TEXTILES.ORG
National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) outgoing Chair William V. McCrary Jr. delivered the trade association’s 2018 State of the U.S. Textile Industry overview at NCTO’s 15th annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Mr. McCrary’s speech outlined U.S. textile supply chain economic, employment and trade data; the 2018 policy priorities of domestic textile manufacturers; and other NCTO activities.
The NCTO reports that McCrary pointed to the successes of the U.S. textile industry, spotlighting the following statistics:
• U.S. employment in the textile supply chain was 550,500 in 2017.
• The value of shipments for U.S. textiles and apparel was $77.9 billion in 2017.
• U.S. exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $28.6 billion in 2017.
• Capital expenditures for textile and apparel production totaled $2.4 billion in 2016 (the last year for which data is available).
The release also noted McCrary’s summary of NCTO’s NAFTA objectives:
• Eliminating tariff preference levels (TPLs) on apparel, non-apparel sewn products, fabrics and yarn.
• Requiring the use of NAFTA-origin components beyond the “essential character” of the fabric, i.e., sewing thread, pocketing and narrow elastics.
• Strengthening customs enforcement.
New officers were elected at the meeting. Marty Moran was elected chair; he served as 2017 NCTO vice chair. Moran is CEO of Buhler Quality Yarns Corp., a fine-count yarn supplier with a manufacturing plant and its U.S. headquarters in Jefferson, Georgia. Don Bockoven was elected vice chair. Bockoven is president and CEO of Wellford, South Carolina-based, Leigh Fibers and ICE Recycling, which convert textile waste into fiber solutions.
Other NCTO activities
McCrary noted NCTO’s American Textiles: We Make Amazing campaign, aimed at helping rebrand the U.S. textile sector’s image. The campaign is spotlighting what makes, according to NCTO, the U.S. textile industry world class: leveraging the most cutting-edge production processes, investing in the best machinery, and leading in sustainability and innovation.
On March 8, 2018, NCTO announced a merger, effective April 1, with the American Fiber Manufacturers Association (AFMA), a fellow trade group representing domestic manufacturers of man-made fiber. NCTO, based in Washington, D.C., is a trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers.