This page teaches the money flow inside a fabric price that already includes a wet process. A finished fabric price, such as Order A's USD 5.60 per kg, is not one single charge; it is a greige fabric cost from a knitting mill plus a dyeing and finishing charge from a separate mill, added together before the fabric ever reaches a garment factory. A merchandiser who treats USD 5.60 per kg as one indivisible number cannot tell whether a price rise came from cotton, from knitting, or from the dyehouse itself, and cannot judge whether a small domestic run is being fairly charged.
This matters most when an order's fabric quantity sits near a dye-lot minimum, since a run below that minimum is priced differently from a run comfortably above it, a difference invisible unless the wet process is costed on its own.
You need: the five cost components from lesson 7.1, and Order A's own fixed fabric price of USD 5.60 per kg.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: trims and accessories (lesson 12.3.1), and turning an SMV into a labour cost (lesson 12.3.3).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Wet processing | Any production stage that uses water and chemicals on fibre, yarn, or fabric, such as dyeing, printing, and finishing. |
| Greige fabric | Fabric, knitted or woven, that has not yet been dyed or finished. |
| Dye-lot minimum | The smallest quantity a mill will run as one dye batch. |
| Minimum-charge premium | A higher per-unit charge a mill applies when it runs a dye batch below its own dye-lot minimum, charging as if the order were the full minimum quantity. |
| Combined dye lot | Combining a below-minimum order with another compatible order (same colour and fibre) to reach a mill's dye-lot minimum together. |
Every finished fabric price already contains a wet-process charge, whether or not a costing sheet shows it as its own line. Splitting the price into its greige cost, from the knitting or weaving mill, and its wet-process charge, from the dyeing, finishing or printing mill, lets a merchandiser see which side of the fabric price actually moved when a quote changes. Treating the finished price as one indivisible number hides this split entirely.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Which wet process a fabric or garment needs | Order A's knit fabric needs dyeing and finishing before cutting; a denim garment such as Order B needs garment washing after sewing instead. | The wet process, and which mill performs it, changes with the product; the method for costing it as its own charge does not. |
| An order comfortably above a dye-lot minimum | Order A's own fabric requirement, 3,075 kg for its 15,000 pieces, sits well above Colorline Dyeing's fixed 300 kg dye-lot minimum. | A large order is dyed in its own dedicated lot at the standard per-kilogram charge, with no minimum-charge surcharge. |
| A small domestic run near or below a dye-lot minimum | Cedar & Co.'s own domestic run, made in the identical fabric, can sit at a much smaller quantity than an export order, sometimes below the 300 kg minimum on its own. | A run below the minimum either pays a minimum-charge premium for the shortfall or is combined into another factory's dye lot, both standard industry practices that change the effective per-kilogram cost. |
| Export versus domestic framing of the same wet process | An export buyer such as Northline Apparel sees the wet-process charge folded into an FOB fabric price; Cedar & Co. sees the identical charge folded into an ex-factory fabric price. | The wet process itself, and its cost, do not change with who buys the goods; only the price label around it does. |
| Printing as a separate, later wet process | A T-shirt design needing a printed logo adds a further wet process at a print house such as NilePrint, priced per piece and subject to its own minimum order of 500 pieces per design. | Printing is a wet process that can apply after dyeing and after cutting, priced and minimum-checked entirely separately from the fabric's own dyeing charge. |
Colorline Dyeing dyes and finishes the same single jersey fabric for two different customers of Delta Garments: Order A, Northline Apparel's 15,000-piece export order, and Cedar & Co.'s own next domestic production run in the identical T-shirt style. Order A's own fabric requirement, 3,075 kg, is dyed as its own dedicated lot, well above the 300 kg minimum. Cedar & Co.'s domestic run is far smaller: at an illustrative 1,200 pieces, its own fabric requirement is only 246 kg (0.205 × 1,200), below Colorline Dyeing's 300 kg minimum on its own.
| Fact | What it tells the merchandiser |
|---|---|
| Order A needs 3,075 kg of fabric | Comfortably above the 300 kg minimum; dyed as its own lot at the standard rate |
| Cedar & Co.'s illustrative 1,200-piece run needs only 246 kg | Below the 300 kg minimum on its own; needs a minimum-charge surcharge or a combined lot |
| The dyeing and finishing charge itself, USD 1.40 per kg, does not change | The wet-process rate is the same for both customers; only whether the minimum applies differs |
| Combining Cedar & Co.'s fabric into another factory's dye lot avoids the surcharge | A domestic brand's own small run can still reach the standard rate if it is timed against a compatible dye lot |
The same wet-process rate serves both an export order comfortably above the minimum and a domestic run that needs careful timing to avoid paying a surcharge for falling short of it.
The worked numberOrder A's own fabric cost per piece, at the standard rate: 0.205 × 5.60 = 1.148, rounding to the USD 1.15 already fixed for Order A. Cedar & Co.'s illustrative run, if it must pay a minimum-charge surcharge on the 54 kg shortfall rather than combine lots, pays for 300 kg at the standard rate instead of its own real 246 kg, an illustrative extra cost of 54 × 5.60 = 302.40 for the whole run, purely as a teaching example of what a below-minimum run risks.
A common mistake is taking a mill's standard per-kilogram dyeing rate and applying it to an order's fabric cost without first checking that the order's own weight actually reaches the mill's dye-lot minimum. A domestic brand's smaller repeat runs are especially exposed to this, since the same T-shirt style that comfortably clears the minimum at export volume can fall well short of it at a smaller domestic quantity. Quoting the standard rate to a customer whose real order will trigger a minimum-charge surcharge understates the true fabric cost the factory will actually pay.
A finished fabric price is not one single thing. Part of it pays for the plain, undyed fabric itself, and part of it pays the mill that dyes and finishes it. Splitting the price this way lets you see which part changed if the price moves later. A dyeing mill also has a smallest amount of fabric it will dye at once. A big export order easily reaches that amount, but a smaller domestic order sometimes does not, and then it either pays extra for falling short or waits to be combined with someone else's fabric in the same dye bath. Checking this before quoting a price avoids promising a rate the mill will not actually give.
Karim, the production manager at Delta Garments, is planning Cedar & Co.'s next domestic run in the same T-shirt fabric as Order A, but at the smaller illustrative quantity of 1,200 pieces. He asks Colorline Dyeing whether the run can dye at the same USD 1.40 per kg finishing charge Order A pays.
Colorline Dyeing's reply reads:
Should Karim accept the minimum-charge surcharge, or wait for a combined lot? Decide before opening the answer.
It depends on Cedar & Co.'s own schedule, but the combined lot is the cheaper choice whenever the wait is acceptable.
First, the cost difference. Paying for a full 300 kg lot instead of the real 246 kg costs an illustrative extra USD 302.40 for the run (54 kg × USD 5.60 finished-fabric rate); combining lots avoids this entirely and pays only for the fabric Cedar & Co. actually needs.
Second, the time cost. A two-day wait for a compatible dye lot delays the run's start by two days, a real cost if Cedar & Co.'s own shops need the stock urgently, but a small cost if the run has slack in its own schedule.
Karim should check Cedar & Co.'s own delivery date before choosing. If two days of slack exists, the combined lot saves USD 302.40 for no real cost; if the run is already tight against its delivery date, the surcharge may be the only way to hit it.
Framed against Cedar & Co.'s illustrative 1,200-piece run, paying for a full 300 kg dye lot instead of its own real 246 kg requirement costs an extra 54 kg at the finished fabric rate of USD 5.60 per kg.
Spread back across the run's 1,200 pieces, this is an extra USD 0.252 per piece (302.40 ÷ 1,200) that a combined lot would have avoided entirely, a cost that traces directly back to one scheduling decision rather than to any change in the wet-process rate itself.
Open the Trims, process and CM cost sheet calculator. Use the trims-and-CM sheet's notes column to record any wet-process figures you cost outside the sheet's own trims and labour rows, such as a fabric's greige-versus-finishing split or a dye-lot minimum check, so the full cost story stays attached to the order it belongs to.
[Download the Trims, process and CM cost sheet calculator](../../templates/T12-C03-trims-process-cm-cost-sheet-calculator.xlsx)
Download the Trims, process and CM cost sheet calculator (Excel)
1. What does a finished fabric price such as USD 5.60 per kg actually contain?
2. An order needs 180 kg of fabric, and the dyeing mill's dye-lot minimum is 250 kg. What does this mean for the order?
3. Why does the same wet-process rate apply to both an export order and a domestic run in the identical fabric?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wet processing | المعالجة الرطبة | Traitement humide | Yaş işlem | Any production stage that uses water and chemicals on fibre, yarn, or fabric, such as dyeing, printing, and finishing. |
| Greige fabric | قماش خام (جريج) | Tissu écru (grège) | Ham (gri) kumaş | Fabric, knitted or woven, that has not yet been dyed or finished. |
| Dye-lot minimum | الحد الأدنى لدفعة الصباغة | Minimum de lot de teinture | Boya partisi minimumu | The smallest quantity a mill will run as one dye batch. |
| Minimum-charge premium | رسم إضافي لعدم بلوغ الحد الأدنى | Supplément pour lot inférieur au minimum | Minimum altı parti ek ücreti | A higher per-unit charge a mill applies when it runs a dye batch below its own dye-lot minimum, charging as if the order were the full minimum quantity. |
| Combined dye lot | دفعة صباغة مشتركة | Lot de teinture combiné | Birleştirilmiş boya partisi | Combining a below-minimum order with another compatible order (same colour and fibre) to reach a mill's dye-lot minimum together. |
You can now cost the wet process that treats a garment's fabric before sewing. The next lesson moves to the sewing line itself, turning a garment's SMV into its own labour cost. Back to the course map