At first glance, this modest town of aging textile mills set by a river in a bowl of hills seems an unlikely link in a chain of commerce that stretches from the pastures of Inner Mongolia to the designer boutiques of New York, Paris and London.
Yet, for many decades, Hawick and other places in the Scottish Borders region have traced the fortunes of one of the great alchemies of the luxury goods market: the transformation of the soft underfleece of a breed of Asian goat into cashmere scarves and sweaters, twin sets and V-necks bearing labels like Ralph Lauren or Chanel.
Now, in a situation similar to the migration of jobs from the US to Asia, the Scottish cashmere business that sustained companies like Johnstons, Dawson International and Pringle faces its own challenge from the distant continent that was once no more than its source of raw materials.
"There's no doubt that the industry is going through the same pain as America, in a way," said James Sugden, managing director of Johnstons in Elgin, Scotland, and head of the Scottish Textile Manufacturers Association. "China is now a huge factor, and there have been a number of job losses."
For several years, Chinese manufacturers with easy access to both a low-wage work force and the world's leading source of cashmere fiber have been building the technology and the skills needed to displace traditional European manufacturers, mainly in Scotland and Italy, from whole swaths of the cashmere market.
Moreover, at the end of this year, changes in World Trade Organization rules will mean that the last of the quotas limiting the global textile industry will be removed, and Chinese cashmere manufacturers will gain unfettered access to major Western markets.
From 19 percent of the overall world textile trade today, according to the organization's figures, China's share may then start growing rapidly, to reach 50 percent or even 75 percent by some forecasts.
The Chinese advance in the cashmere industry represents a reversal of history. Cashmere first became known to the West when Scottish travelers and British colonialists of the 19th century encountered it in the elegant shawls worn by the Indian elite; the material took its name from mountainous Kashmir in India's far north, the main home of the long-horned goats before the nomadic herders who kept them moved to Inner Mongolia.
Now, by contrast, said Karl Spilhaus, president of the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute, an industry group in Boston that keeps track of the quality of cashmere goods in retail stores, Chinese producers "are having their day as far as manufacturing goes, and they have the raw materials, so they control the whole shooting match."
So far the Chinese mills have made inroads mainly at the less-expensive end of the market. Manufacturers here are responding by concentrating increasingly on high-end niche lines, which can still command premium prices on the strength of exclusivity and the cachet of Scottish production.
"China is getting better and better, and we have to market our product better and better to justify the premium," Sugden said. That makes the market niche narrow indeed: "We are aiming for the tip of the tip of the pyramid," he said.
He even forecast that as Chinese entrepreneurs themselves become wealthy consumers, China will become a good market for up-market designer brands from Europe that stand as an emblem of prosperity.
But some experts say it is only a matter of time before Chinese manufacturers develop the design and marketing skills needed to satisfy the top of the cashmere market as well.
"The handwriting is on the wall," Spilhaus said in a telephone interview from Boston.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
RSS