Regional Notes

• Clothing exports in unsteady state: Textile sector exports that recorded robust growth in the first two months of the year slowed down in March, according to China Customs. Exports during Jan-Feb had risen 29% over the year-ago level and amounted to US$28.24 billion. Thus, the monthly average stood at $14.12 billion. However, March exports amounted to only $11 billion - down more than 22% from the Jan-Feb monthly average. The export decline in March was due mainly to reduced buying of China-made garments by the European Union and Japan. Clothing shipped to the EU in March fell by 21.5% and to Japan by 20.37%.

• Cotton, yarn output up: Both cotton production and cotton fabric output have reported significant increases in the first two months of this year. Cotton production increased by 26.52% to 3.6 million tons while cotton fabric production climbed by almost 51% to 10.1 billion metres.

Indonesia

From Baari La Inggi, Jakarta

• Now they see FTA benefits: Six months after the Asean-China free trade agreement (ACFTA) came into force, starting last January, Indonesian industrialists are beginning to rethink their early resistance to it. A fear widespread particularly among textile and clothing manufacturers was that low-cost textiles and clothing that were previously being smuggled into country to compete against local products would now come in legally and duty-free to claim an even larger share of the domestic market than before. However, some industrialists now brush aside that fear and thinking of seeking possible strategic alliance with Chinese textile and clothing enterprises for market expansion and greater mutual benefit. For instance, the head of the East Java section of the Indonesian Textile Association, Sherlina Kawilarang, says that the association will try to negotiate with textile associations in China to establish joint ventures that would produce textile for export to China.

• Factory revamp helps raise output: The growth rate of Indonesia's textile and garment industry has slowed down over the past five years and the country's industry minister MS Hidayat attributes mainly three reasons for it: low utilisation of installed capacity, old production technology and equipment, and inability to compete against other Asian textile manufacturing nations that employ new technology. Eighty per cent of the textile and clothing production plants in the country, he says, are equipped with machinery that are more than 20 years old. At the same time, manufacturers who have modernised plants with the subsidy that the government provided to upgrade production likes have been able to reduce their energy cost by some 6-18% and increase productivity by 7-17%, says the industry minister MS Hidayat.

Thailand

From R.H. Leary, Bangkok

• Marching orders from Mab Ta Put: In mid-May Kosol Jairangsri, the deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Industry who also chairs the sub-committee appointed by the former prime minister, Anand Panyarachun, to study town planning in the Mab Ta Put industrial estate region, said that three communities which are too close to the sources of pollution should be relocated - 600 families, in short. This recommendation will go to the Ministry of the Interior, where a new town plan is being worked out. Another recommendation is that industries regarded as harmful, such as, for instance, petrochemicals, should create buffer zones around their plants, the widths to be dependent upon the EIA and HIA for the particular plant.

• Synthetics: Despite a 20% increase in sales in the first quarter, Thai Plastic & Chemicals PLC's profit was down by 37% compared with the last quarter of 2009 owing to a considerable rise in raw-material prices. The actual profit was 409 million bahts (roughly US$13 million) compared with 646 million bahts at year-end; sales reached 6.66 billion bahts, perhaps a little more than US$200 million. Prices of the firm's PVC products in Asia in the first three months were higher than in the corresponding period of 2009. The price of ethylene stood at US$1,265/t at end-March.

• Count your feet: Textile Asia February-March 2009 published a short note about an exhibition in Northern Thailand displaying counterfeit textiles and garments that had been smuggled in from China down the new road through Laos. In May this year the economic and cyber-crime division of the Royal Thai Police put on a display of counterfeit jeans and labels worth five million bahts (about US$160,000) seized in a raid on a Thai factory. Import substitution still goes on.

• Sericulture: Established last December as an upgrade from the Queen Sirikit Institute of Sericulture, the Queen Sirikit department of sericulture of the Ministry of Agriculture plans to spend 10 million bahts (roughly US$320,000) this year to revitalise the quality of both mulberry and silkworms, according to its director-general Pairoj Limcharoon.

• Best foot forward: In recent years Carpets International, Thailand's top carpet-maker, has sought international certification with respect to environmental standards, energy efficiency and reduction of the emission of carbon dioxide, an endeavour that forced the firm to improve the efficiency of its entire line including control over costs and waste. The company's managing director, Parkpoom Jarnyaharn, attributes all this to Carpets International's realisation five years ago that world concerns over global warming would impact world business severely. Its use of resources is exemplary.

Pakistan

From K.K. Suri, Karachi

• Yarn export dispute drags on: The textile scene in April-May remained dominated by the turf war between spinners and the value- added downstream industries that comprise manufacturing of textiles, clothing and other made-up articles-both using all their propaganda might and lobbying machine to prove their great significance to providing large scale employment and contribution to the national economy. In mid-May the government had decided to impose a regulatory 15% duty on export of all kinds of cotton yarn. That decision taken after considering the volume of cotton yarn produced in the country, the volume of export and availability of yarn to local industries and valid for 60 days, replacing the prevailing quota restrictions, was expected to resolve the yarn crisis which previously compelled the value-added sector to go on strike. But it has not made spinners or downstream industries particularly happy. The value added sector is still clamouring for total ban, while All Pakistan Textile Mills Association has started a twice-weekly strike until the duty is withdrawn.

• Textile sector makes good profit: Manufacturers of value-added textile products continue to report healthy profits despite the adverse security situation in the country and the rising cost of yarn. Reports released by some major companies show that annual profit in 2009-10 has risen above previous year's level, in some cases as high as 11%, and prospects of further profitability are high.

Sri Lanka

From A H H Saheed, Colombo

• Textile exports remain depressed: Uncertainty over GSP+ concessions continues to put pressure on prices while shrinking retail markets in the United States and Europe has dragged exports down. Textile and garments exports during Jan-Feb declined to US$422 million from the year-ago level of $516 million.

• Two trade shows in the making: Two premier apparel industry trade shows-the Apparel Industry Suppliers Exhibition (AISEX) and the Fabric and Accessory Sourcing Exhibition (FASE) - will take place at the Sirimavo Bandaranayke Memorial Exhibition Centre in Colombo from 25 to 27 November this year.

• Courtaulds expands: Courtaulds Clothing that produces clothing in Sri Lanka for export is to invest US$3.6 million to set up a new factory in Badalgama, 50 kilometers from Colombo, to produce knitted fabrics for export as well as to establish an export trading house in Katuwelegama, 40 kilometers from Colombo.

• Brandix opens apparel park in India: Sri Lankan apparel giant, Brandix, inaugurated last month (May) a 1,000-acre apparel park in Vishakhapatnam in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Bangladesh

From Kazi Azizul Islam, Dhaka

• Second stimulus: The Finance Ministry has instructed the central bank to release funds from the second stimulus package. Accordingly, garment exporters will get 5% cash incentive on their shipments to new markets, which is all except the United States, the European Union and Canada.

• Exports rebound: Local exporters are becoming optimistic again as the export promotion bureau of the government reports a healthy growth of March shipments.

American Markets

• Signs of life in the US apparel import market: It is still a long way from business as before; but there is a clear uptick with the volume of apparel imports showing 12.5% increase in the first quarter of this year.

  The quantity of woven apparel coming into the market from overseas increased by 10.8% to 1,792 billion pieces while the quantity of knit apparel imports increased by 13.2% to 4,072 billion pieces. However, the total value of these categories increased at a much lesser rate - woven apparel up by 0.4 percent to $7.920 billion and knit apparel by 3.8% to $7.591 billion while their average unit price fell - for woven garments down 9.2% to $4.42 a piece and for knit down 8.4% to $1.86 a piece.

  By Doug Smith, Columbia, SC

Fashion Trends

• A trend-setting event for spring-summer wear: Hundreds of fashion designers and producers, and thousands of distributors, marketing chain executives and retailers from around the world will head for Hong Kong this July for an important trend-setting event-The Hong Kong Fashion Week-that will present the spring-summer collections for 2011. The event organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council will take place at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre on July 5-8.

  By C.K. Chow

New Products

• A new shade enhancer and dyes for synthetics: Today's lifestyle, fashion trends and concern for health and the environment have increased the demand for colourful wear and raised with it the need for colour fastness quality of clothing and home textiles. Responding to this need, Huntsman, a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals for textiles and many other products, has introduced last month two new products - a dyeing auxiliary that improves the shade depth of elastane (EL) fibers in blends with PA dyed with Eriofast Black M by providing higher build up and maximum fastness on PA elastane blends; and Terasil W-EL which is an innovative and unique range of disperse dyes that achieves the highest wash fastness on polyester/elastane blends through reliable process and outstanding performance.

  An innovation in protective fibres: A new idea coming from the established fiber Lenzing FR, Lenzing, the supplier of cellulose fibers to textile and nonwoven industries, has launched its latest innovation Lenzing FR Black. It was presented for the first time at Techtextil North America in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, last month.

• DyStar begins to produce sodium amide: DyStar has produced the first batch of sodium amide flakes at the Ludwigshafen site successfully at the end of April. "The product's quality meets highest standards," according to Dr. Andreas-Johann Schmidt, the head of DyStar's Ludwigshafen site.

New Equipment

• A machine with wide appeal: The activities of Karl Mayer Malimo, the technical textiles business unit of the German textile machinery manufacturer Karl Mayer continue to remain focused on weft-insertion warp knitting machines. And following the improvements made to the HKS MSU S high-speed tricot machines with parallel weft insertion at the end of last year, it is demonstrating a completely revamped machine platform at Karl Mayer (China) Ltd in Wujin, to coincide with the ITMA ASIA+CITME exhibition opening in Shanghai this month. This totally new basic concept that bears the tradename, "Weftronic" (an application has been made to register this tradename) is being implemented systematically on every weft-insertion warp knitting machine.

• Guardian to detect problems and a tool for colour check: Promoted as the ultimate remote instrument diagnostics program, and calling it Guardian, Datacolor, has released a maintenance program for monitoring the performance status of all the instruments in the supply chain. With this maintenance software for Datacolor's high-end spectrophotometers technicians can diagnose in a matter of few minutes any problem before it even occurs. The program can also share test results with Datacolor technicians as well as any selected supply chain partners.

• A manual spindle lubricating apparatus: A manual spindle lubricating apparatus that can help avoid over excessive lubrication but at the same time offer optimal lubrication results has just been included in the product range of Oerlikon Textile Components. The company already has well-proven Texparts SLA Electrical Spindle Lubricating Apparatus. And with the addition of the new Texparts SLA Manual Spindle Lubricating Apparatus the company now offers solution for every spindle lubrication demand.

• A cutter for maximum precision: A high-speed single or low-ply system for cutting a wide selection of complex materials has been developed by Gerber Technology for the technical textiles and flexible materials industry. This DCS2600 with Gerber's Pivex cutting technology combines a large selection of static table dimensions with oscillating knife technology. The result is a single tool-head, offering enhanced productivity, greater precision and maximum flexibility.

Company Reports

• Shandong Ruyi upgrades with Thies automatic dyestuff weighing station: China's Shandong Ruyi Woolen Textile Co is the first in Asia to install the Thies MPS-Colormatic fully-automated dyestuff weighing station as part of a plant modernisation program.

  As a fully vertical operation, Shandong Ruyi undertakes yarn dyeing, spinning, weaving and finishing before transferring the final fabric to another company within the group for garment make-up. The modernisation has resulted in a significant reduction in the labour force and water consumption.

Executive Desk

• Suessen celebrates 90th anniversary: This year, Spindelfabrik Suessen that started in 1920 as the manufacture of spindles and components for the modernisation of spindle drives in ring spinning frames and became a unit of the Switzerland-based industrial group, Rieter, in 2001, marks its 90th anniversary. Striving continuously for improved and innovative systems has been the key to the company's nine decades of success. Recounting its progress over these 90 years, a recent press statement from the company says that Suessen has made groundbreaking developments in all successful spinning systems, thus giving impetus to the progress of technique and technology. And it adds that it thinks "it's just fair to say that without Suessen the world of spinning machinery would probably look different today.

• Textile Institute elects new president and chairman: At its 100th birthday annual general meeting last month, The Textile Institute elected Andreas Weber CText FTI as its new world president and John R. Wilson OBE as chairman of its council. Mr Weber is a member of the executive board of SwissTex Winterthur AG of Switzerland, as well as its senior vice president for sales, marketing and parts.

  Mr Wilson is the deputy chairman of the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT).

• Hohenstein award for Christine Krautschneider: Christine Krautschneider, the long-time managing director and current chairwoman of the supervisory board for Salesianer Miettex in Vienna, Austria, has won the "Hohenstein Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence in Global Textile Services". This non-endowed award was created three years ago, with the aim of honouring individuals in international textile services for their outstanding entrepreneurial excellence, and to create more public awareness of the significance of leasing textiles to society.

• Trumac is now Trützschler India: Trumac Engineering, the India-based subsidiary of Trützschler - one of the world's leading textile machine manufacturers headquartered in Germany - has been renamed as Trützschler India Private Ltd, effective May 21 this year.

• Stuart McCullough confirmed as AWI CEO: The board of the Australian Wool Innovation has confirmed Stuart McCullough as chief executive officer. He has been acting CEO for two months following Brenda Mc-Gahan's departure due to, as AWI chairman Wal Merriman explained at the time, "her frustration at the ongoing differences of opinion amongst members of the board."

• AATCC honours Luther Myers: The American Association of Textile Chemists and colorists (AATCC) has bestowed its Technical Committee on Research (TRC) Service Award on Luther M. Myers who has been a member of the association since 1950. Over these six decades Mr Myers, the association says, "has volunteered on and chaired numerous technical committees, including RA59, Fibrous Test Materials; RA71, Hosiery Technology; RA8 (later RA63), Wettability Test Methods, and RA33, Colourfastness to Atmospheric Contaminants."

• Carpet technology pioneer Spencer Wright dies at 85: Carpet technology pioneer Spencer H. Wright who led the Cobble organisation for more than 30 years and brought it to a position of global pre-eminence in the tufting machinery sector, died on May 3 in Chattanooga, Tennesse, USA.

• Changes at Flint Group: Thomas Telser, the president of Flint Group's flexographic products, is to assume the newly created position of chairman of the packaging segment starting July 2010. At the same time, the current vice president for marketing and sales at Flint Group, Mario Busshoff, becomes the vice president and general manager of the flexographic products division.

• Hohenstein Institute expands international presence: The Germany-based Hohenstein Institute which serves companies in European and North American target markets as a reliable basis for decision-making in the procurement of goods in Asia and other textile producing regions has expanded its it presence in Latin America as well as added an office in India and moved the contact office in Turkey to a new location.

Events Calendar

Major textile and clothing exhibitions, conferences and seminars for June-November 2010

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