Textile and Apparel Weekly November 04, 2011 EXTRACT

Content: state firm to help market Australian cotton Traditional, ancient accents at China Week Online Retail Management Regulations under preparation Mercedes-Benz China in Qualified products of authorized enterprises will be labeled with "China Cotton" tag Groundbreaking of Tianshan Textile Industrial Park China's textile industrial output up 29% in Q1-Q3

China state firm to help market Australian cotton DATE: 2011-11-03

China's state cotton firm has inked a marketing deal with Australia's largest cotton processor, Namoi Cotton Co-operative Ltd , which has suffered losses despite record production and prices of the fi- bre. The 50/50 joint venture will market the 2012 to 2017 crops globally, Namoi said, giving the world's top cotton buyer direct access to one of the world's top cotton exporting countries. China National Cotton Group Corp (CNCGC) has reached a Heads of Agreement on the joint ven- ture with Namoi, the Australian company said. Analysts said on Wednesday the move will shore up the cotton ginner's balance sheet, putting Namoi on a better footing to compete with commodity giants dominating the world cotton trade. It follows other Chinese deals in the Australian agricultural sector including China's state-owned food and oil giant Cofco acquiring control of Tully Sugar Ltd in July. Namoi on Monday reported a A$56.7 million ($58.5 million) net loss for the six months to Aug. 31, which it blamed on unprecedented cotton market price volatility and increased borrowing costs. "The volatility in the price probably has seen other companies caught out too, but many are privately owned and don't have the same requirement to report losses as Namoi does," said Belinda Moore, an analyst with RBS Morgans in Australia. "It makes sense for Namoi to form a joint venture with the Chinese company as China is one of Aus- tralia's biggest cotton customers," Moore added. China's textile industry is the world's top importer of cotton, accounting for around a third of the world's traded material, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Australia is the number three exporter. Moore said Namoi did not have the financial muscle that larger, more diversified international play- ers in the cotton industry had to deal with market volatility. Source: China Textile Network Company - 1 -

Internationally owned firms involved in Australia's cotton industry include U.S. based Dunavant, Cargill Inc and -listed Olam International's Australian cotton unit Queensland Cotton. A Melbourne-based agricultural analyst said Chinese interest in Australia's agricultural sector was rising. Deals were also being done in the sugar, dairy and grain industries as appetites for western- style food increase as China's middle class continues to grow. Cotton prices soared to the highest level in real terms in March since the U.S. civil war nearly 150 years ago, reaching nearly $1.45 per pound, but have since slid to around 99 cents. Namoi posted a loss despite Australia producing a record 4 million bales (4.4 bales equals one tonne) crop this year. Namoi ginned around 31 percent of the crop, down slightly from the previous year's 33 percent, but its marketing volumes fell more sharply to under 24 percent from 33 percent in 2010 as it competed against offshore companies operating in Australia. Australia cotton growers are now planting the 2011/12 crop which could hit a record 5 million bales, barring unfavourable weather, according to industry group Cotton Australia. ($1 = 0.971 Australian dollars).

Source: Retures

Traditional, ancient accents at China Fashion Week DATE: 2011-11-02

Models present creations for AS August Silk Guo Bao- bao collection during China Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2012 in Beijing October 27, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee By Haze Fan Haute couture mixing traditional Chinese touches and styles from more than 1,000 years ago with Western de- signs opened China Fashion Week, as the world's fas- test-growing market for luxury products catches the eyes of more designers. Models showed off a wide range of long gowns in bright colours, some featuring traditional Chinese embroidery and replicas of attire from the Tang Dynasty, AD 618 to AD 907, from NE TIGER, China's oldest luxury brand. "The haute couture industry in China is developing vigorously without any signs of slowing down. This is above my expectation," said Zhang Zhifeng, who founded the brand 19 years ago. "I thought my haute couture would live only with a small group of people, but now it is expanding very quickly. Consumers have become increasingly fond of Chinese traditional culture." Zhang said he wanted the Spring/Summer 2012 collection "Tang, Jing" to highlight Tang culture for the 500-strong audience at the show on Wednesday, the start of the 10-day Fashion Week, which NE TIGER has opened for the last decade.

Source: China Textile Network Company - 2 -

"I was so inspired when I listened to some historians telling stories of the Tang Dynasty. It was so prosperous that in many ways, it still has influence on Chinese society even today," he added. Some gowns featured designs from traditional Chinese paintings, while others had flaring, bouffant skirts. Zhang's workshop is located in the heart of Beijing, the Chinese capital, where his 11-person inter- national team dedicates itself to the creation of personalised designs. A customised, hand-made gown usually costs about 30,000 yuan, with the price going even higher depending on the amount of human labour involved, such as embroidering elaborate designs. One garment can take up to three months. But despite the prices, Zhang said NE TIGER has seen a boom in purchases from both domestic and overseas clients in recent years. The brand has eight boutiques around the world. While European and U.S. fashion designers are feeling the pinch of the economic crisis, the number of millionaires in China is rapidly expanding, leading to a growing market for couture in the world's second-largest economy. According to the 2011 World Luxury Association Blue Book survey, China's total consumption of luxury goods had reached $10.7 billion as of the end of March this year, accounting for a quarter of global consumption. China has also become the world's second-largest consumer of luxury goods. Some of those potential consumers, present at the show, said they were impressed. "Every single gown presented tonight is surprisingly gorgeous," said Li Fengteng, a 28-year-old company manager. "They combine the traditional Chinese cheong-sam design and Western fashion elements."

Source: Reuters

Online Retail Management Regulations under preparation DATE: 2011-11-01

On the regular briefing of Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China on October 19, Shen Danyang, the spokesman of Ministry of Commerce, indicated that the Taobao Mall case – be- cause of the substantial increase in service charge and deposit, small and medium sized sellers were infuriated and attacked the brand shops – exposed the absence of laws and regulations for our country’s internet retail management. “It’s happy to see that the case was finnally tackled in a proper way in the joint efforts of all parties. Taobao Mall held a press conference in the afternoon of October 17, which led the event moving in a positive and rational direction.” Shen Danyang said that the prime cause of this event is the weak- ness of our country’s legal management on internet, the absence of laws and regulations on online retail, and the inadequacy of regulatory system.

Source: China Textile Network Company - 3 -

He believes that the construction of retail legal management system should be accelerated. Cur- rently we should boost the establishment of Online Retail Management Regulations, which should be led by Ministry of Commerce and be issued as soon as possible.

Source: CTEI

Mercedes-Benz China Fashion Week in Beijing DATE: 2011-11-01

Mercedes-Benz China International Fashion Week 2012 Spring & Summer Series is held in Beijing from October 24 to November 2. More than 50 fashion brands and institutes, 40 designers and 180 emerging designers from home and abroad attended this year’s fashion week. For the very first time, the fashion week was entitled exclusively by Mercedes-Benz, making it a new member of this global fashion festival. During the 10-days Fashion Week, there are totally more than 60 activities, including 44 fashion shows, 6 professional contests, and other activities like fashion forum, news conference, award ceremony etc. The two main spots for this year’s fashion week are D PARK Beijing Club and Beijing Hotel. On the show stage, besides the fashion shows for those Jinding designers like Zhang Zhaoda, Ka Bin, Liu Yang, Ji Wenbo, we could also enjoy the shows for new designers, for instance, Yang Jie, Cheng Qiong and so on. The fashion shows include women’s wear, men’s wear, wedding dress, knitted fashion, underwear, sports wear, and jeans. The most dominating among all kinds is women’s wear, whereas there are 12 brands for men’s wear, the highest figure in the fashion week’s history. Moreover, there are fashion shows for make-up, bags, shoes and other items. Another landscape of the fashion week is the participation of the fashion related brands and internet brands. There are shows for sports brand JORDAN, fabric brands TORAY, Asahi Kasei, make up brand MGPIN, Mbaobao.com, G-vill etc. In the fashion week, men’s wear is the highlight of the fashion week among all the fashion show categories. Brands include Cabbeen Chic, LILANZ, Zeng Fengfei, Beauty Berry, L&XF, St.dawee, Edenbo, VLOV, ZUOAN, POKPOKER, TRIES, Wolf Zone. It has been 14 years since the foundation of the China International Fashion Week in 1997, now it has become China’s top stage for new products, new design, new technology of fashion, clothing, accessories, bags, makeup and so on, making itself an international service platform for world fa- mous brands and designers to set their images, demostrate their creativity, spread fashion.

Source: CTEI

Source: China Textile Network Company - 4 -

Qualified products of authorized enterprises will be labeled with "China Cotton" tag DATE: 2011-11-01

“China Cotton” authorization press conference was held in Beijing on October 11. China Cotton As- sociation granted authorization to the first four enterprises, allowing them to use the label of China Cotton on their qualified products. Shandong Lanyan Group, Beijing Miantian Textile Co., Ltd are among the first companies authorized to use China Cotton label. China Cotton Association has been promoting the label of China Cotton since 2010, seeking to es- tablish a famous industrial brand and promote domestic products with the label as a carrier and the idea of “Made in China, High quality, Environmentally friendly”. Application from enterprises were accepted since January 2011. After procedures of enterprise application, qualification review, field investigation, sample testing, experts evaluation, China Cotton Association chose four among all the applicated enterprises, authorized them with Permit of China Cotton Label, allowing them to use it on their qualified products. Customers will soon be able to experience products with the tag of China Cotton on it. Gao Fang, the executive vice chairman of China Cotton Association, indicated that China Cotton Association will follow up the quality on products that use the China Cotton label, to guarantee the quality of authorized products. Meanwhile, they also provide information, legal promotion services to those authorized enterprises. The Association wishes that authorized enterprises could pay more at- tention on the design, innovation and market promotion in the future.

Source: CTEI

Groundbreaking of Tianshan Textile Industrial Park DATE: 2011-10-31

A grand groundbreaking ceremony for Tianshan Textile Industrial Park was held in northern area of Urumchi High-tech Zone in Xinjiang. Since June last year, Xinjiang Tianshan Wool Textile Co., Ltd, started the Tianshan Textile Industrial Park’s relocation project, moving out from urban area to industrial park. The project is divided into three phases of investment from year 2010 to 2013, with the planned land of 333,000 square me- ters, and total investment of 0.72 billion RMB. This groundbreaking is for phase I, with planned land 260 mu, construction land 210 mu and investment 0.32 billion RMB, comprises 11 individual build- ings including villus plant, spinning plant, knitting plant, research and development building, office building and other production and living facilities. It is planned to complete the overall construction by August 2012. Tianshan Textile Industrial Park will complete equipments installation and setup and begin production by the year 2013. After the construction of the project, the expected annual production for all kinds of yarns is 350 tons, wool and cashmere sweaters 1.2 million pieces. Xinjiang Tianshan Wool Textile Co., Ltd is cur- rently the only textile enterprise listed in the stock market in Xinjiang. The company will take this re- location opportunity to build up a research and development center and increase the investment in product design and processing technology, thus to speed up the scientific research by promoting the product design, research and development, equipment renovation and new technology.

Source: CTEI

Source: China Textile Network Company - 5 -

China's textile industrial output up 29% in Q1-Q3 DATE: 2011-10-31

China's textile industry posted a year-on-year rise of 29 percent in its industrial output value which hit 3.9558 trillion yuan ($623 billion) in the first three quarters, the Ministry of Industry and Informa- tion Technology (MIIT) said Friday.

The growth rate is one percentage point lower than that of the first half of this year, according to a statement posted on the MIIT's website.

Among the major products, yarn output reached 20.95 mil- lion tons in the first three quarters, an increase of 11.3 percent over the same period last year, while cloth and garment output increased by 13.3 percent and 9.5 per- cent, respectively, to 44.9 billion meters and 18.3 billion pieces.

Profits of large-scale textile enterprises totaled 167 billion yuan in the first eight months, up 36.4 per- cent from the same period last year, said the statement.

Exports of China's textile and clothing enterprises totaled $186.1 billion in the first nine months, a 24.3 percent rise year-on-year.

The ministry expects that domestic market demand will maintain a relatively rapid growth as the cot- ton price stabilizes. Meanwhile, a slowdown in international market demand will hurt exports, and the industry will see growth similar to that of last year.

Source: China Daily

Source: China Textile Network Company - 6 -