#Free Apparel Textile Site Registration

[textiletoday]

Local and foreign investments increased significantly in textile and RMG industry Bangladesh’s textile and apparel sector has seen a sharp rise in investment as local investment and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2018 in the sector have increased.  However, the overall net inflows of foreign direct investment in the country declined. The country’s textile and apparel sector has received a foreign investment of around $500 million in the year 2018, which was $421.68 million in 2017 and $364.44 million in 2016. On the other hand, according to a recent data from the Bangladesh Garment Accessories and Packaging Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGAPMEA), garments accessories and packaging manufacturers have made an investment of Tk722.5 crore, with more proposals in the pipeline. New investment has been made in woven fabric production and processing. Bangladesh was having a huge supply gap in woven fabric. A huge amount of denim and non-denim woven fabric is being imported to meet the local demands. However, this is to note that the real investment is not completely represented in the figures above. Many existing companies have reinvested and expanded their capacities and exact amounts could not be accumulated. Investment Trend: As apparel export has been rising significantly the companies had to increase their production and so they invested to add capacities to their existing plants and also invested in increasing productivity. Investments made to make the supply chain further smooth and faster. Significant investment has been made in both forward and backward linkage. To cope with supply need to the apparel manufacturers strong demand prevailed for fabric production and accessories production. Some significant number of woven fabric production mills started operation in 2018. Some others have increased their fabric production capacities. Significant investment has been continued to make in the denim sector as well. The growth of knit sector was also continued. Existing companies prompted to increase their capacity. The same trend is likely to be continued in the coming days as well. As export of woven garment is increasing, so the demand of woven fabric is also rising. As the buyers were asking for shorter lead-time and they are as well keen to develop a good supply base from Bangladesh, they encouraged Bangladesh companies to invest more in the woven sector. And so many companies invested a lot in increasing capacity of producing woven fabric and processing them. A sister concern of Mithela Group, Mithela Textile Industries Limited (MTIL) is world’s first LEED Platinum certified woven dyeing factor. They have invested hugely to develop their production and products quality. “Achieving the LEED Platinum certificate was not that easy, we had to invest huge money for it. We have built a solid reputation and market leadership in this short span of time and over the foundation of quality, timely delivery, and top-class services,” said Azahar Khan, Chairman of Mithela Group and a Director of BTMA. A huge investment was made by the textile and RMG millers in green building project. Of the top 11 LEED-certified factories in the world, eight are from Bangladesh. All eight are “Platinum” rated, which is the highest category that can be reached under this globally recognized certification. Twenty factories are in the LEED Platinum category and 40 are in LEED Gold. Indeed, there are 73 Bangladeshi LEED Green garment factories certified by the USGBC. There are some 320 factories in the pipeline waiting for LEED certification. Significant investment has been made in improving safety conditions. As of a November update on Accord’s site, the Accord noted that 90 percent of remediation for safety issues have been completed where the ninety-seven percent of Accord factories have removed lockable and collapsible gates, and 90 percent have adequate lighting in fire exists. On the other hand, 93 percent remediation across Alliance-affiliated factories is complete and 428 factories completed all material items in their initial Corrective Action Plans (CAP), according to the 5th annual report of Alliance. However, many RMG units have been shut down due to failure in Accord-Alliance inspection process that has increased default loans in the apparel sector. Most of the default loans lie in readymade garment (RMG) and textiles sector in a number of banks in the country. The reason behind the rise of investment As Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of apparel products in the world after China, there is a huge investment opportunity in the textile and garment industry. So, though by the end of the year many investment processes have been slowed down due to the approaching election, the year overall has seen some significant investments. The available workforce at a reasonable wage, duty-free market access in the major export destination, preferential location in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region acted as a catalyst to attract foreign investment in the textile and apparel industry. At the same time, the government has reduced corporate tax from 15% to 12% and also brought down the tax at source on export items, except jute goods, from 0.7% to 0.6% for the current fiscal year for garments sector, the $30 billion industry. It encouraged the local investors, though, they want longtime policy support for the sector that will help them to make the decision for investment. “As a government organization, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) is providing all-out service through one-stop service. While the digitized system has made the process very easy, which pushed the foreign investment in the textile sector up,” BIDA Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam said. Bangladesh government has taken steps to establish 100 Special Economic Zones (SEZs). On the other hand, it has given importance to ease the registration process for the foreign as well as the local investors through one-stop service, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said to Textile Today. As a result, foreign investors have become more interested to invest here. In the year to come, the investment in the textile sector from the foreign investors will see a sharp rise as the SEZs are becoming ready for investment, he added. Already, China, Japan, India and many native entrepreneurs, including Sterling Group, invested in SEZs. FDI could be more FDI flow could be more increased is foreign investors got more supports. Many Chinese and multinational companies were interested to invest in fabric production and manufacture dyes and chemicals in Bangladesh. Leading Chinese company Color Root was keen to invest about the US $500 million to set up manufacturing plants in Bangladesh. However, the investment went back as they did not get proper support and facilities in Bangladesh. Md Delwar Hossain, MD of D & D Chemicals (Color Root’s agent in Bangladesh), said, “We needed around 400 bighas land to establish the manufacturing plant and other supports regarding utility and safety. Therefore, the Bangladesh government should have a master plan regarding the matter.” A number of Chinese companies expressed their interest to invest in Bangladesh. Though Bangladesh government and textile garments associations like BGMEA and BTMA won’t encourage investment in traditional product production, they welcomed investment in technically new products. They also asked foreign investments which will help to reduce import dependency. “Foreign investment in the textile sector will help Bangladesh building a strong backward linkage for the woven sector,” said Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) President Abdus Salam Murshedy. In an exclusive interview with Textile Today recently Rubana Huq, Managing Director of Mohammadi Group also have mentioned that we don’t need any foreign investment in the products which we easily can do, we need investments in the products which we are not yet habituated. Such foreign investment has been made in this year in Bangladesh. Such an example is Huaren Linen Group who has invested in Anwar Group to produce Linen fabric in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has been importing a huge amount of Linen fabric every year. The investment will reduce import dependency of the country. Finally, to attract more investment from local and foreign investors improvement of trade competitiveness, the increment in physical and social infrastructures, quality of economic and political institutions, reforms in trade policy, monetary and fiscal policies, industrial policy and quality service delivery by the public institutions are needed.

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25 Global B2B Exchanges for Supply Chain Diversity

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted supply chains, forcing distributors and retailers to find alternative product sources. Global B2B exchanges have existed for years. Some are for specific companies. Others are public, for all businesses.

In a post several years ago, I described 20 leading public global B2B exchanges. That list has changed dramatically. What follows is an updated version.

25 Leading B2B Exchanges

ECPlaza launched in 1996 in South Korea. It now has roughly 1 million members, 4 million offers, and more than 40 product categories. Product prices are not shown but are available by contacting the supplier. Suppliers can register for free.

ECVV started in 2006. It has 2.2 million buyers (mainly in Arabic countries) and 950,000 China-based suppliers. The site focuses on machinery, equipment, hardware, building materials, lighting, transport, electronics, and appliances. Buyers and sellers can register for free.

ECVV

Fibre2Fashion is an India-based B2B marketplace focused on the textile industry. It launched in 2000. It has over 1,800 products in 13 categories with a digital presence in more than 190 countries. Registration is free.

Exporters India is a marketplace that connects buyers to manufacturers, suppliers, exporters, wholesalers, traders, and service providers. The site receives roughly 600,000 sourcing inquires monthly. Free registration.

Go4WorldBusiness is an India-based exchange that started in 1997. The site has 800,000 manufacturers and suppliers offering thousands of product categories. Six-thousand daily inquiries are generated on the site between buyers and sellers. Suppliers can sign up for free.

Beldara supports wholesale commerce across 40 product categories. It is headquartered in India, with millions of users from 127 countries. Suppliers register for free.

BaloTrade is a marketplace with thousands of buyers and suppliers. It has offices in the U.K., U.S., and Nigeria. Suppliers can sign up for free. Most suppliers are from India, China, Nigeria, and the U.S.

BaloTrade

Merchant Showroom is a global wholesale marketplace focusing on apparel, fashion accessories, health, beauty, and arts and crafts. The platform includes original-manufacturer order facilitation, wholesale auctions, one-of-a-kind craft categories, approximately 100 integrated shipping companies, product comparisons, and many other features. Suppliers can register for free.

Alibaba is the world’s largest B2B exchange with hundreds of millions of products sold in 190 countries. The exchange allows sellers to register either as global sellers or China-only. Global sellers can create free listings of up to 50 products. This exchange has millions of visitors and receives roughly 280,000 daily product inquiries.

Amazon Business has roughly $10 billion in annual revenue. The exchange offers delayed payment terms, tax-exempt purchasing, multiple payment methods, and guided buying, among other helpful features. Small businesses can link to an Amazon Prime membership on the consumer site to enable benefits. Suppliers can register for free.

ThomasNet.com has over 500,000 suppliers and millions of monthly buyers. Thomas Register has been helping businesses for over a hundred years. The online exchange comes with many tools that assist with product discovery and sourcing. Suppliers can list their business for free.

EC21 started in South Korea in 1997. It now operates globally, with over 2 million suppliers, 7 million products, and 3.5 million buyers. The exchange allows suppliers to register for free and provides them with a home page that can include up to 15 products.

EC21

IndiaMart is India’s largest B2B exchange. The site has roughly 98 million buyers, 5.9 million suppliers, and 66 million products. Sellers can sign up for free. The site offers instant pay, leads from buyers, 24/7 customer service, among other helpful features.

eWorldTrade is a B2B exchange with approximately 500,000 registered members from 200 countries. It transacts products in about 40 categories. The site is available in English and Chinese. Free sign up for suppliers

TradeIndia launched in 1996 and now has nearly 80 million registered sellers and buyers across 2,200 product categories. The site processes roughly 2.5 million weekly interactions. Suppliers can sign up for free, list up to 50 products, and receive digital marketing assistance.

DHgate is a China-based B2B exchange with roughly 2.2 million global sellers, 26 million buyers, and 22 million product listings. The site supports multiple languages — English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Korean, Turkish, and Spanish. Suppliers can sign up for free. DHgate integrates with Shopify sites.

FGmarket Vendors launched in 2003 for retail store owners to connect with suppliers and wholesalers. On average, buyers execute 20,000 daily searches looking for products. Suppliers pay $449.99 annually to list their products.

FGmarket Vendors

Wholesale Central is a directory of wholesale-only suppliers. Roughly 1.7 million buyers use Wholesale Central each year. Suppliers pay $399 for six months.

Joor is a retail-focused exchange founded in 2010. Its primary focus is on fashion, beauty, and home. The site works with over 200,000 retailers and 8,600 brands across 144 countries. Joor is based in New York with offices in Paris, Milan, London, and Los Angeles. Interested brands can apply online.

GlobalSources facilitates trade between buyers and suppliers using events and an online marketplace. The site has over 1.5 million worldwide buyers, which includes leading retailers. Suppliers can sign up for free and list up to 100 products.

OFweek is a China-based exchange focused on the high-tech industry. It consists of 25 websites for product categories such as Iot.ofweek.com (internet of things) and Medical.ofweek.com (medical devices). Suppliers can sign up for free. Buyers can complete an online sourcing form to find the right products.

TradeKey is an electronics-focused B2B exchange that launched in 2006. It has operations worldwide and supports multiple languages — Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and English. Suppliers sign up for free.

TradeKey

Made-in-China launched in 1998 to provide China-based product and supplier information to 10.3 million global buyers. It offers products in 27 categories and supports 11 languages. Suppliers can sign up for free.

Zoodel enables B2B transactions in Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Iran, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, Oman, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The website supports English, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages and has approximately 22,000 suppliers and 100,000 buyers. Suppliers can sign up for free and import their entire catalog.

MakersRow helps small businesses identify manufacturers. The site has roughly 10,000 manufacturers that have produced 2 million products. Manufacturers can sign up for free for a basic account. Buyers must register and pay $35 per month.

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China’s Detention Camps for Muslims Turn to Forced Labor https://nyti.ms/2QUZ3vh

China’s Detention Camps for Muslims Turn to Forced Labor

Chinese state television showed Muslims attending classes on how to be law-abiding citizens. Evidence is emerging that detainees are also being forced to take jobs in new factories.

By Chris Buckley and Austin Ramzy | Dec. 16, 2018 | New York Times | Posted December 16, 2018 |

KASHGAR, China — Muslim inmates from internment camps in far western China hunched over sewing machines, in row after row. They were among hundreds of thousands who had been detained and spent month after month renouncing their religious convictions. Now the government was showing them on television as models of repentance, earning good pay — and political salvation — as factory workers.

China’s ruling Communist Party has said in a surge of upbeat propaganda that a sprawling network of camps in the Xinjiang region is providing job training and putting detainees on production lines for their own good, offering an escape from poverty, backwardness and the temptations of radical Islam.

But mounting evidence suggests a system of forced labor is emerging from the camps, a development likely to intensify international condemnation of China’s drastic efforts to control and indoctrinate a Muslim ethnic minority population of more than 12 million in Xinjiang.

Accounts from the region, satellite images and previously unreported official documents indicate that growing numbers of detainees are being sent to new factories, built inside or near the camps, where inmates have little choice but to accept jobs and follow orders.

“These people who are detained provide free or low-cost forced labor for these factories,” said Mehmet Volkan Kasikci, a researcher in Turkey who has collected accounts of inmates in the factories by interviewing relatives who have left China. “Stories continue to come to me,” he said.

China has defied an international outcry against the sweeping internment program in Xinjiang, which holds Muslims and forces them to renounce religious piety and pledge loyalty to the party. The emerging labor program underlines the government’s determination to continue operating the camps despite calls from United Nations human rights officials, the United States and other governments to close them.

The program aims to transform scattered Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities — many of them farmers, shopkeepers and tradespeople — into a disciplined, Chinese-speaking industrial work force, loyal to the Communist Party and factory bosses, according to official plans published online.

These documents describe the camps as vocational training centers and do not specify whether inmates are required to accept assignments to factories or other jobs. But pervasive restrictions on the movement and employment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, as well as a government effort to persuade businesses to open factories around the camps, suggest that they have little choice.

Independent accounts from inmates who have worked in the factories are rare. The police block attempts to get near the camps and closely monitor foreign journalists who travel to Xinjiang, making it all but impossible to conduct interviews in the region. And most Uighurs who have fled Xinjiang did so before the factory program grew in recent months.

But Serikzhan Bilash, a founder of Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights, an organization in Kazakhstan that helps ethnic Kazakhs who have left neighboring Xinjiang, said he had interviewed relatives of 10 inmates in recent months who had told their families that they were made to work in factories after undergoing indoctrination in the camps.

They mostly made clothes, and they called their employers “black factories,” because of the low wages and tough conditions, he said.

Mr. Kasikci also described several cases based on interviews with family members: Sofiya Tolybaiqyzy, who was sent from a camp to work in a carpet factory. Abil Amantai, 37, who was put in a camp a year ago and told relatives he was working in a textile factory for $95 a month. Nural Razila, 25, who had studied oil drilling but after a year in a camp was sent to a new textile factory nearby.

“It’s not as though they have a choice of whether they get to work in a factory, or what factory they are assigned to,” said Darren Byler, a lecturer at the University of Washington who studies Xinjiang and visited the region in April.

He said it was safe to conclude that hundreds of thousands of detainees could be compelled to work in factories if the program were put in place at all of the region’s internment camps.

The Xinjiang government did not respond to faxed questions about the factories, nor did the State Council Information Office, the central government agency that answers reporters’ questions.

The documents detail plans for inmates, even those formally released from the camps, to take jobs at factories that work closely with the camps to continue to monitor and control them. The socks, suits, skirts and other goods made by these laborers would be sold in Chinese stores and could trickle into overseas markets.

Kashgar, an ancient, predominantly Uighur area of southern Xinjiang that is a focus of the program, reported that in 2018 alone it aimed to send 100,000 inmates who had been through the “vocational training centers” to work in factories, according to a plan issued in August.

That figure may be an ambitious political goal rather than a realistic target. But it suggests how many Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities may be held in the camps and sent to factories. Scholars have estimated that as many as one million people have been detained. The Chinese government has not issued or confirmed any figures.

“I don’t see China yielding an inch on Xinjiang,” said John Kamm, the founder of the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that lobbies China on human rights issues. “Now it seems we have entrepreneurs coming in and taking advantage of the situation.”

The evolution of the Xinjiang camps echoes China’s “re-education through labor” system, where citizens once were sent without trial to toil for years. China abolished “re-education through labor” five years ago, but Xinjiang appears to be creating a new version.

Retailers in the United States and other countries should guard against buying goods made by workers from the Xinjiang camps, which could violate laws banning imports produced by prison or forced labor, Mr. Kamm said.

While the bulk of clothes and other textile goods manufactured in Xinjiang ends up in domestic and Central Asian markets, some makes its way to the United States and Europe.

Badger Sportswear, a company based in North Carolina, last month received a container of polyester knitted T-shirts from Hetian Taida, a company in Xinjiang that was shown on a prime-time state television broadcast promoting the camps.

The program showed workers at a Hetian Taida plant, including a woman who was described as a former camp inmate. But the small factory did not appear to be on a camp site, and it is unclear whether it made the T-shirts sent to North Carolina.

Ginny Gasswint, a Badger Sportswear executive, said the company had ordered a small amount of products from Xinjiang, and used Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production, a nonprofit certification organization, to ensure that its suppliers meet standards.

Seth Lennon, a spokesman for Worldwide, said that Hetian Taida had only recently enrolled in its program, and the organization had no information on possible coerced labor in Xinjiang. “We will certainly look into this,” he said.

Repeated calls over several days to Wu Hongbo, the chairman of Hetian Taida, went unanswered.

A state television broadcast promoting the internment camps showed textile workers at a company named Hetian Taida. The company shipped T-shirts to North Carolina last month.

Images of one camp featured in the state television broadcast, for example, show 10 to 12 large buildings with a single-story, one-room design commonly used for factories, said Nathan Ruser, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The buildings are surrounded by fencing and security towers, indicating that they are heavily guarded like the rest of the camp.

“It seems unlikely that any detainee would be able to go to any building that they were not taken to,” Mr. Ruser said.

Commercial registration records also show at least a few companies have been established this year at addresses inside internment camps. They include a printing factory, a noodle factory and at least two clothing and textile manufacturers at camps in rural areas around Kashgar. Another clothing and bedding manufacturer is registered in a camp in Aksu in northwestern Xinjiang.

The government’s effort to connect the internment camps with factories emerged this year as the number of detainees climbed and Xinjiang faced rising costs to build and run the camps.

Many camps were once called “transformation through education centers” by the government, reflecting their mission: inducing inmates to cast aside Islamic devotion and accept Communist Party supremacy.

But since August, the Chinese government has defended the camps by arguing that they are job training centers that will help lift detainees and their families out of poverty by giving them the skills to join China’s economic mainstream. Many rural Uighurs speak little Chinese, and language training has been advertised as one of the main purposes of the camps.

Yet the practical training in the camps often appears to be rudimentary, said Adrian Zenz, a social scientist at the European School of Culture and Theology who has studied the campaign.

An early hint of the factory labor program came in March when Sun Ruizhe, the president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, described it to senior industry representatives, according to a transcript of his speech that was posted on industry websites.

Mr. Sun said that Xinjiang planned to recruit from three main sources to increase the textile and garment sector’s work force by more than 100,000 in 2018: impoverished households, struggling relatives of prisoners and detainees, and the camp inmates, whose training “could be combined with developing the textile and apparel section.”

In April, the Xinjiang government began rolling out a plan to attract textile and garment companies. Local governments would receive funds to build production sites for them near the camps; companies would receive a subsidy of $260 to train each inmate they took on, as well other incentives.

In remarks in October defending the camps, a top official in Xinjiang, Shohrat Zakir, said the government was busy preparing “job assignments” for inmates formally finishing indoctrination and training. A budget document earlier this year from Yarkant, a county in Kashgar, said the camps were responsible for “employment services.”

The inmates assigned to factories may have to stay for years.

Mr. Byler said a relative of a Uighur friend was sent to an indoctrination camp in March and formally released this fall. But he was then told he had to work for up to three years in a clothing factory.

A government official, Mr. Byler said, suggested to his friend’s family that if the relative worked hard, his time in the factory might be reduced.

The Chinese state media has praised the centers as leading wayward people toward modern civilization. It also reports that the workers are generously paid.

“The training will turn them from ‘nomads’ into skilled marvels,” the official Xinjiang Daily said last month. “Education and training will make them into ‘modern people,’ useful to society.”

Austin Ramzy reported from Hong Kong.

[chemicalworldnews]

Weaving textile chemicals with sustainability

In an interview, Thomas Winkler, President Brand & Performance Textile Specialties Business, Archroma with Chemical Today Magazine opens up about ways in which sustainability in colouring systems is the biggest trend that is changing the textile chemicals manufacturers’ approach towards business globally.

By Shivani Mody

Global textile industry trends influencing textile chemicals business.

Archroma is present in over 35 countries with 24 production sites, and that certainly allows us to have a unique perspective on the textile industry worldwide.

One of the major trends we see at the moment is the growing pressure to reduce the environmental impact of all steps throughout the textile supply chain. We see it as an opportunity as for Archroma, sustainability is just important but it is our nature. We continuously challenge the status quo in the deep belief that we can make our industry sustainable. Because of that, Archroma has been at the forefront of developing innovations that support the evolution towards a more sustainable industry, and our customers know that they can turn to us for solutions here and now.

Another major trend is the increasing role of speed to market with the influence of short fashion cycles. This is reshaping the industry. Archroma understands the specific needs of the entire supply chain - from the fibre to the shop.

We also see a growth in the area of synthetic fibres, especially polyester, which now makes up over half of the world fiber consumption. Technological developments are taking place at fast pace eg. digital printing or low liquor dyeing machines.

Technological innovations/advancement in the textile chemicals.

I would mention three areas:

New generation of digital printing technology: They are allowing faster, more economical textile printing so as to be a realistic alternative to conventional screen printing. Here our new Inkpresso® technology is a great new option. The Inkpresso® system combines an Ink Formulation Unit (IFU) that Archroma developed with Swiss technology partner InkSitu, and a portfolio of eight standard reactive dyes, allowing textile printers to create their own ink on demand and on site. The system allows lower stocks and reduces shelf life issues - and transported ink volumes can be reduced by up to 50 percent.

Ecological alternatives to critical chemistry: Archroma is a fore runner with our alternatives to long-chain PFC repellents, such as our C6-based Nuva® N or our new Smartrepel® range which is not based on fluorine. Archroma also developed alternatives to formaldehyde-based printing systems – such as our “Zero add-on” formaldehyde Helizarin® EcoSafe pigment printing system - or to halogen based flame retardants – with our halogen-free Pekoflam® range.

Colouration systems to minimize environmental footprint, reduce water and energy consumption: Here again Archroma has made the headlines with innovations such as “Advanced Denim” and “EarthColors”. Patagonia, a major forward-thinking brand, has already adopted both technologies to create its recent Denim and Clean Color collections.

Advanced Denim is a process that uses dyestuffs that bond more easily to cotton, allowing savings up to 92 percent in water, 87 percent in cotton waste, 30 percent in energy, compared to conventional synthetic indigo denim dyeing processes.

“EarthColors” is a new range of “biosynthetic” dyes for cotton and cellulose-based fabrics designed to provide rich red, brown and green colors to denim and casualwear. In this patent-pending process, Archroma makes use of almond shells, saw palmetto, rosemary leaves, and other natural non-edible agricultural waste products that would otherwise be sent to landfill.

Potential for textile chemicals in developing countries.

There are many exciting opportunities for the textile industry across many developing regions of the world, from Central America, to Africa and South-East Asia. Some are developing as close-to-market hubs, such as Central America for US, or as attractive alternatives to China for responsible economical textile production.

At the same time, the demand for more sustainable manufacturing processes will increase also in these developing market, and offer new opportunities for responsible players such as Archroma who have committed to sustainability and can offer both reliable product sources and eco-advanced innovations and processes.

Regions with potential demand for textile chemicals.

We see a growing demand from South Asia, especially Bangladesh and India; South East Asia, in particular Vietnam and Indonesia; Central America and the Andean region; as well as from the Middle East and Africa where we see strong growth potential in the longer term. In terms of applications, there is a growing demand in the areas of synthetic fibers and functional finishes.

Demands from the textile manufacturing industry.

The industry is increasingly looking for solutions that combine sustainable and economical processing – from pretreatment, to colouration to finishing. We give our customers innovative eco-advanced products and systems to give new functionality, performance or coloration possibilities.

Changes and development of colours for denim apparels.

In the past, any new development for denim apparels would always have focused on creating new wash-down effects and fashion looks. Nowadays new colour developments for denim apparel are mainly driven by sustainability. This is where Archroma can offer its experience. With our innovative technologies such as Advanced Denim or EarthColors, we help denim brands and manufacturers to create classic looks - or entirely new fashion looks and effects – bring together creativity, performance and sustainability.

Archroma’s business plans for Asia Pacific.

Archroma is very much at home in Asia in terms of our footprint there, including the global headquarters of our Brand & Performance Textile Specialties business based in Singapore. Asia-Pacific represents around half of our textile business: We are active in China, Japan, Indonesia and India, and we have invested in operations for manufacturing and servicing the textile industry in growth markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam, where we aim to grow with our textile customers there.

On Smartrepel Hydro products and EarthColors technology.

Our innovative Smartrepel® products fulfill the stringent requirements of Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) standards, as well as Oeko-Tex, bluesign and others. Moreover, even being highly biodegradable they provide a highly durable water repellent effect.

EarthColors is a new range of seven “biosynthetic” dyes for cotton and cellulose-based fabrics designed to provide rich red, brown and green colors to denim and casualwear. In this patent-pending process, Archroma makes use of almond shells, saw palmetto, rosemary leaves, and other natural non-edible agricultural waste products that would otherwise be sent to landfill.

The new dyes have been four years in the making, and they have the overall performance of our existing sulfur dyes range made from conventional raw materials.

The EarthColors range is produced near Barcelona, Spain, with all raw materials sourced from within a radius of 500 km. And because the raw material is a natural polymer, they are exempts of REACH registration.

Process optimization tool for textile mills users.

Archroma’s ONE WAY Calculator, introduced back in 2012, is the successor tool of the former CostCalc tool, aiming to bring together the dual objectives of ecology and economy. The ONE WAY tool simulates real processes in mills, providing detailed information about the costs and environmental impact of their production process - energy and water consumption, waste water, freight, time, running costs, COD / BOD values, and CO2-balance of single steps, machines, and the entire process.

With this information, they can see how efficient they are and what benefits and savings are to be expected if they do adaptations towards more eco-advanced recipes and processes. Archroma also plans to launch an online version of the tool that will take our ONE WAY sustainability service to a whole new level.

Increased demand for technical textiles in the medical, automotive, construction, pharmaceuticals etc sectors.

We support our customers with innovative and eco-advanced solutions:

In the area of coloration first, with our high performance pigment preparations, Printofix® TF that allow excellent light, weather and ozone fastness;

Second in the area of fire protection, with our halogen-free flame retardant range Pekoflam®;

Third, with our solutions for repellence and release, from our C6 based fluoro-chemistry technology Nuva® N to SmartRepel®, a new range for customers who are looking for options not based on fluorine;

And last but not least, our coating solutions, with our Appretan® and Lurapret® low-formaldehyde or formaldehyde-free polymer dispersions.

Challenges faced by textile chemicals manufacturers globally.

This industry is facing a challenge that we at Archroma see as a chance for the future of the industry: Sustainability - and the ever more stringent environmental standards coming in place in textile manufacture.

The textile industry as a whole also has to meet tighter specifications of leading textile brands and retailers under the positive influence of the public and influencers, such as the ZDHC group which we welcomed and supported from the very beginning.

The second main challenge facing the industry is the response times to meet customer needs in shorter cycles and global supply chains. And again, we at Archroma are able to help the industry take that challenge. We can rely on our unique global footprint of 25 production sites, as well as our presence in all major textile markets to support customers with sales and distribution, and technical expertise close to them.

© Chemical Today Magazine

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