Manufacturing

The shift of US apparel sourcing away from China has largely benefited Vietnam, which became America's top garment supplier in 2025. India's share of global apparel exports has barely moved in fifteen years, and its US shipments fell sharply this year while, for most of the year, it paid the same duty as Vietnam or more, suggesting that capacity rather than duty rates decides orders.

A year after the last round of US tariffs cost Indian garment workers shifts, wages and jobs, a fresh US duty has been imposed and suspended in the same order, leaving the threat in place. The textile industry's main lobby group says the sector is already under stress, with apparel exports still below last year's level and production concentrated in small firms that have little room to absorb sudden new costs.

A US executive order of 16 October imposed a 100% duty on the largest buyers of Russian energy and waived it in the same text. Indian exporters escape the duty for now, but the waiver has no end date and can be withdrawn at any time, while India's Russian crude purchases remain close to 1.8 million barrels a day.

The world's cotton importers have shifted towards a single dominant exporter at a time of rising weather risk. Brazil shipped 3.37 million tonnes in 2025/26, far ahead of the United States, and its Centre-West cotton belt is in El Niño's dry zone. Conab and StoneX both expect each hectare of Brazilian cotton to yield less this season.

Fashion's sourcing data and its fibre data are moving in different directions. Companies in Textile Exchange's benchmark raised the share of five fibres sourced through standards and certification programmes to 72% in 2025, while polyester took most of the growth in fibre output in 2024. A cotton shortfall driven by El Niño would show which measure defines progress.

Global cotton supply is projected to fall short of demand independently of El Niño. The USDA's August figures put the gap at about 5.3 million bales, and prices rallied on supply concerns before falling back by about a tenth. For spinners that contracted near the peak, a weather shock later this year would compound an existing loss.

Emerging start-ups from nine countries have been selected for fully funded participation in Start-Up Valley during ITMA 2027 in Hanover, an exhibition held every four years in Europe. Although their technologies address different challenges across the value chain, the companies share a common focus on sustainability and circularity.

Sourcing of cotton, polyester, nylon, viscose and wool through verified sustainability programmes climbed from 68% to 72% among the brands and retailers reporting to Textile Exchange's Materials Benchmark across 2025, against 20% of global production. Even so, 79% of the raw materials these brands used carried an unknown country of origin.

Next Generation man-made cellulosic fibre (MMCF) product lines have risen to 20 from 16 in 2025, with Chinese producers now offering 12 of those lines, as conventional forest-based supply comes under growing pressure from climate disruption and trade volatility. The case for brands and producers to shift meaningful volume to recycled and residue-based alternatives has strengthened considerably.

Seamless construction has given Indian intimatewear a new vocabulary of comfort, softness and stretch, yet the manufacturing economics behind it remain demanding. Pankaj Kabutarwala, Founder and Owner of Piccion, a venture of Pigeon Industries, argues that advanced Italian machinery matters far less than four decades of accumulated knowledge in yarns, dyeing and integrated garment production.