Archive for March, 2009
PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)
Hong Kong is the world?s third largest exporter of garments, behind China and the EU, and a major exporter of textiles - reflecting its favoured position as one of Asia?s most prominent trading hubs.
Textile and clothing exports stood at US$40 bn in 2008, representing 11% of total exports from the territory. Most of this trade, however, comprises re-exports of goods
originating in mainland China and other low cost Asian countries.
Hong Kong?s domestic textile and garment sectors have been declining due to high manufacturing costs. In particular, labour and land costs are significantly higher than in most other Asian countries.
Not surprisingly, there has been a strong trend, evident since the late 1980s, for manufacturers to subcontract operations to lower cost countries, especially mainland China.
Even so, Hong Kong still retains an important garment manufacturing industry which is the territory?s largest manufacturing activity. There is an emphasis on producing goods for the luxury market where innovation and fashion are essential attributes in attracting sophisticated international consumers.
Important links have been established with some of the world?s most famous and exclusive brands.
Moreover, the textile and garment industries remain at the centre of the territory?s economy. The industries employ around 147,000 people, of whom 117,000 are involved in the export/import trade.
Looking ahead, Hong Kong will face growing competitive pressures as the textile and garment industries in other Asian countries expand and build up their design and manufacturing capabilities - and these pressures will need to be accommodated. On the other hand, business opportunities are being boosted by the ever closer business and economic links which are being developed between Hong Kong and mainland China.
March 31st, 2009
Fibre2fashion.com
March 30, 2009 (Sri Lanka)
Recently an agreement was inked to conduct diploma training courses of the Textile Training & Services Centre (TT&SC) at the Textured Jersey Garment factory, on the occasion of which was present the Additional Secretary in the Textile Ministry, Mr Herath.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Herath said, “Those who underwent training at the Training centre have found gainful employment in several garment units and we will take all steps to upgrade the centre, which will play a pivotal role in the development of the sector”.
Mr Goonathilake, Managing Director of the Textured Jersey Company said that this agreement would open the doors for many other such joint ventures between the TT&SC and other garment units, which would ultimately help in the development of the sector.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - China
March 30th, 2009
Best Syndication
Kids are beautiful and so are their works. Who doesn’t love kids – all of us – their pranks, their playfulness and innocence attracts all of us. Yet, today’s kids are not as simple as were in our age. Today’s kids love everything new which comes in the market, make their own choices and select the things – be it toys, books, clothes, food on their own.
The beasts of beauty are too conscious of the things they want. Once they stick to a particular choice, it becomes very difficult to make them alter their choice. Yet, kids are kids.
Kids are special gift by almighty. When designers make dresses for kids, they are unique in all the sense. Shararas, Ghagras, sherwani, party fear frocks, tops, skirts jeans, party suits – all of them are designed and stitched to make the little ones bubble like anything.
Kids wear categorized as traditional and designer wear, these are further categorized as boys and girls dresses/apparels. Generally the dress stitched for girls are frocks, skirts, Shararas, tops, jeans and other designer wear. For boys it is generally jeans, t-shirts, trousers, shirts and sherwani. The little angels look really cute when they wear them.
Brands like Catmoss, Kidzees, kids apparel, Asopalav, Bambi Apparels, Bibi’s Fashin, Cottons Comfort, Daisy Apparel Designers, Daksh International, Flying Fashions, and Friend Apparel are some of the top most names in the country who specialize in kid’s dresses.
Making or cutting and stitching kids dresses is not an easy task, so often these are priced quite high; but, for a family person, it is important that he sees to the cost of the apparel also. To cut sown the costs and yet to bring smile on your kids faces, I recommend that you buy kids apparels from a online shopping store. An online shopping store gives you manifold advantages like membership discounts, normal discounts on apparels, home delivery or payment by credit card and so on. Added to these are other benefits which keep on popping up once you begin to buy a online shopping store.
Home Shop 18 is one such online shopping store which offers the best deals and a large range of dresses. If you haven’t purchased one till now, buy one today and enjoy the benefits offered by a good online shopping store.
Author suggest to you purchase best n latest gifts items like ladies bags, flower vases, mobiles, apparels, watches and many more from online shopping mall in India
March 27th, 2009
Fibre2fashion.com
Last night in New York futures market, May 2009 closed at 44.31 with a decline of 72 points, July 09 closed at 45.28 with a decline of 69 points, while October closed at 47.90 with a decrease of 82 points. The spot rate of KCA declared settled at Rs. 3250/= with and increase of Rs. 25/= today. Nearly 7800 bales have been brought to records been sold.
According to Cotlook, there is speculation that at least an additional 500,000 tonnes of cotton will be purchased by China for state reserves and the textile export rebate rate will be raised to 17%. Another article from Cotlook reported that, “Keqiao Textile Index, (a broad measure of textile prices, supervised by the Ministry of Commerce), has risen for the third consecutive week from 90.35 to 90.46, amid continuing reports of an upturn in trading activity in the primary textile sector.”
If we just look at the cotton market in isolation, it seems to make sense for the market to be stuck in a relatively tight range. On the one hand we have very supportive US export sales, with 2.7 million statistical bales of new commitments over the last two months, and mills are generally operating at decent margins at the current low prices. On the other hand we still have several origins that have yet to dispose of huge inventories, such as Central Asia, West Africa and India, which keeps the trade from getting too excited about a potential rally.
However, as many of us have learned in a painful lesson last year, the factors that drive commodity markets go far beyond the traditional supply and demand issues of a particular commodity. In the years leading up to the 2008 market crash, we saw commodity markets become a new playground for index and hedge funds. By piling hundreds of billions of dollars into commodity markets they tripled and quadrupled open interest and eventually forced prices to explode to the upside, often in the face of fundamental reasoning.
Then in late summer of 2008 the financial meltdown ensued, leading to massive deleveraging in just about every asset class, with the exception of government bonds. In this panic-like rush to liquidity, hedge and index fund long positions were cut dramatically. In the cotton market, outright spec longs in the futures market dropped from 13.4 million bales a year ago to just 3.1 million bales last week, while index funds cut their net long from 12.3 to 6.0 mio during the same time frame. Over the last few months this long liquidation has subsided and we are getting to the point where money from these sources is starting to flow back into the market.
Ghulam Rabbani & Co
March 27th, 2009
Business Wire (press release)
DUBLIN, Ireland–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/466333/trends_in_world_te) has announced the addition of Textiles Intelligence’s new report “Trends in World Textile and Clothing Trade” to their offering.
World textile and clothing trade grew by 10.6% to US$583 bn in 2007. The rise was the fourth double digit increase in five years and followed growth of 13.5% in 2003, 12.0% in 2004, 5.2% in 2005 and 10.0% in 2006. Prior to 2003, the last double digit rise had been witnessed in 1995. Three trade flows involving Asia grew at double digit rates in 2007. In textiles, exports from Asia to Africa increased by 18%, while those from Asia to Europe rose by 16%. But intra- North American textile trade fell by 5%. In clothing, Asian exports to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries surged by 95%. However, exports from Asia to Europe fell, albeit by a marginal 0.3%. At the same time, intra-North American trade declined by 16% and exports from South and Central America to North America fell by 7%.
The US textile and clothing trade deficit rose by 3.7% to US$92.26 bn, of which 87% was in clothing alone. The EU27 deficit rose by a much faster 13.7%. But at US$63.03 bn it equated to only 68% of the US deficit. China continued to have the world’s biggest textile and clothing trade surplus, followed by India, Turkey, Italy and Pakistan.
The world’s biggest textile exporter in 2007 was the EU27, followed by China, Hong Kong, the USA, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Turkey, Pakistan and Japan. The EU27 was also the biggest textile importer, followed by the USA—although China ranked as high as third, followed by Hong Kong, Japan, Turkey, Mexico, Vietnam, Canada and Russia. In clothing, China was the world’s leading exporter for the second year running, followed by the EU27, Hong Kong, Turkey, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico and the USA. As for clothing imports, 46% of the world total went to EU countries in 2007, while the USA took 24% and Japan took 7%. The countries which followed in importance had only small shares and included Hong Kong, Russia, Canada, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Australia.
March 27th, 2009
Source: just-style.com
BioNeutral Group Inc, a life science company that has developed anti-chemical and antimicrobial treatments for fibres and textiles, is to buy garment manufacturer Orient Arts Inc.
Orient Arts and its affiliate companies have annual sales of over $10m, and manufacture, design and produce finished goods such as shirts, pants and healthcare uniforms in Asia.
The company sells its products in the US through department stores and direct sales to commercial clients, and also has licensing agreements with several celebrities.
Stephen J Browand, president and CEO of BioNeutral Group said Orient Arts “is interested in applying BioNeutral’s proprietary chemical formulations to the fabric and finished goods presently offered as well as to expand the business of the company to markets in the broader healthcare field.
“The objective is to develop added value treatments for fabric, fibres and finished goods for consumers, industry and those used by healthcare personnel in hospitals, nursing homes, doctor/dental/veterinary offices, diabetics, home health and wound care, while controlling the means of production.”
Mahesh Lala, president of Orient Arts, will continue to run the company.
Earlier this month BioNeutral Group Inc set up a new subsidiary to market its Ogiene and Ygiene treatments.
Theses help prevent chemicals and pathogens from attaching to clothing, and help increase the life of the fabric and colour.
March 27th, 2009
Hindu Business Line
NEW DELHI: India and Turkey will hold discussion in the first week of April on a dispute relating to a three-fold hike in import duty by the Turkish authorities on Indian cotton textile.
The talks, to be held in Geneva on April 6, will follow India’s r equest for mutual consultations within a framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Under the WTO rules, the countries are expected to go for formal consultations for resolving a trade dispute before it is referred to the Dispute Settlement Bo dy (DSB) of the multilateral trade regulator.
Turkey, to which India’s exports were worth over $239million in calendar 2007, increased import duty on Indian cotton products, including yarn, to 15 per cent from the bound rate of about 5 per cent. Between January and September, shipments were worth $1 12 million. “Turkey has agreed to hold consultations with us under a WTO safeguard agreement,” an official said. However, India retains the option of going to the DSB if the issue is not resolved through bilateral negotiations, he said. – PTI
March 25th, 2009
Reuters
By Ek Madra
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Mon Moeun, one of thousands of Cambodians pulled out of poverty by a job in the garment trade since foreign investors arrived in the 1990s, may be back rearing pigs soon after a collapse in demand from Western countries.
Many garment factories in Cambodia are closing as shoppers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere cut back on clothing purchases due to the global financial crisis.
Garments are Cambodia’s biggest export earner and its economy may shrink this year due to the drop in demand.
Moeun and his wife have suffered a double blow. They used to earn $80 a month each as garment workers, sending half of it back to support their 8-year-old son living with Moeun’s parents in the southern province of Takeo.
Then, three months ago, their factories shut without notice.
“We see hard times ahead when we get back to the countryside, raising pigs and planting vegetables to make a living,” said Moeun, 39, chatting with friends under a tree near a shuttered factory on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh.
More than 1,000 workers were owed pay when South Korean-owned Da Joo (Cambodia) Ltd. closed. It has become an all too familiar story.
At its peak, Cambodia’s garment sector boasted almost 300 factories employing 340,000 workers, many of them women from the countryside.
Foreign companies started to move into the impoverished Southeast Asian country after U.N.-sponsored elections in 1993, fuelling an economic revival after 30 years of civil war and the horrors of the Khmer Rouge “killing fields” in the 1970s.
The monitoring of work conditions by the International Labor Organization helped lure brands such as Adidas, Nike and Gap, keen to avoid bad publicity from sweatshops. Cambodia’s membership of the World Trade Organization from 2004 provided another boost.
Factories sprang up where once there were green rice fields around the capital and garments became Cambodia’s biggest export earner. They brought in $2.78 billion in 2008, but that may drop about 30 percent this year, said Kaing Monika, spokesman of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia
(GMAC).
Exports of garments to the U.S. market dropped nearly 40 percent in January compared with a year earlier. Some 70 percent of the clothes go to the United States, 25 percent to Europe and the rest mainly to South Korea and Japan.
So far about 20 out of 291 factories, owned mostly by Taiwanese, Chinese, South Koreans and Malaysians, have closed their doors, Monika said. Other factories, at best, were running at 70 percent of capacity now. Some had no orders at all.
Some 70,000 workers have been laid off since last year and another 100,000 jobs are under threat over the next two years, according to the country’s leading Labor union, Chea Mony Another laid-off worker, 28-year-old Sar Bunthoeun, said his mother would suffer now he can no longer send back $40 a month. “I’ll return to my old job as a barber. It’s my fate,” he said.
ECONOMIC SLUMP
The sector represents about 16 percent of Cambodia’s GDP, so the factory closures will hurt, with a ripple effect in the countryside as the money sent home by garment workers dries up.
The International Monetary Fund says the economy could shrink 0.5 percent in 2009 and the garment trade slump is a big factor.
But Kang Chandararot, director of the Cambodian Institute of Development Study (CIDS), said even if the double-digit growth of recent years was out of reach, 4 or 5 percent may be possible thanks to a bountiful rice crop in 2008/09 and the record $950 million in aid pledged by international donors for 2009.
“Cambodia could use the aid of nearly $1 billon to invest in infrastructures to stimulate its economy,” Chandararot said.
People surviving on less than $1 a day are deemed to be living in poverty. Garment workers earn on average $2.7 a day so the loss of these jobs will hurt.
“More people will be pushed into poverty,” said Huot Chea of the World Bank in Cambodia.
Historical data is lacking in Cambodia, but the World Bank says 45 to 50 percent of the people lived in poverty in 1994. Prime Minister Hun Sen says that was cut to 30 percent by 2008 thanks to the garment sector, tourism and agriculture.
Analysts doubt the job losses will undermine the grip on power of Hun Sen, who has run the country for 23 years, but some are worried about social problems.
“The massive layoffs of workers could lead to social unrest, with more armed robberies or drug smuggling,” Chandararot of the CIDS said.
And he foresaw land disputes as people returned to the countryside. “What is most likely is that they will fight over the land needed to make a living in the future,” he said.
Hun Sen called on aid donors at a meeting on March 12 to join with the government to provide a social safety net to help workers who had been laid off. He also said the government would try to find new export markets in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has urged the government to make foreign-owned factories deposit funds with the Treasury so that workers can get what they are owed in the event of bankruptcy.
There have been reports of looting of machinery but, in some instances at least, it’s more a question of workers and management trying to find ways to pay wages.
Chhen Mey, 30, was a supervisor at a factory of Malaysian-owned L.A (Cambodia) Garment Pte. Ltd, which closed in late 2008 with the loss oA Reuters reporter saw L.A workers carrying sewing machines onto trucks, heading for auction. “If we don’t sell the machines, we’ll have no money to pay the unpaid workers,” Mey said.
Albert Teoh is the director of a Malaysian-based company with three factories that used to export goods worth over $160 million a year under the ‘Target’ brand and employed 12,000 workers.
He is worried that in the next few months most of the subcontractors for the factories will have folded.
“There’s no way to make profits. How to survive the crisis is our main priority, really,” Teoh said.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould and Megan Goldin)
March 24th, 2009
Monsters and Critics.com
Business News
Dhaka - Bangladesh’s food minister on Sunday said the government is prepared to offer food assistance for over 3 million low-wage garment workers, starting early next month.
‘We are ready to give food ration throughout the year to the workers of ready-made garment factories,’ Abdur Razzaque, food and disaster management minister, said after a meeting with the leaders of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
The move is designed to ease labour tensions in a country that relies heavily on garment exports.
The minister said that the government will provide 50,000 tonnes of rice, a staple food in Bangladesh, per month, for distribution at subsidized rates among industry workers.
He said that food assistance would begin the first week of April. He said the government is consulting with factory owners on implementing the programme.
Many of the workers are concentrated in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, its adjoining districts, and the port city of Chittagong.
Razzaque said the government will be able to supply the subsidized rice for the rest of the year. Under the program, each workers will be allowed to buy 20 kilogrammes per month at a rate equivalent to 0.26 dollars a kilogramme, slightly lower than market price. Purchases will be made on company premises.
Factory owners have been asked to work out procedures for the rice distribution. The government, which has 1.2 tonnes of food in reserve, wants to get the program started.
Abdus Salam Murshedi, president of BGMEA, said factory owners would soon meet to decide on the issue.
The government’s offer would help factory owners weather some of the problems brought on by the global financial recession, he added.
Bangladesh earns nearly 12 billion US dollars a year from the exports of ready-made garments, mainly to Europe and United States. Workers’ protests over low pay are frequent in the country.
March 23rd, 2009
Delta Farm Press
Mar 18, 2009 10:56 AM, By Elton Robinson
Farm Press Editorial Staff
USDA says recovery in world cotton consumption in 2009-10 will depend on economic growth and its effect on global textile demand.
USDA is projecting a world cotton crop for 2009-10 of 107 million bales, a 2.3 percent decline from the previous year and the lowest output since 2003-04. In a report presented at the Agricultural Outlook Forum in Arlington, Va., in late February, USDA said the decline reflects significant reductions in China, Pakistan and the African Franc Zone countries, which were partially offset by higher production in India and Australia.
The remainder of the world’s major cotton producers are projected to produce the same or slightly less cotton in 2009-10, according to USDA. Global harvested area is projected to fall to 73.4 million acres while average yield is expected to increase to 700 pounds per acre.
In China, 2009-10 production is forecast at 33 million bales, down 3.5 million bales (nearly 10 percent) from a year earlier. Cotton area is forecast at 13.2 million acres, a decline of about 11 percent from the previous year. China’s cotton prices have been weakening and prices to farmers fell below expectations for the 2008 crop.
Prices for food crops in China remain high enough to attract some acreage from cotton. USDA says state reserve purchases of cotton give some price assurance to cotton farmers, but the government is also supporting grain prices. Anecdotal reports suggest that cotton area will be reduced at least 5 percent in the Xinjiang region and more than 10 percent in the eastern production regions.
India’s 2009-10 production is projected at 24.5 million bales, higher than the previous year’s output by 6.5 percent. Area is projected to decline only marginally by 0.5 percent to 23 million acres, mainly because cotton prices to farmers were supported by the government purchase program in 2008-09. The yield is expected to grow by 7.1 percent assuming normal monsoon conditions.
The increased use of Bt cottonseed, improved crop management practices and irrigation systems are expected to support yields. However, the rate of yield increase is slowing as Bt adoption reaches the saturation point. According to the government of India, Bt cotton now accounts for more than 70 percent of total cotton acreage in India.
For Pakistan, production in 2009-10 is projected to decline to 8.9 million bales as compared to a year earlier. This production decline derives solely from an expected 3.3 percent area reduction with yields remaining steady.
Australia’s cotton production is projected to rebound by 50 percent to an estimated 2 million bales in 2009-10. Acreage is projected to expand about 40 percent as recent precipitation has partially replenished irrigation supplies. Cotton yield in 2009-10 is expected to increase slightly to 1,749 pounds per acre, about equal to the five-year average.
In the Franc Zone of sub-Saharan Africa, the 2009-10 crop is projected at 2 million bales, down more than 20 percent from 2008-09 and the lowest output recorded since 1987-88. Domestic structural and economic problems continue to weigh on farmer incentives. Cotton sectors in Burkina Faso, Benin, and Mali — three of the major producers in the bloc — are struggling as a result of low international cotton prices, exchange rate fluctuations, debt burden, and government policy choices.
USDA says recovery in world cotton consumption in 2009-10 will depend on economic growth and its effect on global textile demand, which is estimated to fall sharply in 2008-09. Most macroeconomic forecasts now project that world GDP growth will bottom in the third quarter of 2009 and begin to recover thereafter, albeit slowly.
USDA says world cotton consumption has a history of rebounding sharply following periods of economic weakness, as the replenishment of yarn and textile inventories adds to the growth in consumer demand.
USDA projects that 2009-10 world cotton consumption will rise 2 percent to 115 million bales. This projection is likely to understate potential consumption if economic recovery begins in fourth quarter 2009 and follows a typical historical pattern. On the other hand, the projection will prove optimistic if the expectations of world economic recovery fail to materialize.
With lower world production and higher consumption, world trade is projected to recover 33 million bales in 2009-10, nearly 4 million bales above the estimate for 2008-09. Higher imports by China will be partially offset by lower imports in most of the developed economies.
On the export side, India, African Franc Zone and Central Asia are expected to recover market share due to large beginning stocks, more than offsetting a modest decline in U.S. exports. World ending stocks are projected at just above 56 million bales, a 9-percent decline from the previous year, but still sufficient to support projected demand.
e-mail: erobinson@farmpress.com
March 20th, 2009
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