The Ministry of Trade and Industry confirmed that there is a plan to waive the 25 percent Customs duty on imported fabric, a move that is meant to boost the production of locally-made garments. But this could spell doom for Rwanda's only textile factory, L'usine Textile du Rwanda (Utexrwa) struggling to stay in business due to competition from imported fabrics. The mill, which opened in 1984, is also grappling with high production costs, making its fabric too expensive for ordinary Rwandans.

China's currency renminbi (RMB), or the yuan, is unlikely to see a large depreciation this year despite slowing economic growth and weak exports, a U.S. expert said. "I don't think we'll see either a big step devaluation or a market-driven large depreciation" of the RMB this year, Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a leading expert on China's economy, said at a seminar on global economic prospects. "I don't accept the argument that the

Vietnam exporters posted a 9.6% year-on-year jump in overseas footwear consignments to US$2.78 billion for the first three months of 2016, according to the latest statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs. The US was the largest export market for the three months January-March, accounting for a 34% market share with sales of US$945.56 million, said the Department. Sales to the US were up over 11.6% when compared to last year’s corresponding period. In terms of market share,

Denim fabrics and products in Bangladesh have embodied constant evolution over the years with the blessings of latest technology and innovative designs, industry people said. They made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a two-day Bangladesh Denim Expo in the capital yesterday. Denim Experts Limited is hosting the event. “We believe that denim fabrics and denim products are under constant evolution because of strong technological influence and the new generation’s choice to change denim

Cotton price rose to a seasonal high on Monday as dwindling cotton stocks held by ginners prompted panic buying. According to market reports, ginners hold fewer than 250,000 bales at present. The rising trend in cotton prices in early trading in the New York cotton market and elsewhere was reported to be another factor which indu­ced sentiment, brokers said. Ginners were also reluctant to dispose of their stocks at this juncture as they are expecting to get higher rates in the coming days

Bangladesh should focus on the growing Asian apparel market, where the retail value of garment and textile consumption in just India and China will more than double to $750 billion by 2020, from approximately $300 billion at present, said a Swiss textile expert. The Asian garment and textile sector has been growing fast and will continue to do so in the next four years, said Christian P Schindler, director general of Switzerland-based International Textile Manufacturers Federation or ITMF.

With Pakistan’s inclusion in the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) by the European Union (EU) India has lost 37 textile markets over the last two years in the European Union to Pakistan. Preferences are given to certain countries through tax exemption in developed markets to boost trade from that country. This duty anomaly, along with other issues, has resulted into a slow pick-up of garments and fabrics from India as compared to Pakistan. Data compiled by the Ministry of Textiles showe

The textile industry despite poor market conditions has done well as compared to other sectors on export front. India’s textile exports remained flat at $40 billion in 2015-16 which is lower than the target of $47.5 billion set by the government for textile and clothing, Union Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said after the inauguration of Technotex 2016 conference here. The industry experts said that the subdued trend in exports was due to recessionary trends in Europe and the US markets. In 2

The 2015-16 US cotton production estimate was reduced this month to 12.87 million bales, as indicated in the March 2016. Cotton Ginnings report, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said. In 2014-15, the US produced 16.3 million bales of cotton. Upland production was placed at 12.44 million bales while the ELS crop was estimated at 430,000 bales. The USDA will release final 2015-16 production estimates on May 10. With starting stocks unchanged in April, this season's cotton supp

Burkina Faso produced 581,000 tonnes of raw cotton in the recently ended 2015/16 season, down 18 percent from the previous harvest and well short of its aim of a record crop of 800,000 tonnes, the national cotton association said on Friday. The Inter-professional Cotton Association of Burkina (AICB), which groups together the country's three cotton companies and the national cotton farmers union (UNPCB), said the drop in output was due to poor weather conditions. Seasonal rains arrived late.