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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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