2021 Forecast - Greenaways: Steep rise in ex-China synthetic prices
Published: 10th Dec 2020
Durban, KZN, SA - The cost of synthetic upper materials, which are currently all imported, mostly from China, has risen steeply this year, according to Garth Ribbink, member of A. Greenaways (Natal) (Pty) Ltd, one of the leading importers.
He forwarded correspondence from suppliers in China.
One wrote: "During [the past] one month, the exchange rate of RMB became strong (about 3% raise), sea freight up (Last sea freight of 20' was US$650, now it is more than US$1780) and cost of material up (PU resin, backer fabric and factory workers' wages are all raised), so in future I think we have to increase price of product.
"This year, I let price of most products [go below] last year, now it will be UP...Sorry to let you know this information."
Another wrote: "Just last week I told you the sea freight for 1x20'ft container is US$1050.00 and yesterday we were told it is now double.
"The sea freight recently is US$1030.00 per container. Inland charge is RMB3945.00 = US$585.00; 1x20'ft container could have around 12000 Mt. of 1.60mm PVC. So the freight cost is US$0.14/m, not including the insurance. Ex factory price is RMB17.00/m.
“Many Textile orders came back to China last time these orders were made in India during these last 2 months cause of the demand for Textile cloth it drives the price up. So, fabric factory can’t improve yield so it is difficult to getting back cloth.
"So, now factory is 'boss' before customer was 'boss'."
- 2021 Forecast - NCRF: We need to cut input costs
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - National Clothing Retail Federation of SA (NCRF) executive director Michael Lawrence said most of his time since October had been spent on the implementation of the Master Plan."You should be seeing more local product in those chain retailers which have signed up for the plan," he said."The NC ...more2021 Forecast - Fusion: Better-than-expected bookings for some
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - There is an air of cautious optimism, with many of our customers starting off 2021 with stronger than anticipated order books. Retailers seem to be talking to local manufacturers as international logistics remains unreliable and unpredictable.Hide prices are on the rise. Interestingly the customers who reminded ta ...more2021 Forecast - Bolton: Great support from chains, costing challenges
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - We on-boarded Woolworths just before lockdown and successfully delivered their first shipment under their own label in July this year. Since then the relationship has grown and we are currently working on another repeat delivery for January 2021.There are more styles in the pipeline for the first half of 2021 and ...more2021 Forecast - Baronos: Customers will be price sensitive
Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA - Really tough year ahead, corporates and individuals will be watching the pennies very carefully, hoping that they will look after the pounds. There will be small rays of sunshine, but I believe these will be short-lived. At the moment survival and cost cutting are the orders for the day and we have to hang in t ...more2021 Forecast - Equator: Unpredictable is the only predictable
New Germany, KZN, SA - The only thing we can bank on is that the market will remain unpredictable. What we have seen is that SA retail is more stable (to date) than developed markets like US/UK and Australia. The Netherlands is experiencing the biggest drop in Bricks ‘n Mortar sales from what we see, where they predict (once Governm ...more2021 Forecast - Saddler: More chains need to commit to Masterplan
Durban, KZN, SA - To forecast 2021 is extremely difficult! It will depend on how many people have lost their jobs this year and how the economy does. These negative factors work against the positive factors of #BuySouthAfrican (R-CTFL Masterplan 2030) and the #PayIn30 initiative, where big business endeavours to pay SMMEs in 30 days ...more2021 Forecast - Dangee Carken: Grit and support have kept us going
Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA - It’s been an incredibly challenging year. The nervousness and uncertainty has been very unsettling. Disappointingly the financial institutions haven’t been much help either. Due to sheer grit and unbelievable support from our suppliers and service providers and our vast experience in forward plannin ...more2021 Forecast - How to get your business back on its feet
What can businesses in SA expect in 2021? I'm going to get straight to the point to provoke some thinking that hopefully will prompt readers into attempting a business reset. Given where we may all find ourselves right now in the “survival stage”, and still in the midst of a COVID 19 crisis, is it n ...more2021 Forecast - SAFLIA - Footwear manufacturing, imports and exports dropped by over 30 percent in first half of 2020Durban, KZN, SA - Footwear production during the first 2 quarters of 2020 fell by 34.84% by comparison with the same period in 2019, according to the SAFLIA Digest for January to June, released last month.Pairage dropped from 24.4 million pairs to 15.9 million.The value of ex-factory sales dropped by 31.2%, from R2.7 billion to close to R ...more2021 Forecast - Components Cluster: On hold for nowPinetown, KZN, SA - The Components Cluster, the newest cluster in the leather value chain, was proposed as a means of resurrecting South Africa's components manufacturing capacity, decimated during the long years of imported footwear domination.Cluster chairman and Apeco MD Mark Gibbings said trying to get it up and running had been " ...more2021 Forecast - Inno Textiles: Cheaper if we can, but...Hammarsdale, KZN, SA - In terms of shoe products, I can see a trend with my customers wanting to us to re-develop current products to make them more “affordable” However, we are not too keen on this as we do not believe in “messing” with our quality just to enter a price war. Where we can re-engineer something for ...more2021 Forecast - Neucoat: Locally made synthetic for school shoes to launch in JanuaryPinetown, KZN, SA - In correspondence with Hans Beier, Chairman Emeritus of the Beier Group (Pty) Ltd over plans to resurrect local manufacturing of synthetic upper materials for footwear, he wrote: "Yes, we have developed a 1.8mm PU school shoe upper material which is presently undergoing field trials and laboratory approvals agains ...more2021 Forecast - Azula Collective: Looking forward to a great yearDurban, KZN, SA - Next year is going to be amazing. Our wholesale clients have doubled and we have successfully launched our e-commerce store and our well received in-house range. We have a growing database of customers for the brand, Nēo, and number of repeat orders. There are boutiques country wide interested in s ...more2021 Forecast - Dick Whittington: Expecting a decline in tender work, so fashion must growPietermaritzburg, KZN, SA - Dicks has two distinct revenue streams, the first being through our commercial business generated through sales from its several brands. The bulk of these sales are usually focussed in the second half of the year. Although men’s formal footwear is predicted to decline as more consumers work from home, we ...moreThis article s part of a feature set of articles that were published in S&V Footwear & Leather Goods Magazine Vol83 No11 November 2020
- 2021 Forecast for the South African Footwear & Leather Goods IndustryAt the end of 2020 we asked various businesses operating within the footwear and leather goods industry for their 2021 forecast for the sector. ...more
Footwear Industry Articles
- Obituary: C. Lionel Astill – Apeco (Pty) Ltd / Italian Leathers (Pty) Ltd (19/11/1940-07/11/2025) Born in a mortuary, and forever marked as different
My father was born during World War II in Leicestershire, England. Literally during the war. The Luftwaffe was bombing at the time, and the safest place they could take my Grandma Marge to deliver was underground in the mortuary, where, without fuss, he was born on the mortuary slab. We all swear that his sometimes dark sense of humour c ...moreObituary: C. Lionel Astill – Apeco (Pty) Ltd / Italian Leathers (Pty) Ltd (19/11/1940-07/11/2025) The marketing genius and the English language dictatorChristopher Lionel Astill, or as we knew him at the Apeco office, CLA, was a smart businessman who knew how to ‘use’ people for their knowledge. I don’t mean that in a horrible way. It’s just that he, by his own admission, was not very savvy when it came to product.Especially technical issues. He would rather tap i ...moreThe basic that must be comfortable, last for a long time, and cost very little
This is the peak season for retailers to stock school shoes, the unglamorous staple which underpins so much of the SA footwear industry. Palm Footwear is one of the most successful school shoe suppliers, and here MD Rajeev Pattundeen answers our questions about what consumers expect and retailers need from this category, and what the future holds. ...more
Leather Industry Articles
- EU LEGISLATION UPDATE
There are a number of legal instruments working their way through the European Union’s (EU) parliament. Like many EU instruments, these statutory guides have a way of working their way into legislation that the rest of the world adopts. Like US legislation, especially the California Proposition 65 legal example, these laws sometimes ...moreSam Setter's 'Pills': Ethiopia 2As per coincidence, the day that S&V published the October Pill about the Development Aid which was focussed on the results obtained by UNIDO in Ethiopia, I was able to access a document published by UNIDO on their website called "Independent Evaluation of LEATHER INITIATIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT CREATION (LISEC) &ndash ...moreA land of opportunities, a land of contrasts, but it needs global brands to invest
Reg Hankey, executive chairman of Pittards Group Ltd., is well qualified to write about the leather industry in Ethiopia. As an investor, he knows the opportunities and the pitfalls. He is also passionate about the country and its people. ...more
PPE Industry Articles
- What workplace PPE innovation trends are anticipated?We are being flooded with in the innovation of Artificial (narrow) Intelligence and the risk of its use within the Occupational and Construction Health and Safety fields where the machine learning and artificial intelligence data sets are not locally sourced.However, when it comes to personal protective equipment (PPE), the future is in t ...moreSurviving the safety footwear industry: The Simpsons meet Armageddon
ProFit Safety Footwear national sales manager Nick Bryant was asked on his 45th birthday (20th of August) whether he still enjoys what he does for a living. “Absolutely. I love it. I live for it,” he replied. “And as for how… well, like most things in life, you need to have a serious passion for it… and an ...moreNew approach integrates scrap PU back into safety footwear
Osnabruck, Germany – PU systems supplier Huntsman Corporation and safety footwear manufacturer Steitz Secura have developed a PU solution that can help improve the circularity of safety footwear. The DALTOPED® polyurethane midsole system can incorporate recycled content without compromising performance.PU plays a vital role ...more
© S&V Publications
