cent, to end at 35,150.01, after falling over 500 points intra-day. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rose 60.70 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 10,549.15. "With regards to the RBI Governor's exit, governments in Europe and the US have had strong criticisms and inputs into their central bank policy. India is no different in that regard, and a push pull between government and central bank is to par for the course. From an investment perspective, there's been much selling already this year," Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management, said. Sharma further said that markets are possibly enthused by the possibility of a pro-growth appointment, one that prefers a nuanced approach over a hard line in dealing with financial institutions.

Source: Economic Times

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Global Textile Raw Material Price 2018-12-12

Source: Global Textiles

Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.14479 USD dtd. 12/12/2018). The prices given above are as quoted from Global Textiles.com.  SRTEPC is not responsible for the correctness of the same.

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Nonwovens Industry Pledges Uptake In Use Of Recycled PET

BRUSSELS — EDANA, on behalf of the nonwoven producers amongst its membership, today issued a pledge to significantly increase the use of recycled PET in nonwoven fabrics. Recycled PET is used in various nonwoven applications: roofing products, the automotive sector and nonwoven geotextiles are large users of R-PET fibres and resins. R-Pet can also be found in some hygiene products, such as diapers. Currently over 200,000 metric tons of recycled PET is used in the production of nonwovens. By 2025 this will grow to over 300,000 tons, providing that the post-consumer waste volumes necessary are available. EDANA made the announcement in Brussels today at the event “The EU Plastics Industries – Towards Circularity”, joining 13 other organizations from across the plastics value chain in presenting the interim reports on voluntary commitments and pledges to adopt more circular business models. The European plastics industry and value chain has developed an extensive and ambitious set of voluntary measures to close the loop for plastics. All commitments will be monitored with the industry ready to work closely with authorities and other stakeholders to ensure the goals are reached. The accomplishment of the ambitious sustainability targets depends not only on the industry but requires the support of national authorities, European legislators and consumers. More collection and better sorting are needed to increase recycling and incorporate more recyclate into new products.  The event “The EU Plastics Industries – Towards Circularity” will be organized on an annual basis to guarantee an open and public reporting and transparent dialogue with stakeholders on the industry’s progress.

Source: Textile World

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Indorama Ventures Announces Acquisition Of UTT

BANGKOK, Thailand —  Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL) has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire UTT Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH. UTT is one of the leading suppliers of airbag fabrics and other highly specialized solutions in the field of technical textiles. The company has two sites in Germany and Mexico with approximately 420 employees and produces around 70 million square meters of fabrics. Subject to regulatory approvals, UTT will be acquired by PHP Fibers, a company owned by Indorama Ventures (80% stake) and Toyobo (20% stake). The acquisition of UTT by PHP Fibers brings together two pioneers in the airbag market who have worked together closely and trustingly for more than five decades. With this acquisition, Indorama Ventures is strengthening its portfolio in the airbag sector and adds the UTT weaving sites in Germany and Mexico to the yarn production sites in Germany, the USA and the JV participation in China as well as to the PHP Fibers weaving mills in Germany and the USA established with the expertise of Toyobo. The combination of both companies will form a leading integrated manufacturer of airbag yarns and textiles globally to offering wider choices to its customers in a more cost efficient manner. Aloke Lohia, Group CEO of Indorama Ventures, stressed: “We have known UTT for a long time as a loyal customer of our airbag yarns. The expertise of UTT and the intensified exchange of experience with PHP will advance both companies and further strengthen Indorama Ventures’ leading global position in the airbag segment. For the benefit of our customers, we will move even closer to the users in the future in order to be able to respond better and more flexibly to the wishes of our customers, whether for yarns or fabrics. The acquisition also clearly demonstrates the strategic importance of the Automotive Division for Indorama Ventures. IVL is not only focusing on tire yarns, but also on other trendsetting segments such as airbags.” Seiji Narahara, President of Toyobo Co. Ltd, commented: “Through the acquisition of UTT, Toyobo Group and PHP will become among the world’s top groups that can produce and supply products for airbags, from yarn to fabrics. It will also reinforce our long-term relationship with Indorama Ventures, which acquired PHP jointly with Toyobo, as a result.”

Source : Textile World

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Japanese capital pouring into textile, garments in Vietnam

Several Japanese companies, including Itochu and Sakai Amiori, are investing in expanding their stake in the Vietnamese textile and garments sector. In the first 11 months of this year, the sector’s export value was $30 billion and trade surplus surpassed $13 billion, according to Vu Duc Giang, chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association. The influx of such foreign direct investment is boosting the sector as well as turning Vietnam into a global manufacturing base. Itochu bought an additional 10 per cent stake in Vietnam’s state-owned textile and garment conglomerate Vinatex some months ago, bringing its ownership to approximately 15 per cent. It is now Vinatex’s second-largest shareholder next to the ministry of industry and trade which, on behalf of the state, currently manages a 53 per cent stake, according to a report in a Vietnamese news portal. With Vietnam being the most recent country to have approved the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), its garment companies are trying their best to reap the benefits being offered by the agreement. The Japanese group’s annual apparel exports from Vietnam are worth about $558 million, with about half of this produced by Vinatex. The company plans to boost processing volume and scale up its export value to $878 million by 2021. Sakai Amiori has around 30 plants in operation and has opened an export apparel production plant in Phu Ha industrial zone in the northern province of Phu Tho. The plant, completed in April 2017, now sees stable production and exports. Japan’s Matsuoka Corporation, which first set foot in Vietnam in 2014 and quickly expanded production to raise capacity six- to seven-fold through the Matsuoka Phu Tho plant that primarily manufactures apparel carrying the Uniqlo brand to be exported back to Japan. The company has chosen Vietnam for capital injection and production expansion in recent years to take advantage of the opportunities anticipated to be brought by new-generation free trade agreements. After its first plant in 2016, the second plant began production in last August, with an annual capacity of about two million products. (DS)

Source : Fibre2fashion

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'Textile plus' key to fashion talent cultivation: experts

A total of 385 experts from 127 colleges and industry associations in 26 countries gathered at Shanghai's Donghua University recently to share ideas on textile and fashion talent cultivation, education reform and internationalization of education. The Textile and Fashion Education World Conference was the first of its kind organized by the China National Textile and Apparel Council, the China Textile and Apparel Education Society and Donghua University. It was agreed at the meeting that textile education must “cross over” to other disciplines to achieve innovation and development of the industry, and that “textile plus” — the combination of textiles and other disciplines — has become the mainstream of textile talent cultivation. Yu Chongwen, a professor at Donghua, said textile plus materials, trade, machinery and other knowledge would allow textile education more functions and stimulate greater development potential. At the conference, 33 colleges from 19 countries, who are participants of the Belt and Road Initiative, jointly set up an alliance to promote cultural communication and cooperation in textile and fashion education, scientific and technological innovation, as well as the establishment of think tanks.

Source : Shine.cn

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