The APPAREL EXPORTERS ASSOCIATION 200 GFP

7-2, East Tower, World Trade Centre, Echelon Square,
Colombo 01, Sri Lanka
Phone: 94 11 2 346 370
Fax: 94 11 2 346 376
E-mail: 200gfp@garments.lk
Website: www.garments.lk
Category: Readymade Garments, Apparels

Profile: The APPAREL EXPORTERS ASSOCIATION 200 GFP was established in 1993, and its membership comprises of enterprises, partnerships, sole proprietorships & limited liability companies, carrying on the business of manufacturing and exporting of garments from Sri Lanka.

The Primary Objectives of the Association, concisely, are as follows
The promotion, fostering & protection of the rights & privileges of its members.
The establishment, maintenance & conduct of a forum to resolve matters & affairs
affecting its membership & their rights, particularly in the Garments industry.
Representing its members before government departments, institutions &
statutory bodies.

The policy of this Association briefly and in a nutshell is to propagate and promote the
interests of its members in the Garment trade.

Our regular News Bulletins and circulars relays the latest news to the members and in addition you could reap a whole host of other benefits too by becoming a member of our association by being able to advertise your industry requirements such as buying/selling/renting machinery, finding sub contract export orders etc.

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Sri Lanka Garments Buying Offices Association

No. 1, Anderson Road (Off Dickmens Road),
Colombo 05, Sri Lanka
Phone: (011)-2553057 / 5354948-51
Fax: (011)-5354951
E-mail: info@garmentslanka.com
Web: www.garmentslanka.com
Category: Apparels, Garments

Profile: The Sri Lanka Garment Buying Offices Association was formed in 1993 with the primary objective of promoting and fostering the growth of the Garment Industry in Sri Lanka. The members of the Sri Lanka Garment Buying Offices Association represent international prestigious brand names and are responsible for the generation of approximately 70% of Sri Lanka’s exports of Textiles and Apparels. Our membership represents all major global importers and retailers from the USA, EU, Australia and Japan.

A majority of the Association’s membership has been carrying out operations in Sri Lanka for more than 8 to 13 years marketing the country and its merchandise effectively. The Association is also a strong lobby for the industry.

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Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association : BGMEA

Dhaka (Dacca), Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Tel: 880 (2) 811 5597
Fax: 880 (2) 811 3951
E-mail: info@bgmea.com
Website: www.bgmea.com
Category: Apparels, Readymade Garments, Fashion

Profile: The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is the only recognized trade body that represents all the export oriented garment manufacturers and exporters of the country.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is the officially recognized apex apparel export trade body of 4,490 apparel manufacturing units.

The RMG sector earned over US$ 9 billion in 2006. The BGMEA helps to drive commerce by increasing sales of Bangladeshi-produced garments and pursues excellence in the Bangladeshi readymade garments (RMG) sector through its activities and programmers, including establishing and nurturing relationships with foreign buyers, businesses and trade associations, organizations, chambers, and research organizations.

The BGMEA also acts as a pressure group to protect the interests of the RMG sector and acts as a facilitator of trade negotiations with global trade bodies such as the WTO, ILO, and UNCTAD

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Small Apparel Brands On A Roll

Small brands that are mushrooming in small cities are now attracting the attention of private players. Brands such as Liverpool Retail India's Barcelona, Vir Retail's John Hill and Nahar Group's Cotton County that sell outfits at less than one-third the price of national brands are opening stores faster than the cautious national brands.

These brands have a price range of Rs150 to 600 and work on low margins and fast stock turnover. Their marketing efforts are mostly localised and they woo new consumers into the organised sector through discounted offers like 'buy one, get three.'

Mr Baqar Naqvi, associate vice-president for retail and consumer goods at Technopak, says: "Several regional brands are challenging the might of big players within the value segment where a significant proportion of Indian demand exists. Many of them will soon grow into national players and capture share from established brands."

Mr Sachin Sahni, vice-president of the Rs 200 crore Cotton County brand which has 600 stores, said: "Franchisees are also keen on partnering the discount model as the scale enables us to take back unsold stock and deploy it in markets where it would sell."

News Source: http://www.aepcindia.com/national.asp?id=188&yr=2010

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End to Chinese brand export subsidies

The Chinese government has agreed to end a range of subsidies that help boost sales of Chinese-branded merchandise around the world -- including apparel and textiles -- rather than face a fight with the United States at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The office of US Trade Representative said the deal marks the end of "numerous subsidies we identified as prohibited under WTO rules." The agreement between Washington and Beijing brings to a close legal action begun by the United States at the WTO last December.

In its case, the United States said it had identified more than 90 official measures "providing what appeared to be WTO-inconsistent financial support." These included cash grant rewards for exporting, preferential loans for exporters, research and development funding to develop new products for export, and payments to lower the cost of export credit insurance.

The subsidies, the United States said, were tied to exports, "giving an unfair competitive advantage to Chinese products and denying US manufacturers the chance to compete fairly with them."

Key to the case were three central government initiatives promoting famous Chinese brand merchandise -- the Famous Export Brand initiative, the China World Top Brand initiative and the China Name Brand Products initiative.

But the United States also identified several other subsidy programmes that appeared to benefit Chinese exports -- including textiles -- regardless of whether they were famous brands. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said: "The termination of the subsidies will level the playing field for American workers in a wide range of manufacturing and export sectors."

News Source: AEPC India

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Textile Sector Faces Technological Obsolescence

Recent years have witnessed a drastic growth in the hosiery, and readymade garment production in the Indian textile sector. However, the textile sector is largely unorganised and dispersed.

Due to this, the industry is suffering from technological obsolescence and sub-sectors need up-to-date machinery for production of fabric, yarn, and ready-made garments, according to fibre2fashion.

India has taken several steps to boost the industrial growth in the textile sector. Initiatives such as Technology Upgradation Funds Scheme (TUFS), Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP), excise and import duty liberalisation of textiles and textile machinery are shots in the arm of the textile industry.

They have not only provided much required fillip for igniting growth but also have leveraged the growth of textile engineering industry which includes manufacture of complete machinery, accessories and parts.

Though the machinery industry is growing in a reasonable speed, some of the sector specific machines still have not been able to match the quality and productivity standards of the world-class machines.

News Source: http://www.aepcindia.com/national.asp?id=183&yr=2010

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Clusters To Help UP Weavers To Compete Globally

The union ministry for textiles is all set to launch its cluster development scheme across five districts of Uttar Pradesh to impart training to weavers so that they can compete on international platform.

The programme is expected to offer a boost to handloom weavers of the region. Six to eight clusters will be formed in each of the five districts, including Barabanki, Varanasi, Bijnore, Azamgarh and Amroha with each cluster comprising of 300 to 500 weavers.

Designers from leading institutes such as National Institute of Design (NID) will impart training to the weavers to improve designs, while marketing entrepreneurs will offer them knowledge on market trends. This training will start after identifying the clusters, by the ministry’s office of development commissioner for handlooms.

Deputy director (processing) at the office of development commissioner for handlooms A.K. Shukla said that there are more than a dozen districts in the state where various handloom products are weaved.

But products manufactured here don’t witness demand in the international market as the weavers are still recreating old designs without bringing any improvement into it, in spite of having abundant manpower and raw material.

News Source: http://www.aepcindia.com/national.asp?id=184&yr=2010

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Dyeing Units Strike Gives Jitters To Exporters

The continuing strike by the dyeing unit owners in Tirupur is giving jitters to the clothing exporting sector in the south India based textile and garment hub. At a time when the order position of most of the garment exporters seems to be improving, this strike could put a spanner in the works and dampen their spirits.

The dyeing units have struck work in support of their demand that the state and the central government share the cost of treating effluents discharged by these units. Dyeing process is a very important process within the value-chain of the textile and clothing sector and a disruption could cause delay in dispatching apparel export orders.

Tirupur is well-known for its cotton knitwear, the orders for which are processed during the current period. If the situation persists, these exporters could lose out on these orders.

There is also a possibility that the production process beginning from knitting could grind to a halt as inventories keep piling up at various stages of the value-chain. Around 600 dyeing and processing units have taken part in the strike, which together provide direct jobs to 50,000 to 60,000 people and indirectly to as many.

The other big worry for these units is that most of the workers have migrated to their home towns. As and when the strike gets over, it will take many more days to normalise operations.

News Source: http://www.aepcindia.com/national.asp?id=179&yr=2010

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Yarn Shortage Affecting Textile Sector of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — As the government has failed to resolve the yarn crisis, some 30 per cent work of the textile sector has been affected and majority of the textile units had close down due to the unavailability of the yarn from last few weeks, TheNation has learnt on Friday

According to the sources, unavailability of yarn even at the higher prices is getting serious with the passage of every day and majority of the industries in Faisalabad and Jhang and other countries had left the working. If the current crises remain for next few weeks’ country would not available to fulfill its export targets, the sources added.

It is worth mentioning here that in the ongoing year production of cotton in the international market is not sufficient and countries like China are importing it from Pakistan, which is considered one of the main reason for the yarn shortage in the country.

The sources further said that every year Pakistan exports about 25 per cent of the yarn to the other countries, while this year the export expected to be 30 per cent, which could create problems for the local industries.

Meanwhile, different associations of the textile industry believed that exporting yarn is the reason for the unavailability and they are demanding of the government to impose ban on the export of yarn in order to provide commodity to the local consumers. Small Power Looms Association already threaten to observe countrywide strike in the month of December if government did not impose ban on the export of yarn.

However, the government is totally failed to solve the said crisis as neither the talks, between the Minister of Textile Industry with all stakeholders, proved any good nor the Cabinet Committee on Textile found any solution to the problem. The cabinet committee on textile met under the chair of Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin few days back but did not announce any strategy regarding availability of yarn in the country.

The sources further said that if the government did not come with some strategy in next few weeks Pakistan would deprive of the textile orders of EU and USA that would further affect the growth of the textile sector.

Similarly, the yarn shortage emerged because of the black-marketing and storage of yarn in order to increase the prices. Domestic cotton prices have already surged by 25 per cent since the start of the current fiscal year. Neither the provincial governments nor the federal government took any action against those responsible for the blackmarketing

Federal Minister for Textile Industry Rana Farooq Saeed Khan said once that action would be taken against the hoarding and black marketing but despite passing of two weeks no step is taken.

Analysts and exporters anticipate further rise in the domestic cotton prices because of active buying by the international buyers who have flocked Pakistan amid a shortfall in world cotton production.

Source: PRGMEA

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India’s Textiles & Clothing Exports

India’s textiles and clothing exports stood at US$ 19.15 billion in 2006-2007 and improved to US$ 22.14 billion in 2007-2008. Textiles and clothing exports came down to US$ 20.94 billion in 2008-2009. However, in rupee terms the exports of textiles and clothing during 2008-2009 were of the order of Rs.96,309 crore as against Rs.89,121 crore in 2007-08, thus representing an appreciation of 8.07%. In absolute terms, the textiles and clothing exports as percentage of India’s total exports declined from 15.16% in 2006-2007 to 13.59% in 2007-2008 and further to 11.47% in 2008-2009. As per advance information received from some segments of the industry, there has been a considerable decline in the exports of readymade garment and cotton products during the first two quarters of the current financial year. This was stated by the Minister of State of Textiles, Smt . Panabaaka Lakshmi in the Lok Sabha today, in a written reply to a question by Shri Hansraj G. Ahir, Shri Jagdish Sharma and Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi.

The Government has been holding discussions at the highest levels with textiles and garment exporters to find out ways and means to counter the adverse effect of the global economic slowdown on India’s textiles exports. Various incentives have been introduced or enhanced for the sector under the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-2014, the Minister added.

News Source: Ministry of Textiles

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