China has surpassed the US to become the world's largest online retail market with its e-commerce grossing $439 million of revenue last year (or 7 per cent of its GDP), state-owned Global Times said quoting a report of the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC). According to the report, the internet has become a critical element of China's economic progress in the past five years. Online retail transactions reached 2.79 billion yuan ($439 million) in 2014, one of the key economic a

Pakistan’s exports to EU which had reached $7.52bn in calendar year 2014 from $6.22bn over 2013, an increase of 21.24pc in the first year of GSP plus scheme is showing marginal increase in its growth. According to EU official data, Pakistan’s garments exports to EU reached $1.463 billion in January-July 2015 from $1.437bn over the corresponding period of last year. In euro terms, the value of garments exports to EU witnessed a growth of 26.78pc during the period under review and in quantity

According to the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT), textile machinery orders saw a drop of 2% in the third quarter of 2015 as compared to the same period last year. The value of the orders index for textile machinery stood at 86.9 points (basis 2010=100) for the period ranging from July to September 2015. The orders in the foreign market declined abruptly after four consecutive periods of growth. The index of orders has decreased by 4% as compared to the same

Pakistan's raw cotton exports during the first quarter of current fiscal year (FY16) registered a 10 percent growth due to lower commodity prices in the domestic market and higher demand on the international front. India, Indonesia and Vietnam were leading buyers of Pakistani cotton. Bangladesh also procured some commodity during the first three months of this fiscal year, when prices were less than Rs 4,800 per maund in the domestic market. They procured some quantity from Pakistan to meet t

Zimbabwe government is yet to gazette Statutory Instruments (Sis) discouraging cheap imports of textile products into the country due to which the local textile industry has been operating at below 30% of capacity in the first-half of the year, said Zimbabwe Textile Manufacturers’ Association (ZTMA) secretary-general Raymond Huni The government is in the process of gazetting the SIs enforcing the rebates introduced by the Finance minister (Patrick Chinamasa). They hope that the SI would be ga

Cotton output in all major producing countries in the year has been anticipated to be lower than the previous season. But with domestic trade estimating India ‘s cotton production at around 400 lakh bales, it is likely to emerge as the largest cotton producer in the world in 2015-16. According to sources in Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA), the apex body of spinners in the Southern Region, China has had to vacate its place as the largest producer of cotton to India. The sources sa

The government on Monday imposed a ban on raw jute export for one month with effect from today in a bid to ensure supply of the fibre to the local jute mills and to implement the Mandatory Jute Packaging Act 2010. In a circular, the textiles and jute ministry said that for the proper implementation of mandatory jute packaging act under section 4 and 13 of the Jute Ordinance 1962 the export of raw jute would remain stopped for one month from November 3. Jute exporters, however, said that th

Century Textiles and Industries today reported a standalone loss of Rs 24.26 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, due to higher finance cost. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 77 lakh in the same quarter last fiscal. Century Textiles also announced the appointment of Kumar Mangalam Birla as its Vice Chairman with immediate effect. Net sales during the period under review stood at Rs 1,877.35 crore as against Rs 1,653.63 crore in the year-ago period, Century Textiles a

Prices came under pressure on the cotton market on Monday on higher phutti (seed cotton) arrival reports and landing of imported cotton. Floor brokers said that the week-end ‘downward trend’ noted in cotton prices intensified when trading resumed on Monday as some ginners having ‘long’ position rushed to unload their stocks on fear of further fall in prices. The phutti arrival report, going to be released in next couple of days by ginners’ body, will determine future course of cotton price

PAKISTAN’S leather industry has gone through some difficult years in the recent past owing to both internal and external factors. The last fiscal year was one of the toughest as global commodity prices crashed and a slowdown gripped Europe. And the present year is feared to be even worse. “Every business carries some inherent risks. However, no business can survive the kind of losses that the leather and leather products industry suffered when international commodity prices came crashing