Bangladesh’s textile value chain is rising faster than any other Asian countries because of low-cost manufacturing firms shifting out of China, according to Asian Development Bank (ADB). Firms from Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, which have traditionally relied on low-cost production in China, have had to adjust. The progress in sector-level value chains’ intraregional production activities within sectors appears to be changing, with shares within industrial exports showing inter

Spanish global clothing giant Inditex, owner of the Zara brand, posted Thursday a 20-percent surge in nine-month net profits thanks to higher sales as the economy in its home market Spain improves. The group said in a statement that net profit rose to 2.0 billion euros ($2.2 billion) between February and October. The results are in line with expectations from analysts polled by Factset who forecast the company would post profits of 2.01 billion euros. Expansion efforts had weighed down

Bangladesh to witness rise in cotton consumption by 10 percent to more than one million tonnes due to higher demand from garment makers and favourable government policies for the textile sector while cotton consumption in Vietnam, one of the major competitors of Bangladesh in global apparel trade, will rise 20 percent to 1.1 million this fiscal year, as per the latest report released last week by the International Cotton Advisory Committee. The ICAC, based in Washington, provides statistics o

CHINA will cut import tariffs on nearly 800 items from January 1 next year, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The range of goods for which tariffs will be cut include fresh food, nuts, industrial materials, equipment, and consumer goods such as suitcases, clothing, scarves, blankets, and sunglasses, according to the statement. Import tariffs for skin care products will be cut from 6.5 percent to 2 percent, plastic and fabric suitcases from 20 to 10 percent, leather coa

US-BASED Gap Inc will open 10 new stores within the next two months in China as the country becomes the most significant growth market for the group, Gap China head said. Abinta Malik, senior vice president and general manager of Gap Inc for China’s mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, said the group aims to keep the same pace of growth in the next five years with a focus on enhancing online to offline interaction to meet changing shopping habits of Chinese consumers. The company will also foc

Export earnings from jute yarn and twine jumped in November of the current financial year 2015-16 thanks to a ban on raw jute export imposed by the government with effect from November 3. Sector people say they started to receive increased volume of export orders for jute yarn and twine after the imposition of ban and they hope that the orders will increase in the days to come. They hope that the countries which used to import raw jute from Bangladesh will now place orders to the country for

Different non-tariff measures are harming the business capabilities of the knitwear manufacturers and exporters of the country, despite some reductions of tariffs in the international trade, BKMEA officials has said. They said the developed countries are increasingly introducing non-tariff measures including anti-dumping, countervailing, safeguard measures etc. They were speaking at a seminar on problems and measures regarding non-tariff measures for ready-made garments industry held at BK

Falling cotton prices attracted buying on Tuesday from some needy spinners who rushed to replenish their stocks. Floor brokers said fall in US dollar’s value against the rupee forced many ginners to unload their stocks in a hurry because import parity of cotton improved. According to market sources, a fall of Rs1.80 in dollar’s value during the last two days has made cotton import more feasible with a price fall of around Rs120 per maund. However, the situation continued to be uncertain

Cotton consumption will rise 10 percent to more than 1 million tonnes in Bangladesh this fiscal year on the back of higher demand from garment makers and favourable government policies for the textile sector, said the International Cotton Advisory Committee. In its latest report released last week, the ICAC said cotton consumption in Vietnam, one of the major competitors of Bangladesh in global apparel trade, will rise 20 percent to 1.1 million during the period. The ICAC, based in Washing

A Pakistani business leader has sound an alarm over reduced cotton output that could threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and the country's largest textile industry, according to newspaper reports. “The cotton output has been estimated to remain under 10 million bales as around 40 per cent crop has been damaged in Punjab only, “said Mian Shahid, Chairman of the United International Group. He said that government should immediately probe the failure through an independent commiss