Business Better at Fashion Market Northern California

A strike by scores of clerical workers at
the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
hasn’t hampered cargo operations at the nation’s
busiest sea complex.
The three-year contract between the office
clerks, part of the International Longshore
and Warehouse Union, and shippers
expired at midnight on June 30.
On July 1, clerks didn’t show up for work
at four terminals at the two ports while about
35 strikers set up picket lines outside one terminal
in Long Beach and four to five terminals
in Los Angeles.
Initially, longshore workers, who belong
to another local, refused to cross the earlymorning
picket lines, but a state labor arbitrator
ruled the clerical unit had bargained
in bad faith and ordered longshore workers
back to work by 8 a.m.
“It had no effect on port operations,” said
Phillip Sanfield, spokesperson for the Port
of Los Angeles. “We are hopeful that the
two sides will get together, bargain in good
faith and come up with something fairly
quickly.”
The Port of Long Beach also saw no disruptions
after the picketers marched outside
the Total Terminals International, used by
Hanjin Shipping Co.
“Our terminals remain open, and they
continue to operate,” said Art Wong, spokesperson
for the Port of Long Beach.
No contract negotiations were scheduled
NEWS
Clerks’ Strike Doesn’t Affect Port Operations
4 CALIFORNIA APPAREL NEWS JULY 2–8, 2010
for July 1 as both sides huddled to figure out
their next step.
Steve Berry is the negotiator for the Harbor
Employers Association, which represents
14 shippers and terminal operators.
John Fageaux is the clerks’ negotiator and
president of the Office Clerical Unit of the
Marine Clerks, Local 63.
The two sides remain divided on terms for
the next three-year contract. The 900 clerks,
who process export bookings for shippers
and terminals, are asking for a 21 percent
raise over three years and guarantees that
technology innovations will not mean their
jobs are outsourced. Currently, their average
salary is $96,600 plus full medical benefits
and four weeks of vacation a year.
The shippers offered a 10 percent increase
in monthly pension payments and protection
from layoffs. But they have pushed to use
new computer programs that would allow
customers to access booking information.
Clerks worry these new programs could lead
to jobs being outsourced.
The two ports are the busiest in the nation
and handle about 40 percent of all cargo
containers coming into the country. But the
economic downturn of the last two years has
greatly affected port traffic. Container traffic
at the Port of Long Beach was down 22 percent
last year from 2008, and it declined 14
percent at the Port of Los Angeles.
—Deborah Belgum
OC Swim Show to Debut in August
Swimwear will return to the runways in
Southern California with the August debut
of the OC Swim Show, a new event that will
showcase Southern California swimwear labels,
including L*Space, Ella Moss, Luxe,
Vitamin A, Becca by Rebecca Virtue, B.
Swim, Lucy Love, Sunsets, Beach Bunny
Swimwear, Indah and Swim Systems.
Produced by production company Studio
Eleven Live, the OC Swim Show will be
held Aug. 12–13 at the St. Regis Monarch
Beach in Dana Point, Calif.
Targeting retail buyers as well as consumers,
the OC Swim Show will include runway
presentations, parties, live entertainment and
a cigar lounge.
Organizers plan to highlight Orange County’s
July 5
Hong Kong Fashion
Week
Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Centre
Hong Kong
Through July 8
July 13
CMC Gift & Home Market
California Market Center
Los Angeles
Through July 19
California Gift Show
Los Angeles Convention
Center and L.A. Mart
Los Angeles
Through July 19
Texworld USA
International Apparel
Sourcing
PREFAB
Home Textiles Fabric
Sourcing
Jacob K. Javits Center
New York
Through July 15
Calendar
July 14
Première Vision Preview
Altman Building and
Metropolitan Pavilion
New York
Through July 15
crucial role as a center of the swim industry.
“We have received an excellent response
from industry leaders who view this as a
platform and opportunity to showcase their
lines to Orange County,” said Laurie DiGiovanni,
executive producer of the OC Swim
Show. “It will be a celebration of swimwear,
not just a business show. It will be in a resort
setting, not a stark convention floor.”
The OC Swim Show will come on the heels
of several swim-industry events in Miami Beach,
Fla., including Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Swim, set for July 15–19; the Miami Swim-
Show, the Swimwear Association of Florida’s
annual swim trade show, set for July 17–20; and
Salon Allure, a new swimwear trade show that
will also be held July 17–20.—Erin Barajas
July 15
Mercedes-Benz Fashion
Week Swim
The Raleigh Hotel
Miami
Through July 19
July 17
SwimShow
Miami Beach Convention
Center
Miami
Through July 20
Salon Allure
W Hotel
South Beach, Fla.
Through July 20
July 18
MRketNY
Jacob K. Javits
Convention Center
New York
Through July 20
Blue
Designers’ Collective
TMRW
Clean
The Tunnel/La Venue
Through July 20
There’s more
on ApparelNews.net.
For calendar details and
contact information, visit
ApparelNews.net/calendar.
Submissions to the calendar should be faxed to the Calendar Editor at (213) 623-5707. Please include the event’s name, date, time,
location, admission price and contact information. The deadline for calendar submissions is the Tuesday prior to Friday publication.
Inclusion in the calendar is subject to available space and the judgment of the editorial staff.
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Yuan Continued from page 1
supply. Since the beginning of the recession
in 2008, the Chinese yuan has been pegged
to the U.S. dollar, giving it a steady and predictable
value.
Now that is changing. Political pressure
from Western countries that believe the yuan
is undervalued by 20 percent to 40 percent
is pushing the Chinese government to float
the yuan.
Recently, China bowed to U.S. pressure
and let the yuan inch up, moving from 6.82
yuan to the dollar to 6.78. Many believe
more adjustments are on the way, but getting
the kinks out of China’s currency is expected
to be a gradual long-term process.
Pietra Rivioli, a finance and internationalbusiness
professor at Georgetown University
who wrote the book “The Travels of the
T-Shirt in the Global Economy,” believes
China is bowing to political pressure by letting
the yuan fluctuate, but she said it won’t
deviate too much from its current level. “The
appreciation of the yuan has always been so
small and gradual in China because the currency
is so tightly controlled. Even if they do
let it appreciate, it won’t be at market rate,”
she observed.
One advantage of a rising yuan is that
U.S. cotton and other U.S. raw materials
will be cheaper to the Chinese manufacturer.
“China is the largest buyer of U.S. cotton,”
she said. “A stronger currency means cotton
will be at a much more competitive price for
those manufacturers in China.”
Rick Helfenbein, president of Luen Thai
USA, part of a large Hong Kong sourcing
company with factories in China and the
Philippines, said the slight uptick in the yuan
was anticipated and caught no one off guard.
“But the spike in raw-material costs hasn’t
leveled out, and that is more of an issue,” he
said. He has been recommending that clients
buy their raw materials early, looking as
far out as six to nine months to save money.
Cotton prices are expected to decline later
this year after farmers plant more acreage.
Stay the course
Despite the yuan’s fluctuation and rising
raw-material costs, not many companies are
shifting their sourcing away from China. But
if costs keep going up, they should be looking
for other venues. “Manufacturers have
to be conscious that the price of the product
coming out of China is going up,” said
Andrew Tananbaum, president and chief executive
of Capital Business Credit in New
York, which specializes in factoring accounts
Apparel News Group
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receivables. “They have to decide at what
point they have to consider other sourcing
locations to mitigate that increased cost.”
The hardest hit will be low-margin manufacturers
who sell to discount chains. One
of those is Topson Downs in Los Angeles,
which does private-label apparel for Wal-
Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. The
largest chunk of its production is done in
China, with manufacturing also booked in
Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, the Philippines,
Central America and Mexico.
“China will continue to be our mainstay,”
said Myrna Grief, Topson Downs’ director
of imports and global compliance, noting
that 30 percent to 40 percent of production
is done there. “Fabric is made there. There is
speed to market, which is really important.
China offers what other countries don’t.”
Even though costs are rising in China,
Topson Downs can’t raise prices to its retailers.
“Retailers are being awfully, awfully
tough,” Grief said. “Other issues have come
up this year, with the price of cotton and the
price of heathery yarns and slub yarns. We
have been hard-pressed to adjust our price as
much as we would like to.”
T-shirt and underwear maker Hanesbrands
is playing down the impact of China’s decision
to float its currency because the North
Carolina–based company sources in a number
of countries. It said a 5 percent change in the
yuan will have just a $1.1 million to $1.5 million
pre-tax effect on company costs in 2011
and an even smaller effect in 2010.
“The competitiveness of our balanced
global supply chain is a key pillar to our
growth strategy,” said Gerald Evans, Hanesbrands’
president of international business
and global supply chain.
Los Angeles designer Sue Wong, who
does all her manufacturing in China, said she
will stay there because China’s skilled workers
can inexpensively fashion her intricate
designs into chic dresses that sell for as little
as $368. However, she will be raising wholesale
price points by as much as 20 percent to
recuperate climbing silk and labor costs.
Second Generation’s Weisberg will keep
much of his production in China even though
he has seen costs rise since the beginning of
the year. He is trying to pass some of those
costs on to retailers, such as JCPenney Co.
Inc., Macy’s Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and Belk
Inc. “There hasn’t been any price inflation
on this level for a long time,” he said, noting
he has been lobbying for wholesale-price
increases. “Sometimes we get the [price] increases,
and sometimes we don’t.” ●
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