Industry News

Source: Sourcing Journal

The Ministry of Labor released a statement Monday asking factory owners and unions to start preparing for the next round of negotiations, Cambodia Daily reported. The talks are scheduled to start in August, with final discussions between government, union and employer representatives pegged for October.

A new minimum wage is expected to come into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.

Source: The Hindu

Garment manufacturers in Tirupur knitwear cluster will explore the possibilities of using wool more in knitwear production to sustain the business all through the year.

Presently, the manufacturers in the cluster are struggling to maintain the momentum round the year due to lack of adequate diversification into value-added winter garments.

Research

Source: JAPAN TODAY

MUMBAI — Global clothing brands must take responsibility for the millions of workers in Asia who are poorly paid by suppliers and ignored by governments, said a campaigner for higher wages in the region, ahead of an International Labour Organization (ILO) conference.

Asia accounts for more than 60% of the world's garment production, with the industry employing more than 15 million people directly, most of them women.

Source: The News(International)

KARACHI: Pakistan's textile exports fell 7.72 percent to $10.395 billion in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, an official data showed, as lack of product diversity is bringing down the local industry's share in the international market.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed that textile exports fetched $11.26 billion in the July-April period of the last fiscal year.

Source: Business Standard

Bangladesh, the world's second largest exporter of apparels of western brands, will close 319 more garment factories amidst intense global competition and challenges like devaluation of the US dollar, a top trade association has said.

Expressing worries over the drop in productivities, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association's (BGMEA) President Siddiqur Rahman on Saturday said Bangladesh's garment industry was facing myriad challenges.

Source: Reuters

May 5 Bangladesh's exports in April rose 11.82 percent from a year earlier to $2.68 billion, led by stronger sales of garments, official data showed on Thursday.

Exports for July to April, the first 10 months of the country's 2015-16 financial year, rose 9 percent from a year earlier to $27.6 billion, the Export Promotion Bureau said.

Sales of garments, comprising knitwear and woven items, totalled $22.6 billion in July-April, up 10 percent from a year earlier.

Source: The Hindu

The Garment and Textile Workers Union has demanded that the State government immediately withdraw all cases booked against garment workers during the violent protests in the city on April 18 and 19.

The union denied the accusation that garments workers were responsible for violent incidents, including the torching of many buses.

Source: Al Arabiya English

Only 24 of nearly 700 clothing factories inspected in Bangladesh meet international safety standards, a group of major brands said Wednesday, three years after a deadly building collapse exposed the hazardous state of the nation's workplaces.

The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, which was set up after the Rana Plaza disaster and represents North American apparel brands including Wal-Mart, said remediation work had been completed in 24 factories and was underway in hundreds of others.