Explore ideas, evidence and developments across the textile value chain.
23,362 articles · latest first · 13,297–13,320
Profile8 Aug 2017Stephanie Neal, director of London-based Pattern Textiles, discusses how employing digital textile printing has developed the business and its designs and the evolving digital textile print market in the UK.
Insight8 Aug 2017Tianyuan Garments Company of Suzhou has signed an agreement with SoftWear Automation of Atlanta to develop a fully automated T-shirt production line.
A trio of highly-experienced sales professionals, made up of Dave Weston, Stephen Curtis and Charlie Salter, have joined manufacturing company OKI’s UK and Ireland subsidiaries.
Prices7 Aug 2017The inability of China’s Central Bank to net inject cash into its market has created a cautious sentiment, which could have contributed to the falling price of staple fibres and yarns. The tightened monetary policy may limit funding that may have fueled demand. Staple fibre and yarn prices dropped in terms of yuan week-on-week. Last week, China announced that it reduced the cost of energy by 100 billion yuan through reforms and fee cancellations. The reforms give the private sector a greater role in determining the price and thus allocation of energy. Previous arrangements have caused energy costs to be high as a result of state-run firms using their monopoly power to maximize their profits. By introducing private-sector competition into the industry, power could be allocated to consumers more efficiently, benefiting the textile industry as it gains access to cheaper energy. In Karachi, strong demand pushes up cotton prices week-on-week, despite negative sentiment coming from the export industry, due to fears of a continuous fall in exports. In India, the flooding in Gujarat’s key cotton-producing areas and the moisture of cotton have led to higher price levels, due to disruption of supply in the short-term, as well as expectations of pest attacks in the long-term.
Prices7 Aug 2017After the impact of flash floods in Gujarat, India’s cotton prices have inched up to INR42,300 per candy, a 0.5% increase week-on-week by 2 August relative to the week before, due to a considerable loss of sown cotton in the floods.
Insight4 Aug 2017The announcement of the relaunch Google’s Glass EE gets the company back in the augmented reality game it kick-started, for all intents and purposes, back in 2013. This time though, the AR headset finds itself in a battle of the (enterprise) niches. Major upgrades between the explorer and the enterprise edition of Google’s augmented reality glasses include a modular structure, a better camera (from 5 megapixels to 8), extended battery life, faster Wi-Fi and processor, and a new red light that turns on when recording video. Arguably, there’s not that many differences between the first iteration of Glass some 4 years ago and the new headset. In reality, and most critically, it’s not so much that Glass EE is a new device, it’s that the rules of the augmented reality game are new.
Insight3 Aug 2017Creativity meets digital technologies at Munich Fabric Start this September with the German Institute of Textile and Fiber Research (DIFT) and its partners inviting visitors to “find out how to answer market demands for customized products and on-demand production,” at the Digital Textile Microfactory. The live showcase of the Microfactory allows visitors to experience a fully networked, integrated and seamless production chain, from 3D design to digital printing, cutting and assembling.
Insight3 Aug 2017When we talk broadly about emerging markets, it’s often the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) that come to mind. To call India and China emerging markets in 2017 sounds a little unfair, with China’s nominal GDP for 2017 set to rank the country at number two in the world, second to the US and with the highest purchasing power, and India ranking at number 6, based on nominal GDP, but set to move up to number 4 in the world by 2022. But the scope for growth in these markets is astounding and Brazil and Russia aren’t far behind, at 8th and 11th respectively when it comes to nominal GDP, and despite economic and political troubles in recent years, strong re-emerging markets.
