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MR/TECH/WPP-362/North/2019-21
RNI No: MAHENG/2003/14851 Posted at Mumbai Patrika Channel Sorting office on 1st/2nd
Regd. No. MCN/318/2019-21 of same month & 16th/17th of same month
Published on 1st and 16th of Every Month

ISSN 2230-8725

VOL. 18 No. 04

AUGUST 16-31-2020 PAGES 41 ` 25

India's Textile Spinning Capacity

Utilisation Is Improving: Survey
A
n industry survey by utilisation. A very recent sur- utilisation of top spinners capacity utilisation had
Textile Excellence in vey by another agency has from May 11 to August 13. reached 74% on July 23, and
the last week of April found that spinning capacity The survey covers 24 84% on August 13. This is
had shown that between July utilisation is fast reaching spinning mills, with total indeed good news for the
and September, the industry peak levels. The latest sur- installed capacity of 79.63
would achieve full capacity vey lists out the capacity million spindles. Overall Contd. On Page 3...

SPINNING CAPACITY UTILIZATION STATUS REPORT

Spindles in Lakhs (0,0000)
Top Spinning Company’s Capacity Utilization
Status on 11th May Status on 31st May Status on 15th June Status on 23rd July Status on 13th Aug
Total Estimated Total no of % Total no of % Total no of % Total no of % Total no of %
Installed Spindle working Capacity working Capacity working Capacity working Capacity working Capacity
Capacity spindles started spindles started spindles started spindles started spindles started
Vardhman Textiles Ltd 11.25/11.31 5.00 44% 7.75 69% 9.45 84-91% 10.46 93-98% 10.56 94-99%
Sintex Ltd 8.00 1.20 15% 2.00 25% 3.00 38% 2.40 30% 3.20 40%
SSM Group 6.50 1.95 30% 3.58 55% 4.23 65% 5.20 80% 6.18 95%
Trident Group 6.43 1.57 24% 4.50 70% 5.79 90% 5.95 90-95% 6.20 95-98%
Nahar Spinning Ltd 5.20 2.80 54% 4.48 86% 4.68 90% 4.70 90% 5.02 95-98%
RSWM Ltd. 5.05 1.32 26% 2.02 40% 2.02 40% 2.53 50% 3.79 75%
Alok Industries 4.11 1.84 45% 2.06 50% 2.67 65% 1.85 45% 2.88 70%
KPR Mills 3.53 3.53 100% 2.47 70% 2.47 70% 2.82 80% 3.35 95%
Welspun Group 3.00 3.00 100% 3.00 100% 3.00 100% 2.85 95% 3.00 100%
Nitin spinners 3.00 2.00 67% 2.50 83% 2.55 85% 2.70 90% 2.87 95-96%
Sportking India 2.73 1.09 40% 1.23 45% 1.91 70% 2.18 80% 2.46 90%
Himatsingka Ltd 2.11 0.52 25% 0.52 25% 0.84 40% 1.48 70% 1.64 75-80%
Sagar Manufacturers Ltd 2.00 1.20 60% 2.00 100% 1.90 95% 1.90 95% 1.69 95-98%
Aarti International Ltd 1.75 1.50 86% 1.50 86% 1.75 100% 1.61 90-95% 1.66 95%
Indo count Industries Ltd 1.60 0.40 25% 0.33 21% 0.61 38% 0.64 40% 1.08 65-70%
Pallava Group 1.50 0.75 50% 0.38 25% 0.53 35% 0.53 35% 1.05 70%
Total 67.76 29.67 0.44 40.31 0.59 47.39 0.70 49.79 0.73 56.61 84%
Premier Mills 3.20 2.56 80% 3.04 95%
Chenab Textile Mills 2.10 1.37 65% 1.79 85%
Sangam Group 2.00 1.66 83% 1.70 85%
Rajasthan Textile Mills 1.26 0.95 75% 1.01 80%
Winsome 1.06 0.90 85% 0.95 90%
Birla Textile Mills 0.83 0.37 45% 0.66 80%
Sudiva Spinners 0.72 0.50 70% 0.65 90%
Sharmaji Yarns 0.70 0.56 80% 0.63 90%
Total 11.87 8.87 0.75 10.43 88%
Grand Total 79.63 58.66 74% 67.04 84%

www.TextileExcellence.com
Visitor Registration at
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Taiwan Textile Firms To Showcase
Latest Innovations Virtually
I
n order to strengthen
cooperation between
Taiwan's textile industry
and the international textile
community, with the support
of the Bureau of Foreign
Trade, the Taiwan Textile
Federation (TTF) has organ-
ised a two-day online
streaming event, where
eight premier textile manu-
facturers will showcase their
latest innovative, sustain-
able and intelligent products
and display Taiwan's com-
petitive advantage in func-
tional, environmental and
smart fabrics to the global
textile industry.
....Contd. From Page 1
industry, which has been
mired in uncertainty.
Vardhman Textiles,
according to the survey, had
a capacity utilisation of 44%
on May 11, going up to 69%
by the end of May, 93-98%
in July, and 94-99% by
August 13.
Trident Group's spindle
capacity utilisation was 24%
on May 11, going up to 70%
by end of May, 90-95% in
July, and 95-98% by August
13.
Nahar Spinning reported
spindle capacity utilisation at
54% on May 11, going up to
86% on May 31, 90% in July,
and 95-98% by mid-August.
RSWM's capacity utilisa-
tion went up from 26% in
mid-May to 75% by mid-
August. Welspun is the only
company that operated at
100% capacity throughout
the lockdown. This it did by
quickly shifting production to
face masks, PPE and other
products.
www.TextileExcellence.com
The two-day event will
take place on August 25-26.
On Day1 (August 25th)
four sustainable firms will be
presenting their eco-friendly
solutions: Creative Tech
Textile Co., Ltd. will show-
case its award-winning SEA-
WOOL® & SMAWARM® fabrics
that are made from oyster
shells and recycled bottles.
Evertex Fabrinology
Limited will showcase its
physical mosquito repellent
fabrics with microfibre
reduction properties to the
table. Men-Chuen Fibre
Industry Co., Ltd. will intro-
duce its OMBRE Yarn
India's Textile Spinning Capacity Utilisation...
Aarti International's
capacity utilisation went up
from 86% in mid-May to
95% in mid-August.
Clusterwise, South Zone
(Karnataka and Tamil Nadu),
account for 27.64 million
spindles. Spindle capacity
utilisation had come down to
20-22% in mid-May, going
up to 28-30% in July, and
55% by mid-August.
North Zone (Punjab,
Himachal Pradesh, Delhi,
Haryana) has 3.80 million
spindles. Capacity utilisation
was 40-42% in mid-May,
inching up to 45-47% in June
and July, and going up to
65% by August 13.
Gujarat cluster
(Ahmedabad and Surat) has
3.50 million spindles.
Capacity utilisation was at
50-52% in mid-May, but fell
further to 40-42% in June
and July, before moving up
to 75% in mid-August.
Madhya Pradesh zone
In The Public Eye 3
processed by the advanced
dope dye technique which
allows it to save more ener-
gy and water. Yi Shin Textile
Industrial Co., Ltd. will talk
about its biodegradable
Magic Yarn that can be con-
verted into energy.
Day2 is reserved for the
remaining four companies.
Asiatic Fiber Corporation
announced its IQMAX®relax-
es your muscle with just one
touch on your smart phone.
This will be showcase to an
international audience.
Singtex Industrial Co.,
Ltd. will showcase its
STORMFLEECE, a single
(Bhopal, Indore,
Chhindwara) has 1.20 million
spindles. Capacity utilisation
had fallen between 20-27%
between May and July.
However, by August 13,
capacity utilisation had
improved to 60%.
Maharasthra has 2.40
million spindles, according to
the survey. Capacity utilisa-
tion had gone down to as
much as 18-20% in May,
going up to 25-27% in June
and July, & to 60% in
August.
Rajasthan has 1.20 mil-
lion spindles. Capacity utili-
sation in mid-May stood at
30-35%, at 41-43% by the
end of May, and at 55% in
mid-August.
According to the survey,
recovery in the organised
sector has been better and
faster. With 6.77 million
spindles, the capacity utilisa-
tion in the organised sector
had gone down to 44% in
layer woven technology fab-
rics that is suitable for all
types of environment.
Taiwan Paiho Limited will
present its 2020 product
highlights including Eco-
friendly jacquard fabrics,
soundless QUICKLOCK, and
jacquard digital woven fab-
rics for shoes.
Tex-Ray Industrial Co.,
Ltd. will display its waterless
colour dye solution ECO-lor
along with ECO-HD Print
technology and fashionable
anti-microbial protective
clothing.
The two day online
streaming event will be held
via TTF's Textile Export
Promotion Project (TEPP)
official Facebook and
YouTube on 25th and 26th
August, 10AM CEST. „
mid-May, moved up to 59%
by the end of May, to 70% in
June, 74% in July, and 84%
by mid-August.
There are 39.74 million
spindles in the unorganized
sector. Capacity utilisation
here was 25% in May, 33%
in July, and 58% by mid-
August.
The organised players
were more agile in diversify-
ing their product portfolios
that helped them to keep
production intact. Also, they
were more competent to
adopt the safety protocols,
which helped them to restart
operations.
The survey report further
states that Ahmedabad and
Ichalkaranji markets have
resumed operations at good
capacity. A similar trend is
witnessed in the southern
markets too. Workforce
availability is no longer an
issue, the report states. „
 4 special report Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020

New Sanctions On Mainland Chinese

Entity Threaten Cotton Supply Chains
T
he US Office of Foreign
Assets Control has
placed mainland
China's Xinjiang Production
and Construction
Corporation (XPCC), as well
as two current or former
government officials, on its
Specially Designated
Nationals List on 31 July.
XPCC's placement on this
list means that all US entities
or non US entities subject to
US jurisdiction (covered
persons) are now banned
from engaging, directly or
indirectly, with XPCC without
a licence from OFAC.
XPCC was added to the
SDN List for serious rights
abuses against ethnic
minorities in mainland
China's Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region (XUAR).
XPCC engages in cotton
farming and sales in XUAR
for certain types of cotton.
Mainland China accounts for
20% of all the cotton in the
world and XUAR accounts for
80% of mainland China's
cotton. This production
represents 50% of global
spinning capacity.
As a result of this action,
all property and interests in
property of XPCC and the
two government officials,
and of any entities that are
owned, directly or indirectly,
50% or more by them,
individually or with other
blocked persons, that are in
the United States or in the
possession or control of US
persons, are blocked and
must be reported to OFAC.
Unless authorised by a
general or specific licence
issued by OFAC or otherwise
exempt, OFAC's regulations
generally prohibit all trans-
actions by US persons or
within (or transiting) the
United States that involve
any property or interests in
property of designated or
otherwise blocked persons.
The prohibitions include
the making of any contribu-
tion or provision of funds,
goods or services by, to or
for the benefit of any
blocked person or the receipt
of any contribution or provi-
sion of funds, goods or serv-
ices from any such person.
OFAC may consider any
transaction by a covered
person that directly or indi-
rectly benefits XPCC as a
violation of these sanctions,
including apparel related
transactions made anywhere
in the world that contain
XPCC cotton.
A general licence is
available through 30
September for companies to
wind down their supply
chains to exclude XPCC.
However, details regard-
ing any transactions or activ-
ities necessary to the wind
down of transactions involv-
ing XPCC subsidiaries that
are authorised under the
general licence, including the
names and addresses of the
parties involved, the type
and scope of activities con-
ducted, and the dates on
which the activities
occurred, must be reported
to OFAC by 14 October. „

Esquel Group Seeks To Overturn US

Sanction On Its Xinjiang Plant
„ Esquel Group, which has three cotton mills in Xinjiang region with the capacity to west of Xinjiang's provincial
capital of Urumqi, is
produce 200,000 spindles of cotton a year, or 1% of the region's capacity, said it has one of the 11 companies
never used forced labour slapped with sanctions, for
their alleged mistreatment of
„ The company, which has invested US$ 160 million in Xinjiang since 1995, said 14% of ethnic Uygurs in western
its 420 ethnic-Uygur employees have been with Esquel for more than 10 years, and 16 China, including claims of
the use of forced labour.
of them have been on staff for two decades.
"Let me be clear: Esquel

E
squel Group, one of the
world's largest gar-
ment producers and
supplier for such brands as
Tommy Hilfiger, Patagonia
and Nike, said it has written
to the US Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross to
appeal against the decision
by his office to put it on a
sanctions list for hiring
forced labour in Xinjiang.
"Esquel has been falsely
associated with forced
labour," vice-chairman John
Cheh said in a July 20 letter,
adding that the Hong Kong-
based company would lodge
a detailed, formal submis-
sion to the End-User Review
Committee for Esquel's
Changji mill in Xinjiang to be
removed from the US sanc-
tions list immediately, as
required by section
744.16(e) of the Export
Administration Regulations.
Esquel Changji, a unit of
the garment producer in a
county about 40 kilometres
does not use forced labour,
and we never will use forced
labour. We absolutely and
categorically oppose forced
labour. It is abhorrent and
completely antithetical to
Esquel's principles and busi-
ness practices," Cheh said in
his letter to Ross.
Contd. On Page 5...

www.TextileExcellence.com
 6 special report Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020

US Cotton Machinery Sales To China

May Be Dampened As Sanctions Loom
US Farm Brand John Deere at forefront of surging cotton both countries - reveal how
America's most iconic farm
machinery sales to Xinjiang, as human rights sanctions loom. brand has quietly estab-
lished itself as a key player
„ Sales of hi-tech US cotton-harvesting machinery to be used in Xinjiang rose by more in Xinjiang's immense cotton
industry, even as industry
than 4,000% in April from a year earlier, a Post investigation shows and human rights groups
„ John Deere has a heavy presence in the western Chinese region, where dominant warn that the supply chain
there is laced with the forced
entities face US sanctions over alleged human rights abuses labour of Uygurs and other

A
t a Chinese govern-
ment-owned John
Deere showroom in
the Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region - the
heartland of China's cotton
industry - manager Hu wor-
ries that coming US sanc-
tions over human rights
abuses will cut him off from
the "impeccable, super-effi-
cient" cotton-harvesting
machines he sells to indus-
trial-scale farms across the
region.
Halfway across the world,
farm-equipment dealers in
the American South describe
a jet-setting Chinese buyer
who criss-crosses that
region with a translator and
buys up all the used John
Deere cotton-picking
machines he can find. Their
stories - combined with
extensive investigations of
customs data, shipping
records and dozens of inter-
views with cotton-industry
employees and experts in
Muslim ethnic minority
groups.
Trade records show that
the United States has sold
nearly half a billion dollars'
worth of heavy-duty cotton-
harvesting equipment to
Xinjiang since 2017, helping
Contd. On Page 7...

Esquel Group Seeks To Overturn US long staple cotton, a high-

quality material used to pro-
duce fabric for dress shirts

Sanction On Its Xinjiang Plant

....Contd. From Page 4
The appeal against the
sanction is crucial for Esquel,
which exports a third of the
100 million pieces of gar-
ments it makes every year to
the US. Sanctioned firms are
banned from buying compo-
nents, or procuring services
from any US suppliers with-
out US government
approval.
There is no evidence "to
support the allegations" of
forced labour, Chen said.
Instead, "there is ample evi-
dence that we do not use
forced labour and in fact
treat our Uygur employees -
as we do all employees -
very well," he said, adding
that 14% of the 420 Uygur
employees on staff in
Changji have been with the
company for 10 years, while
16 of them have worked for
more than two decades.
The April 2017 Uygur
Human Rights Project Report
recognised Esquel as "per-
haps the only overseas com-
pany that has attested to fol-
low through to corporate
pledges to hire Uygurs,"
Cheh said. "The company
makes a concerted effort not
only to hire Uygur graduates
in its local operation, but also
maintains a foundation to
support Uygur schools," he
said, citing the report.
Esquel has three spinning
mills in Xinjiang, starting
with the Turpan plant in
1995, followed by the
Urumqi facility in 1998 and
with the most recent in
Changji in 2009. It also has
two cotton ginning mills built
in 2003, which separate raw
cotton fibre from seed parts.
Over the years, the company
has invested about US$160
million in the region, with the
capacity to produce 200,000
spindles of cotton, or 1% of
the region's capacity.
Those are not the largest
manufacturing bases among
the company's production
facilities. Other plants in
Foshan in southern China,
and in Vietnam are bigger in
terms of investment scale
and total number of workers.
But Xinjiang has its strategic
positioning for Esquel, whose
shares are closely held and
unlisted on any stock
exchange.
Xinjiang produces extra
for global brands and for its
own brand Pye.
No agency of any govern-
ment nor any non-govern-
mental organisation has pre-
sented such evidence to the
allegation and no one from
the Commerce Department
spoke with anyone at Esquel
about the allegations of
using forced labour, Cheh
said.
An independent audit of
three spinning mills in
Xinjiang, including Changji,
by a leading global audit
firm, ELEVATE, commis-
sioned by one of its US cus-
tomers, was carried out in
May 2019, Esquel said. "ELE-
VATE rated all three spinning
mills with scores of 85 or
above and confirmed that
there was no forced labour of
any kind," Cheh said, without
naming the customer that
commissioned the study. „

www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
US Cotton Machinery Sales To China May Be
Dampened As Sanctions Loom
....Contd. From Page 6
the region produce one-fifth
of the world's cotton.
Chinese cotton picking
machines exist in the mar-
ket, but are marked with
high error rates and much
lower efficiency.
Most of the machines
were delivered this past
spring, adding to a spike in
exports from the US to
Xinjiang over the first half of
2020. This year's trade has
already surpassed the total
value of exports in 2019,
which was a record year for
US shipments of cotton-pick-
ing equipment to China.
„ A record spike in China's
purchases of cotton-harvest-
ing machinery occurred just
before the Xinjiang sanctions
were announced.
In April alone, US and
Chinese customs data shows
a 4,355.7% increase - to
US$ 117.8 million - in ship-
ments of cotton-picking
machines, compared with
US$ 2.65 million in April
2019. This past May, China
imported a further US$ 94
www.TextileExcellence.com
million worth of the
machines. Apparel compa-
nies have faced huge pres-
sure to divest from supply
chains linked to forced
labour in Xinjiang. But so far,
the firms making and selling
the equipment used in
Xinjiang's vast cotton coun-
try have flown under the
radar.
The spike in sales came
as US lawmakers were
readying landmark legisla-
tion to require investigations
into human rights abuses in
Xinjiang, and continued after
that law was passed, an
exclusive analysis of cus-
toms data shows.
Data reviewed by the
South China Morning Post
shows that the day after the
Senate passed the Uygur
Human Rights Policy Act of
2020 on May 14, more than
1,800 tonnes of premium
grade John Deere
cotton-picking machinery
left US ports for China,
exported by John Deere
(Tianjin) International, the
wholly-owned Chinese sub-
sidiary of the storied
special report
American company.
„ Detailed customs data
from the first seven months
of the year - provided by
Datamyne - shows that 19 of
a total of 25 shipments of
cotton-picking machinery
from the US to China con-
tained John Deere har-
vesters, with the remaining
six containing miscellaneous
spare machinery parts.
Corresponding Chinese cus-
toms data shows that the
vast majority of this cargo
wound up in Xinjiang.
CNH Industrial-the parent
company of Case IH, anoth-
er well-known American
farm brand-also runs a
10,000 sqm (107,639 sq ft)
cotton-picking-machine fac-
tory in Xinjiang. The sales of
American equipment help
power the giant farming
operations of the Xinjiang
Production and Construction
Corps (XPCC), which oper-
ates one-third of the cotton
farms in the region.
The XPCC - also known as
the Bingtuan - was estab-
lished in the 1950s, drawing
mostly from decommis-
7
sioned military personnel,
and developed into a quasi-
governmental entity con-
trolled by China's central
government. The XPCC has
played a key role in develop-
ing agriculture and infra-
structure in the sparsely
populated far northwest
region.
Now, the XPCC is the lat-
est entity in the crosshairs of
US lawmakers, hungry to
take action on China's
alleged human rights viola-
tions in Xinjiang. The opaque
organisation's dominance
makes it impossible to par-
ticipate in Xinjiang's
labyrinthine cotton industry
without engaging with it in
some way, experts say. "It is
not just in the fields, XPCC
controls the irrigation and
power systems too," said
Lianchao Han, vice-president
at the Citizen Power
Initiatives for China, a
Washington-based lobby
group.
"The irrigation system
was built by forced labour,
and they are still using
forced labour to strengthen
8 special report
this. This is why you can't
separate it: XPCC irrigated
the entire region. I would
argue that everything is
tainted for this reason."
Before and after the cotton is
picked, the XPCC oversees
other parts of the textile sup-
ply chain too: irrigating the
fields (a necessity in arid
northwestern China); run-
ning the cotton through a
gin, which separates cotton
fibres from their seeds; spin-
ning it into yarn; and sewing
it into clothes.
"It is very difficult to be
involved in not just cotton,
but any kind of agricultural
or industrial-scale activities
in Xinjiang now without the
XPCC," said Michael Clarke,
an associate professor at the
Australian National
University in Canberra and
an expert on the political his-
tory of Xinjiang. "This is not
just any other state-linked
organisation in China."
China's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs spokesman
Wang Wenbin said that US
allegations regarding
Xinjiang were nothing but
"rumour-mongering and
mudslinging".
"The XPCC has made
important contributions to
promoting Xinjiang's devel-
opment, ethnic unity, social
stability and border security
- living in harmony with all
ethnic groups as a friendly
and supportive companion,"
Wang said. The dominant
XPCC has jurisdiction over
seven cities in Xinjiang,
including Beitun and Shihezi,
where there are multiple
John Deere dealerships.
On July 31, citing the
Global Magnitsky Act, the US
Treasury Department
slapped sanctions on the
XPCC for human rights abus-
es, giving companies until
September 30 to "wind
down" "transactions involv-
ing any entity in which the
XPCC owns, directly or indi-
rectly, a 50% or greater
interest".
Jernigan Global, which
publishes a weekly report
considered the cotton indus-
try bible, called the sanctions
"a major move into the heart
of Xinjiang cotton".
"We've told US businesses
to take a real, deep look into
their supply chains,"
Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo said after the sanc-
tions were announced. "I
don't think companies -
some brand names here in
America - want to be con-
nected to what's taking place
there."
Asked if the firm would
stop trading with XPCC, John
Deere spokeswoman Jen
Hartmann said: "John Deere
has conducted business in
China for more than 40
years, providing equipment
solutions to increase agricul-
tural output, improve food
security, and support rural
development. We take com-
pliance seriously and monitor
sanction developments
closely."
Less than two weeks ear-
lier, the US Commerce
Department added 11 com-
panies to its 'entity list' -
essentially blocking them
from selling their products to
the US - alleging the use of
forced labour involving
Uygurs and other Muslim
minority groups in Xinjiang.
Wang said that sanctions
against the XPCC were a
"gross interference in China's
internal affairs, and a grave
violation of basic norms gov-
erning international rela-
tions". Until late 2018,
Chinese officials had denied
the existence of arbitrary
detention centres and
enforced political re-educa-
tion, then mounted a count-
er-attack on the criticism of
its policies in Xinjiang.
According to some US
industry sources, "We feel
like the Huawei of the appar-
el industry," he said. "Taking
Xinjiang cotton out of your
supply chain is like telling a
company not to use oil from
the Middle East."
Human rights groups,
other industry executives
and experts said it is impos-
sible to know which cotton,
which yarn, and which tex-
tiles coming out of Xinjiang
may be linked to forced
labour.
"Who's moving the irriga-
tion pipe? Who's been hand-
hoeing? Who's doing the
hard labour?" said Darren
Hudson, a cotton expert at
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
Texas Tech University in
Lubbock. "That's how they're
utilising a lot of that labour.
Either that or in processing,
in gins. Just hot, heavy, hard
labour." Typically, auditing
firms would go in, inspect
and give businesses a verdict
on whether their supply
chain is linked to any human
rights abuses. But experts
said those rules do not apply
to Xinjiang: any interaction
with the workforce there
would almost certainly be
conducted under intense
government monitoring, and
therefore not submittable in
an audit, they said.
In March, the Better
Cotton Initiative, the world's
largest cotton-supply-chain
watchdog - used by brands
such as Gap, Nike and Levi
Strauss - said it was "sus-
pending its assurance activi-
ties" in Xinjiang for the com-
ing cotton season, "based on
the recognition that the
operating environment
prevents credible assurance
and licensing from being
executed".
Whether John Deere and
other companies end up
pulling out of Xinjiang may
be seen as a test of the cot-
ton industry's malleability. To
date, the firm has shown lit-
tle public interest in distanc-
ing itself from the region.
A potential unravelling of
the cotton industry may also
end up being seen as a test
case for the push to decouple
supply chains from China in
many other integrated sec-
tors, particularly for firms
like John Deere that have
gone all-in on the world's
second-biggest economy.
The XPCC boasts that
more than 80 per cent of its
cotton picking is now mecha-
nised. Experts said that
using a state-of-the-art cot-
Contd. On Page 9...
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Seizing Investment Opportunities In
Vietnam's Garment And Textile Industry
„ Vietnam is among the top textile producing countries and apparel exporters in the world, emerging as an ideal alternative to China.
„ Major factors driving industry growth are growing textile exports derived from multilateral free trade agreements and low labour
costs.
„ Despite rising challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry is fast evolving to address its haunted growth, raising
optimistic prospects for recovery.
T
he garment and textile
industry is one of the
key industries in
Vietnam with the second-
largest export turnover in the
country. In 2019, the indus-
try's export value contributed
to 16% of total GDP. In the
past five years, the textile
industry has continuously
grown at an average rate of
17% annually.
In 2019, Vietnam's gar-
ment and textile industry
earned US$ 39 billion from
exports, a year-on-year
increase of over 8.3%,
according to the Vietnam
General Statistics Office.
Garment manufacturing
accounts for the majority of
businesses, at 70%. Major
factors driving the growth of
the market are low labour
costs and growing textile
US Cotton Machinery Sales To China May Be
Dampened As Sanctions Loom
....Contd. From Page 8
ton-picking machine, such as
a John Deere CP690, was like
going "from DOS to Windows
10.0" in terms of efficiency.
Even used, such harvesters
sell for hundreds of thou-
sands of US dollars - more
than US$ 750,000 for 2019
models, in some auctions.
John Deere says it does
www.TextileExcellence.com
exports to the EU, the US,
Japan, and South Korea.
Industry overview: 3 sub-
sectors
Vietnam's garment and
textile industry consist of 3
sub-sectors: upstream sector
not condone the use of
forced labour in any form in
its supply chain, directly or
indirectly. "When these
machines are in the field,
there is no need for harvest-
ing by hand," said Hartmann,
the John Deere spokes-
woman. "Farm mechanisa-
tion is a key to improving the
livelihoods of both the farm-
ers and the rural communi-
special report 9
(fibre production), mid-
stream sector (fabric produc-
tion and dyeing), and down-
stream sector (garment
manufacturing).
Sub-sectors that produce
fibres or fabric are mainly
used for domestic consump-
ties." But numerous experts
say that the industrial
upgrade does not equate to a
reduction in forced labour.
"Mechanisation is not a
silver bullet," said Allison
Gill, the senior cotton cam-
paign coordinator at the
International Labour Rights
Forum. "It's not that they're
just going to free the Uygurs.
They're going to move them
tion because of the low qual-
ity. Downstream sector of
garment manufacturing
accounts for around 70% of
the total apparel and textile
sector in Vietnam with Cut-
Make-Trim (CMT) models
being the main activities. In
2019, CMT accounted for
about 65% of total exports,
while the more advanced
business models, like
Original Equipment
Manufacturer (OEM) and
Original Design Manufacturer
(ODM) accounted for only
35%.
The US, Europe, Japan,
and South Korea are the
main export destinations of
Vietnam's textile and gar-
ments products. Although
Vietnam has a huge potential
Contd. On Page 10...
to the factories. If the
demand in the fields is less,
then they'll move them far-
ther downstream."
Johnson Chin-yin Yeung,
urgent appeals coordinator
at the Clean Clothes
Campaign in Hong Kong,
added that the evolution of
forced labour in Xinjiang has
seen Uygurs forced to spin
yarn or make garments. „
10 special report
Seizing Investment Opportunities In
Vietnam's Garment And Textile Industry
....Contd. From Page 8
for cotton cultivation and pro-
duction, the textile industry
imports most of the cotton
inputs. In 2019, Vietnam
imported up to 89% of fab-
rics, of which, 55% were from
China, 16% from South
Korea, 12% from Taiwan, and
6% from Japan.
Growth factors - increased
market access and low
labour costs
Increased market access
through free trade agree-
ments and technology are
major growth drivers for the
garment and textile industry.
Vietnam's bilateral and multi-
lateral FTAs continue to pro-
vide Vietnamese manufactur-
ers access to new markets,
minimising the effect of grow-
ing trade protectionism. With
new FTAs in effect such as the
Comprehensive and
Progressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacific Partnership
(CPTPP) and Vietnam-EU FTA
(EVFTA), new markets will
lead to higher exports and
push manufacturers to devel-
op the industry's supply chain
so that they can take full
advantage of the preferential
tariffs and increase the com-
petitiveness of their products.
Further, manufacturing
shifts from China to Vietnam
due to their labour cost
advantage and skilled work-
ers will also help expand the
textile and garment industry.
Going forward, market access
alone will not be enough to
generate growth and
Vietnamese manufacturers
would also need to invest in
technology - especially
Industry 4.0 technologies - to
increase productivity, and
quality to remain competi-
tive.
Foreign direct investment
According to the United
Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD),
in the first 11 months of
2019, Vietnam attracted FDI
capital to the garment and
textile industry with a value
up to US$ 1.55 billion for 184
projects. Investments were
led by Hong Kong (US$ 447
million), Singapore (US$ 370
million), China (US$ 270 mil-
lion), and South Korea (US$
165 million).
Tay Ninh, (US$ 464 mil-
lion, 16 projects), Quang
Nam (US$ 107 million, 10
projects), Nghe An (US$ 210
million, 3 projects), and Thua
Thien Hue (US$ 213 million, 2
projects) are localities that
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
Publisher
D. J. Gohain*
attracted most FDI in 2019 Managing Editor
due to government incentives Reena Mital
and their proximity to major
economic hubs in the Marketing
Southern and Central parts of Arvind Semlani
Vietnam. 09833977743
FDI firms made up 70% of arvind@textileexcellence.com
total garment and textile Mohammad Tanweer
exports in 2019. In recent tanweer@textileexcellence.com
years, foreign investment has
shifted from mainly CMT
Production
activities to more upstream
Suresh Adsul
sectors such as fabric produc-
Digital Media
tion and dyeing. In 2019,
Henry Dsouza
more than 80% of FDI in the
industry consisted of manu-
facturing fabrics and raw Bangladesh
materials projects. S. K. Bhowmick
+88-01711538451
Covid-19 and Vietnam's R. K. Dey
garment and textile indus- +88-01711145000
try tradeimpex2001@gmail.com
With a supply chain that
heavily relies on a few key China
partners, Vietnam's garment
Zhang Hua
and textile industry is among
(intl_business@126.com)
the country's hardest hit by
Cell(whatsapp,wechat)
the Covid-19 pandemic.
+86 13522898423
Since January, the sus-
pension of the industry's Skype: intl_business
input production in China has
resulted in a raw material *Responsible for selection of news
shortage in Vietnam. under the PRB Act.
Meanwhile, a crash in
demand from the US and Printed and published by Dibya
European markets has led to Jyoti Gohain on behalf of 3i
order cancellations as well as
Publishing Pvt. Ltd, printed at
Contd. On Page 11... Mangal Paper Mart. Unit No.
D-3, Akruli Industrial Estate,
Akurli Road, Kandivali (East),
Mumbai 400 101 and published
from Unit No. 711, 7th Floor,
The Summit Business Bay, Weh
Metro Station, Andheri-Kurla
Road, Andheri (East), Mumbai
400 093.
Editor: Dibya Jyoti Gohain
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
China Has Amassed US$1 Billion
Glut Of US Cotton It Doesn't Need
C
hina has bought more
than US$ 1 billion
worth of American cot-
ton in the past three months.
And it doesn't even need it.
The purchases - made as
part of the phase one trade
deal between Washington
and Beijing - are hitting just
as the pandemic shuts down
clothing stores, decimating
demand. That means China's
state-run companies are
stashing away the cotton
they bought, dimming the
outlook for further imports.
The trade deal requires
China to buy US$ 36.5 billion
in US agricultural products
Seizing Investment Opportunities In
Vietnam's Garment And Textile Industry
....Contd. From Page 10
revenue and job losses for
domestic manufacturers.
According to the Vietnam
Textile and Apparel
Association (VITAS), garment
and textile exports in the first
four months fell 6.6% year-
on-year to US$ 10.64 billion.
Meanwhile, the total import
value was US$ 6.39 billion,
down 8.76% compared to the
same period last year.
Exports of fibres, clothes, and
garments fell between 6-
22% in the first four months
of this year as compared to
the same period of 2019.
As per VITAS, 80% of gar-
ment manufacturers started
reducing shifts and rotating
workers since March. By June
2020, the estimated loss to
the industry was about US$
508 million. Despite this
www.TextileExcellence.com
this year. That's created a
disconnect between real
demand and purchases,
which are running at the
fastest pace since 2013.
More than 50% of the
defaults reported to the
World Cotton Exporters
Association and the American
Cotton Exporters Association
in the past year involved
Chinese counterparts.
"Recent Chinese purchas-
es have not been correlated
with downstream demand,"
said Jon Devine, chief econo-
mist for Cary, North Carolina-
based researcher Cotton Inc.
"Much of that cotton is
severe, yet temporary set-
back, Vietnam's garment and
textile industry's fast
response and government
policy support are reasons for
investors to be optimistic
about the industry's future
post-pandemic.
Optimistic prospects for
the industry's post-pan-
demic recovery
Industry response:
Shifting production from
conventional clothing to
personal protective equip-
ment (PPE)
Many garment producers
in the country have shifted to
producing face masks as a
solution to cope with sus-
pended orders and take the
opportunities from surging
demand in both domestic and
international markets.
Fibres and Yarns 11
believed to be destined for
the Chinese reserve system.
If it moves into storage, it
can be used against future
demand and offset future
purchases." The spread of
Covid-19 has caused havoc
in the global cotton industry,
hurting demand. World con-
sumption is forecast to drop
23 million bales, the most on
record, the US Department
of Agriculture estimates.
China's mills haven't seen
any growth in orders since
June and 45% of the facilities
surveyed were losing money
by the end of that month, 17
percentage points higher
By the end of April,
Vietnam had exported over
415 million face masks.
According to the (MoIT), local
manufacturers have a total
production capacity of 40 mil-
lion face masks per day, or
about 1.2 billion a month.
With full capacity, the entire
garment and textile sector
can produce 100 million face
masks per day, or about 3
billion a month.
Government support poli-
cies
Prior to the pandemic, the
government had already cen-
tered its support for the tex-
tile industry by expanding
industrial parks for textiles
and stimulating the domestic
supporting industries. The
plan is to increase the sup-
porting industries contribu-
tion to 18% of production in
than a year earlier, according
to the nation's Cotton Textile
Association. US mill use also
dropped to an all-time low.
"While agriculture was
deemed critical and essential
and supply chains remained
open, retail clothing sales
suffered immensely due to
closures," said Buddy Allen,
president of the American
Cotton Shippers Association.
That caused a "tidal wave of
disruption through cotton's
global supply chain creating
incredible costs, losses, and
risks for participants."
With Chinese mills strug-
gling, performance on pur-
chases made prior to both
the trade war and the coron-
avirus remains "weak," Allen
said. Other countries includ-
Contd. On Page 12...
the local manufacturing and
processing sector by the end
of 2020. Local governments
are also encouraged to assist
firms in research and devel-
opment activities, technology
transfer, and innovation.
To mitigate the impact of
Covid-19 on businesses, the
Ministry of Finance (MoF) has
also proposed to extend the
list of import tax exemptions
for raw materials, supplies,
and components for process-
ing and manufacturing export
products.
Looking ahead
Post-pandemic, Vietnam
will focus on moving up the
value chain and building a
national brand image that is
competitive and quality driv-
en, according to a MoIT pro-
motion programme. In addi-
tion, it also needs to diversify
its trading partners and
reduce raw input import
reliance in order to take full
advantage of FTAs, such as
the EVFTA, with strict rule of
origin conditions. „
12 Fibres and Yarns
Bangladesh Cotton Imports Will Return
To Pre-Pandemic Levels By Year-End
B
angladesh's cotton
imports witnessed a
slump for the first time
in over a decade last fiscal
year due to a fall in demand
from local mills amid a stun-
ning drop in apparel work
orders for the global coron-
avirus pandemic.
In fiscal 2019-20,
Bangladesh imported 7.1
million bales of cotton, down
13.4% from a year earlier,
according to data from the
Bangladesh Textile Mills
Association (BTMA).
As in previous years, cot-
ton imports were on the rise
up until February due to the
high demand for yarn and
other fabrics from garment
exporters. However, from
March-June, due to the lock-
down, spinning and weaving
mills were shuttered, and
demand for cotton went
down. When the nationwide
lockdown eventually came to
an end on May 30, most mills
resumed operations with
previous stocks of cotton
rather than importing more
despite the significant fall in
price for the fibre in interna-
China Has Amassed US$1 Billion Glut Of US Cotton...
....Contd. From Page 11
ing India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh have also
defaulted, he said.
The recent rise in US cot-
ton prices is further weighing
on the outlook for Chinese
imports. New York futures
have rebounded more than
25% from the 10-year low
reached in April, in part due
to concerns about drought in
the US and Australia.
China's state purchases
tional markets. Besides,
many importers delayed
releasing cotton shipment
from the port amid the coro-
navirus outbreak.
Almost all of Bangladesh's
domestic demand for cotton
is met through imports as
local growers can only supply
less than 3% of the country's
annual demand. "Since last
month, the consumption of
cotton started growing as
garment factories resumed
production after about three
months," said Khorshed
Alam, managing director of
Little Group, a leading cotton
have also added fuel to the
recovery. China hasn't issued
additional import quotas to
mills as in 2019 and if any-
thing, it has canceled US pur-
chases in the two weeks to
July 16. The nation is also
selling government reserves
to textile mills at a cheaper
price than imports. All of that
could point to a potential
slowdown in purchases.
Rival Brazil
Rival cotton shipper Brazil
importer and consumer.
Typically, Alam imports near-
ly 33,000 bales of cotton
each year. One bale equals
480 pounds. Textile millers
also faced other issues, such
as having to preserve unsold
stocks of yarn and other fab-
rics. However, the previous
inventory of such materials
has reduced significantly due
to the return of demand from
garment manufacturers.
"So now, we will start
importing cotton again,"
Alam added. Most garment
factories in Bangladesh are
now running at 75% of their
is also feeling the pinch.
Chinese private buyers aren't
picking supplies from the
South American nation even
when prices are cheaper, said
Marco Antonio Aluisio, vice
president of an exporters
group. He added that the US-
China trade deal was bad
news for Brazil.
To be sure, China's pur-
chases of US cotton could still
increase further as the gov-
ernment seeks to meet its
phase one pledges, said
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
total production capacity and
this indicates that work
orders are coming back. The
demand for various fabric
materials could go even
higher after September if the
international retailers contin-
ue to source their products
from Bangladesh at the cur-
rent pace, he added.
Echoing the sentiments of
Alam and Haider, BTMA
President Mohammad Ali
Khokon said that more than
50% of the annual sales tar-
get for fabrics had been met
by July. "I hope sales recover
by more than 75% by
September and fully by the
year-end." By January next
year, sales should return to
its previous growth rate,
Khokon added.
Of the US$ 8 billion
invested in the primary tex-
tile sector, Tk 20,000 crore
has already been lost to the
coronavirus fallout, accord-
ing to numerous millers.
About 11,000 micro,
small, medium and large
spinning, printing, dyeing
and weaving mills were
unable to produce any goods
in March and April for fear of
coronavirus contagion.As a
result, the millers missed two
mega sales events, Pahela
Baishakh and Eid-ul-Fitr. „
Wang Qianjin, head of the
information department at
the Shanghai International
Cotton Exchange. China is
still far from meeting the tar-
get. "We are excited to see
these increased purchases
but acknowledge the gap that
still exists from commit-
ments," Allen said. "We hope
to see mill use ramp up in
China and around the world
very soon, otherwise we are
just moving stock from US to
Chinese balance sheet." „
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence market report 13

Products
28-Jun
2020
12-Jun
2020
28-Jul
2020
12-Aug
2020
%
Change Cotton Market Insights
Multiple Uncertainties Leading
Brent 39.1 43.4 43.6 45.1 3.4K
PFY
POY 130/34 81 80 78 80 2.0K
POY 250/34
FDY 70/34
71
85
68
82
67
82
68
82
1.7K
1.4K To Limited Business Activities
FDY 70/72 88 86 85 86 1.3K
Some cotton growing regions
FDY 100/48 82 78 77 78 1.4K received heavy rainfall last week,
80 roto 91 90 88 90 1.3K some waterlogging was reported
80 Tex 87 86 85 86 1.3K in Northern India, but no crop
80/108 94 92 91 92 1.2K damage has been reported. Good
150 roto 81 78 77 78 1.4K monsoons are expected in Gujarat
150 tex 78 76 75 76 1.5K and Maharashtra. Standing crop is
150/108 85 83 82 83 1.4K reported in excellent condition as
of now.
50 flat 92 87 86 87 1.3K
As on 14th of August 2020, all
75 flat 84 82 81 82 1.4K
India cotton sowing was reported
150/48 Flat 81 77 76 77 1.5K
at around 12.55 million hectares
Nylon against 12.16 million hectares last
20/1 den 320 320 315 315 0.0 year at the same time (up by
44 den 255 255 250 250 0.0 Vimal Verma 3.2%). Out of which, Maharashtra
70 den 245 245 240 240 0.0 contributed 4.15 million hectare

I
PSF ndian cotton is trading in very followed by Gujarat at 2.27 million
1.4 den 66 67 66 75 0.0 narrow range, the market is hectares. Gujarat and
1.2/1.0 den 67 68 67 75.75 0.0 mired in lot of uncertainties of Maharashtra are still lagging in
price movement in the longer sowing area compared to last
Cotton price/candy*=355.62 kgs
term. This year nobody seems in a year. Telangana's area under cot-
Beng Desi (RG) 36400 36600 36600 36100 1.4L
hurry to start forward trading in ton rose to 2.35 million hectare
Beng Desi (SG) 37100 37300 37300 36700 1.6L
the new crop. (36.10% up from last year) fol-
V797 20500 20800 20600 20800 1.0K In normal times, from July lowed by Punjab at 0.5 million
Jaydhar 26100 25000 25000 24800 0.8L onward traders become active and hectare (25% up from last year).
J-34 33700 33500 33400 34100 2.1 start to sell/buy new crop for for- All India final sowing can be +/-
H4/ Mech 1 35700 35800 35600 35700 0.3K ward deliveries. But this year no 2% from last year. Better yield
Shankar 6 36400 36300 36300 36400 0.3K major forward business has been expectation can push crop num-
reported. bers higher for 2020-21.
Bunny/ Brah 37200 37200 37200 37500 0.8K
All India daily arrivals continue
DCH-32 53600 54000 54000 53500 0.9L
Good monsoons are good news to slow down and recently report-
Spun yarn
for cotton crop ed at around 15,000 bales on daily
30s p/c (65/35) 146 148 148 148 0.0 Monsoon played a vital role in basis. According to market
40s p/c (65/35) 158 158 158 158 0.0 timely sowing of cotton and its sources, all India total arrival till
40s p/v (65/35) 168 170 170 168 1.2L growth. Cotton crop is in vegeta- 10th August already crossed 36
45s p/v (65/35) 170 172 172 170 1.2L tive phase and is reported excel- million bales.
20s carded 120 122 122 122 0.0 lent across India. In northern part Currently Indian cotton is
30s carded 142 144 144 150 0.0 of India (Rajasthan), new seed cheapest in the world, traders
40s carded 193 195 195 193 1.0L cotton arrival has been reported in have received good export
limited quantity. inquiries from Bangladesh and
40s combed 212 214 214 212 0.9L
The weather is expected to
60s combed 253 255 255 252 1.2L Contd. On Page 14...
remain favourable for cotton.

www.TextileExcellence.com
14 market report
Multiple Uncertainties Leading To
Limited Business Activities
....Contd. From Page 13
China. Next season with
higher MSP everybody is
expecting higher price of cot-
ton bales than in this season,
and currently yarn movement
is also reported good. June
and July export numbers of
yarn were good enough after
the lockdown. Still, mills are
running under capacity due
to finance and labour issue.
CCI cotton sales
Cotton Corporation of
India is selling its cotton
aggressively, good buying is
reported from merchants and
traders. The bulk discount
scheme ended on 15th
August 2020. CCI can extend
the same or can make it even
more attractive for liquidating
its stock before entering into
the new season. In last 15-20
days, CCI and Mahafed sold
over 3.7 million bales to
traders, spinning mills,
exporters and merchants.
Due to bulk discounting,
small mills are not in a posi-
tion to grasp this benefit
directly from CCI, so these
mills are buying through
traders.
MCX Cotton
There is very limited vol-
ume trading on MCX Cotton.
August is the last contract of
2019-20 season trading
range bound around Rs
16400 level. New cotton crop
contracts(October-
November - December-20)
are also on exchange but
trade participation is very low
so there is almost no volume
in new crop trade. Market
looks very uncertain so most
of the traders want to take a
short term view rather than
taking a call on long
term/new crop easily.
Textile Ministry goes lean
The Union Textile Ministry
has abolished five advisory
boards. The Ministry wound
up the All-India Handloom
Board on July 27, the Cotton
Advisory Board on August 3,
the All-India Powerloom
Board and the Jute Advisory
Board on August 4. The noti-
fications said boards were
abolished in the interest of
"leaner government machin-
ery and the need for system-
atic rationalisation of govern-
ment bodies".
The Ministry also withdrew
its officers from the textile
research associations (TRAs),
after converting them into
"approved bodies for con-
ducting testing, research and
developmental activities"
related to the sector, as
opposed to affiliated bodies,
according to an August 6
notification.
WASDE cotton report -
August 2020: Higher sup-
plies andproduction,
lower consumption
WASDE report gave higher
beginning stocks, higher pro-
duction and higher ending
stocks, and a lowered con-
sumption. Production for the
2020 crop is raised 3% to
18.1 million bales, despite of
weather concern in Texas
where around 20% crop is
reported poor.US yield is pro-
jected at a record 938
pounds/acre, 14% higher
than in 2019.
Beginning stocks are
raised 100,000 bales as lower
than expected 2019/20 US
mill use offsets an upward
revision in exports. Expected
2020/21 mill use is reduced
100,000 bales, while ending
stocks are 800,000 bales
higher.
The season-average price
for upland cotton is forecast
at 59 cents per pound,
unchanged from the previous
month. This month's 2020/21
world cotton outlook includes
higher production, and end-
ing stocks, but lower begin-
ning stocks, consumption and
trade.
World production is 1.3
million bales higher as lower
production in Mali and Greece
is more than offset by
increases for India, the
United States, and Australia.
Expected 2020/21 world con-
sumption is 1.2 million bales
lower this month, with
declines in India, China,
Pakistan, Brazil, and
Indonesia offsetting gains for
Bangladesh and Turkey.
Imports are projected lower
in Pakistan, Indonesia, and
India, and higher in
Bangladesh, Turkey, and
Malaysia.
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
This month, 2020/21
world ending stocks are pro-
jected 2.1 million bales high-
er than the previous month
and 4.4 million bales higher
than in 2019/20.
US cotton export sales for
week ending 8/6/2020
Net sales for 2020/2021,
which began August 1,
totaled 6,900 running bales.
A total of 2,883,200 RB in
sales were carried over from
the 2019/2020 marketing
year, which ended July 31.
Exports for the period ending
July 31 of 43,600 RB brought
accumulated exports to
14,174,500 Running bales,
up 8 percent from the prior
years' total of 13,158,900
RB. The destinations were
primarily China (19,500 RB),
Vietnam (13,800 RB) and
Bangladesh (2,300 RB).
Exports for August 1 - 6
totaled 278,600 RB, with
China (157,100 RB), Vietnam
(56,300 RB), Turkey (13,700
RB), Pakistan (11,700 RB),
and Bangladesh (9,600 RB)
being the primary destina-
tions.
Exports for Own Account:
For 2019/2020, decreases
were reported for 2,300 RB
China. For 2020/2021
exports for own account total
of 17,300 RB were carried
over from the 2019/2020
marketing year, which ended
July 31. Exports for own
account totaling 4,000 RB to
Vietnam (2,600 RB) and
Bangladesh (1,400 MT) were
applied to new or outstanding
sales. For 2020/2021, the
outstanding balance of
32,700 RB including carry-
over is for China (24,300
RB), Indonesia (3,900 RB),
Malaysia (2,600 RB),
Bangladesh (1,000 RB), and
Vietnam (900 RB). „
(Vimal Verma is a cotton
trader)
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence market report 15
The Yarn Market Roundup ing at Rs 154 and is
expected to touch Rs 158

Yarns Are Sending Mixed Signals But

before falling back again.
Matters with viscose are
precarious now with

The Future Seems Bright

edly.
There will come a day
when the massive pent-up
demand will take yarn prices
to a level never-seen-before
when everyone will want a
slice of the profit. I think
that day is not far. There are
already some green-shoots
seen in some sectors:
1) Viscose yarn and fabrics
used in making garments for
women is seeing a healthy
lift-off. Prices could have
Deepak Periwal increased considerably but
are under control since a lot
increase looking at the
times we live in. However,
I'm not sure whether this
price will find support
from buyers. There is not
much evidence of it. A lot
of merchant exporters
are still taking deliveries
of yarn booked at Rs 170
and Rs 172. They don't
have customers at Rs
176. And there is little
chance the domestic
market will support these
prices. As soon as the
domestic consumers find
duties expected to be
announced. Our govern-
ment has been levying
duties left, right and cen-
ter on various products
and industry-players
expect even viscose
yarns to be a victim soon.
A lot of manufacturers in
China are not offering
yarns to India now for
multiple reasons. There
will be silence for a week
if duties are announced
but hopefully it will
restore viscose to a pre-
mium category where it
once belonged.

Y
arns are sending mixed
signals. On one hand,
you have a shortage in
good quality cotton pro-
pelling cotton and yarn
prices up. On the other
hand, fabric prices are dan-
gerously low pulling yarn
prices down. Spinning mills
and their agents and dealers
are trying very hard, as
always, to get better prices
from the markets but as
soon as prices are raised,
the buyers go into a shell
and are willing to wait it out
till prices drop again.
The garment sector is the
one reeling with uncertainty.
Be in weaving or knitting.
The gap between combed
and carded yarn is not what
it used to be. Since the
demand for premium appar-
el is at an all-time low right
now, the demand for premi-
um yarns has dropped too.
Never have we seen carded
yarn selling at the same
price as combed but it's hap-
pening now and will probably
continue till the next festive
season when consumers
step out to buy whole-heart-
of yarns are imported.
However, even imported
yarns are now higher by 5
cents per kg.
2) Cotton sheeting fabrics
are in huge demand which
makes fine and superfine
counts difficult to find now.
Almost all the wider-width
looms in India are packed till
October and some even till
December.
3) Demand from denims as
well as sheeting has helped
open end yarns sell well.
Rapid bookings across the
country have ensured prices
are back at decent levels
after seeing a historic fall.
Price Trends
Cotton prices are up,
polyester fibre is trending up
and so is viscose. Prices
have been too depressed in
all sectors that makes even a
small increase seems like a
surge. Cotton carded yarns
have slowed after an abnor-
mal rise.
„ 30s combed knitting yarn
is up from Rs 170 ex-fac-
tory to Rs 176 ex-factory
now. It's considerable
out that the exporters are
out of the market at
these prices, they would
prefer sitting back and
waiting for their preferred
prices to be available
again.
„ 60s compact weaving
yarn over the last one
month saw an increase of
Rs 5 only to trickle back
down. Same trends seen
with 40s compact. The
point where it will sell
smoothly is Rs 250 exfac-
tory but this isn't the
price spinning mills are
happy with.
„ 32s carded weaving yarns
are now below Rs 170 ex-
factory.
„ There is a sudden spike in
demand for open ends.
Prices are up and so are
the bookings. Good mills
are booked till end of
September. Primarily
because of the denim
sector becoming active
again. Good quality 10s
OE is selling at Rs 102
and 16s OE at Rs 110
exfactory.
„ 30s viscose yarn is trad-
Overseas price trends
Bangladesh is sending
inquiries again. They had
made their purchases for
August in July itself and
September to October are up
for grabs now. Prices in
China are still compressed.
They refuse to accept higher
prices from India. Border
tensions have reduced but
trade tensions are at peak.
Europe and Africa are buying
decent quantities.
„ 16s carded is selling at
US$1.92 whereas 21s
carded is at US$2.02. 21
combed knitting from
Gujarat is at US$2.20.
„ 30s cotton knitting yarn
was sold at US$2.35-
US$2.40 levels to various
markets and deliveries
are still on. Exporters
now quoting US$2.45 but
there is no business at
this price.
„ 10s open end is at
US$1.33, 16s at US$1.55
& 20s at US$1.70. „
(Deepak Periwal is Founder
& CEO, YarnLIVE)

www.TextileExcellence.com
16 Fabrics and apparel
Bangladesh University Turning Women
Garment Workers Into Leaders
Special programme aims to inspire female workers to become leaders and boost
women's rights across industries.
F
ive years ago, Sadeka
Begum was working 12-
hour shifts in a garment
factory as the main earner
for her family in Bangladesh.
Today, the 23-year-old is one
of the first graduates of a
special university pro-
gramme that aims to inspire
female workers to become
leaders and boost women's
rights across industries.
Begum now interns for
the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) and hopes to
use her economics degree to
launch a project to improve
the lives of the children of
Bangladeshi textile workers
by addressing a lack of
schooling and childcare.
"I am an example of how
education can change a per-
son," said Begum, one of
four former garment workers
to graduate from the
Pathways for Promise course
at the Asian University for
Women (AUW) - based in the
southeastern port city of
Chittagong.
"Garment workers are the
reason why Bangladesh's
economy is doing well," she
added. "Their children
deserve better."
About 470 disadvantaged
women including tea pickers
and refugees have enrolled
for the free degree pro-
gramme since it started in
2016, and receive a monthly
stipend while they study.
Dozens of ex-textile work-
ers are part of the cohort and
the AUW's vice chancellor,
Nirmala Rao, said the univer-
sity was involved in creating
internships to tackle a
"dearth of female middle and
senior managers" in
Bangladesh's garment
industry.
While up to 80% of gar-
ment workers are women in
largely junior positions such
as seamstresses, the majori-
ty of senior management
positions are taken by men,
UN data shows.
Rubana Huq, who heads
the nation's largest trade
association for garment
manufacturers and was also
involved in designing the
academic course, said seeing
the graduates take on man-
agement positions in the sec-
tor would inspire other
women to dream big. "They
have different exposure and
their outlooks are very
fresh," Huq said. "They will
be able to contribute to how
we look at female empower-
ment."
Workers' rights at risk
Bangladesh is the world's
second largest supplier of
clothes to Western countries
after China, and relies on the
garment industry for more
than 80% of exports and four
million jobs. But the sector
has been rocked in recent
years - first by the 2013
Rana Plaza collapse, then by
the novel coronavirus pan-
demic. The 2013 disaster
sparked efforts to improve
labour rights and conditions
but the coronavirus outbreak
led to thousands of garment
workers being laid off in
recent months as Western
fashion brands cancelled
orders due to global store
closures. As workers push for
overdue wages and the job-
less seek to find work, the
AUW graduates want to help
steady the sector and push
for change by rising through
the ranks of management. "I
want to see everyone with
the same eye, it doesn't mat-
ter what category someone's
working in," said former fac-
tory packer Yesmin Akther. "I
want people to behave well
towards workers."
A recent report by a
United States's Senate com-
mittee found Bangladesh was
backsliding on garment
workers' rights. Union lead-
ers faced intimidation, ham-
pering their ability to investi-
gate claims of threats and
abuse - mainly from female
workers - the report said.
Factory owners dismissed
the findings of the report as
inaccurate while local
researchers said verbal
abuse of workers was more
prevalent across smaller fac-
tories and subcontractors.
Students from across
Asia, Middle East
The university, funded by
donors including the IKEA
Foundation and the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation,
has female students from
across Asia and the Middle
East pursuing degrees in
subjects such as public
health, philosophy and poli-
tics.
The students from the
garment sector receive full
pay - worth about US$ 100 a
month - from their employ-
ers while studying. This
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
proves vital as their families
rely on the income, accord-
ing to the AUW, which said it
had persuaded several facto-
ry owners to back the initia-
tive and allow some of their
brightest female workers to
leave the workplace for five
years.
The former textile work-
ers, who had to pass a rigor-
ous entrance exam for a
place on their courses, said
adapting to academic life was
challenging as was improving
their English.
One of the graduates said
she used to "just stare at
people" at the start because
her English was not good
enough, while another
recalled practising the lan-
guage in front of the mirror.
Dipali Khatun, who is set
to graduate in December,
said her ambition was to
work for a charity or to
return to the garment sector
in a human resources role
where she could make a dif-
ference. "I would ensure that
there is no bad behaviour
against any garment work-
er," she said.
Kalpona Akter, founder of
the Bangladesh Centre for
Worker Solidarity, said she
hoped all the garment work-
er graduates would return to
the sector rather than seek
other opportunities. "If the
100 girls who are studying
get into 100 factories, that
can bring change because
they have seen how difficult
lives are for workers," Akter
said. "If they join other
industries, they will be
empowered, but that won't
help our situation."
Yesmin Akther is one such
graduate who wants to give
back. "My factory paid me for
the last four years and sup-
ported me so I could study,"
the 23-year-old said. "Given
the chance, I would like to do
something good in return." „
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
New Short Film Highlights Plight Of Garments
"Made In America"
I
s US apparel manufactur-
ing close to home the
better, safer and fairer
option? Not necessarily as
various exposés regarding
"Made in Europe" have
shown and across the pond,
"Made in America" does not
fare any better. In a just
released short film with the
same title, US-based NGO
Remake gives viewers a look
into multiple Los Angeles
clothing factories and talks to
local garment makers,
designers and a labour con-
ditions inspector about what
is really happening in the
"land of the free".
"When we think of 'Made
in America', we think of our
manufacturing heritage. But
for apparel, it has gone to a
workforce that is vulnerable
and can be exploited. And
that is different when we
think of 'Made in America'.
All of these things that we
imagine that could happen
overseas can happen here
and they do," says a Los
Angeles labour conditions
inspector.
Los Angeles is the apparel
manufacturing capital of
the US
Los Angeles is the cloth-
ing manufacturing capital of
the United States, where
50,000, mostly immigrant
women work. According to
the film, the US Department
of Labor discovered that 85%
of the garment factories are
in violation of codes, with
issues ranging from rock bot-
tom wages to physical abuse.
In the ten minute film,
the labour inspector men-
tions the fact that the work-
ers, mainly women from
www.TextileExcellence.com
Latin America and Mexico but
also some Asian populations,
let themselves be pushed,
exploited and abused
because they need the
money for their families at
home; education for their
children, medicines for loved
ones or often just the bare
necessities.
Yeni is one such woman, a
third-generation tailor from
Indonesia. She loves her
work and is proud of the
craftsmanship it entails.
However, even she got
exploited when she came to
Los Angeles, speaking little
English and not knowing
what her rights were - mini-
mum wage, for example, but
also adequate lighting on the
work floor and hygienic con-
ditions, extending to the
bathrooms. Yeni found none
of that. She got paid US$
125 per week, less than the
other workers because she
spoke no English. For a long
time, she did not even find
out because she could not
communicate with her
coworkers.
"Made in America" does
not equal more ethical,
legal or fair
"'Made in the US', 'Made
in L.A.', there is a very dan-
gerous assumption that it's
made ethically, that it's made
legally. It's hard for people to
conceive that literally right
down the street, people are
working in sweatshop condi-
tions. But we really need to
highlight this problem and
we need to clean this up,"
says garment factory owner
Jaleh Factor of Sourcing
Theory who now employs
Yeni.
Fabrics and apparel 17
She points to the simple
fact that many people - like
herself at first - do not
realise that making clothes is
not an automated process
but that there are people
behind every tank top, every
pair of jeans. They are tal-
ented, hard-working individ-
uals who want a job that
treats them well. Factor
realises that and plans to roll
out a work ownership pro-
gramme next year, making
her workers her partners.
Matt Boelk, co-founder of
Los Angeles-based label
Groceries Apparel, who has
been in the business for ten
years, points to the problem
of fast fashion. "It starts with
the customer. It's part of a
whole big system where peo-
ple are not making a ton of
cash themselves but they are
programmed in our con-
sumer society to want, want,
want. And they can have it at
H&M or Zara for under 20
bucks."
Fast fashion squeezes
prices and increases
demand
"There are extreme price
pressures on the industry
thanks to the influx of cheap
goods on the market. …
There is a cost to that," adds
Boelk. "When you're consis-
tently paying near to nothing
for your clothes, you need to
stop and think 'is somebody
being abused or taken
advantage of for my price
point to be so low," agrees
Factor.
"We have a culture here.
It's well lit, well ventilated,
and they have a nice break
room," says Boelk about his
brand and factory Groceries
Apparel. "We know each
other. Big corporate compa-
nies are totally profit-driven
and when they say it can't be
done responsibly, that's a lie.
It is all possible."
"Made in America" sums
up the consensus in the more
responsible, sustainable part
of the fashion industry that
what it comes down to is
consumers caring about who
made their clothes and
brands and retailers reveal-
ing their sources to further
transparency in the supply
chain. This will lead to work-
ers being treated with digni-
ty and them taking pride in
the work they do and the
place they work at, regard-
less if they live in
Bangladesh, India, Romania
or the United States. „
18 Fabrics and apparel
Rescue Of 35 Child Workers Triggers
Probe In India's Garment Factory Hub
E
fforts to tackle child
labour in garment fac-
tories in southern India
are being ramped up after
the rescue of 35 children
from a spinning mill, officials
said, amid concerns of an
increase in trafficking as
coronavirus restrictions are
eased.
In one of the first cases of
child labour reported in India
since the pandemic, 32 girls
and three boys were rescued
in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu state
last week following a tip-off
to staff at Childline, a toll-
free emergency helpline for
children.
The children were forced
to work 14 hours-a-day and
given no days off, according
to the district's child welfare
Asia To Remain Dominant Player In Garment
Sector In Coming Decade: Report
A
sia is expected to
remain a dominant
player in garment pro-
duction over the coming
decade even as China looks
to reduce its apparel manu-
facturing operations and
move up the value chain,
analytics firm Fitch Solutions
said in a recent report.
The outlook for the textile
sector highlighted that India
and Indonesia, which offer
low-cost cheap labour and
large domestic markets, may
lose out due to the lack of
conducive business condi-
tions.
Even as China moves up
the value chain, many other
countries in Asia benefit from
favourable labour market
committee. Tirupur's top offi-
cial K Vijayakarthikeyan said
the local administration had
since been carrying out more
factory visits in the major
garment hub to search for
cases of child labour.
"We are conducting an
enquiry and have instructed
all our staff to update us on a
daily basis," Tirupur's dis-
trict-in-charge said. "A probe
against the mill has been ini-
tiated and all efforts are
being made to ensure this
rare case doesn't happen
again." As India slowly opens
up after months of lockdown,
activists are concerned that
more child workers will be
recruited and exploited as
industries re-open.
"Adolescents are likely to
dynamics for apparel produc-
tion, sufficiently predictable
logistical connections to
serve external trade, free
trade agreements that
ensure preferential access to
major consumer markets,
and geographic proximity to
raw material producers in
China and India, the report
said.
"Accordingly, we have
already started to see
Vietnam benefiting from
these trends and expect to
see more investments into
the country. In addition, we
expect Bangladesh,
Cambodia and Myanmar to
see greater gains in the com-
ing years as costs in Vietnam
also rise," Fitch Solutions
be aggressively recruited as
industries unlock and the
focus is on getting the econ-
omy restarted," said
Prithviraj Sinnathambi, direc-
tor of charity Community
Awareness Research
Education Trust (CARE-T).
Indian labour laws ban the
employment of anyone aged
under 15 but children are
permitted to support family
businesses outside of school
hours. This provision is wide-
ly exploited by employers
and human traffickers, child
rights campaigners say.
India's home ministry last
month issued an advisory
asking state governments to
protect children from traffick-
ers and help identify and res-
cue missing residents. The
said. It identified India and
Indonesia as potential recipi-
ents of manufacturing shifts
and growth in terms of glob-
al apparel export share.
However, according to the
report, the two countries'
annual growth rates will look
less impressive compared
with the other four countries
including Vietnam,
Bangladesh, Cambodia and
Myanmar.
"The countries' large pop-
ulations, at 1.4 billion in
India and 274 million in
Indonesia, make them the
second and fourth-most pop-
ulous nations, respectively,
in the world and suggest
strong growth potential for
domestic consumption," said
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
rescue in Tirupur prompted
social worker C M Sivababu
to file a legal action asking
authorities to identify and
help other victims of child
labour in garment factories in
the area. He said labour
agents had taken advantage
of schools being closed and
job losses leaving families on
the brink of poverty. The
Madras High Court respond-
ed by directing police and
labour officials to inspect
local garment factories and
present their findings at the
next hearing in the case.
"One of the girls who was
rescued and went back home
has shared details of her
work conditions with other
families," said Bhaskaran
Mahalingam, project manag-
er at charity Centre for Social
Education and Development.
"This has caused alarm and
more parents are reaching
out for help to bring back
their children home safely." „
the report.
However, a lack of prefer-
ential trade access to the US
and EU markets, as well as
higher labour costs, will act
as obstacles for these mar-
kets, it observed. "We at
Fitch Solutions expect rising
labour costs in China to con-
tinue pushing out low- to
mid-range manufacturing to
cheaper cost centres across
Asia. However, we believe
that it will be exacerbated by
rising trade protectionism
globally and geopolitical risks
attached to operating in
China, as relations between
China and the West deterio-
rate. This trend has already
taken place for at least half a
decade," said the report. „
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
EU To Check For Hazardous
Substances In Consumer Products
T
he Enforcement Forum
of the European
Chemicals Agency
(ECHA) has decided that its
major enforcement project,
which is planned for 2022
(called REF-10), will concen-
trate on the surveillance of
goods which may contain
hazardous substances.
According to ECHA, the
specificity of these checks is
intended to broaden the
scope of controls, thereby
aiming to strengthen the
protection of EU consumers
and the environment. For
Hong Kong traders in the EU,
the broadening of the scope
of controls will imply more
comprehensive and stricter
controls on their products.
The specificity of REF?10,
ECHA's major enforcement
project for 2022, will consist
of integrated checks.
According to ECHA, manufac-
turer and supplier obligations
under the REACH and the
Scientists Recommend Regulating
PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ As a Class
S
cientists recommend
treating PFAS chemi-
cals as one class of
chemicals and avoiding all
non-essential uses of these
"forever chemicals," accord-
ing to a peer-reviewed article
published today in
Environmental Science &
Technology Letters.
The authors-16 scientists
from universities, the US
National Institutes of Health,
the European Environment
www.TextileExcellence.com
"POPs" Regulations will be
checked for several types of
material such as rubber,
plastic or textiles. Hence,
each product will be inspect-
ed for a number of REACH or
POPs requirements, which
will broaden the scope of
controls.
As for the subject of these
checks, most of the products
to be inspected are expected
to be consumer products,
mostly articles, but also
some mixtures. The REF?10
enforcement project will be
prepared in 2021.
Inspections will be conducted
in 2022 and the report is
expected at the end of 2023.
These integrated product
checks aim at enforcing the
obligations arising from sev-
eral pieces of legislation.
First, inspectors will check
product compliance with the
restrictions that are imposed
for selected hazardous sub-
stances under the REACH
Agency, and NGOs-say the
extreme persistence and
known toxicity of PFAS (per-
and polyfluoroalkyl sub-
stances) that have been
studied render traditional
chemical-by-chemical man-
agement dangerously inade-
quate. The article lays out
how businesses and govern-
ment can apply a class-based
approach to reduce harm
from PFAS.
"The science on PFAS
Dyes and Finishes 19
Regulation. Second, compli-
ance will be assessed with
regard to restrictions of the
presence of persistent organ-
ic pollutants (POPs) defined
under the POPs Regulation.
Hong Kong traders may
be familiar with the POPs
Regulation which covers the
production, placing on the
market, use and release of
chemical substances such as
pesticides, industrial chemi-
cals or unintentional
by?products formed during
industrial processes, degra-
dation or combustion.
Specific substances to be
examined by the integrated
controls under REF?10 will be
decided in 2021. According
to ECHA, they could poten-
tially include phthalates,
among others.
Third, enforcers will check
specific REACH duties con-
cerning communication in
the supply chain of informa-
tion on substances of very
chemicals is clear: the best
way to protect public health
from these 'forever chemi-
cals' is to prevent them from
entering the environment,"
said Anna Reade, a staff sci-
entist with NRDC (Natural
Resources Defense Council)
and a co-author of the arti-
cle. "It's reckless to think
regulating the thousands of
PFAS chemicals one-by-one
could ever reverse the severe
damage these chemicals
high concern (SVHCs), pres-
ent in articles.
A Forum pilot enforce-
ment project conducted in
December 2019 in 15 partic-
ipating countries has shown
that 12% of inspected arti-
cles contained SVHCs. The
majority (88%) of suppliers
of these products were seen
to be failing to provide suffi-
cient information to their
customers about the pres-
ence of SVHCs in the articles
they supply.
Through its REF?10
enforcement project, the
ECHA aims at improving the
REACH Regulation's effec-
tiveness to contribute to the
objectives of the Circular
Economy Action Plan,
Europe's new agenda for
sustainable growth. These
developments will imply
enhanced controls for prod-
ucts containing chemical
products in the coming
years. „
have and will continue to
render to human health, our
drinking water, and the natu-
ral world.
The class approach pro-
posed is both scientifically
sound and critical to protect-
ing public health and the
environment," said Reade.
For decades, industry has
created thousands of differ-
ent PFAS chemicals, many of
Contd. On Page 20...
20 Industry news
Textile Ministry Gets Lean
L
ast week, India's
Textiles Ministry took
some important deci-
sions to cut back on unpro-
ductive spends. The ministry
has shut down five Boards,
notified that all eight textiles
research associations have
ceased to be ''affiliated bod-
ies'' of the ministry. And will
also shut down two PSUs.
The two PSUs that have
been identified by the min-
istry for closure are the
British-era British India
Corporation (BIC) and
Handlooms Exports
Corporation of India.
Headquartered in Kanpur,
the 100-year-old British
India Corporation is famous
for producing textiles for the
armed forces, the company
is also known for manufac-
turing two popular brands of
woollen products - Lalimli
and Dhariwal.
Nationalised in 1981, with
nearly two thousand employ-
ees, the BIC operates two
Scientists Recommend Regulating
PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ As a Class
....Contd. From Page 19
which are found in the bodies
of virtually every person in
America. PFAS can be found
in carpeting, food packaging,
cookware, clothing, cosmet-
ics, and even firefighting
foam. PFAS chemicals do not
break down easily, can
spread quickly through the
environment and are associ-
ated with a long list of harm-
ful health effects, including
cancer and developmental
and reproductive harm.
"PFAS are a complex class
woollen mills: one in Kanpur
and one in Dhariwal, Punjab.
According to sources, the
ministry is of the view that to
implement the idea of "mini-
mum government, maximum
governance" it is important
to identify loss-making com-
panies and shut them down.
BIC has constantly been run-
ning in losses for many
years.
The Handlooms Exports
Corporation of India, founded
50 years ago with the aim to
promote export of Indian
handlooms, handicrafts, jew-
ellery, etc, failed to register
of chemicals, but there is a
clear pattern of persistence
and potential for health harm
that unites them all," said
retired NIEHS Director Linda
Birnbaum, who co-authored
the article.
"The use of any PFAS
should be avoided whenever
possible."
Some governments and
retailers have already taken
action. For example, some
states have regulated the
entire class of PFAS for use in
certain products. Maine and
Washington have banned all
"desired profits".
However, data provided
by the company says it has
generated a profit of Rs 397
lakh which is nearly Rs 40
crore after tax deduction in
2018-19. As per records, the
company, which is famous
for supplying beautiful arte-
facts to international audi-
ences, has registered nega-
tive profit only for five times
in 24 years between 1996 to
2020.
The Ministry of Textiles
had scrapped the 28-year-
old All India Handloom Board
(AIHB) in the last week of
PFAS in food contact materi-
als. Washington, New York,
New Hampshire, and
Colorado have banned most
uses of PFAS-containing fire-
fighting foam and a similar
bill in California is currently
being considered. California's
Safer Consumer Products
programme has also pro-
posed to regulate PFAS in
carpets and rugs. The article
authors recommend expand-
ing such regulation to all
nonessential uses.
On the retailer front, IKEA
phased out all PFAS in its tex-
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
July. Then the ministry
wound up the All India
Handicrafts Board and the
Cotton Advisory Board on
August 3. The All India
Powerloom Board and the
Jute Advisory Board were
scrapped on August 4.
The industry is not too
happy about the sudden clo-
sures of these boards. In
many cases, these boards
were the only forum where
the government could get
direct feedback from the
stakeholders.
The ministry also notified
that textiles research associ-
ations (TRAs) shall hereafter
be ''approved bodies'' for
conducting testing, research
and developmental activities
related to the textiles sector.
Any disposal/sale/transfer of
assets created out of the
central government grant
shall require prior specific
approval of the ministry, the
notification on TRAs said.
It further said officials of
the Ministry of Textiles are
hereby withdrawn from the
governing bodies of these
TRAs. „
tile products and Levi Strauss
& Co. has banned the use of
all PFAS in their products as
of January 1, 2018. Home
improvement chains Lowes
and Home Depot have
stopped selling carpeting
made with PFAS.
"The best available sci-
ence indicates that urgent
action needs to be taken by
policymakers, retailers, and
manufacturers to prevent the
use of PFAS chemicals, which
are among the most harmful,
ubiquitous chemicals ever
unleashed by the chemical
industry, and to clean them
up from our exposure envi-
ronment as much as possi-
ble," added Reade. „
www.TextileExcellence.com
 August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Vietnam's Garment Exports Decline
12.1% In Seven Months
V
ietnam's total textile
and garment export
value in the first seven
months of this year declined
12.1% year-on-year to near-
ly US$ 16.2 billion, according
to the country's General
In Bangladesh, Garment Export
Orders Rolling In Once Again
I
n Bangladesh, apparel
exporters are witnessing
the return of export
orders, as European and
American retail markets start
to reopen.
The signs of recovery for
the garment sector are also
evident in the export figures
of July when Bangladesh
earned US$ 3.24 billion from
apparel shipment though the
amount is 1.98% lower than
a year earlier.
However, garment export
receipts in July are 14.18%
higher than the monthly
target of US$ 2.84 billion.
Of the total garment ship-
ments, knitwear exports
grew 4.30% year-on-year to
US$ 1.75 billion while woven
exports fell 8.43% to US$
1.49 billion, according to
data from the Export
Promotion Bureau.
Earnings from apparel
shipment in April, May and
June stood at US$ 0.37 bil-
lion, US$ 1.23 billion and
US$ 2.28 billion respectively.
Personal protective equip-
ment (PPE), masks and other
hospital textiles made it to
the list of new export items
for Bangladesh as a good
number of buyers are placing
work orders for these items
www.TextileExcellence.com
Statistics Office. Its largest
export markets included the
United States, the European
Union, Japan, South Korea
and China. In July alone,
Vietnam's textile and gar-
ment exports decreased
amid the coronavirus pan-
demic. If more retail stores
reopen in Europe and the US,
garment exports from
Bangladesh will grow further
as the pandemic has failed to
dampen the demand for
basic apparel items,
exporters said.
Sweater factories have
now put their best foot for-
ward to meet the deadline for
the shipments of August,
September and October, said
Mostafa Sobhan Rubel, man-
aging director of Dragon
Sweaters. "My factories are
fully booked until the end of
September and my cus-
tomers have also booked
60% of my capacity from
October towards the end of
international trade 21
8.9% year-on-year to US$ 3
billion. According to
Vietnamese Ministry of
Industry and Trade, some
garment and textile busi-
nesses have not received
orders for the second half of
December," Rubel said,
adding that they have been
able to completely reinstate
more than 90% of the
cancelled orders.
Abdullah Al Mahmud
Mahin, managing director of
Mahin Group, said he did not
face any work order cancella-
tion and currently, his factory
is utilising more than 70% of
its capacity. Work orders
have been rising since
mid-July at his factory.
If the current state of
business continues, Mahin's
company's earnings this year
might be 20% less than last
year's, but if a coronavirus
vaccine arrives by
mid-September, they expect
a 15% jump in profit.
2020 for high-value products
including suits and high-end
shirts. The ministry said that
textile businesses need to
offset the shortage of export
orders by boosting domestic
markets. Vietnam, among
the world's biggest exporters
and producers of garments
and textiles, made garment
and textile export turnovers
of roughly US$ 32.6 billion in
2019, up 6.9% from 2018. „
"I am very much opti-
mistic that a huge number of
work orders will come to
Bangladesh if a vaccine is
available by mid-September,"
said Mahin, who supplies fab-
rics to renowned brands
worldwide.
AK Azad, managing direc-
tor of Ha-Meem Group, said
his factories are running at
more than 60% capacity at
present. "My buyers have
started placing work orders
and gradually the volume of
work orders is increasing." Of
the cancelled work orders,
his buyers have already
taken back 50% of them and
promised to take another
30%. The remaining 20%
should be sold at cheaper
prices to other buyers, Azad
added.
"I am currently utilising
65% of my capacity. About
80% of my work orders
remained unaffected during
the pandemic while 20% or
less have been reinstated,"
said KM Rezaul Hasanat,
chairman and chief executive
officer of Viyellatex Group,
another leading garment
exporter. PPE is a small
fraction of the clothing busi-
ness and it cannot even
cover 10% of the total
exports, he added.
"Covid-19 has affected
the garment sector in various
ways. Initially, it broke the
Contd. On Page 22...
22 international trade
Bangladesh Businesses Expect
A Faster Turnaround: Survey
B
angladeshi businesses
are progressively
becoming confident of
a comeback from the brutal
blow dealt by the global
coronavirus pandemic,
according to a recent survey.
Conducted by the South
Asian Network on Economic
Modelling (SANEM) in collab-
oration with The Asia
Foundation among 303 firms
representing manufacturing
and services sectors, the
survey found that the overall
confidence score increased
to 51 this quarter from
29.48 the previous quarter.
The survey responses are
measured on a scale of 0-
100. A score in the range of
0-50 means a deterioration
of business confidence and a
value above 50 indicates an
improvement, said the sur-
vey report. The survey was
carried out to assess the
In Bangladesh, Garment Export
Orders Rolling In Once Again
....Contd. From Page 21
supply chain as we are
reliant mostly on China for
most of our raw materials,"
said Sheikh Mohammad
Danial, managing director of
Finesse Apparels. But
exports are now bouncing
back, he said, adding that
the queries from brands in
Europe and the US have
jumped. If the current trend
in Europe continues,
Bangladesh will start to see
stronger export figures from
the first quarter of 2021.
state of confidence of the
business community of
Bangladesh in the context of
the socio-economic crises
engendered by the Covid-19
pandemic, SANEM said.
Despite the improve-
ment, businesses com-
plained about increasing cost
of doing businesses and they
put corruption, problems of
trade and logistics and weak
management of the coron-
avirus crisis as three major
challenges of doing busi-
ness. "Management of the
health crisis is extremely
important for boosting busi-
ness confidence," said
SANEM Executive Director
Selim Raihan while present-
ing the findings of the study
at a webinar. Corruption has
emerged as the biggest chal-
lenge for doing business, he
said citing that 88% of the
firms put corruption as the
More clothes are being
bought online, with
massive 76% rise in online
sales in the US, he said. "This
is the new reality for which
we need to be prepared," he
added.
Work orders were slowly
coming back but knitwear
sector is doing better than
woven products, said Azimul
Islam, managing director of
Alif Group. "But the major
threat is the second wave of
the coronavirus infection in
the Western market. If that
happens, it will be a bigger
number one challenge. "It
should be handled firmly," he
said. The SANEM developed
three separate indices based
on the survey among 153
manufacturing and 150
service sector firms from all
divisions to understand the
level of business confidence
among entrepreneurs in
Bangladesh.
The indexes compared
business confidence in three
scenarios: the response in
the April-June quarter with a
year earlier and with the
previous quarter; and the
July-September quarter with
the immediate past quarter.
Researchers considered six
indicators - profitability,
investment, employment,
wage, business & sales/
export-for developing the
Business Confidence Index
(BCI). The overall business
status in the second quarter
disaster for us." His knitwear
a factory is running at 70%
capacity and the woven one
at 60%. About 70% of the
cancelled work orders are
being taken back but at a
heavy discount and deferred
payment terms, Islam
added. "It's too early to
make a positive remark on
the inflow of new orders
since many factories are still
struggling to survive due to
financial hardships," said
Arshad Jamal Dipu, vice-
president of the Bangladesh
Garment Manufacturers and
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
of the year was extremely
poor as reflected in the index
score of 26.44 compared
with the same period of
2019. "All sectors suffered.
The worst performers were
garment, leather, light engi-
neering, wholesale and
restaurant. The better per-
formers were pharma and
financial sector," said
Raihan, also a professor of
the Department of
Economics at the University
of Dhaka.
This quarter, businesses
seem more confident than
the last quarter, he said.
"The improvement is visible
in all sub-components of
BCI, but still, the overall BCI
is poor," he said adding that
business confidence contin-
ued to be low in the gar-
ment, leather, light engi-
neering and other manufac-
turing sectors as the BCI
showed a score of less than
50 for these sectors.
Overall profitability of
garment, leather and tan-
nery and light engineering
Contd. On Page 23...
Exporters
(BGMEA).
Association
"We would also need to
see at what price levels these
new orders are being
placed." It's difficult to
respond since not all facto-
ries, which participated in the
initial survey reporting US$
3.18 billion cancellations,
provided follow-up data.
"But we tracked suppliers
to a few buyers around a
month ago and found that
45% of about US$ 900 mil-
lion worth of orders were
reinstated, & by now this fig-
ure might have gone higher."
But the payment term is
not pleasant, with deferred
payment as high as 180-plus
days, and discounts may also
be common, he added. „
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
India's Cotton Textile Exports To
China Fall By 74% In Q1
I
ndia's exports of cotton
textile products to China
have seen a whopping
74% decline to touch US$ 90
million during the April-June
quarter this year.
China's share in India's
total exports of cotton textile
products has also halved to
6.9% during the quarter as
against 14% in the corre-
sponding quarter last fiscal.
During Q1 last year,
India's exports of cotton
textiles to China stood at
US$ 346 million, according to
data available with The
Cotton Textiles Export
Promotion Council (TEX-
PROCIL).
"Recently, Indian and
Bangladesh Businesses Expect
A Faster Turnaround: Survey
....Contd. From Page 22
continued to deteriorate.
However, there had been
improvements in employ-
ment prospects, according to
the survey. The major
improvement is seen for
textile, pharma, wholesale,
restaurant, ICT and financial
sectors as their BCIs are
above 50, he said. SANEM
also looked into the efficacy
of the government's stimulus
packages amounting to Tk
103,117 crore to support the
businesses in recovering
from the economic fallout of
the pandemic.
While 87% of firms
termed the stimulus effective
for them, 55% of the firms
said they did not avail the
www.TextileExcellence.com
Chinese governments carried
out reciprocal measures like
detailed shipment
inspections at ports, delaying
clearing of goods, thereby
low-cost fund. "Effective
implementation of the stimu-
lus package is critically
important. Major challenges
include lengthy procedure,
difficulty in bank-related
services, and difficulty in
information. All these need
to be sorted out effectively,"
Raihan added.
Commerce Minister Tipu
Munshi expected an
improvement in business
activities this quarter com-
pared with the previous one.
He said the export target for
the current fiscal year could
be achieved if the pandemic
can be snuffed out around
the globe within the next
four months. "Everything will
depend on the situation of
the export destination coun-
international trade 23
also contributing to decline in
exports," K. V. Srinivasan,
managing director, Premier
Mills Pvt said.
Substitution of textile
tries & their supply chains."
The commerce ministry is
working to bring in
investments that are shifting
out of China to other coun-
tries. "We have huge man-
power to utilise in the indus-
tries. We need to know what
type of facilities we should
provide them to bring invest-
ment in Bangladesh."
Munshi went on to stress
the need for a comprehen-
sive study on how to attract
businesses and investment
that were shifting from China
to other countries.
Exports fetched US$ 3.9
billion in July, up 44.4% from
the previous month and
0.60% from a year earlier,
according to data released
by the Export Promotion
imports from China as well as
contemplation of anti-dump-
ing duties on certain Chinese
products may have an
impact on exports of Indian
cotton textiles, he said.
Overall, cotton textile
exports during the first
quarter declined 47% to US$
1.29 billion against US$ 2.42
billion in the same quarter
last year.
One of the main reasons
for the decline was supply
chain disruptions. "Delays in
documentation, especially
Certificates of Origin in
countries like China,
Vietnam, Thailand and
Malaysia also delayed deliv-
eries, hitting exports,"
Siddhartha Rajagopal, exec-
utive director, TEXPROCIL
said. Delays at ports owing
to Covid-19 protocols quar-
antine also led to the decline,
he said. „
Bureau. This is the first
month since the pandemic
took hold globally that
Bangladesh's export receipts
posted a growth.
"It is an important time
for us as fresh export orders
usually come at this time of
the year. We need to see
whether orders are coming,"
he said, adding that some
firms that used to buy from
Bangladesh have become
bankrupt.
Also, there were huge
amounts of unsold stocks of
goods in the US and Japan
and firms there are getting
rid of their stocks at
discounted prices.
The industry has urged
policymakers for proper
management of the Covid-19
health crisis for regular life
and the economy to return to
normal. Mixed messages and
signals regarding the pan-
demic have created a nega-
tive effect among business-
es, they said. „
24 international trade
Uzbekistan To Create New Sewing,
Knitwear Production Capacity
I
n Uzbekistan, according
to the Presidential Decree
"On Urgent Measures to
Support the Textile and
China's Mask Makers Struggle After Price Drop
T
ens of thousands of
mask-making compa-
nies mushroomed
across China at the start of
the coronavirus pandemic,
but many are struggling to
survive as they face stricter
quality control measures and
falling domestic demand.
China launched a huge
effort to produce protective
gear to meet shortages dur-
ing the outbreak, which first
emerged in the country late
last year before spreading
across the globe. More than
73,000 companies registered
as mask makers in the first
half of the year - including
over 36,000 new companies
in April alone - as prices and
demand soared.
But the influx of new com-
panies led to a "dilution in
quality and a surge in
scams", according to China-
based researchers at Daxue
Consulting, as firms from
carmakers to diaper produc-
China Supports New Business
Models To Boost Consumption
I
n order to implement
policies outlined in the
Government Work
Report, China will support
the healthy development of
new business models, stimu-
late the consumer market,
expand employment and fur-
Sewing & Knitting Industry",
investment projects to estab-
lish production facilities will
be approved by 1 September
ers converted production
lines to make masks. Now
the outbreak is largely under
control in mainland China,
domestic mask demand has
dropped dramatically, push-
ing prices down.
Some companies are sell-
ing face mask at 0.4 yuan a
piece (about six US cents) - a
quarter of the price they sold
for at the height of China's
domestic outbreak earlier
this year. "Our orders have
been slashed five or sixfold
since April," said Yang Hao, a
sales director at CCST, a
company in the southern city
of Shenzhen that makes air
purifiers but added masks to
its repertoire. Some of the
companies that piled into the
industry are now backing
out.
China Labour Bulletin,
which tracks worker unrest in
the mainland, said there had
been a number of protests in
recent months due to some
ther strengthen the digital
economy, according to a
guideline jointly released by
13 government departments,
including the National
Development and Reform
Commission and the Office of
the Central Cyberspace
2020 for the production of
finished sewing and knitwear
products and semi-finished
products demanded in for-
mask factories closing
abruptly and leaving staff
unpaid. While some compa-
nies have exited the business
and shut down, others are
refocusing on their core busi-
ness, and shifting out of or
reducing the production of
face masks.
After international com-
plaints about low grade prod-
ucts, Chinese authorities now
demand a certificate of qual-
ity for those looking to export
masks, which has also hit
some of the smaller produc-
ers. Between March and May,
China exported more than 50
billion face masks - a tenfold
increase for total production
last year, according to
analysts.
The government used
mask donations as a propa-
ganda tool described by ana-
lysts as "mask diplomacy" to
deflect blame for the virus.
However, global friction
has also had an impact on
Affairs Commission.
Efforts will be made to
break away from stale think-
ing and support new busi-
ness formats and models
that combine online and
offline marketing as a major
breakthrough point for eco-
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
eign markets, with high
added value and attraction of
world brands for 2021-2025.
Moreover, each new sewing
and knitting production
should be oriented, as a rule,
to the sale of products of
well-known international
brands and the creation of at
least 1000 jobs. „
the ease of business.
Exports to the United
States are done via a third
country due to soaring diplo-
matic tensions between
Washington and Beijing,
according to sources. But
China is set to remain the
world's top mask provider,
according to analysts, with
the big companies ramping
up production as the virus
continues its global march.
US producer 3M said last
month it was on track to pro-
duce two billion N95 masks
in 2020, effectively doubling
production rates. "There will
still be a demand from the
US and a lot of other coun-
tries in the rest of Asia and
the EU that are unable to
sustain their own mask sup-
ply," said Wilfred Yuen, an
analyst at BOCI bank in Hong
Kong, adding that more sub-
quality mask makers will
continue to be whittled out of
the market. „
nomic transformation and
the promotion of reform and
innovation. With specific
problems in mind, efforts will
be made to deepen reform,
strengthen institutional sup-
ply, harness digital innova-
tion to improve quality and
efficiency in the real econo-
my, and to advance
'Internet+' initiatives, big
data analytics, the platform
economy and other key
growth drivers. „
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Little Progress Made On EU-China Trade Talks
M
ainland China and the
EU held their 22nd
bilateral summit on
22 June 2020 via videocon-
ference, discussing trade and
investment, climate change,
the digital sector, and the
economic recovery from the
Covid 19 crisis. The summit
took place among ongoing
tensions, most recently
exacerbated by the EU's
publication of a White Paper
on foreign subsidies on 17
June, and the European
Parliament's call for EU
action over its concerns for
Hong Kong. The summit pro-
vided an opportunity for talks
at the highest level with
European Commission
President Ursula von der
Leyen and Council of the EU
President Charles Michel
attending on behalf of the EU
and Premier Li Keqiang and
President Xi Jinping on behalf
of mainland China. EU press
statements have highlighted
continuing differences,
including the lack of
agreement on an investment
treaty.
The summit of 22 June
2020 was hoped to provide
an opportunity to break the
deadlock at the highest polit-
ical level and make way for
Vietnam To Join Pan-ASEAN Self-
Certification Of Origin Scheme
T
he First Protocol to
Amend the ASEAN
Trade in Goods
Agreement (ATIGA) has now
been ratified by the Vietnam
government, facilitating the
country's move to join an
ASEAN wide origin of goods
Self Certification (AWSC)
scheme. Under the terms of
www.TextileExcellence.com
more technical discussions.
Von der Leyen described the
exchange as "a very intense,
a very frank and a very open
meeting" with assurances
that the EU was "committed
to making swift and substan-
tial progress." However,
unlike at most summits, the
parties did not conclude their
talks with a joint statement
or joint press conferences,
reflecting the absence of any
concrete progress.
The EU considers reci-
procity and a level playing
field to be of crucial impor-
tance for its bilateral rela-
tionship with mainland
China, as reiterated in a 22
June European Commission
press release. Both China
and the EU had committed to
reducing market access bar-
riers at a bilateral summit
held in 2019. However, fol-
lowing June's summit, the EU
stated that the parties have
fallen short of making the
progress they had aimed for.
Josep Borrell, the EU's
High Representative for
Foreign Affairs, confirmed
that "there are still quite
important differences on the
investment agreement".
European Commission
President von der Leyen
the initiative, businesses
may apply for Certified
Exporter (CE) status, enti-
tling them to duty free treat-
ment for their goods under
ATIGA. Goods exported by
CE status holders will no
longer be required to secure
ATIGA e-form D, which
served as a Certificate of
international trade 25
elaborated that the EU would
"need in particular substan-
tial commitments from China
on the behaviour of state
owned enterprises, trans-
parency in subsidies, and
transparency on the topic of
forced technology transfers."
The EU also asked main-
land China to engage in
future negotiations on indus-
trial subsidies in the WTO,
and address overcapacity in
sectors including steel and
high tech areas.
With regard to progress
on the EU mainland China
Agreement on Geographical
Indications, the EU appears
to be content, saying that it
would be willing to sign the
Agreement in the coming
weeks to ensure entry into
force in the "nearest future".
On cooperation regarding
the provision of emergency
medical equipment, von der
Leyen also praised the mutu-
al solidarity shown during the
pandemic and welcomed its
continuation. The parties
agreed to support more vul-
nerable parts of the world,
including as part of the glob-
al response Initiative.
When addressing climate
change, the EU called on
mainland China to "commit
Origin, when claiming prefer-
ential duty benefits for goods
exported and imported with-
in the ASEAN bloc.
The AWSC scheme is
expected to reduce time and
costs for exporters, while
also streamlining customs
clearance procedures among
ASEAN members. It is
to decisive and ambitious
domestic action to reduce
emissions in the short term
and to set a goal of climate
neutrality at the earliest pos-
sible date." On a related
topic, the EU emphasised its
commitment to a green and
sustainable recovery follow-
ing the Covid 19 pandemic.
President of the European
Council, Charles Michel,
recognised that the econom-
ic interdependency of the EU
and mainland China is high
and that they "must work
together on global chal-
lenges". He warned, howev-
er, that "the EU does not
share the same values, polit-
ical systems, or approach to
multilateralism. We will
engage in a cleareyed and
confident way, robustly
defending EU interests and
standing firm on our values".
Commission President von
der Leyen also acknowledged
that "it is not possible to
shape the world of tomorrow
without a strong EU China
partnership". Nevertheless,
the EU demands that rela-
tions between the two par-
ties must become more rules
based and reciprocal with a
view to creating a real level
playing field. „
expected to be officially
adopted by the end of this
year after the ATIGA treaty
has been fully ratified by all
ASEAN members. ATIGA is
the first agreement between
ASEAN member states relat-
ing to intrabloc goods trading
activities and is in line with
an earlier commitment to
remove tariff barriers made
as part of the Agreement on
the Common Effective
Preferential Tariff Scheme for
the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(CEPT/AFTA). „
26 international trade
Three Sets Of List 1 Tariff
Exclusions Considered For Extension
A
n extension for up to
12 months of specific
exclusions from the
Section 301 additional tariff
on List 1 goods from main-
land China is under consider-
ation by the Office of the US
Trade Representative.
Comments on these poten-
tial extensions may be sub-
mitted during 1 30 August.
List 1 goods have been
subject to an additional 25%
tariff since 6 July 2018.
Three sets of exclusions
from this tariff issued in
October 2019, December
2019 and February 2020 are
set to expire on 2 October.
Women Gain Key Economic Benefits
From Greater Trade, Study Finds
T
rade increases
women's wages and
helps close the wage
gap between men and
women while creating better
jobs for women, a new World
Bank Group report con-
cludes. Countries that are
open to international trade
tend to grow faster, inno-
USTR is now considering a
possible extension of these
exclusions and will evaluate
each on a case by case
basis. The focus of this eval-
uation will be whether the
product at issue remains
available only from mainland
China.
In requesting an exten-
sion of an exclusion,
commenters should submit a
comment form with the
following information.
„ Full legal name of the
organisation making the
comment, whether the com-
menter is a third party (e.g.,
law firm, trade association or
vate, improve productivity,
and provide higher income
and more opportunities to
their people. Countries that
are more open to trade, as
measured by the trade-to-
GDP ratio, have higher levels
of gender equality.
The report, produced in
collaboration with the World
customs broker) submitting
on behalf of an organisation
or industry, and (if so) the
name of the third-party
organisation;
„ The number for the exclu-
sion at issue, as provided in
the annex of the applicable
Federal Register notice;
„ Whether the product is
subject to an anti-dumping
or countervailing duty order;
„ Whether the commenter
supports or opposes extend-
ing the exclusion and why;
„ Whether the excluded
product or comparable prod-
ucts are available from
sources in the United States
Trade Organization, marks
the first major effort to
quantify how women are
affected by trade using a
new gender-disaggregated
dataset. The dataset, devel-
oped by the World Bank
Group, allows researchers to
understand how women are
employed, in which indus-
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
or third countries, and any
changes in the global supply
chain for the product since
July 2018;
„ Efforts undertaken since
July 2018 to source the
product from the United
States or third countries;
„ The value and quantity of
the excluded product pur-
chased in 2018 & 2019 and
whether these purchases are
from a related company (&,
if so, its name and relation-
ship to the requester);
„ Whether mainland Chinese
suppliers have lowered their
prices for the excluded prod-
uct following the imposition
of tariffs;
„ The value and quantity of
the excluded product pur-
chased from domestic and
third-country sources in
2018 and 2019;
„ The commenter's gross
revenue for 2018 and 2019;
„ Whether the excluded
product is sold as a final
product or as an input;
„ Whether the imposition of
tariffs on the excluded
product will result in severe
economic harm to the com-
menter or other US inter-
ests; and
„ Any additional information
in support of the extension
request. „
tries they work, how much
they earn, and whether or
not they are involved in
global trade. This analysis
helps governments see how
trade policies can affect
women and men differently.
"Over the past 30 years
trade has been the engine of
poverty reduction. This
report shows that, provided
the right policies are in
place, it can also provide an
engine to reduce the gender
Contd. On Page 27...
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Harmonised Rules For Movement Of Goods And
Services Adopted By COMESA, EAC, SADC
T
hree regional economic
blocs in south and east
Africa have adopted
harmonised guidelines
intended to reduce supply
chain disruption, facilitate
easier trade and transport of
goods and services between
countries in the region and
help combat the spread of
Covid 19.
The Common Market for
East and Southern Africa
(COMESA), the East African
Community (EAC), and the
Southern African
Development Community
(SADC), have agreed to
implement the Tripartite
Guidelines on Trade and
Transport Facilitation for the
Movement of Persons, Goods
and Services During Covid-
19 Pandemic, which has
integrated into one docu-
ment the separate guidelines
of each of the economic
Women Gain Key Economic Benefits
From Greater Trade, Study Finds
....Contd. From Page 26
gap," said World Bank
Managing Director Mari
Pangestu. "Trade can expand
women's role in the economy
and decrease disparities with
men by giving women more
and better employment
opportunities. Seizing these
opportunities will be even
more important in a post-
Covid-19 world."
The report, Women and
Trade: The Role of Trade in
Promoting Women's Equality,
offers several key findings.
Firms that are part of global
www.TextileExcellence.com
blocs that were introduced
earlier.
The new harmonised
guidelines were released on
29 July 2020, and cover the
use of electronic surveillance
systems that will track the
movement of trucks, and
monitor drivers' health. They
give priority to the move-
ment of food, agricultural
inputs, hygiene products,
medicine, fuel and medical
equipment, subject to local
health and safety regula-
tions. They standardise
requirements for the screen-
ing and testing of frontline
personnel and drivers at bor-
der crossings and check-
points. They also detail pro-
cedures for the quarantining
of infected front line workers
and drivers, and the requi-
site provisions of hygiene
facilities at members' ports.
Member nations or part-
value chains (GVCs) employ
a greater percentage of
women (33%) relative to
non-GVC firms (24%). When
countries open themselves to
trade, women's share of
wages in the manufacturing
sector increase by 5.8 per-
centage points on average.
When women are employed
in sectors with high exports,
they are more likely to be
formally employed. Formal
employment means better
job benefits, training, and
job security.
The report also highlights
the importance of addressing
ner states of the three eco-
nomic blocs are strongly
encouraged to waive port
and border handling charges
for essential goods, and
countries'respective customs
administrations are also
urged to cancel fees, storage
and handling charges, and
any warehouse rents on
essential goods imported
during the pandemic, but not
transferred to their final des-
tination due to restrictions in
place to contain the spread
of Covid 19. The harmonised
guidelines will help to
address the problems
caused by African coun-
tries'overlapping and multi-
ple memberships of COME-
SA, EAC and SADC, with
each bloc having had its own
distinct set of guidelines and
restrictions. According to
Stergomena Lawrence Tax,
Chairperson of the COMESA
discrimination against
women in trade policy.
Although no country overtly
imposes tariffs according to
gender, implicit biases can
amount to "pink tariffs" that
put women at an economic
disadvantage.
The report shows that
products specifically con-
sumed by women face a
higher tariff burden than
men's products. In the textile
sector, for instance, tariffs on
women's apparel are US$
2.77 billion higher than on
men's clothing, a consump-
tion gap that grew about
retail Update 27
- EAC - SADC Tripartite Task
Force and SADC Executive
Secretary, these restrictions
have impacted regional trade
and transport, leading to
goods shortages and queues
at points of entry and exit.
The new guidelines will
now cover procedures for all
28 African nations belonging
to the various groupings,
and the Tripartite Task Force
has been instructed by the
various members' ministers
to develop the required insti-
tutional arrangements to
monitor the implementation
of the guidelines. The har-
monisation rules will also
help pave the way for the
realisation of the Tripartite
Free Trade Area, signed by
the heads of state and gov-
ernments back in 2015, and
a key stepping stone in the
ultimate goal of an Africa
wide free trade area. „
11% in real terms between
2006 and 2016. Disparities
like this can hurt women
consumers all over the
world.
Targeted policies can help
women maximise the bene-
fits of trade. These include
removing trade barriers that
impede women's access to
international markets and
improving women's access to
education, financial services,
and digital technologies.
Governments can design
trade facilitation measures
that remove gender-specific
barriers to trade. These
measures could address bur-
densome customs require-
ments, limited access to
trade finance, and exposure
to extortion or physical
harassment at borders. „
28 retail Update Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020

Uniqlo Gains As Asian Shoppers Return Ortega is the richest apparel

Japan's Richest Person Sees Wealth Soar To $29 Billion As Shoppers Flock Back To Uniqlo
billionaire in the world with a

A
s lockdowns are eas-
ing, shoppers are
returning, more so in
Asia. Japan's wealthiest per-
son, Tadashi Yanai, whose
Fast Retailing owns clothing
brand Uniqlo, has benefited
handsomely from this
rebound; the billionaire has
added US$ 9.2 billion to his
fortune since Forbes' World's
Billionaires list was published
in March and is now worth
US$ 28.9 billion.
With shoppers once again
flocking to Uniqlo's stores in
Japan and China, shares of
Yanai's Fast Retailing are up
53% since March 19, when
they hit a low this year. The
two countries account for
75% of Uniqlo's worldwide
network of 2,200 stores.
While Fast Retailing owns
other brands such as Theory,
Helmut Lang, J Brand and
GU, the biggest money
machine is Uniqlo, contribut-
ing 80% to the company's
US$ 21.3 billion annual rev-
enue. "Retailers are doing
better in Asia," says
Maureen Hinton, research
director at GlobalData, a
London data analytics and
consulting company. "In
markets like China, where
lockdowns have been
removed and where there is
a huge population base,
there is a growing demand."
Uniqlo shuttered half of
its 748 stores in China after
the lockdown was imposed in
January, gradually reopening
them all in late April.
Meanwhile in Japan, 40% of
Uniqlo's stores were tem-
porarily closed in May, but
have since reopened. Last
month, the company opened
two new Uniqlo stores in
Tokyo, in upscale Ginza and
in the shopping hub of
Harajuku.
Part of the buzz around
Uniqlo was due to the June
launch of AIRism, a range of
face masks, which set off an
online stampede that over-
whelmed the company's site.
But it also lured buyers to
visit the brick-and-mortar
stores of the brand, which is
best known for its range of
affordable casual wear-
women's skirts, for example,
retail from US$ 9.90 to US$
39.90. This value-for-money
pricing makes Uniqlo rela-
tively immune to economic
downturns, according to
Dairo Murata, senior analyst
at JP Morgan in Tokyo.
"Economic cycles and fash-
ion trends do not have much
impact as it's a supplier of
ordinary life clothing and
rooted in real demand."
Even so, the retailing
giant isn't likely to escape
the impact of the pandemic.
The company has estimated
that for the fiscal year end-
ing August 31, revenue will
decline 9% to 2.09 billion
yen (US$ 19.3 billion), while
operating profit is likely to be
44% lower at 145 billion yen
(US$ 1.34 billion)
Yanai, who grew up above
his parents' clothing store in
a small town in Yamaguchi
prefecture in southwestern
Japan, has often stated that
he wants Fast Retailing to
become the world's largest
apparel retailer. But the
company still lags Spain's
Inditex, which is the current
number one, with annual
sales of US$ 31.6 billion as
well as Sweden's H&M with
sales of US$ 24.8 billion.
Inditex founder Amnacio
net worth of US$ 64.6 bil-
lion, but H&M's Stefan
Persson with a US$ 16.4 bil-
lion fortune is in third place
after Yanai.
Uniqlo Japan July Sales
Improve By 4.7%
July 2020 same-store
sales including online sales
at Uniqlo Japan, part of the
Fast Retailing Group,
increased by 4.4% year on
year, while total sales includ-
ing online sales increased by
4.7%.
The company said in a
statement that despite the
long spell of rain and low
temperatures experienced
during the month, same-
store sales rose in July on
the back of strong sales of
items that perfectly suited
the recent demand for stay-
at-home clothing.
At the end of July, the
company added, a total of
seven stores remained tem-
porarily closed and 93 stores
were operating shorter
working hours due to Covid-
19. Uniqlo closed one store
in Japan during the month
under review. „

Brooks Brothers Enters Purchase

operations as a going con-
cern, Brooks Brothers said in
a statement. The "stalking

Deal With Retailer SPARC

horse" agreement would
imply that any other bids
that come in must be higher
The 200-year old iconic apparel retailer filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, joining a than the offer made by
SPARC.
slew of decades-old American retailers that have succumbed to the Covid-19 pandemic. Owned by Italian billion-

B
rooks Brothers has
entered into a US$
305 million "stalking
horse" purchase agreement
with retailer SPARC Group
LLC, in a move that could
preserve the apparel brand
as a going concern and help
its operations in at least 125
stores.
The 200-year old iconic
apparel retailer filed for
bankruptcy earlier this
month, joining a slew of
decades-old American retail-
ers that have succumbed to
the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under the terms of the
agreement, SPARC, which is
partially owned by brand
management company
Authentic Brands Group,
intends to buy the compa-
ny's entire global business
aire Claudio Del Vecchio, the
privately held Brooks
Brothers was the first to tai-
lor the button-down Polo
shirt in 1986 and boasts of
having dressed 40 former US
presidents including John F.
Kennedy & Barack Obama. „

www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Boohoo To Set Up ‘Model Garment
Factory’ In Leicester
Plans announced after claims in July that some workers were being paid £3.50 an hour
B
oohoo, the fashion
retailer facing allega-
tions that workers in
its supply chain were treated
as modern day slaves, has
announced plans to set up
its own "model factory" to
ensure workers are treated
fairly.
The company, which was
co-founded by billionaire
Mahmud Kamani, said it
would employ 250 people at
a new Leicester factory it
hopes will start producing
clothes for its Pretty Little
Thing and Nasty Gal brands
by September.
John Lyttle, Boohoo's
chief executive, announced
plans for the factory as the
company battles to rebuild
its reputation after claims in
early July that workers at a
Leicester garment factory
that supplied Boohoo were
paid as little as £3.50 an
hour. That is far below the
minimum wage of £8.72 for
those aged 25.
Staff were also allegedly
not wearing protective
masks to help stall the
spread of Covid-19, and an
outbreak in Leicester was
linked to the city's garment
district factories.
Lyttle said supply chain
working practices exposed
by the media had been
"upsetting". "If there's stuff
wrong in Leicester I'd rather
find and fix it, not run for the
hills," he said.
"We terminated two sup-
pliers as previously
announced because of docu-
mentation issues which
breached our code of con-
duct," Lyttle said. "No evi-
www.TextileExcellence.com
dence of paying as little as
£3.50 per hour was found.
Meanwhile the independent
review will proceed at pace
and if evidence of payment
below minimum wage is
found within any of our sup-
pliers we would terminate
those relationships."
Priti Patel, the home sec-
retary, described the alleged
working practices as "truly
appalling", and called on the
National Crime Agency
(NCA) to investigate. "Let
this be a warning to those
who are exploiting people in
sweatshops like these for
their own commercial gain,"
she said. "This is just the
start. What you are doing is
illegal, it will not be tolerated
& we are coming after you."
Boohoo launched an inde-
pendent review of its UK
supply chain, led by Alison
Levitt QC, and axed two sup-
pliers, Morefray and
Revolution Clothing.
The company has also
hired an independent factory
auditor, Verisio, which start-
ed conducting unannounced
spot checks at the fashion
firm's UK suppliers and their
subcontractors in May. Since
the scandal, the auditor has
been visiting the factories to
ensure workers are given
details of a confidential
whistleblower hotline operat-
ed by Verisio.
Lyttle said the new facto-
ry "will have the latest capi-
tal equipment and promote
the highest standards of
health and safety throughout
the facility". He expects it
will produce 50,000 gar-
ments a week.
Boohoo has previously
said it was "shocked and
appalled by the recent alle-
gations" and vowed to work
to rebuild the reputation of
textile manufacturing in
Leicester. It buys 40% of its
clothing in the UK, mostly in
Leicester, with the rest com-
ing from other countries
such as Turkey, Morocco,
China, Bangladesh & India.
retail Update 29
The scandal sent
Boohoo's share price plung-
ing, and some £1.7 billion
was wiped off its stock mar-
ket value, but it has recov-
ered slightly in recent
weeks. Major retailers
including Next, Asos and
Amazon removed all Boohoo
clothing from sale.
Setting up its own factory
will allow Boohoo to demon-
strate best practice, Lyttle
said. The company has
bought a 1 hectare (2.5
acre) former car showroom
to turn into the new factory.
If the factory is not up
and running by September,
Boohoo will lease a tempo-
rary site in Leicester in the
meantime. Lyttle said that
the firm was looking at
opening another factory
elsewhere in the UK.
Along with other online
retailers, Boohoo, which
started as a market stall in
Manchester, has seen sales
surge during the Covid-19
pandemic. It is expanding,
with plans to open another
warehouse in the UK in addi-
tion to the one in Burnley,
where 2,500 people work.
Producing some of its
clothes itself is also part of
Boohoo's strategy to get its
fast fashion quickly to con-
sumers. Spain's Inditex, the
owner of the Zara chain,
makes its own clothes so it
can get them into shops
quickly.
Lyttle said while a lot of
retailers were ordering stock
six to nine months in
advance, Boohoo was plan-
ning only two weeks ahead.
Buying a large chunk of its
garments in the UK meant
that Boohoo can get its
clothes from the factory to
customers within days,
rather than weeks if they
were imported. Having its
own factory should speed
things up further. „
30 retail Update
British Fashion Retailer Superdry
Shores Up Finances
The group, whose share price has plunged 77% so far this year as its stores were
shuttered due to the pandemic, said the asset backed lending facility was agreed with its
existing lenders HSBC and BNPP and runs to January 2023.
B
ritish fashion retailer
Superdry has agreed a
new 70 million pounds
(US$ 91.5 million) lending
facility to help get it through
the coronavirus crisis.
The group, whose share
price has plunged 77% so far
this year as its stores were
How The Zara Supply Chain Taps
Into Top Clothing, Retail Trends
O
perating more than
2,200 stores across
96 countries, Zara is
one of the world's leading
fashion retailers. While the
clothing giant's success can
be accredited to various fac-
tors - from its keen eye for
emerging trends to its laser-
sharp focus on customer
experience - its highly
responsive supply chain is
what truly gives Zara its
competitive edge.
Just-in-Time Production
Known for staying ahead
of the trends, Zara changes
its apparel designs every two
weeks on average; most of
its competitors do so every
10-14 weeks. To maintain
this lightning pace, Zara
utilises Just-in-Time (JIT)
production methods to keep
turnaround times as tight as
possible.
JIT production, also
known as JIT manufacturing,
is a lean strategy centered
on eliminating waste from
business processes to allow
shuttered due to the pan-
demic, said the asset backed
lending facility was agreed
with its existing lenders
HSBC and BNPP and runs to
January 2023. As at August
6, Superdry had net cash of
GBP 57.8 million on its bal-
ance sheet. "The actions we
for a highly efficient, stream-
lined system. This, in turn,
enables companies to meet
customer demand immedi-
ately. To achieve this, Zara
does much of its production
in-house, with many of its
facilities located near the
company's Galicia, Spain,
headquarters.
It also maintains about
85% of capacity for any nec-
essary in-season adjust-
ments - allowing for greater
flexibility and agility in how
and when new items are
launched.
For companies looking to
increase their speed to mar-
ket, Zara's unique produc-
tion strategies can offer
valuable lessons. Though
most smaller businesses
cannot achieve the same
efficiency, there are a few
key areas on which they can
focus:
„ Investing in in-house pro-
duction processes can allow
for greater flexibility and
better oversight, reducing
the risk of errors, delays,
have taken to date have
greatly strengthened our
cash position, which togeth-
er with our new ABL Facility,
give us the flexibility to exe-
cute our current plans and to
secure our recovery," said
co-founder and CEO Julian
Dunkerton who retook con-
and inefficiencies.
„ Automating in-house pro-
duction can make a huge dif-
ference in getting products
manufactured and out the
door as quickly as possible
while increasing accuracy.
„ Producing products in lim-
ited or smaller quantities
lends an air of exclusivity
and urgency to the shopping
experience, helping to push
customers to purchase.
Vertical Integration
Zara has also tapped into
vertical integration to keep
its supply chain running
smoothly. By acquiring busi-
nesses at different stages of
the chain, Zara is able to
maintain better control of
the value chain, which
means it can react quickly to
shifting consumer demands.
Relying minimally on out-
sourcing, Zara controls
everything from design to
display to shipping, allowing
it to gather valuable data at
every stage. This data can
then be analysed to identify
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
trol of the group in April last
year. The retailer, which sells
sweatshirts, hoodies and
jackets adorned with
Japanese text, said that
while trading in the 13
weeks to July 25, its fiscal
first quarter, was materially
impacted by the crisis, the
24.1% fall in group revenue
was better than its initial
expectations. Some 95% of
Superdry's stores have now
reopened. First quarter store
revenue fell 58.1%, while
wholesale revenue was down
31%. E-commerce made up
some of the shortfall with
revenue growth of 93.2%. „
inefficiencies, pinpoint areas
of success, and create accu-
rate forecasting.
Aside from greater con-
trol, vertical integration also
helps the global clothing
retailer reduce risk, provide
greater transparency to cus-
tomers, and lower the cost
of distribution.
And because Zara is able
to maintain control and
oversight throughout the
entire supply chain, better
communication and collabo-
ration between different
partners can be achieved as
well. Drawing from the Zara
model, businesses may want
to consider their options for
purchasing suppliers, merg-
ing with partners, or even
investing in the sales end of
the process.
These strategies are par-
ticularly useful for compa-
nies that feel their suppliers
are exerting too much power
over them. Vertical integra-
tion also provides better
flexibility to weather difficult
market conditions. However,
there is greater risk involved
in maintaining control over
all or most of the supply
chain, and the upfront
organisational costs can be
steep. „
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
How Retailers Are Handling
Inventories To Reduce Losses
C
oresight has just
released its inventory
tracker for the first
quarter - a time in which
much of the world was
entering a lockdown. What
does the data show?
As retailers have different
fiscal year-ends, the quar-
ters under review in this
report may not be identical.
Most companies reported
first-quarter results, which
ended April 30 and included
impacts of the coronavirus.
Many retailers closed
stores starting in the second
half of March and therefore
there was little time to make
meaningful adjustments to
inventory before having to
close. The inventory impact
from the store closures will
likely be more pronounced in
the second-quarter report.
In the reported quarter,
overall inventory turnover
rates remain flat compared
with the same quarter last
year, which saw inventory
accumulation to offset the
expected impact of tariffs &
support expansion plans.
With non-essential retail
in the United States shut
down for part of March and
www.TextileExcellence.com
the full month of April due to
the coronavirus pandemic,
we saw sharp differences
between the inventory
turnover rates of discre-
tionary retailers such as
apparel and non-discre-
tionary retailers such as food
and drug retailers and mass
merchants. Most apparel
specialty retailers reported
lower inventory turnover
ratios, both compared with
the year-ago period and
sequentially.
As stores are reopening,
we are seeing a significant
return to in-store shopping,
as reflected in higher-than-
anticipated sales productivi-
ty of reopened stores (espe-
cially for apparel and depart-
ment stores). Next quarter,
we expect there to be an
improvement in the invento-
ry turnover ratios for most
covered retailers.
Broader impact of store
closures on excess inven-
tory?
The first quarter
remained a mixed quarter
from the point of inventory
turnovers. With a long period
of nonessential store clo-
sures, discretionary retailers
such as apparel specialty
retailers, department stores
and the one covered beauty
retailer (Ulta Beauty) faced
the heat, with inventory
turnover ratios declining 10-
30% year over year.
Essential retailers such as
food, drug and mass retail-
ers, on the other hand, saw
a surge in sales that was
supported by panic buying
and stockpiling of food and
household essentials - Lauren, have invested sub-
resulting in a 9% year-over-
year increase in inventory
turnover ratios. Home
improvement stores were
deemed to be essential
retailers, explaining the pos-
itive 12.5% year-over-year
growth in their inventory
turnover ratios.
In the first quarter, some
retailers reduced their mer-
chandise receipts substan-
tially, while some recognised
inventory reserve to account
for a rise in inventory obso-
lescence or spoilage due to
store closures; this reserve
uses the money taken out of
earnings for paying cash or
non-cash future costs asso-
ciated with inventory (in
retail Update 31
accounting terms, an inven-
tory reserve is a contra asset
account that writes down the
value of the inventory in the
balance sheet). The store
closures occurred toward the
end of the spring fashion
season and continued
through the early part of the
summer fashion season, cre-
ating a timing mismatch for
inventory. Retailers had to
decide whether to pack the
spring collection away for
next year, or try to sell it
themselves, through off-
price or a liquidator. There
have been 30-70% and even
greater discounts as retailers
seek to clear out this inven-
tory and the fall with a clean
inventory position.
Managing inventory to
blunt losses
In mid-March, many
retailers realigned inventory,
before reducing receipts in
April and May. To attain
sales-to-stock parity, retail-
ers are looking to significant-
ly reduce their inventory lev-
els by the end of the second
quarter.
Some retailers, such as
Burlington Stores and Ralph
stantially in inventory
reserves to keep their inven-
tories aligned with consumer
demand and protect against
a future need to make addi-
tional markdowns. On the
other hand, mass merchan-
disers such as Walmart and
Target are investing to offset
out-of-stocks in multiple cat-
egories, such as food and
general merchandise.
As many retailers sharply
discount inventory in order
to clear it, they choose to
take the pain from revenue
and margin declines in the
near term and get it behind
them, rather than having to
deal with the issue at a later
time. „
32 Sustainable Textile Innovations Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020

VTT, 52 Companies To Cooperate To Reduce

Need For Plastics By Using Natural Fibres
Materials based on natural fibres are an interesting alternative to replace fossil-derived plastics. In the future, they may replace plastics in, for
example, packaging, hygiene products, building materials and textiles. The Piloting Alternatives for Plastics project brings together a wide range of
Finnish and international companies to take materials developed in laboratories towards more industrial production. The project is funded by the
European Regional Development Fund, VTT and companies.

P
lastic is an excellent
material with many
unique properties in,
for example, packaging
applications. Plastic con-
sumption is estimated to
double over the next 20
years. The biggest challenge
for plastic products is their
recyclability. For example,
only 14% of plastic packag-
ing is recycled, so the major-
ity of plastic ends up being
incinerated or in landfills
and, unfortunately, also
improperly disposed of in
forests and oceans.
In a three-year piloting
project, VTT is working with
companies to take the man-
ufacture of new generation
fibre products towards the
scale of industrial produc-
tion. The pilots are being
carried out at VTT in
Jyväskylä, with access to,
among other things, the first
research environment in the
world to utilise the foam-
forming process.
The selected piloting tar-
gets include fibre-based
materials to replace the
plastics used in, for exam-
ple, food packaging, filters,
textiles as well as wiping,
hygiene and construction
materials.
"In this project, we are
creating a new understand-
ing of bio-based fibre net-
works and how, by tailoring
them, we can produce new
types of recyclable materials
that do not burden the envi-
ronment", says Vice
President Jani Lehto from
VTT.
From laboratory through
piloting to the product
development phase
In the research of new
materials, the challenge is to
select the most interesting
from a wide range of raw
material and manufacturing
options, and to reduce the
time it takes to scale the
results obtained on a labora-
tory scale to commercial
production scale.
The development work
done in the project will result
in expertise in various raw
materials, equipment and
manufacturing technologies.
Based on the development
work, companies can move
to the product development
phase for different solutions
in company-driven projects.
The Piloting Alternatives
for Plastics project started
on 1 April 2020 and ends on
31 March 2023. Its total
budget is EUR 6.7 million.
The project is implemented
with funding from the
European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF),
VTT and companies coordi-
nated by the Regional
Council of Central Finland.
Participants in the project
include 52 companies from
Finland and elsewhere in
Europe. A total of 28 compa-
nies from Finland are
involved, of which 18 are
small and medium-sized
companies. „

Carbon Fibres From Renewable Materials

ing lignin as a typical
biopolymer is its complex
and irregular molecular
structure, which makes it
AKK research prize awarded to Dr. Manuel Clauss from the University of Stuttgart
much more difficult to

W
hether vehicle com-
ponents, aircraft or
textile concrete,
plastics and materials which
are reinforced by carbon
fibre are lightweight and tear
-proof, which makes them
very much in demand. Their
disadvantage is that they are
expensive & energy - inten-
sive to manufacture. A new
manufacturing technique
however is set to change
that. This is based on the
doctoral thesis by Dr. Manuel
Clauss entitled "Structural
investigations into lignin-
based carbon fibres" submit-
ted to the Chair of
Macromolecular Materials &
Fiber Chemistry held by Prof.
Michael Buchmeiser at the
University of Stuttgart, in
cooperation with the German
Institute of Textile Chemistry
and Fiber Research (DITF) in
Denkendorf. Dr. Clauss has
now been awarded with the
Research Prize 2020 for his
work by the German Carbon
Group (AKK), part of the
German Ceramic Society
(DKG).
Clauss produces carbon
fibres from waste wood
When looking for alterna-
tive raw materials for the
production of carbon fibres,
Clauss opted for lignin, a
waste product from wood
pulping. The production
process was described as far
back as the 1960s, but it was
not possible to implement it
for technological reasons.
Manuel Clauss has now man-
aged to produce carbon
fibres with competitive prop-
erties from the powdery
brown substance lignin.
Talking about his work,
Manuel Clauss says "The
particular challenge regard-
process, analyse or chemi-
cally modify in any conven-
tional way. Now we can treat
lignin like a technical poly-
mer thanks to a special
process related to its con-
trolled and almost linear
chain length." Prof. Michael
Buchmeiser went on to
emphasize the ecological
aspects: "We're using a
renewable material and gen-
erating a huge amount of
added value in the process."
There is interest from indus-
try, and Buchmeiser ulti-
mately expects a fibre which
is around 50% cheaper. „

www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
A Consortium Develops First Textile Palm
Fibres And Reinforcements
A
consortium of five
Egyptian researchers
have developed high
performance fibres and rein-
forcements extracted from
the byproducts of pruning of
date palms, such as fronds
and fruit branches, also
known as PalmFil. The fibre
is not only sustainable, but
also economical in manufac-
turing, compatible with tex-
tile and composite process-
ing and offers the properties
needed for lightweight cars
of the future.
Dr. Mohamad Midani,
Partner, PalmFil Consortium
said: "In the 1980's the shift
from natural fibres to man-
made fibres was mainly to
bridge the gap between the
increasing demand for tex-
tile fibres and the limited
supply of natural fibres. In
order to reverse this shift,
there is a need to explore
more sources of natural
fibres and increase the biodi-
versity of fibre crops. This is
actually what we did, there
are more than 140 million
date palms mostly concen-
trated in the Middle East and
North Africa, generating
yearly more than 4.8 million
tons (dry wt.) byproducts of
pruning regarded as agricul-
ture waste.
This represented a bur-
den on palm growers, and
was the main cause of fire
accidents and infestation by
dangerous insects.
Those byproducts could
otherwise be transformed
into 1.3 million tons/year
natural textile fibres, ranking
third after cotton and jute."
There have been several
previous attempts to extract
fibres from date palm
www.TextileExcellence.com
Sustainable Textile Innovations 33
byproducts through crushing
and grinding, resulting in a
biomass rather than textile
fibres. PalmFil consortium
succeeded in extracting long
textile fibre from such
byproducts and converted it
into fibre tow, chopped fibre,
spun yarn/roving, nonwoven
mat, woven fabric, and uni-
directional tape.
The new fibre represent a
sustainable material base for
a wide spectrum of indus-
tries. Ranging from natural
reinforcements for compos-
ites in automotive and sport-
ing goods, plaster reinforce-
ments in construction,
burlap sacks for packaging,
ropes, and twines, non-wood
papers, and other consumer
products.
Dilip Tambyrajah,
Secretary General,
International Natural Fiber
Organization said: "Date
palm byproducts have been
used for centuries in the
Middle East and it is a her-
itage related material. It is
culturally embedded in
Middle Easterns but possibly
forgotten in modernity.
Recent R&D conducted by
PalmFil consortium demon-
strates the potential of date
palm fibre; its use in the
modern context and in
industrial settings.
Revival of the fibre sector
in the Middle East will need
dedication and national com-
mitment.
The use of date palm
fibre is not the issue. The
use of most natural materi-
als like the date palm fibre
contribute towards maintain-
ing biodiversity, provide
employment and income and
enable sustainable develop-
ment in general.
However, the key to its
revival will be the national
will and support to encour-
age the development of a
reliable supply chain that
can service the various pro-
duction sectors that could
use the fibre."
Dr. Ahmed Hassanin,
Partner, PalmFil Consortium
said: "It has been a long five
years marathon of self-sup-
ported research, relying
completely on our personal
funding and driven by a
strong belief on the impact
of such innovation on the
sustainable development of
rural communities and their
livelihoods.
We wanted to rediscover
this underutilised resource,
and prove to the whole world
that we could economically
extract textile fibres from it,
without abiding to the agen-
da of any funding institu-
tion."
The new date palm fibre
is obtained from renewable
bioresources and it does not
cause deforestation or com-
pete with food production.
It is 100% biodegradable
and compostable and has
specific tensile strength five
times higher than structural
steel, and equal to those of
flax, hemp and sisal.
Its vibration damping and
acoustical insulation is high-
er than those of glass and
carbon and with thermal
insulation higher than car-
bon. Moreover, it can be eas-
ily blended with other long
fibres such as flax, sisal, and
abaca, or it could be
chopped and blended with
hemp, kenaf, and jute.
Dr. Tamer Hamouda,
Partner, PalmFil Consortium
said: "We did a comprehen-
sive research to optimise the
extraction process and we
did a thorough characterisa-
tion of the new fibre. The
research results were very
well received by the scientif-
ic community and featured
in research and review arti-
cles in some of the most
prestigious scientific journals
in the field, such as,
Industrial Crops and
Products (Elsevier) and
Cellulose (Springer).
The new fibre was also
well accepted by the indus-
trial community in Egypt,
and it has been processed on
a full industrial scale spin-
ning line at the Egyptian
Industrial Center of Flax. We
are currently establishing
connections with the leading
automotive manufacturers in
Europe, and we are conduct-
ing a dedicated research on
date palm fibre composites
in automotive."
PalmFil technology con-
tributes to the circular bioe-
conomy following a closed
loop cycle from cradle to cra-
dle. Moreover, the extraction
technology could be applied
to byproducts of other palm
species such as oil palm,
sugar palm, doum palm as
well as other agriculture
byproducts such as broom-
corn.
PalmFil consortium have
more than 50 years of com-
bined experience in fibre sci-
ence, textile technology and
composite engineering. They
are currently seeking part-
nership to further develop,
scale-up, and commercialise
PalmFil technology. „
34 Sustainable Textile Innovations Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020

Living Ink's Greener Ink Is Made From Algae

C
arbon black, ink,
algae. What do these
three things have in
common? According to Scott
Fulbright, the CEO of Living
Ink, they're all things no one
really thinks about-or, really
cares about, for that matter.
Living Ink, a company
that develops a renewable
bio-based carbon-negative
pigment, grounded on the
thesis that most ink isn't
biodegradable or com-
postable at the moment. To
tackle the problem, Living
Ink is creating black ink,
plastics, rubbers, and other
polymers while making them
potentially safer to use and
better for the environment.
"Right now, if you look
around wherever you're sit-
ting right now, and see any-
thing that's black, all of that
black colorant from a chemi-
cal pigment called carbon
black," he said.
Those materials are made
from petroleum or oil. And
not only is carbon black non-
renewable, but it's also pos-
sibly carcinogenic.
Algae, the secret ingredi-
ent to sustainable ink
First of all, the idea of
algae-based products isn't
totally unheard of. Earlier
this year, Kanye West
announced plans for algae-
based Yeezys. Algae can also
present in popular commer-
cial products like cosmetics,
fertilizer, and nutritional sup-
plements.
It starts with waste algae.
Groups like algae farms will
grow algae, and then extract
a blue molecule used in the
natural food colorant indus-
try. Living Ink then process-
es it, refines it, and turns it
black.
One reason algae works
so well is that they're
already super small cells.
And Fulbright says a key to
making good pigment is
small particle size. This helps
save energy for processing.
According to Forbes, algae
grow 10 times faster than
other land-dwelling plants. It
also requires a tenth of the
land needed to create an
equivalent amount of bio-
mass. Additionally, one of
the biggest issues with bio-
based black products is that
they always turn out grayish
or brown. But, Fulbright says
Living Ink has achieved a
"truly jet black colorant."
Currently, it's also able to
produce large amounts of
green ink. In the future,
Living Ink hopes to also
develop a cyan, magenta,
yellow, & black colour palette
to mix and make different
colours. But, Fulbright notes,
this is pretty high level.
The need for sustainable
ink in the packaging and
textile industry
When algae grow, all the
green biomass produced is
created using atmospheric
CO2. So, this means it cap-
tures CO2 from the atmos-
phere to grow. By taking this
material and performing a
thermal treatment, Fulbright
says it locks up that carbon
for over 100 years. Thus, the
material is carbon negative.
"It's fun knowing that
people can use a product
that actually helped reduce
climate change versus help-
ing climate change continue
down the road it's on," he
said. Over the past year,
there's been a huge push for
sustainable packaging from
major companies like
Hasbro. Similarly, the fash-
ion industry has been taking
steps to be more environ-
mentally friendly and ethical
after some backlash in the
past. Fulbright says this is
driven by two factors. One,
companies are driven to
achieve sustainability met-
rics. Secondly, it's an excel-
lent marketing opportunity.
"From my experience
with brands, everyone is try-
ing to tell an innovative eco
story that's better than their
competitor," Fulbright said.
"And they're trying to use
both sustainable and innova-
tive materials." Although
many companies within
these industries are adopting
more eco-friendly practices,
these efforts become nearly
obsolete if a certain ink is
added. "You can have a
100% organic cotton shirt,
and then you slap a black
logo or picture on the front
or any other colour," he said.
"All you're doing is slapping
more petroleum on to the
front of it."
Some challenges and
proudest moments for
Living Ink
But of course, when it
comes to entering uncharted
territory, challenges are
inevitable. For Living Ink,
this included funding & cre-
ating a functional product.
"We were bootstrapping it
and using a lot of sweat
equity. Just doing everything
we could to make things
work on a shoestring budget
of grad students," Fulbright
said. "So, one of the things
that really saved us was get-
ting the National Science
Foundation Small Business
grant. That really was a
turning point for us early
on." Additionally, creating a
functional product with algae
proved to be a challenge.
Compared to carbon black,
which has been around for
decades, there was no solid-
ified or controlled process.
So, surveying different algae
sources and understanding
algae processing was anoth-
er step to overcome. Not to
mention, the printer has to
also be able to use the ink, &
it must stay colourful and
water-resistant over time.
Some of Fulbright's
proudest moments with
Living Ink include seeing
their first print and finding
their product at an REI.
From plant-breeding robots
to planet intelligence soft-
ware, it's clear that innova-
tion and creativity are essen-
tial in finding climate solu-
tions. But, creating innova-
tive ideas in the lab was the
easy part, so it seems. For
Fulbright, actually getting
their ink into consumers'
products was the greatest
reward.
New partnership with
Patagonia
Recently, Living Ink did a
project with Patagonia, one
of the first big brands to
"test the waters." This,
Fulbright says, has opened
up a lot of other opportuni-
Contd. On Page 35...

www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Sustainable Textile Innovations 35

Researchers Take A Cue From Nature

surface of the chitosan in
order to improve how it
interfaces with the functional

To Create Bulletproof Coatings

layers. Her research includes
designing sustainable and
biodegradable polymers

Engineers Produce Eco-Friendly Polymers Using Material derived from renewable

resources.

from Shrimp, Mushrooms and Other Organisms That enhanced compati-

bility between the chitosan
Shrimp, lobsters and mushrooms may not seem like great tools for the battlefield, but three engi- and the polymer will improve
neers from the University of Houston are using chitin - a derivative of glucose found in the cellular the coating's ability to trap
gas or absorb the impact
walls of arthropods and fungi - and 3D printing techniques to produce high-impact multi-layered
from a projectile, she said.
coatings that can protect soldiers against bullets, lasers, toxic gas and other dangers. That's where Karim

A
lthough corn is better
known as a sustain-
able, bio-based mate-
rial, chitin offers promise as
a commonly available mate-
rial that could be processed
and used in some products
that now require petroleum-
based plastics, said Alamgir
Karim, Dow Chair Professor
of chemical and biomolecular
engineering.
"What if we could process
these materials and get
them to a certain level of
performance, so we could do
some really good things in
the plastics world?" he
asked. "They would be
biodegradable by design, so
they could decompose and
return to Mother Nature."
Karim, who also serves as
director of the International
Polymer & Soft Matter
Center and of the materials
engineering programme at
UH, is principal investigator
on the project, funded by a
US$ 660,000 grant from the
US Department of Defense.
Venkatesh Balan, assistant
professor of engineering
technology, and Megan
Robertson, associate profes-
sor of chemical and biomole-
cular engineering, are co-
principal investigators.
They are charged with
developing tough, durable
and anti-microbial multilayer
films capable of resisting an
impact from projectiles or
lasers while simultaneously
absorbing toxic gas. Karim
said the work will also have
applications beyond the mili-
tary, potentially expanding
its environmental benefits.
Chitin is the primary
component of cell walls in
fungi and the exoskeletons
of arthropods, including
crustaceans, insects and
mollusks. It's also found in
fish scales. It can be har-
vested and processed to pro-
duce chitosan, or de-acety-
lated chitin, a fibre that is
also produced and sold as a
dietary supplement to treat
obesity, high cholesterol,
high blood pressure and
Crohn's disease. Chitosan is
easier to handle than the
brittle chitin.
Balan, whose lab pro-
duces bio-molecules for
medical and industrial use, is
using chemical and enzy-
matic processes to produce
the chitosan molecules using
crustacean shells. "We are
trying to do the same thing
with mushrooms," he said,
noting that mushrooms yield
a more consistent degree of
polymerization sustainably,
helping to standardise pro-
duction of chitin and then
process it to become chi-
tosan.
A stable source of chi-
tosan polymers will be just
the beginning. Robertson will
determine how to alter the
atomic composition at the
comes in - he is engineering
a multilayer system that will
be comprised of a hardened
impact-resistant layer; an
energy-absorbing crush
layer reminiscent of the way
modern cars are designed to
crumple on impact, safe-
guarding the passenger cap-
sule; a layer to absorb toxic
gas, with charcoal nanoparti-
cles dispersed in the chi-
tosan; and a textile adhesion
layer, which will bind the
coating to canvas and other
textiles.
That will involve 3D print-
ing different chitin nanopar-
ticles and chitosan-fabricat-
ed or reinforced crush-zone
design structures and testing
them to determine their abil-
ity to withstand an impact.
"It is a very good, envi-
ronmentally friendly proj-
ect," Karim said, and one
that will have applications
for the automobile, construc-
tion and other industries. „

Living Ink's Greener Ink Is Made From Algae

....Contd. From Page 34
ties for the company. As
Living Ink navigates its way
around Covid-19, Fulbright
says the company has been
taking this time organising,
planning partnerships, and
trying to scale up.
"The reason I love algae
stories is that it makes peo-
ple think. One thing is, what
is ink? We've talked to brand
managers at pretty big com-
panies who don't really even
know what ink is. That's
because it's always the print-
er that deals with ink,"
Fulbright said.
With this eco-story, their
goal is to enlighten people on
the supply chain and offer
some creative inspiration.
They've also recently devel-
oped a small "A" logo for
algae ink that can go next to
the recycling symbol on
products.
"If I sent you a sample,
you could touch that ink and
know the material you're
touching was literally grown
with sunlight in California,"
he adds. "I think capturing
people's imagination on the
innovation side of things is
also big. There are a lot of
companies doing what we're
doing. Not necessarily in
algae ink, but just kind of
using biomaterials to make
things. And I think there's a
huge future." „

www.TextileExcellence.com
36 Corporate Update Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020

Raymond UCO In Association With HeiQ

Launches High Performance Anti-Viral Denim
„ Raymond UCO in association with Swiss textile innovator HeiQ has
launched anti-viral denim fabric
„ SHIELD collection of Raymond UCO also features denim fabric powered by
HeiQViroblock, a unique combination of advanced silver and vesicle
components which is imparted technically on the fabric surface
„ HeiQ'sViroblock technology is proven to be 99.99% effective against a
dozen viruses & bacteria, including SARS-CoV-2, H1N1, H5N1, H7N9,
H3N2, and sendai virus

R
aymond UCO, in part-
nership with Swiss
textile innovator HeiQ,
has launched a highly pro-
tective denim fabric range
with HeiQViroblock, a sus-
tainable, anti-viral and anti-
microbial technology that
has been tested and proven
effective to destroy 99.99%
viruses. Raymond UCO's
association with HeiQ has
been pivotal in global launch
of innovative anti-bacterial
fabrics a couple of years ago
with HeiQ Pure. Along with
this latest launch, Raymond
UCO has also unveiled its
signature functional denim
range SHIELD.
SHIELD collection is a
compelling innovation in the
area of personal health and
hygiene, offering a wide
range of denim fabrics that
aim to fight viruses and bac-
teria. This innovative denim
range also features fabric
powered by HeiQViroblock
technology which has been
tested effective against a
dozen viruses and bacteria,
including SARS-CoV-2,
H1N1, H5N1, H7N9, H3N2,
and sendai virus, all with an
effectiveness above 99.99%.
Studies suggest that
viruses and bacteria can
remain infective on textile
surfaces for days. Human
Coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
persist for up to two days on
surgical gowns at room tem-
perature. In this context,
anti-viral treatments for tex-
tiles can significantly reduce
the risk of transmission and
contamination thus ensuring
hygiene and safety.
HeiQViroblock is a unique
combination of advanced sil-
ver and vesicle components
which is imparted technically
on the fabric surface. These
active components in the
HeiQViroblock kill bacteria
and destroy common harm-
ful enveloped viruses within
a short time span of two
minutes of exposure
(according to modified
AATCC100 test conducted on
Sendai virus). HeiQViroblock
is designed to last on the
fabric even after repeated
domestic washes.
HeiQViroblock is certified
as safe and sustainable with
all its ingredients designated
as cosmetic grade, bio-
based and recycled. Beta
Analytics Testing Laboratory
has certified that
HeiQViroblock contains 72%
bio-based carbon.
It is EU REACH and US
FIFRA compliant, OEKO-
TEX® certified, ZDHC and
bluesign® homologized.
Denims treated with
HeiQViroblock are complaint
with EU BPR and US EPA.
The HeiQViroblock ingredient
is marketed under brand
name HeiQ V-Block in the
USA.
"We are very grateful to
see how the entire textile
industry is working hard to
adapt the world's best anti-
viral textile technology into
not only face masks and
PPEs, but also daily clothing
like denim. Consumers want
to feel protected and to have
to worry about touching the
clothes on their own body is
the last thing anyone wants!
I am sure the SHIELD collec-
tion, powered by
HeiQViroblock will contribute
to resuming our normal lives
earlier and with much higher
confidence," stated Carlo
Centonze, co-founder and
CEO of HeiQ Group.
Raymond UCO, a formi-
dable player in the global
denim industry, is reckoned
as one of the most versatile,
flexible and fully vertical
denim fabric manufacturers.
Commenting on this latest
innovation, Arvind Mathur,
CEO- Raymond UCO Denim
said; "SHIELD is a versatile
range of "fashion with func-
tion" denim fabrics that aims
to offer end-consumers best-
in-class anti-microbial and
anti-viral denims. In these
unprecedented times of
worldwide pandemic, appar-
el for everyday use that pro-
tect users from viruses and
bacteria have become vital.
It is in this context, we have
developed environment-
friendly, anti-viral denim fab-
rics with our innovation part-
ner HeiQ that will enable us
to not only excite fashion
lovers but also assure the
end consumers with ultimate
clothing solutions for health
and hygiene." „

www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Itema Group Announces Closing Of
The Acquisition Of PTMT
I
tema, the leading
provider of advanced
weaving solutions,
including best-in-class weav-
ing machines, spare parts
and integrated services,
announces the finalisation of
the agreement for the acqui-
sition of the PTMT, formerly
Panter, in business lease
since April 2019.
Despite the difficult
moment that the world econ-
omy is going through due to
the consequences of the pan-
demic generated by the
Covid-19 virus, Itema's
Board of Directors chooses
not to stop investments, con-
vinced that the only way to
overcome this critical period
is to believe in a future made
prosperous by long-term
strategic choices.
The acquisition by its sub-
sidiary Itema Tech s.r.l.
www.TextileExcellence.com
allows Itema to expand its
product portfolio by adding
PTMT technology, with the
aim of consolidating and
establishing a new leadership
in the field of technical fab-
rics. The launch of
Itematech, the new division
dedicated to technical tex-
tiles, in the first quarter of
2019, gathered growing
interest from weavers all
over the world. Itematech,
indeed, offers today the most
complete technological port-
folio available on the market
to weave these special fab-
rics.
The operation confirms
Itema's Board Directors
intention to invest in the tex-
tile machinery sector, as wit-
nessed by the words of
Gianfranco Ceruti, President
of the Board of Directors of
Itema: "The acquisition of
Corporate Update 37
PTMT enriches Itema's tech-
nological offer for weaving
machinery, adding even
more value to our company's
proposal to the market".
Angelo Radici - on behalf
of the family heirs of Gianni
Radici, who hold 60% of the
Itema shares, and in agree-
ment with the Arizzi and Torri
families to whom the remain-
ing share belongs - com-
mented: "This strategic
choice brings further impetus
to the Group. Our constant
commitment to global
expansion goes hand in hand
with attention to local reali-
ties: we strongly believe in
the excellence of our territo-
ry companies, in their presti-
gious historical tradition and
in their continuous growth
potential. We are therefore
confident that the merger of
PTMT's deep technological
know-how and the structural
and organisational solidity of
our Group will give rise to
new opportunities for devel-
opment and affirmation on
international markets".
Ugo Ghilardi, CEO of
Itema Group, commented:
"Technical fabrics represent
an extremely valuable and
complex market in the global
textile scenario, constanlty
evolving and growing. With
Itematech we are ready to
respond to the needs of this
specific sector, through the
widest range of technological
solutions offered by a single
partner. Itematech will be
able to count on Itema
Group's production capacity
and its commercial and serv-
ice network, along with the
technological solutions that
have always been the flag-
ship of the Panter brand,
such as the loom dedicated
to weaving carbon fibre, in
what is a unique synergy on
the market ".
The Itema plant in
Colzate, at the forefront in
the field of lean manufactur-
ing, was quickly equipped by
the Itema engineering team
for the production of the ex-
Panter models thus guaran-
teeing the high quality stan-
dards of Itema weaving
machines. Thanks to the
union of the two technologi-
cal realities, Itematech guar-
antees the weaving of the
widest range of technical fab-
rics - from carbon fibre to the
coarsest and finest filter fab-
rics, to name just a few - and
the widest know-how in the
sector. „
38 Corporate Update
Sateri Partners With Brands To
Unveil New Recycled Fibre FinexTM
S
ateri has unveiled
FinexTM as its new
product brand for recy-
cled fibre. FinexTM, short for
'Fibre Next', is an innovative
next-generation cellulosic
fibre containing recycled con-
tent. Internationally known
outdoor brand Lafuma has
produced FinexTM apparel
ahead of 618, China's major
mid-year online shopping
festival, while independent
China designer Rico Lee will
launch his FinexTM apparel
next month.
Since its announcement
in March this year of a break-
through in commercial pro-
duction of viscose using recy-
cled textile waste, Sateri has
worked closely with its down-
stream yarn and garment
manufacturing partners to
bring the recycled fibre prod-
uct to the consumer market.
"We're pleased to collabo-
rate with Sateri as one of
US DuPont To Conduct Maintenance
On Tyvek Protective Garment Lines
D
uPont expects to con-
duct maintenance on
lines that produce its
Tyvek fabric which is used to
make protective garments.
DuPont makes the material
at its site in Contern,
Luxembourg, and at its
Spruance complex in
Richmond, Virginia state, US.
CEO Ed Breen said the
maintenance involves more
than one line, although he
did not specify how many. He
made the comments during
an earnings conference call.
DuPont is going to rotate
their first brand partners for
FinexTM. Sateri's dedication
to this partnership made it
possible for Lafuma to pro-
duce T-shirts with this fine
quality fibre in a short time.
T-shirts made with FinexTM
will be among the offerings
Lafuma has in store for the
618 festival as we look to
support environmentally-
friendly and excellent per-
formance solutions to
strengthen our position as a
leading outdoor apparel
brand," said Wu Qian,
General Manager of Lafuma
China.
Echoing similar senti-
ments is Rico Lee who estab-
lished his own independent
label in 2014, "I jumped at
the opportunity to collabo-
rate with Sateri when they
approached me because
FinexTM encapsulates what
my brand stands for-
Beautiful Technology that
the lines through the mainte-
nance, Breen added. Each
line undergoing maintenance
will be down for two to three
weeks. Dupont has been run-
ning its Tyvek lines at high
rates to meet increased
demand for protective per-
sonal equipment (PPE)
caused by the coronavirus,
Breen explained. The work
had paid off, and DuPont was
able to double the production
rate of Tyvek garments to
30m/month. To increase gar-
ment output, DuPont divert-
ed fabric from another busi-
combines function & fash-
ion." Tom Liu, Sateri's
Commercial Vice President
said, "Like our flagship brand
EcoCosy®, FinexTM is made
from bio-based natural
fibres. Innovation and tech-
nology has made cellulosic
textile fibre recycling possi-
ble and FinexTM represents
how nature not only renews
itself but that products made
from nature can also be
regenerated.
This, at its heart, is what
circular fashion looks like.
Our brand promise to cus-
tomers remains constant -
Sateri's products are sustain-
able, high quality, efficient,
and cost-effective.
The FinexTM tagline
'Together For A Better Next'
expresses our aspiration to
be the partner of choice for
next-generation fibre - we
thank Lafuma and Rico Lee
for pioneering with us on this
ness unit which uses the fab-
ric to make building wrap for
construction projects. "We
got those up and running at
way higher rates than what
we had been running them at
before because of the pan-
demic," Breen said. A couple
of the Tyvek lines are
extremely old, he said.
DuPont did not specify
how the maintenance will
affect Tyvek garment produc-
tion, but it will limit supply.
In Q3, Tyvek garments will
be down from the second
quarter but up from Q3
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
quest."
Last month,
announced its entry into
Sateri
China's Lyocell fibre market.
The recent string of product
portfolio expansion
announcements is under-
pinned by Sateri's business
strategy to capture value.
Allen Zhang, President of
Sateri said, "Being the
world's largest viscose pro-
ducer gives us the advan-
tages that come with vol-
ume, but value is what we
hope differentiates us. By
this, we don't only mean
higher value products like
Lyocell or FinexTM but also
the value we bring to com-
munities, country, climate
and customers."
Globally, less than 1% of
material used to produce
clothing is recycled into new
clothing. This presents a big
opportunity for textile fibre
recycling, particularly in
China which is the largest
textile producing country in
the world. Last month, Sateri
became a council member of
the China Association of
Circular Economy (CACE). „
2019, according to the com-
pany. DuPont did not specify
whether Tyvek revenue
would fall quarter on quarter
or if earnings would fall quar-
ter on quarter.
During the second quar-
ter, sales of the garments
rose by more than 60% year
on year. Looking ahead,
DuPont expects to resume
working on an expansion
project that will add a third
line to its Tyvek plant in
Luxembourg. The govern-
ment in Luxembourg ordered
DuPont to halt work at the
project because of the pan-
demic, Breen said. It should
be back online in a year-and-
a-half. Tyvek is made out of
high-density polyethylene
(HDPE) fibres. „
www.TextileExcellence.com
August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Corporate Update 39

Sarex's Saraguard FL Has Proven Efficacy Against

Feline Coronavirus And H1N1 Influenza Virus
I
ndia based reputed textile and fine
chemicals manufacturer Sarex has
tested efficacy of the anti-microbial
product Saraguard FL against Feline
Coronavirus (same family as Covid-19)
and H1N1, and found to be very effec-
tive. The tests were carried out at pres-
tigious MSL Laboratory UK.
Elaborating on the success of
Saraguard FL against the coronavirus,
Prakash Saraf, Director, Sarex said,
"Our anti-microbial products have
exhibited excellent results on testing by
MSL Laboratory UK in accordance with
ISO 18184:2019 test procedures
against feline coronavirus and H1N1."
Sarex's Saraguard FL is the first
entirely "Made in India" product (pro-
duced in the company's Tarapur facility)
that has been approved by a leading
laboratory under ISO 18184-2019
against the viruses. The tests were con-
ducted on both cotton as well as poly-
ester fabrics.
"We are successfully exporting this
product to several countries including Asia and Middle East. Now, with the H1N1, our customers will have
Europe, Turkey, South America, Central proven anti-viral efficacy of Saraguard enhanced trust on our product, added
America, Korea and other countries in FL against the feline coronavirus and Mr. Saraf.
Today, hygiene and wellness concern
of textile products have become impor-
tant for consumers beyond healthcare
settings. Sarex is fully committed to
support textile and apparel manufactur-
ers with innovative solutions that fulfills
consumer demands.
In India, several leading brands are
already using Sarex's anti-microbial
products - Linen Club, Arrow and Flying
Machine (part of Arvind Brands) have
launched their masks and denim prod-
ucts using Saraguard FL.
The company also claims that the
cost per kg of the treated fabric with
Saraguard FL would be less than half of
other imported products available in the
market. This competitive advantage is
due to its local production that justifies
the call for #AtmaNirbhar or Prime
Minister Modi's campaign for 'vocal for
local'. „

www.TextileExcellence.com
40 Corporate Update
Rieter Wins Patent Dispute In China
R
ieter protects its inno-
vations and products
with patents and regis-
tered designs. The company
takes consistent action
against patent and design
infringements. In mid-July
2020, in a legal dispute, the
Shanghai Intellectual
Dr. Marina Crnoja-Cosic Is Head Of New
Business Development At Kelheim Fibres
Property Court of the
People's Republic of China
ruled in favour of Rieter
Ingolstadt GmbH (Germany).
Rieter machines stand for
outstanding quality, high
operational safety, excellent
performance and user-
friendliness as well as unique
design. In order to benefit
from these characteristics,
competitors copy the suc-
cessful Rieter machine con-
cepts and even adopt the
coveted Rieter design.
Rieter protects its innova-
tions by means of patents
and registered designs. The
D
r. Marina Crnoja-Cosic
has been appointed
Head of New Business
Development at the viscose
speciality fibre manufacturer
Kelheim Fibres. She will also
serve as a member of
Kelheim's Management
Board.
The chemist with a doc-
torate degree brings with her
long-time experience in fibre
and application development
as well as in business devel-
opment. Customised and
market-oriented solutions,
cross company cooperation
along the value chain and
constant attention to long-
term industry and particular-
Textile Excellence „ August 16-31-2020
company takes consistent
action against companies
that infringe Rieter patents
or designs and copy products
or machines. In 2018, Rieter
registered design infringe-
ments by Shenyang Hongda
Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. in
relation to double-head draw
frames, and decided to file a
lawsuit against the Chinese
company.
In mid-July 2020, the
Shanghai Intellectual
Property Court of the
People's Republic of China
determined that the double-
head draw frames JWF1316
and JWF1316T of Shenyang
Hongda Textile Machinery
Co., Ltd. are similar to and
fall within the scope of pro-
tection of the design patent
concerned.
The defendant Shenyang
Hongda Textile Machinery
Co., Ltd. was sentenced to
compensate the plaintiff
Rieter Ingolstadt GmbH for
financial losses and
expenses. „
ly to textile trends have
shaped her career path for
the past 20 years.
"Dr Crnoja-Cosic is highly
competent. She has an enor-
mous wealth of experience
as well as a comprehensive
network. At the same time,
she has repeatedly proven
that she is not afraid to tread
new paths - a perfect match
with our philosophy!
Together with Dr. Crnoja-
Cosic, we will intensify our
focus on innovation even
more. We are very pleased to
have her on board!", says
Craig Barker, CEO at Kelheim
Fibres. „
www.TextileExcellence.com
 August 16-31-2020 „ Textile Excellence
Textile Excellence's vTex Show To
Bring In Top Industry Players
T
extile Excellence is
organising vTex Show -
virtual textile
exhibition, from September
21-26, 2020. This is the pub-
lication's initiative to comple-
ment the industry's efforts to
re-energize business in these
times.
The show covers the
entire value chain - fibres,
yarns, fabrics, apparel, home
textiles and made-ups, dyes
and finishes, textile machin-
ery, and the latest addition to
the textile industry - PPE
kits, face masks makers and
exporters.
According to the
organisers of the show, "This
will be an effective platform
for the entire textile industry
to showcase their products
and services, and to network
with clients, customers, and
peers. We expect 18000-
20000 serious visitors to the
show, from India and from
across the globe."
Re-energizing the
industry
Textile production had
been severely impacted for
the last word 41
the last few months, but is
gradually reviving, with the
industry currently running at
50-60% of installed capacity.
And some market
movements are visible.
In February, Grasim
Industries has filed an
Industrial Entrepreneur's
Memorandum for setting up
new viscose staple fibre
capacity.
Also, Trident Group has
filed an IEM for 67,500
spindles for manufacturing
cotton yarn. In January and
February, around 32 IEMs
were filed in the textile
sector, compared to 35 IEMs
in January and February of
2019. However, the projects
in 2020 are not as big as the
ones planned in 2019.
"vTex Show will act as a
catalyst for re-energizing the
industry as we are bringing
in the best of the Indian and
global players on to a single
platform, which will be
visited by top buyers and
retailers from the important
markets," said the show
organisers. „
www.TextileExcellence.com