The Centre is working on major interventions to position India as a global hub within the artifical fibre and technical textiles segments, together with organising 5 built-in mega textiles parks, a state-of-the-art world class testing lab and bringing a Focused Product Scheme, a high official stated on Wednesday.
Emphasising that India should discover the USD 150 billion global artifical fibre (MMF) market, Textiles Secretary Ravi Capoor additionally stated he’s in talks with the Department of Higher Education for introduction of programs in universities and technical establishments like engineering schools for creation of specialized manpower within the MMF and technical textiles segments.
Addressing a CII convention just about, Capoor stated an analysis research led by Niti Aayog on the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) of the textiles ministry has revealed that Rs 13,000 crore value equipment was being imported by India and the nation has reached nowhere by way of expertise upgradation besides within the spinning phase.
He stated the federal government can also be keen to provide capital funding subsidy for organising machine manufacturing vegetation to textile trade gamers all for forging joint ventures, supplied the international associate agrees to provide machines to home corporations at a specific value.
“We want to make India a very strong base for technical textiles,” Capoor stated, including {that a} Focused Product Scheme providing production-linked incentives was “almost ready” and can lay particular emphasis on the MMF and technical textiles segments.
He stated the ministry was in a “very advanced stage of encouraging some mega textile parks”, beginning with about 5 such parks with built-in amenities and fast turnaround time for minimising transportation losses, eyeing massive ticket investments within the sector.
He additionally stated the ministry will quickly seek the advice of trade gamers on the brand new Textiles Policy, which lays out the long run roadmap for India to transfer forward within the sector.
Capoor stated a report by the International Cotton Advisory Committee initiatives that by 2025-2030, the share of cotton within the global market will probably be restricted to about 16 per cent, whereas the remaining 84 per cent will come from MMF and blends, and India have to be in sync with this global pattern.
Technical textiles embody textiles made for automotive functions, medical textiles, geotextiles, agrotextiles, and protecting clothes, amongst others.
SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line
Freight services and operations have gained traction while passenger service and traffic are picking pace slowly during the graded unlocking.
This was stated by the Mysuru Divisional Railway Manager Rahul Agarwal during the 65th Railway Week celebrations in the city on Wednesday.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every sector of the society and there were tough and challenging times ahead for the railways as well. The division has set a target to double the freight traffic as per the directives of the Railway Board and has constituted Business Development Units at the divisional and sub-divisional level and has been striving hard to increase its freight volume coupled with ease of doing business, said Mr. Agarwal.
The Railway Week is held in April every year to mark the commissioning of the first passenger train serviice on Indian Railways in 1853. However, it was postponed due to the pandemic and the Mysuru Division observed it on Wednesday.
Mr. Agarwal also presented awards to employees who excelled in their work during the year 2019-2020. While a total of 63 employees received individual awards, 7 group awards with 69 employees were also conferred on the occasion.
The DRM looked back on the division’s performance during the financial year 2019-20 and said there were no accidents except one yard derailment at a private siding at Ammasandra. The division could achieve over all loading of 8.14 million tonnes for the year 2019-20 as compared to 4.644 million tonnes of the last year (2018-19), an increase of 75%.
This was also the highest every loading by the Mysuru Division, surpassing the previous record of 6.24 million tonnes achieved in the year 2012-13.
The originating earnings in the financial year 2019-20 was ₹844 crore and the year-on-year growth was 29 per cent.
The division also eliminated 30 level crossing gates by constructing Road Under Bridge or Road Over Bridges to enhance public safety while 5 permanent speed restrictions were eliminated and the speed of trains was increased to 100 kmph across 220 route km.
Mr. Agarwal said 48 km of double track was commissioned on Tumakuru-Mallasandra-Gubbi, Davangere-Amaravathi Colony-Harihar and Banasandra-Karadi sections in the division.
The Mysuru Yard remodelling was taken up and completed during the year 2019-2020, a work which was pending since 2008 and re-development of the Mysuru Railway Station was also completed. The renovated and expanded Rail Museum – completely re-engineered in a record time – is a must-see in the tourist’s itinerary.
With a view to providing visitors an opportunity to cherish the memories of their visit to the city as also to promote ‘Made in India’ products, a souvenirs’ and 4 other kiosks have been set up in the circulating area of Mysuru Railway Station, the DRM said.
B. Srinivasulu, Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Prashanth Mastiholi, Senior Divisional Personnel Officer, and other branch officers of Mysuru division were present on the occasion.
SOURCE: https://indiaseatradenews.com/
India’s exports reduced by 9.07 per cent in November, in a second straight month of decline, as major markets continued to be impacted by Covid-19. The outbound shipment in November this year stood at $23.43 billion, against $25.77 billion in the same month a year earlier, official data showed today.
In October, the country’s exports had declined by 5.1 per cent, after a rise of around six per cent the previous month. In September, exports had risen after six months of continuous decline, giving a temporary hope of a turnaround in outbound shipments.
Imports, on the other hand, contracted 13.33 per cent in November to $33.39 billion, against $38.52 billion in the same month of 2019.
As such, trade deficit during the month stood at $9.96 billion, lower than the $11.75 billion recorded in October. Compared with the $12.75 billion in November 2019, trade deficit in November this year was 21.93 per cent lower.
Non-oil non-gold and related imports declined by 0.84 per cent, at a smaller rate than 4.9 per cent in October. This category of imports indicates demand for industrial products. So, some recovery in industrial production may be on the cards. The index of industrial production (IIP) had risen by 0.2 per cent in September after months of decline.
The export of major foreign exchange earners like pharmaceuticals rose 11.3 per cent, gems and jewellery by 4.11 per cent and electronic goods by 0.95 per cent. On the other hand, petroleum products declined 61.05 per cent, and engineering goods 8.27 per cent. Labour-intensive leather and its products fell by 29.8 per cent.
Mahesh Desai, chairman of engineering exporters’ body EEPC India said: “Players continue to battle the impact of Covid-19 on global trade. They are pinning their hopes on vaccination starting and the pandemic abating.”
Several critical export sectors, including engineering exports were reeling from a host of issues, including disruptions in production, transportation, and increasing country-specific restrictions, he said.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
Other suggestions included permitting duty free import of equipment required for R&D and product development; setting up of a Niryat Vishwavidyalay; extension of interest subsidy scheme in the new foreign trade policy; and immediate release of GST and drawback funds.
Exporters on Wednesday suggested to the government a series of steps, including extension of fiscal benefits to SEZ units, presumptive tax for cross-border e-commerce and free trade pacts with countries like the US and UK, to boost domestic manufacturing and outbound shipments.
These recommendations were made by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) at a meeting of the Board of Trade (BOT) which was chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
Other suggestions included permitting duty free import of equipment required for R&D and product development; setting up of a Niryat Vishwavidyalay; extension of interest subsidy scheme in the new foreign trade policy; and immediate release of GST and drawback funds.
Further, the federation recommended refund of GST to foreign tourists, RoDTEP (Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products) scheme covering all products; and amnesty scheme for schemes prescribing export obligation.
FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai told PTI that these measures would help in significantly promoting manufacturing and boosting the country’s exports.
He further said the minister asked the officials present in the meeting to examine these suggestions.
Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel sought resolution of operational issues for ease of doing business and redressal of the issue of duty disadvantage in overseas markets by entering into early negotiations for free trade agreements (FTAs).
He also asked for changes in the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme to take care of the growing need of capital investment in the sector.
He added that the entire process of flagging an exporter as a ‘risky exporter’ to removal of the tag and resumption of refunds should be completed within 30 days, and a protocol must be developed for transparent flow of information.
Engineering exporters too suggested for easing of GST refund rules and extending affordable credit to the sector. Measures to boost exports, manufacturing and the new foreign trade policy figured in the meeting.
The board, which includes members from both public and private sector, advises the commerce and industry ministry on policy measures related to foreign trade policy (FTP).
Secretaries of different departments, heads of various government bodies, representatives of apex industry associations and export promotion councils are members of the BOT.
During April-October 2020-21, the country’s exports dipped by 19 per cent to USD 150.14 billion, while imports contracted by 36.28 per cent to USD 182.29 billion. Trade deficit during the period narrowed to USD 32.16 billion from USD 100.67 billion in April-October 2019-20.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
Shipping freight rates should be excluded from the purview of the new Merchant Shipping Bill, a lobby group for global container shipping lines have said, while arguing that enforcing the rule after it is passed by Parliament would turn out to be “counter-productive” for India’s export-import (EXIM) trade.
“It interferes with a commercial agreement between a shipping line and its customer, which are governed by market forces,” Sunil Vaswani, Executive Director, Container Shipping Lines Association (India) or CSLA told.
The CSLA represents global carriers such as Maersk Line, MSC and CMA-CGM, among others.
Regulating shipping freight is a key part of the new Merchant Shipping Bill, drafted by the government to replace the existing Merchant Shipping Act. The Bill seeks to make it mandatory for service provider/shipping line to specify the all-inclusive freight on the Bill of Lading (B/L) or any other transport document. Service providers would be barred from levying any charges other than the all-inclusive freight specified on the B/L or any other transport document.
Beginning the early 1990s, the land-side costs were separated from the ocean freight costs to introduce transparency in ocean freight rates.
With the Draft Merchant Shipping Bill proposing to consolidate all these charges into an all-inclusive freight, it would “create less transparency than more”, the CSLA said.
The carriers have also highlighted the potential revenue loss to the exchequer and the “competitive disadvantage” it will bring to India’s EXIM trade to argue for dropping the plan.
GST loss
The enactment of the new law, according to the CSLA, would result in a loss to the government exchequer of about ₹3,424 crore in GST annually.
Currently, export freight out of India is not subject to GST while import freight is subject to 5 per cent GST. Other local charges for terminal handling, documentation, container cleaning and repair, other miscellaneous charges, inland haulage, etc attract 18 per cent GST.
“Once all these charges get included in the all-inclusive freight, the government will stand to lose the 18 per cent GST that is currently being charged on these items,” Vaswani said.
Trade impact
“Indian exporters and importers will have a competitive disadvantage due to individual confidential contracts with the shipping lines being made public which could be visible to their competitors since the B/L/documents pass through multiple agencies. This will give an opportunity to competition both within India and even in other countries who compete with Indian suppliers, such as China, South Korea and South East Asian countries,” Vaswani stated.
About 40 per cent of exports and 80 per cent of imports would thus be affected. “These businesses could then be lost to other countries,” CSLA argued.
Consolidation of freight and other charges into a single all-inclusive freight would also result in non-compliance with international commercial (INCO) terms and be “prejudicial against the shipping lines by barring them from charging for value-added services”, according to carriers.
Besides, not all charges are known at the time of the release of the B/L. There are several incidental charges which are only applicable subject to the happening of an incident, for instance, container detention charges, container repair charges, etc.
“How would it be possible for the line to ascertain these beforehand and include them in the all-inclusive freight on the B/L?” the CSLA asked.
SOURCE: https://indiaseatradenews.com/
INTERNATIONAL
Scientists at the University of York and the Royal College of Art are jointly working to reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry in the UK. The country sends around one million tonnes of waste textiles to incineration and landfill each year. The emissions caused by the industry are almost as high as the total CO2 emitted through use of cars.
The fashion sector is worth £32 billion annually to the UK economy, but most clothing and almost all textile and yarn are imported. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragility of these supply chains and the UK’s dependency on them.
In the new £5.4 million project, researchers at York, alongside the Universities of Leeds, Manchester, Cranfield, Cambridge, and University College London, will use household waste, crop residues and used textiles to develop new products that can be produced in the UK.
The project is based on a technology developed by a team at the University of York’s Department of Biology, which uses enzymes to deconstruct materials containing cellulose, such as natural and semi-synthetic fibres, crop residues, and solid waste products.
The enzymes help breakdown these materials into simple sugars, which can then be converted back into new cellulose by bacteria. This new cellulose is used to spin fibres that can be woven to produce high quality textiles to supply the UK’s fashion and clothing sector.
Professor Simon McQueen-Mason, from the University of York’s Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP), said: “The clothing and fashion sector is currently one of the most polluting, responsible for 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and 20 per cent of global waste water.”
“Our approach will dramatically reduce the carbon emissions and waste water from textile production. As a result, it will create a more secure domestic supply chain, stimulating economic growth in the UK, while reducing waste,” McQueen-Mason said.
The research will form part of the Royal College of Art’s Textile Circularity Centre (TCC), funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The Centre supports better social, economic and environmental outcomes through an interdisciplinary consortium of partners from academia, industry, NGOs, and the public sector.
Source: Fibre2Fashion News Desk
Caterpillar® is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. They have grown to become one of the most esteemed brands in the world * and they also manufacture workwear and casual wear with a focus on getting the job done. Now Polygiene together with their brand CAT® have entered into a partnership to protect clothes from bacteria and other microbes to reduce the need for washing and thereby increase the life of the garments. The partnership begins with a collection of casual wear with increasing volumes for 2021 and beyond.
“CAT has a vision of a world where people’s basic needs such as protection, clean water, education and reliable energy are met. At first we saw it as a smart idea to protect clothes against bacteria and microbes, but when we understood that the function also drastically reduces the climate impact through less washing, then we saw the logic, “says Greg Gemette, Senior Vice President, Caterpillar Apparel.
“CAT is an exciting and well-known brand that everyone knows and I look forward to a rewarding collaboration”, says Ulrika Björk, CEO of Polygiene. “Whether we’re talking about casual wear or at a later stage about workwear, I’m convinced that the increased value we add to their products will be appreciated by their end customers, especially in these times.”
Source:Textile Focus
Global supply chains have been rocked in the last couple of months by the acute shortage of available empty containers, giving exporters severe headaches in getting their products to market. However, new research shows a clear kink in the box supply chain – empty containers are spending 45 days on average in depot – and in China, the average time each box is sitting useless is above two months.
German firms Fraunhofer CML and Container xChange have partnered to carry out research into the average time containers spend between being empty in depot and empty dispatched, the results of which make clear the need to speed up the process to alleviate logistics bottlenecks.
Container availability across China is still at a record low, while US ports are overwhelmed by a surge of shipping containers from Asia, full of products retailers are eager to get on shelves for the holidays.
In regions with low container availability such as China and the US, the average time empty boxes are hanging around in depots is higher, at 61 and 66 days respectively.
“The skewed geographical development of the demand recovery means a rapidly escalating equipment imbalance issue, which becomes especially acute for North America and Asia,” analysts at Sea-Intelligence noted in a recent weekly report:
“It is – relatively speaking – easy to adjust capacity when demand changes, but it is not possible to rapidly shift empty container across the world,” Sea-Intelligence observed.
This also means that the bottleneck issues currently seen in many locations will take time to resolve with rival analyst Alphaliner predicting the issue would remain until Chinese new year in February.
Commenting on the empty box situation, Andy Lane from Singapore’s CTI Consultancy told Splash: “Detention costs need to be fully levied, even increased, to incentivise faster collection of imports and returns of empties. Where containers are not triangulated and loaded with export cargo, there is no need in North America or Europe to go to a depot, straight to the port only and immediate evacuation. This is what the lines will be doing in their flow management centers.”
“Still-peaking volumes of ocean freight from China to the US continue to cause congestion and delays at US ports. There are reports of ships ‘vessel bunching’ just off the West Coast, waiting for a slot to open at LA-Long Beach, and unload merchandise retailers are eager to get on virtual shelves before the holidays,” online container booking platform Freigtos noted in a report to clients yesterday, adding: “The surge is leading not only to an increase in rolled containers, but also to the severe shortage of empty containers available back in Asian origin ports.”
SOURCE: https://indiaseatradenews.com/
China International Marine Containers, the world’s largest container manufacturer, has stated that the shortage of containers has resulted in a slew of orders, keeping its factories busy until the end of the first quarter of 2021.
While the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed factory output early in the year, demand for textile and electronics exports from China is gradually recovering.
However, there is an acute shortage of containers in Asia, as empty containers have been slow to return to the ports of origin from North America. This was due to Transpacific rates hitting a 10-year high in September and lower backhaul volumes.
CIMC, a COSCO unit, stated on Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s interactive platform that the recovery in container shipping and demand has had a positive impact on its business. In order to rush out the container orders, workers in CIMC’s Shenzhen factory have been working double shifts.
At least 95% of containers are manufactured in China. Besides CIMC, other leading Chinese container makers are COSCO Shipping Development and the privately owned CXIC Group Containers. CIMC’s market share is estimated at 45%.
CIMC stated that so far, in the fourth quarter of 2020, container prices have surged, and its profit margin in Q3 2020 was back to pre-Covid-19 levels. The company booked a net profit of CNY880.36 million (US$129.08 million) during the quarter, rebounding from a CNY43.5 million (US$6.11 million) net loss in Q3 2019.Revenue totalled CNY24.16 billion (US$3.54 billion) in the third quarter, up from CNY18.94 billion (US$2.66 billion) in 2019, with CIMC’s net profit margin reaching 3.64%.
SOURCE: https://indiaseatradenews.com/
Govt invites proposals to set up Export Promotion Council for Technical Textiles
The government has invited proposals from exporter associations and trade bodies for setting up a dedicated Export Promotion Council for Technical Textiles.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in its meeting held on February 26, 2020 had approved the constitution of a dedicated Export Promotion Council (EPC) for Technical Textiles.
Therefore, it has been decided that a dedicated EPC in the Ministry of Textiles shall be constituted, the Textiles Ministry said in a notification.
“Consequently, exporter associations and trade bodies registered under Companies Act or Society Registration Act are hereby invited to submit proposal for constitution of a dedicated EPC for Technical Textiles,” it said.
Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel welcomed the government”s decision saying it will boost exports and strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity in the sunrise sector.
“Of the 207 items notified as technical textiles in January 2019, there are 12 products of apparel. The global market for these 12 products is estimated to be USD 11 billion, though India”s exports is only USD 93 million. This indicates a huge potential in these products if dedicated export promotion activities are undertaken for these products,” he said.
SOURCE: https://indiaseatradenews.com/
