Trading activity came down as mills and exporters, showed some hesitance in finalising new deals as rupee's ascent versus dollar likely to cause huge losses, dealers said on the cotton market on Saturday. The official spot rate sustained overnight rates at Rs 4,650, they added. In the ready session, about 15,000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 4000-5000, they said. In Sindh, prices were unchanged at Rs 1500 and Rs 2400, in Punjab prices were also inert at Rs 1600 and Rs 2500, they said.

Bangladesh will be able to churn $5 billion from exporting leather, leather goods and footwear in four years, riding on the back of product diversification and value addition, a leading exporter said yesterday. The sector will create 200,000 jobs in the period, said Md Saiful Islam, managing director of Picard Bangladesh. “Everyone is talking about export diversification. The leather sector will help Bangladesh diversify its exports,” said Islam, also the vice president of Leathergoods and

The German government will give €50 million compliance fund for Bangladesh’s textile industry to cope with global standard. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed yesterday at secretariat in this regard between two countries. The German delegation headed by its Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Hans-Joachim Fuchtel and Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed signed the MoU from their respective sides. Addressing the signing ceremony,

In a bid to move from mere captive consumption to commercial production, Sintex Industries Limited is planning a greenfield textiles plant including spinning and knitting at Pipavav. The company is planning to invest around Rs 5500 crore for the new project which is set to fully commission in 2017-18. Speaking on the sidelines of INTEXCON 2014, a three-day international conference on textiles, Amit Patel, group managing director of Sintex Industries said, "So far, our existing spinning capaci

Ensuring better infrastructure, mainly availability of power and gas, has been voted to be the top most priority of Bangladesh to reach an apparel export target of US$50 billion by the year 2021, when the country aspires to become a middle-income one. The requirement for skilled workers and managers is the second top priority to achieve the goal as Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) conducted a survey among the industry stakeholders and experts as part of the D

The announcement on Tuesday of the joint venture between Reliance Industries and China's Shandong Ruyi Science & Technology Group put an end to years of speculation about the fate of Reliance's textile business. Focus had shifted to its other businesses with much higher margins and the original business with which the group had started, contributed less than 1 per cent to its revenues. But the biggest beneficiary could be the flagship brand of the textile division, the iconic Only Vimal. Ex

jute industry of the country is seeking the government support to increase export of value-added jute products which currently stands at around $14 million. According to industry sources, all it needs to avoid using hazardous packaging material like polypropylene for food storage and utilise jute bags so that the industry can plan new investment in capacity utilisation and local cultivation of jute. Presently, government departments are using 60 percent polypropylene bags and 40 percent jute

Relocation to Africa, in terms of costs and market access, is one attractive option. With the average wage of the 23 million textile workers in China reaching $600 a month, garment factory owners are starting to greet each other with a variation of: "Have you moved the factory out of China yet?" As a labor-intensive industry, garment-making faces great pressure as labor costs soar in China. Wang Tiankai, director of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, says the minimum wage i

THE yuan yesterday closed at its weakest against the US dollar in nearly four months, causing speculation for further depreciation on potential easing of monetary policies. The yuan fell 0.3 percent to close at 6.1926 per dollar yesterday, capping a combined 0.9 percent drop for the past two days, the biggest two-day loss since 2007. The currency briefly weakened to above 6.20 level before stabilizing in afternoon trading, according to China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices. The wea

Government aims at 20% growth in technical textiles in the 12th five year plan. In the 11th five year plan, technical textile grew at a pace of 11%. According to government estimates, technical textiles is estimated at $260 billion. “Currently, our market share in world textiles stands at 4% and we plan to increase it substantially by laying emphasis on the infrastructure of domestic textiles,” said Santosh Kumar Gangwar, minister of state for textiles at a FICCI conference. Gangwar als