A significant finding in this report is that major Japanese brands were responsible for around 93% of the overall denim purchased from Vietnam.

An important insight from this report is that well-known Canadian brands accounted for approximately 67% of the total denim purchased from Bangladesh, highlighting the concentration of purchasing power among a limited number of brands.

One of the key takeaways from this report is that a few top Indian brands bought about 84% of total denim from Bangladesh, indicating a concentration of buying power in the hands of a select few. The report also presents information on other Indian companies that engage in substantial buying from Bangladesh.

This report offers in-depth analysis on the purchasing patterns of Japanese companies, highlighting those that engage in substantial buying . Furthermore, the report presents data on Bangladeshi companies that export garments to Japan, including the quantities supplied and a deeper delve into other specifics of the trade .

Hi Arief, you have come out with a new software called AiMAT. Can you let us know more about it?

Thanks for asking, yes, we did, it is just like its name, Automated Industrial Measurement and Analysis Tool. It is not only software but a combination of hardware and software. The purpose of the same is to help the washing/laundries to come out with real-time data on usage of water, chemicals, fuel, etc, inputs in their factory. It also enables the calculation of this data based on buyer, order, period, and other parameters, making it easy for the supplier to generate reports as he wishes. It can also help the buyer to monitor resource usage on his order in real-time and this I believe is the biggest advantage. Other positives are:

•  Having data automatically 
•  Knowing the real uses of chemicals, water, electricity, fuel, and ETP. 
•  Knowing the real data of carbon generation.
•  Analyzing data and automatic report system, accessible from any internet destination.
•  Transparency at the highest level. The base for any kind of sustainability.
•  Digitalization of chemical uses.
•  Knowing the uses of Brand wise, order-wise, style-wise, or pcs-wise. Also, yearly, monthly, weekly, and day-wise.

What is the applicability of this tool? Who would really benefit by implementing this and how?

This tool is basically to be used by the washing/laundries where the most of the resources are used. The laundries can easily control and monitor their consumptions of water, chemicals, electricity, Gas etc. The most important aspect of this solution is that it is Not dependent on any kind of machine, chemical etc. It can be applied in ANY LAUNDRY. The One Click reporting system also is very helpful to know order wise, style wise, period wise details of resources and it greatly helps in Management control and improving sustainability credentials.

With this system, everyone would be benefitted.

• Factory
  • By knowing the exact consumptions.
  • By knowing the exact cost of the production.
  • By knowing the real chemical consumption
  • By knowing the exact rewash/rework amount.
  • By knowing the real productivity.
  • By knowing the real time production status.
  • By knowing if the production is really getting sustainable or not.
  • By having more specific control over the production.

• Brand
  • All these factory benefits are really a benefit for the real product owners.
  • By knowing if the production same as the development.
  • By knowing if the ETP is performing properly or not.
  • By knowing exactly what is the consumption for their own products.
  • Does not have to be dependent on a third party company to know if the product is sustainable or not.
  • Having transparency on the laundry.
  • Be able to have confident sustainable marketing strategy.

So you mean that the hardware and software will be connected and bring live data from machines in the laundry without needing for manual input?       

This tool is more a hardware then and a software. Avoiding any manual input requires mechanical support and in this case, it is quite big. All hardware’s are connected with the software to generate and analyses data. 

How do you ensure the authenticity of data?

•  All support tools are ECC certified and authenticated for accurate data.
•  All the tools are calibrated from one standard accurate value.
•  The periodic audit will be performed on all hardware, to make sure, data are real.
•  Any difference and tools will be checked physically.
•  We also welcome any third-party company to come and check.

Do you think that this kind of software can help companies in sustainability monitoring?

Yes, Over here no % is used, valuations are no created, nor it is based on any previous record. It gives you information, based on what is happening now. If you know the exact use it is simple to say it is sustainable or not. Data is refreshed every 5 minutes, to know the exact results or the productions.  It also helps you to see if the wash machines are using the same recipe and time.  It also helps in monitoring ETP performance.  The biggest plus is that it enables monitoring real-time data transparently.

How can fashion brands make use of AiMAT for their monitoring purpose? Can it be done in real-time by them?

The brands can use this tool for various objectives of theirs. E.g. they can

•  Monitor if the product consumption is the same as it is declared or not. 
•  Monitor factory’s growth as sustainable production.
•  Monitor if the ETP is working or not.
•  Monitor factory’s wash production status.

In addition, since Data is updated every 5mins, so, it is real-time. With extra investments, we can also provide a Cell phone app for both monitoring and reporting.

How much time it takes to setup such a system in a typical laundry

3 to 6 months minimum. Most of the time is taken for getting the imported hardware in-house and its installation.

What are your plans looking ahead to ensure that this system is installed and recognized as a tool for monitoring in the industry?

With-in the company ownership, we are building a model factory for denim, with sewing and washing facility. Our plan is to install the solution there as a showcase. However, due to corona situation, we got late.

The initial plan is to inform Global companies, who initiate sustainable projects.  Besides, we want to take this to the denim community, to brands and factories so that all can fulfill various objectives that they want to achieve from this solution.

We are also looking for investors who want to associate with us, take this tool to the next level, and serve a bigger part of the global denim industry.

To connect with Arief for more info, contact him on this email Mohammad@tds-bd.com

The country has over 95,000 cases of COVID 19 and on average country has been witnessing over 3500 cases daily. On April 5, Bangladesh was at 117th position in the list of countries with the highest cases in the world. Today, within two and a half months, the country is in the 18th position.

The cases are expected to rise at faster rates in coming weeks and considering the health infrastructure and dense population, experts are anticipating Bangladesh as the new hotspot.

One of the crucial contributors to the The Bangladeshi economy is its Garment and Textile Industry which accounts for 12% of the country’s gross domestic product and 84% of its merchandise exports is suddenly in the crisis due to this pandemic. More than 1,000 factories have been closed or are under process of closing (as per reports) and 2.19 million workers have their jobs at stake.

Bangladesh’s ready-made garments sector accounts for around 80% of the country’s total export earnings. At least 4 million workers depend on the textile industry for their livelihood.

HOW BADLY IS BANGLADESH AFFECTED

In the month of May, Bloomberg reported that garment orders worth $1.5 billion were cancelled and export dipped by 84% in the first half of April. In April, the garment exports amounted to just $380 million, against $2.26 billion a year earlier. In March, the export earning were mere $520 million, down from $3.03 billion in the same month of last year. (Source- EPB)

The country imposed lockdown for few weeks but considering the economic compulsion, lockdown was eased and factories were re-opened. According to BGMEA, currently the garment factories are running at only 55% capacity.

Many reports suggest that over 1,000 brands/retailers have either canceled or put on hold on the orders which may cause the complete shutdown to 1,150 factories leaving 2.28 million workers unemployed.

BGMEA is expecting the situation to be worsened if the western retailers do not come to rescue. The association has even anticipated that up to half of million workers could lose their jobs in June if commitments to pay for ordered stock that was in production when the epidemic struck are not honoured.

Bangladesh was one of those countries which was and was expected to be benefited from the ongoing US-China Trade war along with Vietnam and India however COVID-19 changed the fates.

The country was expected to grow at 8% in 2020 which has been now revised down to less than 2% which may also be revised later. Such abrupt fall has hit the development aspiration and have created serious problems for the country.

The government has recently come with a rescue plan of amounting nearly $12 billion(3.5% of GDP), however another worrying thing before the government is that they need an additional $ 928.48 billion to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. IMF has recently approved $732 Million Disbursement to Bangladesh to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic.

RECENT CANCELLATIONS FROM BRANDS

Post the US-EU lockdown, Bangladesh has started to receive the cancelation threats from all the major retailers and brands, however in later months, when the manufacturers and the associations started to build pressure , a lot of brands assured that they are going to pay for the shipped items.

But recently, The U.K.’s Edinburgh Woolen Mills Group, the brand owners of Peacocks, Jaeger, Bonmarche, and Austin Reed, has canceled orders valued $30 million.

Apart from that, the parent company of Sears Holding has also refused to pay over $40 million of outstanding debt with its garment suppliers in Bangladesh. Over $21 million worth of products have been already shipped and the same has been store in the USA ports.

One of the USA’s largest retailers – Kohl’s, one of the US’s largest clothing retailers, cancelled orders worth $50m and refused to even renegotiate payments. The company paid $109 million as dividends to the shareholder just weeks before the cancelation.

VOCAL FOR LOCAL

At this point of time, when everyone is looking to support the local manufacturers, in Bangladesh also, supporting local yarn manufacturers is being discussed, nothing is yet confirmed, however the local newspaper reported that Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) sent a letter to Finance, Commerce and Jute Minister for taking necessary measures to curb the entry of Indian yarn to the country.

In the letter, the president of BTMA said

Bangladesh exported $566 million worth of garment items to India in the fiscal years 2017-18 and 2018-19, but imported $7.74 billion worth of textile related items including raw cotton, cotton yarn, cotton fabrics and textiles during the same period this year.

Bangladesh produces yarn worth $12 billion on an annual basis and due to the COVID19 yarn worth $1.4 billion has remained unsold at the factory level over the last two months.

BTMA believes that the Indian Yarn is highly subsidised and is being sold from $2.60 to $2.70 per kg in Bangladesh however the same quality of yarn is locally available at the price range of $2.80-$2.90 per kg.

There has been vocal need for localization not only in Bangladesh but in most countries which feel that the local industry and communities need to be supported . This call will strengthen over time if we see this pandemic still causing distress over long period of time. Globalization is sure to take a retreat in a big way even if recovery from Covid situation is achieved to a large extent because the consumption levels are not expected to reach the pre-covid ones anytime soon and the biggest impact will come on supply chain which is the farthest.