The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council

MARKET WATCH 17 FEB, 2020

NATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL

Small power loom weavers bat for common facility

Power loom weavers in Erode seek to expand their cluster to start doing value addition to their rayon grey fabric, such as dyeing, printing, processing and making garments out of them to sell across the country. They said they would also seek to export these products if they get proper support. Members of the Erode Viscose Rayon Fabrics Cluster said they formed the cluster in September 2018 and it has 230 small power loom owners as members now. They are now producing grey rayon fabric. For value addition, they are now sending the fabric to other places such as Delhi and Surat. With the expansion of the cluster, they seek to create a common facility, where they could do value addition activities such as processing, dyeing and printing, making garments themselves and market it, they said. They said they would make rayon garments such as shirts and chudithars and sell it in India and possibly also in other countries, with proper support. B Kanthavel, a representative of the cluster, said they were seeking to induct power loom weavers from the Erode Powerloom Owners’ Association into the cluster. “We have planned to invite 500 members of the association to the cluster. We plan to ask them to invest Rs 35,000 each in the cluster, so that we could allot a capital of Rs 87.5 lakh towards the common facility,” he said. This capital would be important to get further funds from the Centre, he said. The members have sought a working capital loan of Rs 10 crore and a fund of Rs 12 crore under the cluster development scheme to set up the common facility, he said. He said last week when the Union textile secretary Ravi Capoor visited Texvalley, a wholesale textile market in Erode, they had represented these demands to him. At the occasion, he said, the secretary also launched a viscose rayon shirt produced by the cluster. Officials from the regional office of the textile commissioner in Coimbatore said the establishment of a common facility for value addition would eliminate the domination of master weavers, who see profit at the expense of small weavers and would enable small powerloom weavers earn directly. M Balasubramanian, deputy director at the regional office of the textile commissioner in Coimbatore, said right now master weavers are employing micro and small powerloom weavers for doing their job work. “But if micro and small powerloom owners form a common facility, they would be empowered to do value addition to their own fabric,” he said

Source: Times of India

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Robust growth to continue for Aditya Birla Fashion Retail and Trent

Even as the performance of some retailers was affected by the slowdown, two apparel-focussed companies have bucked the trend in the December quarter (Q3). Trent and Aditya Birla Fashion Retail (ABFRL) have posted numbers which were ahead of brokerage estimates.   An analyst at a domestic brokerage believes that the outperformance is because of their ability to expand without taking a hit on profitability, which has been the case with some other retailers. This, coupled with good working capital management, consistent execution, and sound balance sheet, keeps them ahead, he adds. It is ...

Source: Business Standard

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India never lacked resources, skills; needs to work with comprehensive mindset: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India never lacked resources and skills but the nation needs to work with a comprehensive mindset. "We have never lacked the resources and skills, just need to work with a comprehensive mindset. All that is needed is to bring this story in front of the world. Uttar Pradesh Institute of Design (UPID) will play a very big role in it," he said. "It has always been the power of India that some special art and products have been associated with the identity of every region and every district here. This has been our tradition there for centuries. Our businessmen and traders have promoted it worldwide," Modi said after inaugurating 'Kashi Ek Roop Anek' programme here. The Prime Minister continued said that the UPID helped more than 3500 artisans and weavers from 30 districts in the last 2 years. "A thousand of artists have also been given tool kits to improve craft-related products... This effort to make the products of Uttar Pradesh reach the foreign markets and make them available on the worldwide online market, the whole country is going to benefit from this," he said. "When the changing world, changing time, according to the changing demand, make necessary changes in these products too. For this, it is very important to provide training, financial help, new technology and marketing facilities to the people associated with these traditional industries," he said. Modi said that there is an increase in exports from Uttar Pradesh in the last two years. "Before 2014, could the weavers and exporters of UP communicate with investors online platforms like this? This was not possible, because there was no such platform... In the last two years, there is an increase in exports from UP. This growth has become a reality due to programmes like One District One Product and help extended to MSMEs," he said. The Prime Minister said that the anti-dumping duty on the raw material of textiles has been scrapped. "For decades people associated with textiles had been demanding this. Our government has completed this work. The National Technical Textile Mission has been started. Rs 1,500 crore will be spent on this. Infrastructure related to technical textile will be created," he said. Modi said the Central government is planning to create investment clearance cell for the ease of investors. "The government is planning to create investment clearance cell for the ease of investors. This will help investors to take information easily at the Centre and state levels ... The government will take necessary steps to make India $5 trillion economy. We will work together to make India manufacturing powerhouse," he said. "For the first time, the Taxpayers` Charter is being prepared so that the wealth creators of the country do not face hardship. Tax collection is being faceless. To encourage manufacturing, the tax has been reduced to 15 per cent. Now India is among those few countries where corporate tax is so low," Prime Minister Modi said. Modi said that a national logistics policy is being prepared for the first time in the country to create a single window e-logistics market, which will strengthen small scale industries. "The introduction of GST has brought about a wide change in the country`s logistics. Now this change is being strengthened further. A national logistics policy is being prepared for the first time in the country," he said. "It will lead to the creation of a single-window e-logistics market. This will strengthen small scale industries and help in generating employment," added Modi.

"To empower MSMEs, the import of those products is being reduced which are not better than the products being made in India," he said. He said the Centre has drawn a blueprint for the development of small and medium industries for the coming five years."In the Union Budget, special emphasis has been laid on manufacturing and the ease of doing business. MSMEs and start-ups are the big sources of employment," Prime Minister Modi said.

Source: Wion News

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As standoff persists, a US-India trade deal is unlikely during Trump visit

US President Donald Trump's upcoming visit to India is not only heavy on optics — a grand roadshow in Ahmedabad — but also substance. Securing at least a limited yet favourable trade deal, dubbed "trade package", is on top of Trump's agenda, but officials in New Delhi appear unsure of him reaching the trip's ultimate goal. The US wants India to tweak its tariff rates and further open up its markets to American products. Back and forth talks on the matter have faltered as the vanguard team, leading Trump's trade charge, has scrapped its visit to India. ...

Source: Business Standard

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RBI to sync its accounting year with govt's fiscal year from 2020-21

With this move, the central bank will do away with nearly eight decades of practice. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will align its financial accounting year with that of the central government with effect from 2020-21 — a move that may put an end to the practice of the exchequer getting interim dividend from the central bank. The decision was taken at a meeting of the RBI’s central board held in the national capital on Saturday. “The board recommended aligning the financial year of the RBI, currently July-June, with the government’s fiscal year (April-March) from the year 2020-21 and approved forwarding a proposal to the government for its consideration,” a statement from the RBI said. With this move, the central bank will do away with nearly eight decades of practice. The RBI, which was established in April 1935, used to follow January-December as its accounting year before it was changed to July-June in March 1940. Taking advantage of the RBI’s different accounting year, the Centre had started demanding an interim dividend till the time the latter’s final balance sheet is prepared (usually in August). To address this anomaly, an expert committee led by former RBI governor Bimal Jalan had recommended aligning the RBI’s financial year with that of the government. An RBI executive explained that for 2020-21, the central bank would prepare a truncated balance sheet for a period of nine months (from July 2020 to March 2021). Following next year, the full fiscal year of the RBI will start from April 1, 2021. The Jalan committee in its report had said the alignment of the fiscal years of the RBI and the government would ensure that the central bank was “able to provide better estimates of the projected surplus transfers to the government for the financial year for budgeting purposes”. The committee had noted that the need for interim dividend to be paid by the RBI would be reduced and would be restricted to “extraordinary circumstances”, and the move brought “greater cohesiveness in the monetary policy projections and reports published by the RBI, which mostly use the fiscal year as the base”.

Das-speak

On credit

The momentum is gathering pace and credit flow is reviving. The flow of credit from all sources — banks, domestic markets and ECBs — has improved

On impact of Budget on inflation

I don’t see any impact of the Budget on inflation in March. The direct inflationary impact is the fiscal deficit number when the borrowings go up, but the government has adhered to fiscal prudence.  The governor didn’t rule out an interim dividend to the central government this fiscal year. “If any decision is taken, it will be uploaded on the RBI website as part of our (central board meeting) minutes. There are a lot of speculations on the interim dividend. As and when it comes up for discussion, you will come to know,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said. According to sources, a proposal to give the central government an interim dividend of Rs 37,000 crore for 2019-20 is on the table and a decision may be taken in the next board meeting. This is the third consecutive year when the government has demanded an interim dividend. In FY19, the RBI paid an interim dividend of Rs 28,000 crore to the Union government.

Credit uptick

The RBI governor said on Saturday that credit flow in the economy was gaining momentum and was expected to pick up in the coming months. Das elaborated that the credit flow of banks to the commercial sector stood at Rs 2.7 trillion from October 2019-January 2020, compared to a negative change of Rs 1.3 trillion in April-September 2019. “The momentum is gathering pace. It has really picked up from October onwards, and now the flow of credit from all sources — banks, domestic markets and external commercial borrowings — has improved to about Rs 7.5 trillion and there is a flow of around Rs 6 trillion between October and January. The momentum is gathering pace and credit flow is reviving,” Das said. The governor and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman briefed the media on Saturday after the customary post-budget central board meeting of the RBI.

‘No inflationary impact of Budget’

Das said the Union Budget did not have any inflationary impact. “I don’t see any impact of the Budget on inflation in March. In the sense that the direct inflationary impact is the fiscal deficit number when the borrowings go up, but the government has adhered to the principle of fiscal prudence,” the governor added. He said the “good part” was that the central government’s borrowings were coming from small saving schemes and a declining crude oil prices would also help in containing inflation. The governor pointed out that a review of the monetary policy framework was internally being worked out and if required, the central government would be consulted soon. He didn’t give an elaborate comment on the Supreme Court’s order rejecting the pleas of telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which had sought a staggered option for paying dues linked to adjusted gross revenue (AGR). “I don’t want to comment on an order of the SC and its implications this way or that way. It will be internally deliberated, if there is any issue arising out of it,” Das said.

Source: Business Standard

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RBI board meeting: Deficit move unlikely to drive up inflation, says Shaktikanta Das

The Reserve Bank board has recommended aligning the central bank's accounting year, beginning July, with the government’s financial year, from April 1 till March 31, from 2020-21. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das on Saturday sought to allay fears of the Budget proposal on fiscal slippage causing a spike in inflationary pressure, saying the government had largely remained within the deficit roadmap set by the FRBM Act. Das also asserted that credit offtake was gathering pace and the transmission of the cut in the benchmark lending rate had improved by 20 basis points since the December 2019 monetary policy review to 69 basis points. Invoking an escape clause, the Budget for FY21 proposed to inflate fiscal deficit by 50 basis points for this financial year and the next to 3.8% and 3.5% of GDP, respectively, amid a sharp cut in the corporate tax rate and a shortfall in revenue mop-up following a broader economic slowdown. Speaking to reporters, alongside finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, after a meeting of the RBI board in the capital, Das said: “The direct inflationary impact of any budget is the fiscal deficit number (when borrowing goes up), but the government has adhered to the principle of fiscal prudence. The good part of government borrowing is also budgeted to come from small savings.” “Therefore, I don’t see much of an inflationary impact,” Das said. Retail inflation scaled a near six-year high of 7.59% in January. Wholesale prices-based inflation, too, jumped to a 10-month high of 3.10% in January. The governor also stressed that moderating crude oil prices will have positive impact on inflation. As such, the current spike in retail inflation is primarily driven by food articles, mainly protein-based items, and core inflation has edged up slightly because of the revision of telecom tariffs, he said. This is why the monetary policy committee, in its review meeting earlier this month, decided to keep the repo rate unchanged but still delivered implicit easing, to address concerns about a protracted growth slowdown. The RBI said it would lend Rs 1 lakh crore of one-year and three-year money to banks at the repo rate 5.15% so they would have durable funds at a softer rate. It also gave them a six-month CRR-break on new home, auto and MSME loans. Economic growth is expected to hit a seven-year low of 5.7% in FY20 and the Economic Survey expects growth to pick up to 6-6.5% in the next fiscal. Asked about the review of the monetary policy framework, Das said, “Internally we are analysing how MPC framework has worked over the last three and a half years. At the appropriate time, if required, we will have discussions with the government. At the moment, it is under review within the RBI.” Commenting on slowdown in credit growth in recent months, Das said there were signs of an uptick and the momentum would only be rising. “If you look at bank credit to the commercial sector, it was actually negative at the end of September by about Rs 1.3 lakh crore or so. At the end of January, it was plus Rs 2.7 lakh crore,” he said. Overall non-food credit growth has remained subdued in recent months, having hit 7.1% y-o-y as of January 31, against 14.7% a year before. “Credit flow is slowly and steadily reviving and thanks to the various measures announced in the Budget and in the run-up to the budget by the government, and the measures announced by the RBI, we do hope the credit flow to improve in the coming months,” Das said. The Reserve Bank board has recommended aligning the central bank’s accounting year, beginning July, with the government’s financial year, from April 1 till March 31, from 2020-21.

Source: Financial Express

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JNPT Antwerp Port Training Centre to be repositioned as Centre of Excellence

The JNPT Antwerp Port Training Centre, the port-related training centre run by state-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Antwerp Port Training Centre (APEC), will be re-positioned as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Indian and international port professionals. The training centre was set up in 2015 at JNPT through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India’s busiest container gateway, and APEC, the training facility at Antwerp which is managed and run by the Antwerp Port Authority, to exchange and enhance knowledge of Indian port professionals. JNPT and APEC signed an extension to the MoU on Friday, seeking to strengthen the relations between India and Belgium and further intensify the extensive range of port-related training for ports in India. The MoU was signed in the presence of Sanjay Sethi, Chairman, JNPT, and Kristof Waterschoot, Managing Director, APEC. “Going forward, both JNPT and APEC will undertake actions to establish the JNPT Antwerp Port Training Centre as a Centre of Excellence for Indian and international port professionals,” an official statement said.

Antwerp is Europe’s second-largest port.

Since its start, the JNPT Antwerp Port Training Centre has conducted over 30 programs by experts from the Port of Antwerp for over 460 port professionals. The training centre recently conducted its first workshop on handling of dangerous goods which for the first time was offered to the private sector. “The plan is to organise such practical and relevant courses on a quarterly basis. The faculty will be experts with professional experience in actual operations and domain knowledge, whereby any course offered by APEC has the highest standards of technical content,” the statement added.

Source: Business Line

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Indians more focussed on quality compared to global consumers: Kantar

Consumer behavior in India is quite similar to their global counterparts in purchasing beverages or durables online, but when it comes to fashion, Indians have been found to be highly exploratory. According to a report by global research agency Kantar, energy is the prime currency that consumers in India focus on, even more than time and money. The report covers top nine cities in the country across age group of 16-65 years. About 77% of consumers chose energy or how positive the products and their campaigns appear while shopping as a key priority compared to 50% for time and 41% for money, in contrast with the perception that online shopping is highly driven by discounts. Portrayal of quality in customer communication has a significant impact of customer demand too. For example, 40% customers opt for Pepperfry when it comes to home décor items while 33% of them opt of Nykaa on the basis of communications in the segment. According to the report, Indian shoppers also want to have variety for selection when compared to their Asian counterparts. Over 30% Indian shoppers buy a product online due to the options available in the furniture segment. In fact, Indians assign higher importance to product quality, across categories as compared to their global and Asian counterparts. For instance, 28% Indians prefer better quality in packaged food compared to 16% globally while it is as high as 34% Indians versus 20% for fresh foods globally.

Source: Economic Times

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Coronavirus crisis: It's time for India Inc to create opportunities

Scientists around the world are still making sense of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China. While there are still a large number of unknowns, and a race for a cure is on, multiple experts have said it is likely that the outbreak could turn into a global pandemic (the World Health Organisation has not classified the outbreak as a pandemic). Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch has estimated the virus could infect 40-70% of the global population (while this might technically be true, what really matters is how many of those infected will show symptoms and, at the moment, nobody is able to say for sure). Gabriel Leung, chair of public health medicine at Hong Kong University, told The Guardian on February 12 that the virus could infect 60% of the global population. With a fatality rate between 1% and 2%, the world could be staring at an alarming situation unless the spread is contained. As of Saturday, 66,492 cases were reported in China. The number of deaths stand at 1,523. The disruption in business is beginning to be felt globally. According to analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet, at least 51,000, including 163 Fortune 1,000 companies around the world, have one or more direct (or tier-1) suppliers in the impacted region (China’s Hubei province) and at least five million companies have one or more tier-2 suppliers in and around the epicentre of the outbreak. An uneasy calm is prevailing across businesses in India even as realisation dawns that the outbreak has the potential to derail bilateral trade worth $87 billion — China exports $70 billion worth of goods to India. Exports from India include organic chemicals, cotton, ores, plastic items, salts and so on. Imports range from electrical machinery, nuclear machinery, optical and medical instruments, vehicles and accessories to iron and steel. China is India’s second largest trading partner. The country accounted for 13.7% of India’s total imports in 2018-19 while 5.1% of India’s total exports went there, according to ministry of commerce data.

China dependency

India’s reliance on China is spread across sectors. Indian pharma industry is dependent on Chinese imports to make medicines — the APIs (active pharma ingredients) come from China. The $30 billion domestic smartphone market, world’s second largest now, will see major disruptions as it is heavily dependent on imports. India has an abundance of sunlight throughout the year but can’t convert it into grid electricity without Chinese gear. Solar power parks are dependent on Chinese imports. A whopping 80% of solar cells and modules, which absorb sunlight to generate electricity, used in India are imported from China-based manufacturers, including Trina Solar, Jinko Solar and China Solar. Over the past 8-10 years, cheap Chinese imports made Indian solar panel makers uncompetitive and several local players had to shut shop. Apart from these, a whole lot of sectors such as toys, furniture, computers, cars and white goods are dependent on China. A supply crunch in smartphones, TVs and electronics will impact ecommerce sales dearly. These items comprise about half of the gross merchandise value of $31 billion ecommerce sales. Some 40% of the 160 million smartphones sold annually are sold online. The viral outbreak comes at a difficult time for the Indian economy and could make the slowdown worse. Coronavirus could further slow down the already struggling economy. While S&P has estimated the crisis would slow China’s GDP growth this year to 5%, no formal estimates of the impact on India are available. A supply shortage of components that go into the manufacturing of a wide range of goods will likely be the first manifestation of the disruption. This could translate into shortages of finished products, higher prices, assembly lines shutting down, end of online discounts and job losses. “There’s some breathing time as manufacturing units had stocked up for the Chinese bi-annual holiday (the Chinese New Year). But that will give a buffer of just three-six weeks,” says George Paul, CEO, Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT). As a routine, Indian companies stock up inventories in September-December every year ahead of the Chinese New Year in February and hence there’s no immediate panic. Tepid consumption growth in India has made things easier.

World’s factory

The coming days will see some stress if factory closures continue in China. Wuhan, the epicentre of the crisis, is home to some of the world’s largest computer factories. Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan, is home to some of the world’s largest auto component makers. China is the world’s factory — it makes around 90% of the world’s 300 million computers a year, 70% of the 2 billion phones and 80% of the 110 million air conditioners sold globally. On the telecom network side, 25% imports are from China. Rajan S Mathews, director general, COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India), says: “The handset makers will be impacted more as almost 80% of the components come from China.” India sources network gear, including antennas, microwave equipment, routers and base stations, from Nokia, Ericsson, Cisco and Indian maker Tejas, besides Chinese companies. For Reliance Jio, South Korea’s Samsung is the main supplier. In smartphones, “70% of the bill of materials is accounted for by imports from China,” says Shashin Devsare, executive director, Karbonn Mobiles. India is dependent on chipsets, displays and batteries from China.

Stress in Q2

Any device that needs component integration in a semiconductor foundry, which is nearly all modern electronics, is dependent on Chinese or Taiwanese capacity. Navkendar Singh, research director, devices, India & South Asia, IDC, says: “Q1 (of the calendar year) will not be a problem. If coronavirus is not under control soon, Q2 could see supply and manufacturing disruptions.” There could also be a delay in new launches. “We have raw material till March 15,” says Eric Braganza, president, Haier Appliances India. White goods makers depend on imports from China for motors, compressors, glass doors (like in microwave ovens) and other parts which are assembled to make finished products in factories in India. Haier has a plant in Pune, which started in 2007, and is setting up another in Greater Noida later this year with an investment of Rs 3,000 crore.

Opportunity spotting

Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian, speaking at a seminar at IIM-Calcutta last week, said the coronavirus outbreak in China provides an opportunity for India to expand exports. “It’s very hard to say how this will manifest in terms of India’s trade relations with China. If we go by the experience of SARS (outbreak), India was not affected that much,” he said. Complexities in the Indian manufacturing ecosystem make it difficult for India to quickly take advantage of the disruption in global trade, although good tidings have been emanating from India’s high-tech factories in recent years. The dependence on China has decreased, though only slightly, over the last five years. From importing finished products, India is now assembling products and developing the ecosystem here as well. Investments from Chinese companies are helping boost the local ecosystem. Huaiyuan Yang, vice-president, UCWeb Global Business, says, “We are committed to a localisation strategy — at the product level, on content, on language and for recruitment.” Smartphones camera modules and antennas too are made locally now. Chinese companies are also expanding their manufacturing facilities in India. SAIC, the company behind MG Hector, is planning to invest Rs 5,000 crore in India. Half a dozen new models are in the launch pipeline. Great Wall Motors is buying GM’s Talegoan (new Pune) plant and plans to invest over Rs 2,000 crore in India. Lack of a complete ecosystem means automakers have to depend on imports for several parts, including catalytic convertors, sensors, displays and other hardware. Smartphone maker Realme, which has 14 products in India, has licensed manufacturing to Oppo and says its phones are made locally. Even Chinese ecommerce player Club Factory is ramping up its India presence and offering sops to attract local sellers to its platform. Vincent Lou, founder and CEO, Club Factory, says: “We are not a cross border business and all our sellers are registered Indian sellers.” It’s offering sops to sellers, besides investing in local talent, warehouse, technology and marketing. Chinese companies like partially state-owned TCL Corp and TV maker SkyWorth have spelt out plans for manufacturing in India. Ankur Pahwa, partner, EY India, says: “Chinese investments in India have increased 5x to 6x in the last few years. The current crisis could accelerate Make in India.” Besides, the higher import tariffs on components and finished products announced in Budget 2020 could boost local manufacturing. In fact, not so long ago, local companies such as Micromax, Lava and Karbonn were among the leaders in the handset market, but now four of the top five players are Chinese companies and Indian companies don’t even figure in the top 10. Chinese brands have cornered 70% of the market. “Indian companies took advantage of the duty structure then but failed to plough money in either research or innovation. They ate a free lunch,” says Paul of MAIT. Also, the critical components across all devices are semiconductors and chipsets. Despite four policy initiatives, India has been unable to attract semiconductor manufacturers. High cost of capital (a facility that makes silicon wafers, called fab, needs at least $1 billion in investment) and expensive land are issues. Countries such as China, Taiwan and Vietnam are willing to give sovereign guarantees on water and power. “India just can’t compete, other destinations are cheaper and local governments offer more sops,” says an industry veteran who wished not to be named. He points out the glacial pace of change in India and the inability to react to market situations. For instance, coronavirus resulted in a spike in demand from China for N95 masks, but the government here placed curbs on exports, while even France accelerated production and supplied 10 million masks. Analysts from S&P estimate that the Chinese economic slowdown due to the coronavirus outbreak could peak in the first quarter before a rebound begins in the third quarter. When SARS struck in 2003, China’s contribution to global GDP was just 4%, compared with around 18% now, and Chinese companies were much less integrated into global supply chains. However China’s ability to bounce back is also immense, compared with India’s ability to scale up its game.

Source: Economic Times

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Karnataka bags Rs 72,000 cr investment proposals; EV, solar power in focus

Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa claimed several firms had come forward to collectively invest Rs 1 lakh crore since the BJP government came into being in July 2019. Rs 72,000 crore investment proposals were received at the Invest Karnataka meet, here on Friday, for the states northern region, said an official on Saturday. "About 50 foreign and domestic firms have proposed to invest Rs 72,000 crore in the northwest and northern regions of the state and a dozen companies signed agreements with us," state Industries Department Secretary Gaurav Gupta said. Rajesh Exports, Bengaluru-based group, signed an agreement to set up a manufacturing unit at Dharwad to rollout electric vehicles and make lithium ion batteries. "Rajesh Exports proposes to invest about Rs 50,000 crore for manufacturing electric cars and lithium ion batteries for the domestic and overseas markets. It will generate about 10,000 jobs," said Gupta. Similarly, Sonali Power has signed a pact with the state nodal agency (Udyog Mitra) to set up a solar power plant at Davangere at a cost of Rs 4,800 crore, which will generate 2,100 direct jobs. Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa claimed several firms had come forward to collectively invest Rs 1 lakh crore since the BJP government came into being in July 2019. "Many Indian and foreign firms will sign agreements with the state government at the 3-day Global Investors meet in Bengaluru on November 3-5," Yediyurappa said at the 'Invest Karnataka' meet. Noting that Karnataka was rich in natural and human resources, especially in high-tech and skilled workforce, Yediyurappa said investment opportunities were plenty in aerospace, automobiles, machine tools, electric vehicles and bio-technology besides information technology. "About 40 global firms expressed interest to invest in the state at a roadshow held at Davos, Switzerland, on the margins of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet on January 23," he said.  Under the new industrial policy, the state government will set up clusters to make toys at Koppal, textiles in Bellari, solar equipment at Kalaburagi and farm machinery at Bidar. "We are committed to make North Karnataka a power house of industries for the region's development, with Hubballi-Dharwad as the growth hub," Yediyurappa said.

Source: Economic Times

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Centre asks states to replicate Kerala’s handloom scheme

Earlier, the Centre had appreciated the efforts of the state government in helping the handloom sector, as well as supplying free uniforms to the students. The state government’s scheme to distribute handloom school uniforms to students in Classes I to VII free of cost has caught the fancy of the Union government. The Union Textiles Ministry has written to all states and Union Territories to explore the possibility of implementing the Kerala model scheme in their jurisdictions to popularise handloom textiles. The letter was sent on February 11 to the directors of handloom sections in the states. Earlier, the Centre had appreciated the efforts of the state government in helping the handloom sector, as well as supplying free uniforms to the students. As per the Centre, the scheme has benefited society in two ways. Many people secured jobs in the handloom sector and the initiative also ensured minimum wages for labourers associated with the sector. A report on this by the National Institute of Fashion Technology also enclosed a letter which stated that the project by the state government has given the ailing handloom sector in Kerala a lease of life. Ninety-six per cent of handloom weavers have expressed satisfaction with the project as their income has doubled following its implementation. The students who are the beneficiaries of the school uniforms have also expressed satisfaction. The industries department initiated the free uniform distribution as part of reviving the handloom sector. The government is supplying the threads and giving wages to the weavers. With this scheme, a major chunk of handloom weaver societies have become active. The project gave fresh impetus to the Chendamangalam handloom weavers, as 5,200 weavers got jobs, the department said in a release. Under the scheme, around 4.5 lakh government school students get handloom uniforms per year. In the last three years, 70 lakh metres of handloom were distributed to around 15 lakh students.

Source: Indian Express

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Global Textile Raw Material Price 16-02-2020

Item

Price

Unit

Fluctuation

Date

PSF

937.31

USD/Ton

-0.76%

2/16/2020

VSF

1359.45

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

ASF

2010.56

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

Polyester    POY

1026.03

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

Nylon    FDY

2218.05

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

40D    Spandex

4106.97

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

Nylon    POY

2454.17

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

Acrylic    Top 3D

5366.25

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

Polyester    FDY

1262.86

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

Nylon    DTY

2053.49

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

Viscose    Long Filament

2260.98

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

Polyester    DTY

1148.38

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

30S    Spun Rayon Yarn

1996.25

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

32S    Polyester Yarn

1624.19

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

45S    T/C Yarn

2404.08

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

40S    Rayon Yarn

1774.44

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

T/R    Yarn 65/35 32S

2203.74

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

45S    Polyester Yarn

2160.81

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

T/C    Yarn 65/35 32S

1931.85

USD/Ton

0%

2/16/2020

10S    Denim Fabric

1.27

USD/Meter

0%

2/16/2020

32S    Twill Fabric

0.69

USD/Meter

0%

2/16/2020

40S    Combed Poplin

0.97

USD/Meter

0%

2/16/2020

30S    Rayon Fabric

0.53

USD/Meter

0%

2/16/2020

45S    T/C Fabric

0.67

USD/Meter

0%

2/16/2020

Source: Global Textiles

 

Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.14310 USD dtd. 16/02/2020). 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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Bangladesh: We need to talk about unsold clothing

As a manufacturer of apparel, this is a difficult statement to make but I am also mindful of the facts. And the facts are that the logistics of matching clothing production precisely with clothing demand are hugely challenging and not an exact science. The consequence of this is that many retailers are left with an excess of unsold stock which they cannot sell, even with heavy discounting. There was a recent German study which highlighted the extent of this problem. It found that 10-20% of clothing items remain unsold in Germany despite the best efforts of retailers. The unsold garments -- of which researchers estimated there are 230 million pieces in Germany alone -- end up in recycling and waste incineration plants or being sold onto the second-hand market in countries outside the EU. Another study found that in North-West Europe (NWE), 4,700 kilo-tons of post-consumer textile waste (PCT) are generated annually. The same report said that, of that, less than 1% of textiles collected are currently recycled into new ones, and around half of them are being down-cycled, incinerated, or landfilled. We need a conversation, I believe, about what we do with this excess of clothing. What is the best course of action? What is best for the environment and what is most sustainable? In the waste hierarchy, which offers guidance on the issue of waste across all sectors, the five options are given as follows (from best to worst option): Reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery, landfill. In the context of the above, the best course of action is to produce less -- of course it is. But at the moment, we produce according to perceived demand. While brands and retailers are working to improve their logistics to cut down on excess inventory, there will always be some element of over-production in the industry (unless laws are introduced in this area). The next best option in the waste hierarchy is reuse. The good news here is that, at present, the largest amount of clothing of the excess clothing produced is sold into the second-hand market. Often this clothing ends up in poor nations in the West of Africa. Is this a bad thing? Some people claim that flooding Africa with second-hand clothing has prevented local textile industries from taking off. While there may be some truth in this, from an environmental standpoint, resale into the second-hand market is surely the best thing. It is the best thing for the planet. The only worry is that we do not know what happens to this second-hand clothing when it is no longer fit for purpose. We need more information on this. It is also very promising to see the second-hand clothing market booming in the Western world, in countries such as the US, Germany, and the UK. Recycling is number three in terms of the waste hierarchy. There are two types of recycling -- upcycling and downcycling. Upcycling would be taking old clothing, using a chemical process to break down the clothing into its original fibre types, and using these to make new garments. There is a lot of development in this area at the moment in terms of recycling technologies. What is not clear is how these technologies will be scaled and how such technologies will fit into existing apparel supply chains. At present, way less than 1% of used clothing is completely recycled. Talk of “closing the loop” is hugely misleading for consumers as progress by the industry here is very limited. Again, this is another area where we need an open and transparent conversation within the industry. The other type of recycling is downcycling. This sees old clothing shredded and used in other industries such as, for instance, insulation in buildings. Downcycling often gets bad press, which I find strange as, from an environmental standpoint, is it really such a bad option? Insulation in buildings often lasts for many decades. There is actually an argument here for policy-makers insisting that insulation in buildings should have at least a minimum percentage of recycled fibres from clothing. This would mean not only that the new recycled product probably would last for several decades -- or even centuries -- but the very purpose of that product (insulation) would be to help reduce energy consumption and therefore greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. The problem here, I believe, is that downcycling does not sound as exciting as upcycling, and certainly does not have the PR “sell” of closing the loop. But have the environmental gains of apparel downcycling every been truly evaluated? I suspect not. At the bottom of the waste hierarchy are incineration. In the apparel industry, incineration is the second to last resort and is often used when clothing has mould or has too high a chemical content. It is usually incineration for the production of heat and power, so there is some merit in this. That said, it would be good to know more about precisely how much clothing each apparel brand incinerates annually; perhaps brands and retailers could publish this information in their annual sustainability reports. The final option for the disposal of unsold clothing is landfill. How much unsold clothing ends up in landfill each year? I suspect this is a tiny amount as the options explored above are much more beneficial and are relatively easy to implement. That said, there is a lack of good quality information on the whole issue of excess clothing production. We need a proper conversation, out in the open, on this issue. It is far too important to sweep under the carpet. Mostafiz Uddin is the Managing Director of Denim Expert Limited. He is also the Founder and CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo and Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE).

Source: Dhakha Tribune

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Pakistan: ICCI foresees huge opportunity after Pak-Turkey FTA

President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Muhammad Ahmed Waheed on Sunday observed huge trade opportunities after signing of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Pakistan and Turkey would also help balancing the trade volume between the two sides. After finalising the FTA between the two countries, bilateral trade could increase from existing $800 million to $5 billion, which would also help decreasing the country’s trade and foreign account deficit, Muhammad Ahmed Waheed told APP here. After the recent official visit of Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan to Pakistan, he hoped that both of the countries evolved consensus for finalizing the FTA, which would start a new era of growing trade and economic relations between the two countries. The president ICCI said the 9th round of negotiation on FTA had completed between the two countries and before the 10th round of negotiation, both sides had agreed to formalize a Pakistan-Turkey Strategic Economic Framework (SEF) during the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Turkey in January this year and a committee was also formed to finalize the SEF draft. Now After the approval by the Prime Minister, the SEF draft was sent to Turkey on February 20 which has now been approved and signed by both of leaders in Turky’s President Visit to Pakistan, he said. Replying to a question, he said that that through the SEF, Pakistan would get tariff free access in potential Turkish markets to increase the bilateral trade between the two countries. He informed that two sides had agreed to prepare a “scoping list” to examine their respective sectors of strength, with an ultimate aim to boost the bilateral trade volume. He further said that Pakistan’s top 20 high-potential exports could go up from $400m to $2,600m; while Turkey’s top 20 high potential exports to Pakistan could be enhanced to $2.6b from $200m. He said that major exports to Turkey included denim PET, ethanol, cotton yarn, fabric and rice, garments, leather, carpets, surgical instruments, sports goods, and chemicals. Ahmed Waheed said the two sides held discussions on goods, services and investment. After signing a new FTA, the two countries would be able to improve their trade balance, he added. He said after the finalisation of FTA, Pakistan would get market space in agriculture and pharmaceutical sectors in Turkey. Replying to another question, he said that Pakistan’s major imports from Turkey included manmade textiles, towels, steel structure, tanning and plastic chemicals, processed milk and whey. Through the FTA both side would also enhance the business to business relations and cooperation between the business communities of the two countries. “We can increase cooperation with Turkish companies and expand it more from textiles to other potential sectors for benefiting from their expertise in different sectors, mainly construction, tourism, engineering, food processing, chemicals, and information technology” he said. While replying to a question on new potential markets for multilateral trade, he said the government must have to search the new potential markets in different parts of the world to increase trade. He added that as already the government was working on different regions including Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), African region and North and South Americas. Replying to a question, he said that industrial and investment cooperation was also on the card through the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Board of investment of Turkey and Pakistan for cooperation and facilitation in local Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

Source: The Nation

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Vietnam: Industrial sector’s growth likely to hit almost 3% in Q1

Việt Nam’s industrial sector in the first quarter is projected to grow 2.68 per cent compared to the same period last year if the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is brought under control, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO). Of which, the manufacturing and processing industry, that accounts for the lion’s share of the industrial sector, will be the hardest hit. This industry is likely to expand just 2.38 per cent instead of 10.47 per cent if the virus is handled. Industries using materials imported from China are also badly affected as the country is a major supplier of materials and accessories for Việt Nam. Other industries that will be affected include textile, garment, leather and footwear. In the first three months of this year, the textile industry is expected to grow 1.9 per cent, while the garment sector is forecast to contract 1.5 per cent and the leather and shoe production industry is likely to expand 0.5 per cent. Without the COVID-19 epidemic, the growth of these industries would have reached 10.5 per cent, 7.9 per cent and 8.5 per cent, respectively. The production of motor vehicles and metals may also slow in the first quarter, rising only 6.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, electronics, computers and optical devices production will possibly see a decline of 2.3 per cent in this period. Without the epidemic, production would have grown 9.3 per cent for motor vehicles, 9.6 per cent for metal products and 2.4 per cent for the group of electronics, computers and optical devices. If this epidemic lasts until the end of the second quarter, the industrial sector’s growth is forecast to reach nearly 7 per cent in the first half of this year. In this scenario, the manufacturing and processing industry is estimated to gain growth of 8.51 per cent. The GSO has proposed the Government take supportive measures for enterprises that suffer significant impacts from the coronavirus epidemic, such as seeking alternative suppliers, reducing export-import tariffs and boosting domestic consumption, said its General Director Nguyễn Bích Lâm. Those are the enterprises operating in the industries of manufacturing, exporting and importing industrial products, especially textiles, leather, electronics, cars, steel, and food and foodstuff processing enterprises. To stabilise domestic production, Lâm said the GSO has proposed the Government to continue managing macro-economic policies to control inflation and maintain stability in the macro-economy as well as the monetary market. At the same time, the Government should follow issues relating to import and export, including key export products, major export markets and material imports for production, to solve problems of import and export enterprises. The Government is advised to address bottlenecks, including administrative procedures, to accelerate the implementation of major public investment projects nationwide, thus boosting socio-economic development.

Source: Vietnam News

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Australia: Sustainable is the new ticket to play

Did you know that the average Australian buys 27 kilograms of clothing every year yet throws away (cough…recycles) 24 kilograms of apparel a year? Approximately 65 per cent of the clothing we ‘recycle’ usually gets sent offshore to a developing country where it is sent to landfill. And somewhere between California and Hawaii there is an island of plastic and floating rubbish known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – comprised of 1.8 trillion items of rubbish that is twice the size of Texas and three times the size of France. Well you may not know it – but your customers sure do. Particularly millennials. And it is very important to them. Unsurprisingly, caring for the environment has never been a hotter issue both for society and businesses. And right in the middle of the battleground is retail, which is a huge contributor to the environmental problems we face around the world. In response to a global environmental disaster, the circular economy movement is gaining momentum as brands recognise that a sustainable environmental footprint is the new ticket to play in retail. The circular economy gives new life to products and materials that would otherwise make their way to landfill, letting products have an infinite lifecycle through different uses. Globally, governments and industries are developing initiatives to promote the circular economy, which they claim can potentially deliver economic benefits of $1 trillion globally by 2025. In Australia, state and federal government initiatives have been announced, with $167 million being invested federally to contribute to the circular economy and recycling. This is in part for funding a Circular Economy Hub developed through Planet Ark, planned to launch in 2020 where a marketplace will connect buyers with sellers in the circular economy.

The current state in the textile industry

While the majority of Australians believe they already contribute to a sustainable circular economy in textiles – via charitable donations, which is primarily recycled clothing – the reality is much different. While charities have given a second or third life to over 285 million items of clothing and hard goods, there is still an estimated 62 million kilograms of textile waste exported by charities yearly. And these charities are spending around $13 million in landfill costs per year. Globally, 85 per cent of textiles are sent to landfill, equating to around one garbage truck load of textiles being sent to landfill or burned every second. When we then recognise that 60 per cent of textiles are made from polyester, what we wear as consumers can be compared to the plastic bottle waste the community is currently up in arms about. Moving towards a more sustainable industryRetailers are starting to take sustainability more seriously, seeing it both as a sales opportunity and risk management strategy to future-proof their business. Customers have shown that they care and sustainability is here to stay. Yet the complexity for retailers to transition into a circular economy can be like navigating a labyrinth, making it difficult to action without sacrificing profitable business models. Retailers should see the circular economy as an opportunity to be innovative, collaborative and explore new business models that connect with their customers. Partnerships are key in a circular economy, ranging from recyclers, resellers, repairers, manufacturers, distributors and customers themselves. An example of a company that has taken the textile circular economy to heart is Nudie Jeans, which uses sustainable and recycled materials. The company has global repair locations for customers to maintain their jeans, as well as re-sell and recycle their jeans. In 2018, the company reported they had repaired over 55,173 jeans, collected 10,557 jeans to resell or recycle, resulting in 44,000 kilograms of clothes being diverted from landfill and saving 386,000,000 litres of water.

Source: Inside Retail Australia

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Coronavirus may damage global growth in 2020: IMF's Kristalina Georgieva

The coronavirus epidemic could damage global economic growth this year, the IMF head said on Sunday, but a sharp and rapid economic rebound could follow. “There may be a cut that we are still hoping would be in the 0.1-0.2 percentage space,” the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, told the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai. She said the full impact of the spreading disease that has already killed more than 1,600 people would depend on how quickly it was contained. “I advise everybody not to jump to premature conclusions. There is still a great deal of uncertainty. We operate with scenarios, not yet with projections, ask me in 10 days,” Georgieva said. In its January update to the World Economic Outlook, the IMF lowered global economic growth forecast in 2020 by a 0.1 percentage point to 3.3 per cent, following a 2.9 per cent growth the previous year, the lowest in a decade. Georgieva said it was “too early” to assess the full impact of the epidemic but acknowledged that it had already affected sectors such as tourism and transportation. “It is too early to say because we don't yet quite know what is the nature of this virus. We don't know how quickly China will be able to contain it. We don't know whether it will spread to the rest of the world,” she said. If the disease is “contained rapidly, there can be a sharp drop and a very rapid rebound”, in what is known as the V-shaped impact, she said. Compared to the impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002, she said China's economy then made up just 8.0 per cent of global economy. Now, that figure is 19 per cent. She said the trade agreement between the United States and China, the world's first and second economies, had reduced the disease's impact on global economy. But the world should be concerned “about sluggish growth” impacted by uncertainty, said the IMF chief.  “We are now stuck with low productivity growth, low economic growth, low interest rates and low inflation,” she told the Dubai forum, also attended by US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and former British prime minister Theresa May.

Source: Business Standard

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