Apparel Sourcing Intelligence - Worldwide

22nd April 2018

Chinese “waiting for Pakistani textile mills to die”

A year ago, Pakistani companies were leaking to news agencies that Chinese firms were using Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” project to invest heavily in Pakistan's spinning and weaving industry. Six...

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9th April 2018

A tale of two South Asian scandals

During April 2018, two five-year old clothing industry scandals involving corrupt South Asian governments played themselves out. In Bangladesh, a campaign to identify and punish the murderers of clothing union...

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24th May 2017

EU adds Sri Lanka to its duty-free GSP+ programme

The European Union has reinstated Sri Lanka to its GSP+ programme, a special arrangement under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences aimed at encouraging sustainable development and good governance. As from May...

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28th March 2017

Burma best-performing major 2016 supplier: Cambodia, India, Philippines and Morocco do worst

Burma showed the strongest growth among apparel suppliers to developed countries in 2016, as the total volume shipped worldwide fell for the first time in five years . Clothesource Tradetrak measures...

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7th February 2017

US 2016 apparel imports fall in spite of year-end spurt. Price falls accelerated

US apparel imports (in square metres) grew 3.4% in December 2016 over December 2015, though falls in the previous six months a 2016 annual fall of 1.1%. Average prices per square metre...

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12th February 2016

Are apparel prices really rising?

Just about every apparel industry commentator on the planet is constantly going on about rising cost prices. But do any of them look at what buyers are paying? In the year to...

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5th November 2015

US September imports continue growth trend

US apparel imports in September, measured in square metres of apparel, grew 4.8%, bringing growth in the moving annual total (MAT)  to September to 6.1%. As in most Septembers, China's...

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11th August 2015

First “currency war” theats as Chinese devaluation worries rest of world

Threats of retaliation against China were mounting as a 1.9% devaluation announced on August 11 turned into a 4.4% fall by August 14. The devaluations followed a July 8.3%year-on-year fall...

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28th July 2015

Chinese apparel exports hit hard as Eurozone and Japanese apparel imports tumble

The US dollar value of Chinese apparel exports continued to fall in June. But, with exports to the UK and US remaining healthy, the fall seems mostly the result of...

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6th May 2015

US apparel imports return to normal growth in first quarter

US apparel imports (measured in square metres of apparel) appeared to soar 20% in March over March 2014 after erratic movements earlier in the year. For the first three months...

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3rd March 2015

Pakistan Textile City “on verge of collapse”: Minister

Pakistan's decade-overdue on-again, off-again Karachi Textile City project is "on the verge of collapse", the country's Textile Minister, Abbas Khan Afridi, told its National Assembly on March 2, as the meeting...

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24th February 2015

EU delegation hints at suspending Pakistan’s GSP+

In highly nuanced diplomat-speak, an EU delegation to Pakistan hinted on February 23 at the possibility of Pakistan's eligibility for GSP+ being challenged because of the country's human rights record....

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