Search Results for: Korea

The second-largest garment exporting country in the world, Bangladesh has grown its position as a key outsourcing hub since the 1980s.  

With a global market share of 6.26%, according to the World Trade Statistical Review 2021 (1), “The industry has come a long way,” said Md. …

South Korea’s pharmaceutical industry, a global player with exports reaching South Korean Won KRW7.93 trillion (USD6.8 billion) in 2020, has been expanding its foothold in the world’s Muslim markets, offering guarantees that manufacturers avoid inputs that are offensive to Muslims.…

The Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a revision of the island’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Law, partly to help paint and coatings manufacturers maintain access to the European Union (EU) market. The reform will take account of the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which may levy duties on products the EU deems have been made with excess carbon emissions.…

One of the most important changes in geopolitics in the past 10 years has been the rise of China’s economic and military power, which has grown so much, its influence is now a serious rival to the hegemony of the United States.…

INTRODUCTION

Financial crime is a minefield for the international textile and clothing industry. With extended international supply chains extending into jurisdictions where the rule of law and a reliable independent judiciary may have a weak hold, if they exist at all, textile and clothing brands and manufacturers must take care.…

INTRODUCTION

Without doubt, the world’s clothing and textile sector is undertaking a technical upgrade that is unprecedented in decades, with new digital systems offering automation and efficient internal controls. As these are worked into the businesses of brands, manufacturers and their suppliers, a new potential emerges, and that is linking these digital systems in a way that could revolutionise efficiencies within the supply chain.…

INTRODUCTION

In a global textile and clothing market that is increasingly integrating design with functionality, the potential of luminescent yarns is becoming ever more apparent. The focus of groundbreaking research and development, there is widening diversity in this segment from luminescent coatings on yarns to those that integrate LEDs (light-emitting diodes).…

JAPAN should be more proactive in investigating complex money laundering involving local organised criminal networks – the Yakuza, or Boryokudan – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has concluded.

In its latest mutual evaluation report, FATF concluded: “Japan regularly uses financial intelligence to investigate money laundering.…

INTRODUCTION

In a highly technical textile sector segment such as the manufacture of compressed garments, the use of detailed standards to guide production is not just useful in guaranteeing quality output, it can help manufacturers and brands’ marketing. Where products are associated with international, regional, national and private standards, this builds confidence in consumers, promoting sales.…

In five years, the Europol-hosted website ‘No More Ransom’ (NMR) (1) “prevented criminals from earning almost a billion euros through ransomware attacks,” the European Union (EU) police agency claims. Launching a new more user-friendly home for its ‘Crypto Sheriff’ app on Monday (July 26), Europol said that through 121 free tools, able to decrypt 151 ransomware families of this malware, the NMR repository has helped more than six million people recover locked files for free.…

For evidence that China’s nationalistic ‘guochao’ consumer trend is gathering pace in the personal care product sector, look at the country’s powerful e-commerce sector. In February 2021, the turnover of cosmetics on China’s Taobao platform was Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY14.7 billion (USD2.3 billion), a year-on-year increase of 11%, with the top brand in sales being the guochao-oriented personal care product brand Hangzhou-based Florasis Hua Xizi.…

INTRODUCTION

THE MANUFACTURE of protective masks has been maybe the largest growth area in the international textile and non-wovens industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. Billions of people have donned masks as they seek to avoid catching a disease that by June 11 (2021) had killed 3.7 million people and infected 175 million [1].…

President Joe Biden may think he has three main foreign policy priorities this year – China, Russia and Iran – but the truth is, as far as the Middle East is concerned, all these challenges roll into one.

That is because both China and Russia are seeking increased influence in the Middle East, and hoping for potential missteps from the USA over the Iran file to leverage their diplomatic positions.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) member state of Malta – along with Haiti, the Philippines, and South Sudan – have been added to FATF’s increased monitoring watch list, with all four countries promising to work with the global AML body to improve their dirty money controls.…

Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced amendments to the island’s Registration Procedures for New Chemical Substances and Existing Chemical Substances. In addition to delaying a registration period for the standard registration of existing chemical substances in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has added a number of simplified administrative and convenient measures to optimise registration applications, review and reporting requirements.…

The Bangladesh clothing industry is looking forward to the completion of five state-of-the-art textile factories at the Korean Export Zone (KEPZ) with combined floor space of 2 million square feet as an important expansion of local backward linkages. The factories, three of which are under construction, and two (producing polyester yarn and fabrics) are already open, will produce manmade fibre (MMF) yarn and finished garments, at the KEPZ, located in the south-eastern port of Chattogram.…

CANADIAN auto dealers, whose sales of high-tech vehicles maybe hampered by safety concerns linked to hacking and computer viruses, are being assisted by a new university cyber-protection unit allied to parts-makers.

The SHIELD Automotive Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence is based at the University of Windsor, just over the Detroit River, and will work with Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association (APMA), with whom it has signed a memorandum of understanding.…

Oil companies decarbonising their portfolios are getting out their cheque books for floating offshore wind projects.

Bottom-fixed offshore wind farms familiar in some places worldwide are generally limited to water no more than about 60 metres deep. Beyond that, it becomes economically unfeasible to connect the increasingly large turbine assemblies to the seafloor by either monopile or jacket foundations.…

South Korea will take a tough stance on virtual asset service providers (VASPs) that fail to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) when anti-money laundering (AML) requirements become mandatory on March 25. Barely two weeks before VASPs have to comply with AML and know your customer requirements under a revised March 2020 Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced VASPs could be fined for failing to submit SARs or comply with other requirements, such as keeping data on suspicious transactions or managing customer transactions records separately.…

An international model of rules for monitoring and control cryptocurrency operators and crypto-exchanges’ compliance with anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations worldwide, is needed, some AML/CFT specialists are arguing. Nina Kerkez, market planning director at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said regulatory frameworks are currently being developed “at an alarming rate” in a wide range of jurisdictions, with significant divergences apparent in, for example, KYC/CDD requirements and when to file suspicious activity reports (SARs).…

With global markets and daily consumer habits being disrupted for almost a year due to the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic, some oils and fats sales have grown – and a key example is soybean oil. This is true worldwide, from North and South America, to Africa, Asia, and Europe.…

Brief:

This article provides an analysis of why the world’s largest regional trade deal (in population terms) – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – was signed last November (2020). It assesses China’s role in this important political and economic event, and how it reflects its relations with other signatory countries.…

The paint and coatings industry in Indonesia still has ample room for growth amid booming infrastructure development, although it has had to struggle with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, say officials and industry experts. 

With the property sector being the primary growth driver Indonesian paint and coating sales, the high demand for new housing and the repainting cycle assures the steady demand for paint and coating products, said Mahendra Chahar, senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan.…

The paint and coatings industry in Indonesia still has ample room for growth amid booming infrastructure development, although it has had to struggle with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, say officials and industry experts. 

With the property sector being the primary growth driver Indonesian paint and coating sales, the high demand for new housing and the repainting cycle assures the steady demand for paint and coating products, said Mahendra Chahar, senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan.…

REGULATIONS affecting what information can, should and cannot be placed on personal care product packaging are among the most demanding of compliance issues facing beauty manufacturers.

One reason is that this is both a very international field and a dynamic one – rules change all the time and vary widely from market to market.…

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic sparked predictions that the shift of textile industrial capacity from China to lower cost neighbouring countries could intensify, but analysts talking to Twist International say the trend may have stalled in the past year. While production capacity of China’s textile industry has indeed in recent years shifted to south and southeast Asia, some of these transfers have not run smoothly.…

Egypt’s plans to attract significant foreign investment in its garment and textile manufacturing sectors have been delayed due to the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, with exports down 20% last year. The government’s Vision 2025 strategy had targeted attracting some USD17.5 billion in foreign investment to quadruple textile and garment exports.…

A new Transparency International (TI) survey has reported significant concern in 17 Asian countries (1) that corruption continues to be a problem or is getting worse, undermining equitable access to public services and trust in government. TI’s ‘Global Corruption Barometer – Asia’ (2) found 74% of the 20,000 people surveyed believe that government corruption is a major problem in their country, with 19% of citizens surveyed admitting to paying a bribe and 22% using personal connections when accessing public services in the previous year.…

Traditionally a society of meat lovers, Russians are now developing a taste for vegetable and cereal-based products that reflect the taste and texture of meat – food manufacturers are eager to cater to this trend.

International companies have been entering this segment in Russia, while ambitious local startups are rapidly expanding their production capacities.…

WHILE projections for sales of electric vehicles (EV) vary, all predictions agree that this market will explode in size in the next few years. An International Energy Agency (IEA) model for instance has suggested 245 million EVs will be driven worldwide by 2030. …

USA automotive manufacturers are facing some tough choices when implementing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which entered into force on July 1, to avoid its pressure on costs being reflected in showroom price increases.

The new deal, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), requires US, Mexican and Canadian auto manufacturers to increase their USMCA-bloc sourcing to ensure that 75% of a vehicle’s parts are made in a signatory country to benefit from the free trade provisions.…

Countries exporting the most goods and services are also the worst at foreign bribery enforcement, according to the latest report from anti-graft group Transparency International. ‘Exporting Corruption Progress Report 2020: Assessing Enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention’ finds that most countries assessed (34 out of 47), conducted weak or no enforcement of their foreign bribery laws, in part hindered by a lack of public information on beneficial ownership. …

THE CHINA Coatings Industry Association on September 14 published a draft standard for the manufacture and sale of antibacterial and anti-viral coatings – a key growth segment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The draft specifies the terms, definitions, requirements, test methods, inspection rules, labelling, marking, packaging and storage of coating products with antibacterial and antiviral properties.…

A WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel will assess whether import restrictions created by the European Union (EU) to reduce the use of carbon-intensive biofuels comply with global trading rules.

The Indonesian government is challenging portions of the EU’s renewable energy directive (RED) linked to EU guidance limiting the indirect land use change (ILUC) of biofuel feedstock cultivation.…

Growing Asian dairy markets are increasingly regulating the health claims that could be made on packs of food, a trend that is impacting international dairy exporters from Europe as much as local dairy producers.

A key example is Taiwan, that will in 2022 forbid the word ‘healthy’ on food items except foods that have received special health food permits.…

TEXT fraud is maybe more dangerous that email fraud, given the tendency for mobile phone users to respond to texts swiftly and without careful thought, cyber-security experts warn.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also created opportunities for fraudsters using texts and messaging services such as WhatsApp to launch fishing and other attacks on the unwary.…

The China National Coatings Industry Association (NCIA) on July 31 informed members that it has been told by the ministry of ecology and environment to investigate the production, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste in the coating industry and compile a management guide based on the investigation’s findings.…

THE ASIA-Pacific region, even one-party states such as China, have developed legal protections for whistleblowers, although the comprehensive protection more commonly found in Europe is still usually absent.

South Korea is one jurisdiction leading the pack on developing robust whistleblower protections.…

THE ASIA nonwovens sector has been reaping the benefits of booming demand for protective medical materials during the Covid-19 crisis. But like the pandemic, this roaring demand will end, and nonwovens producers need to ready to a post-Covid-19 market.

This will mean reining in growth, but as David Price, founding partner of US-based management consultancy specialising in nonwovens Price Hanna Consultants, said, with regional nonwovens sales per person still low in global terms, the “market penetration for disposable and durable nonwovens in southeast Asia and China” is likely to grow regardless.…

THE EGMONT Group, the international network of financial intelligence units (FIU), is focusing on improving how its central resources and members use and interact with new technology. Interim Egmont Group chair, Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, told MLB that the group is reviewing its IT systems, of critical importance regarding the safe and encrypted exchange between its 164 member FIUs (there were 22,538 such exchanges in 2017, the most recent available data).…

As Syria enters its 10th year of civil conflict, the economy is in tatters, foreign currency is in short supply, and sanctions have not only been renewed, the USA has introduced new secondary sanctions. Illicit crime and sanctions busting abounds.

In May (2020), the USA issued further guidance on Syria, while the European Union (EU) extended its sanctions on Syria for a further year, to 1 June 2021.…

The challenges facing European automakers are not unique, given data protection laws are being developed around the world. In the USA, a California Consumer Privacy Act came into force in January (2020) and contains significant requirements for how businesses collect, retain and use personal information – see https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB375…

Representatives of international food brands and analysts have told just-food that China’s State Council’s approval of 46 new pilot zones for companies conducting cross-border e-commerce, a move designed to help the country’s economy withstand the blows landed by the Covid-19 epidemic, also present opportunities to foreign food brands selling to Chinese consumers. …

ACCESSING the dark web once demanded some computing expertise. But dark web search engines and browsers continue being developed, guiding potential users to this encrypted corner of the web where commercial criminals ply their wares and illicit businesses avoid taxes. How should legitimate companies react?…

Moscow’s action on 90% demineralized whey powder followed up an announcement made in March 19 by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that from March 20 “for one month, all restrictions on the supply of essential goods, including customs, are cancelled”. This was followed up by a government plan allowing for the easing of sanctions-related restrictions – see http://static.government.ru/media/files/vBHd4YRxpULCaUNNTFLVpPSZbMCIA2Zq.pdf…

EAST Asia’s auto-making hubs may have been making a better fist of dealing with the Covid-19 crisis than manufacturing centres in Europe and north America, but the pandemic has been harming the industry in the region.

Government responses have varied, however, with no major scrappage packages being announced.…

AUSTRALIA’S existing regulatory framework for importing and manufacturing industrial chemicals, the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) will be replaced by a new system called the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS), starting July 1. The AICIS covers a broad range of chemicals and polymers used in adhesives, paints and solvents among many others. …

COURT documents unsealed yesterday (May 28) containing indictments by a grand jury for the US District of Columbia district court detail an international web of financial deception laundering more than USD2.5 billion towards North Korea, including payments specifically earmarked for the country’s nuclear weapons programme.…

WANT to check the dark web for illicit services? Search engines accessible from the public web offer links to the dark web. One example is Finland-based Ahmia (https://ahmia.fi/), which yields interesting results from searches such as https://ahmia.fi/search/?q=hacking. A more recent variant that has attracted attention from the IT security press is Kilos – http://dnmugu4755642434.onion…

ANTI-money laundering maybe a career that financial and legal professionals increasingly follow, but the training and qualification structure for AML/CFT is still emerging and solidifying, and there are doubts whether it will ever coalesce into a formal global structure, akin to FATF recommendations.…

India’s nonwoven technical textile industry has been at the centre of two successive public heath emergencies – first ramping up production of air purifier filters to combat dangerous levels of winter air pollution and now increasing the output of materials needed to make face masks to fight the Coronavirus outbreak.…

Nicotine consumption is declining worldwide, with smokers are consuming less, as well as e-cigarette and heated tobacco users, according to market research provider Euromonitor International’s ‘Nicotine Survey, Exploring the Modern Nicotine Landscape’.

“Overall [the study] shows nicotine prevalence is declining not growing, and it is clear to see there isn’t much evidence that greater availability of nicotine formats is increasing smoking prevalence among adults,” said Shane MacGuill, head of tobacco research at Euromonitor International, in a webinar attended by TJI.…

INTERNATIONAL export centres for the wool industry have been considering how they will help fill gaps in supplies to the knitwear sector because of the damage caused to Australia’s wool sector by January’s devastating bush and outback fires. Extensive rain has now at last extinguished most of Australia’s bushfires, but wool growers are still assessing the damage.…

While most so-called ‘deep-fake’ technologies today have been used to spread fake images, videos and voice recordings of politicians, famous actresses and other public figures, a publicly-reported case emerged last year [2019] in which this advanced technology was leveraged to enhance cybercrimes such as financial fraud, identify theft, ransom and extortion requests, espionage and business email compromise scams.…

Ecommerce is becoming an increasingly popular way to order food and drink, with home deliveries booming during the current Covid-19 health emergency. But to what extent are such deliveries generating carbon emissions through fuel and additional packaging waste? E-commerce accounts for an increasingly large slice of the global retail market, growing 28% in 2017, 22.9% in 2018 and by 20.7% in 2019, to USD3.535 trillion, and forecast to reach USD4.2 trillion in 2020, according to eMarketer’s Global Ecommerce Forecast 2019.…

As with every business sector in every country around the world, Japan’s paint and coatings industry has been thrown into uncertainty over the full impact and longer-term implications of the coronavirus Covid-19 that has swept the globe since first emerging in China in December 2019. …

With the Korea Cosmetic Industry Institute (KCII) estimating there were USD11.7 billion’s worth of South Korean-made personal care products (‘K-beauty’) sales in 2019, including nearly USD6.49 billion in exports, and more than 16,000 individuals and businesses officially licensed to provide cosmetic products and services, South Korea’s cosmetic industry has the innate strength it will need to cope with the Covid-19 crisis.…

Indonesia’s industry ministry launched an initiative in February (2020) aimed at eliminating lead used in paint made and sold in the country. It involves the Indonesian paint industry, is part of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) project and is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an international investment body.…

The can making and filling sectors have become beneficiaries – at least in the short term – of consumers turning their kitchen cupboards into pandemic pantries, stockpiling canned food and other long-lasting products because they fear of food shortages because of Covid-19.…

The textile industry in Guatemala represents 8.9% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), but a rise in production costs is jeopardising the industry’s overseas sales competitiveness. Therefore, Guatemala producers are focusing on buying and installing cutting edge technology to improve existing operations and even create new business divisions, maintaining their competitiveness against other suppliers in the region, Alejandro Ceballos, president of the country’s Apparel & Textile Industry Association (Vestex).…

CONSULTATIONS are being assessed in Australia to develop a National Standard for Environmental Risk Management of Industrial Chemicals, which will include coatings and their chemical ingredients, Australia’s department of agriculture, water and the environment has said in a note. The national standard, for which consultations were to end in February, is being designed to ensure that potentially harmful high-risk chemicals are subject to appropriate and consistent environmental controls across the nation.…

THE MALAYSIAN government has issued a Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIB) Framework, which tells financial institutions of importance to Malaysia’s wider economy to hold minimum levels of reserves to protect themselves against troubled times. Mandatory ‘higher loss absorbency’ (HLA) requirements for listed systemic banks, ranging between 0.5% to 1.0% of risk-weighted assets, will come into force from January 31, 2021.…

Sales of new cars in Lebanon have plunged 74% in the last two months of 2019 (compared to November and December 2018) as the country has faced financial and political chaos following the eruption of mass demonstrations in October. these prompted the resignation of the government – and while a new administration under Prime Minister Hassan Diab Took office on January 22, business transactions continue to be hampered by restricted access to US dollars.…

South Korea’s ministry of food and drug safety (MFDS) has released new guidelines designed to enable food companies selling into the country to more easily comply with national nutrition labelling regulations. The guidelines include a 10-step code of practice, a decision tree pictorial as well as a Q&A tutorial.…

Airbus is to pay out EUR3.6 billion (USD4 billion) under a trio of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) with British, French and United States authorities that were simultaneously agreed by national courts January 31 as part of a global resolution over bribes to clinch civil and military aircraft sales.…

BEAUTY consumers worldwide are demanding more transparency in manufacturing processes and ingredients, less environmental impact, and simple and clean ingredients. So goes the product, so goes the packaging. The beauty industry is responding with brand packaging and labelling that transmits a marketing message that the beauty product inside may be healthy and full of goodness.…

IMPORTERS of paints into Japan have been given four time-windows in 2020 to secure ‘small volume permits’ under which coatings can be brought into Japan without any new chemical components being declared to regulators. This special exemption applies to imports of a product into Japan under one tonne per year, says the Japanese Chemical Substances Control Law.…

A queue formed at the L’Oréal stand at November’s China International Import Expo fair, in Shanghai: the French firm had set up photo opportunities to appeal the ‘Da ka’ set – Chinese slang referring to generation of selfie-taking youths who seemingly live to photograph themselves at important landmarks.…

Data by the Asia Nonwoven Fabrics Association (ANFA) shows that nonwovens production in Asia increased by a robust 6.5% year-on-year in 2018, to 5.6 million tonnes. China-based manufacturers were responsible for the bulk of this output, producing 4 million tonnes. However, but India-based production increased at faster pace, at 15.9% up, year-on-year.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission will early next year (2020) consider whether to add cadmium to the European Union (EU) critical raw material list, with the aim of encouraging production and recycling of this mineral that widely used in batteries, potentially helping the EU economy away from fossil fuels.…

A free trade deal between Europe and Australia is in the making but European Union (EU) trade negotiators have managed to generate some serious concerns among Australian dairy industry in the process. The EU wants Australia to recognise the exclusive rights of EU cheesemakers to the traditional names of almost 60 different types of cheeses through Australia recognising EU geographical indications (GI) within any agreement.…

A sharp increase in imports of cars into Vietnam has underlined how this south-east Asian country of 96 million people, could become a major auto market, especially as Vietnamese drivers move from motorcycles to cars.

At present, the motorcycle is king in Vietnam.…

UNDER the current Chinese presidency, global anti-money laundering body FATF has had strong support for its desire to boost the implementation of the AML/CFT policies and laws included in its recommendations. Money Laundering Bulletin interviewed FATF’s executive secretary David Lewis to explore how his organisation and been pushing improvements to supervision of AML/CFT to ensure its expert advice delivers on stemming dirty and terror money flows.…

THE NEW European Commission, which is now expected to assume office on December 1, is expected to push the further harmonisation of European Union (EU) food labelling rules regarding nutrition. Incoming EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, of Cyprus, said she wanted to see the Commission act against pack claims declaring that products were healthy when they contained “a high level of sugar, fat or salt”.…

Japan’s sluggish paint and coatings industry is showing little indication of a dramatic up-tick in its fortunes, despite domestic giants looking to innovative new products and acquiring some major players in overseas markets to drive future growth.

And with a worsening trade war between China and the United States threatening to tip the global economy into recession, on top of a deepening bilateral dispute with South Korea, a major market for Japanese paint, analysts suggest the next few years may be challenging for the sector. …

THE DEVELOPMENT of uniform safety standards to help reduce the number of reputation-damaging accidents occurring as automated vehicles are rolled out commercially is of key importance, a CAV Canada conference (connected and autonomous vehicles) in Canada has been told.

Sasha Ostojic, a board member of California-based autonomous vehicle company Zoox, and a former senior vice president engineering at GM’s Cruise Automation, said of the current American system, where manufacturers are protecting their CAV IP and not sharing safety information: “I truly think this is a problem.…

Described by environmental campaigners as “the elephant in the COP21 negotiations room” when climate change proposals were agreed in Paris during 2015, today – the electrification of shipping is moving ahead apace.

From inland ferries to cargo barges and cruise ships, vessels are being built or retrofitted with renewable power propulsion sources, curbing the shipping industry’s major emissions.…

INTELLIGENT materials make for packaging with better functionality and security, and innovative producers worldwide are developing better protection for personal care products.

Market researcher Smithers Pira, in a January 2018 report The Future of Active & Intelligent Packaging to 2023, notes potential uses for cosmetics manufacturers includes greater levels of engagement with customers, more personalised products and enhanced security and tracking features.…

VIETNAM has been a major textile production hub for years and, as the country’s government pushes sectors to embrace technology associated with the Industry 4.0 movement, some companies are adapting advanced methods such as digital textile printing.

According to statistics from India-based Mordor Intelligence, Vietnam is the third-largest garment exporter in the world, with the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea serving as major destination markets. …

THE CHINESE government has from September 1 imposed 5% additional retaliatory duties on US exports of paint to China, in the latest round of the trade war between the two countries. The new tariffs cover products such as polyester, acrylic, ethylene and polyeurathane powdered paints; acrylic, polymer and vinyl liquid paints; and more – see http://gss.mof.gov.cn/zhengwuxinxi/zhengcefabu/201908/P020190823604938915640.pdf…

WHILE the future of Hong Kong’s political stability hangs in the balance given the long-term protests that have been wracking the territory, its underlying economy seems to be just holding together, with DBS Bank, for instance, in August projecting zero economic growth.…

THE EMPATHY, connectedness and flexibility skills taught to students during an innovative international problem solving programme at the USA’s University of Oregon (UO) have manifested themselves in three prize-winning solutions to community problems.

These focused on environmental degradation, social inequality and public health, with students having 10 days this month to develop groundbreaking ideas for action at an Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Undergraduate Leaders Program.…

STUDENTS from top Pacific Rim research universities have embarked on an innovative programme of problem solving, designed to create fresh solutions on pressing socio-economic problems that leverage leadership skills and community contacts.

The University of Oregon (UO), in Eugene, Oregon, welcomed 50 undergraduate students from 30 universities based in the Pacific Rim region, including from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Japan, Australia, and more.…

As an industry much maligned for its heavy carbon footprint, the oil and gas sector is increasing its use of sustainable materials and manufacturing methods making textiles used for its protective clothing. This segment has also been focusing on improving the comfort and aesthetics of this apparel.…

JAPAN and South Korea have many similarities in AML/CFT terms, being the only countries in north-east Asia with democratic, open societies, who also run their economies according to standard free market principles. They are also both developed industrial economies in which the rule of law is applied consistently and transparently.…

WITH anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls becoming ever more comprehensive, strategic and widespread, the demand for trained AML/CFT professionals is growing. Salaries are increasing, as a result. This good compensation reflects the fact that AML work is becoming increasingly demanding because of regulatory requirements, said Michael Harris, director, financial crime compliance, at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.…

GLOBAL food and beverage company Nestlé’s restructure in the EMENA (Europe, Middle East and North Africa) region, which began in 2017, has delivered improved efficiencies and performance, according to Marco Settembri, Nestlé’s executive vice-president and EMENA zone CEO.

“It’s always a question of evolution,” Mr Settembri told just-food before the opening session of the July 4-5 2^nd European Entrepreneurship Education summit in Lille, northern France,* in which he was to speak.…

South Korea’s Sae-A Trading, one of the world’s largest apparel manufacturers and exporters, is considering building an estimated USD200 million high-tech industrial complex in Guatemala for making polyester yarns. Its goal – taking advantage of rising US demand for apparel made in Central America. …

THE AUSTRALIAN coating and paint market has experienced volatility over the past five years, with mergers and acquisitions consolidating the industry, whilst consumer demand and legislation have boosted the sale of more environment-friendly products. Across the Tasman Sea, meanwhile, New Zealand has seen growth due to innovation in high-performance and green coatings.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector has an increasingly complex and global supply chain and as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and retailers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

RUSSIA’S paint industry is slowly growing but upcoming chemical regulations could limit the output of some potentially hazardous products. There are two such laws in the pipeline. One is a technical regulation ‘On the safety of chemical products’. This was adopted and ratified by the Russian government in 2016, and will come into force in 2021 (on July 1), and bans the use of a range of hazardous chemicals, some used by Russian coatings manufacturers. …

THE BALTIC States, being European Union (EU) member states adjacent to Russia and Belarus have been exploited by Russian criminals as a gateway for their illicit funds into the EU and beyond.

This is despite that as EU member states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must implement EU anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance legislation.…

EXPORTS of nonwovens products from the European Union (EU) to the rest of the world are on the rise, with in 2018 such overseas sales of nonwovens (whether or not impregnated, coated, covered or laminated) within the 28 members of the European Union (EU) accounted for EUR4.33 billion, up from EUR4.19 billion in 2017.…

THE INDUSTRIAL minerals mining and processing sector and its customers has an increasingly complex and global supply chain and as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and retailers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

Russia has criticised Mexico at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for maintaining anti-dumping duties on Russian steel exports, which it claims are outdated, being based on pricing assessments using data from a different country.

The Mexican government used this method for past dumping calculations on Russian steel because it is permitted under WTO rules where a government dominates an economy that does not operate as a free market.…

PAKISTAN’s apparel and garment exporters have called on the country’s new government to simplify what it regards as overly complex trading red-tape impeding the import of key inputs, vital for diversifying export-oriented production.

“To increase our exports, we will have to enhance our product lines and relax the existing import policy for import of raw materials,” Muhammad Ijaz Khokhar, coordinator of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA) told just-style.…

THE RUSSIAN government has in the past decade has a policy priority of re-establishing it country’s industrial base, and reducing its reliance on imports, paid for by Russia’s energy exports.

These goals cover its paints and coatings sector, and by 2021 Sibur, a Russian petrochemical company, plans to launch production of key ingredient maleic anhydride, with a plant in Tobolsk, Siberia, producing up to 45,000 tonnes a year.…

HONG Kong accountants may see an increase in demand for non-financial assessments, with the HK Stock Exchange consulting on proposed new environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. It is proposing introducing mandatory disclosure requirements to include board statements considering ESG issues; and what reporting principles are used to develop company ESG reports.…

MOTOR vehicles and their parts were the second most common category of goods reported in safety warnings by consumer regulators in the European Union (EU) last year, according to a new annual report from the EU Safety Gate system. This involves European consumer regulators receiving safety warnings about products, including from auto manufacturers, and circulating these alerts via this central European portal.…

ON the face of it, Japan and Russia are perfect partners for growing trade in liquified natural gas (LNG). Japan has always had few fossil fuel resources for powering its sophisticated industrial economy, and Russia has plenty of gas to export.…

SUPERFRUITS offer personal care product brands lots of marketing muscle, delivering an image of exoticism, as well as offering real functional benefits.

As a result, beauty companies have been willing to trawl the world for new super fruit ingredients to give their lines a competitive edge.…

GROWING consumer and regulatory demand for more sustainability in consumer markets is redefining the packaging sector, and beauty segment is no exception. As a result, airless packaging – while sometimes expensive – offers virtues such as the ability to preserve product freshness, minimal oxidisation, low wastage and efficient dispensing, that can dovetail with greening market trends.…

EAST Asia’s two personal care product industry giants – Japan and South Korea – have long been competing for major slices of the regional and global beauty market. At present, however, Japan’s industry seems to be performing more solidly than its rival, which is struggling with the fall-out of diplomatic problems with Asia’s largest market – China.…

BIOCIDAL coating products are some of the most demanding lines to make, sell and import for manufacturers and suppliers as far as regulatory compliance is concerned. Legitimate concerns among environmental health regulators to ensure that biocides only kill the micro- or larger organisms that they target, without unintended damaging side-effects, mean that biocide controls are constantly under review.…

THE MANUFACTURE, distribution and use of leaded paints in projects funded by Japan’s public sector has been banned from March (2019), at the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year. For instance, Japan’s ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology revised its building construction standards for educational facilities in April (2019), requiring manufacturers to use a non-leaded primer or sealer before applying antibacterial paint on surfaces such as gypsum board.…

THE UNITED States and Canada maybe two developed countries that have long-established anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems, but these have been found wanting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). While both countries continue to introduce AML/CFT reforms, they are unlikely to meet some key FATF demands.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has unanimously rejected a draft black-list issued by the European Commission of 23 high-risk jurisdictions deemed to have weak controls over money laundering and terrorist financing. Ministers effectively accused the Commission of approving its list in an arbitrary fashion, without giving black-listed jurisdictions a right to reply and detail reform plans that could mitigate concerns about their AML/CFT regimes.…

Egypt is moving ahead with its Vision 2025 strategy to quadruple garment and textile exports, employ a further 1 million people, and attract USD17.5 billion in investment, but the double-digit growth needed to achieve the goals have yet to be reached.…

While the confectionery industry is traditionally associated with high sugar levels and unhealthy indulgence, market research indicates that efforts to also appeal to consumers with a growing interest in health and wellness trends are paying off. According to UK-based market researcher GlobalData, in 2016 alone USD3.7 billion worth of confectionery with functional or fortified attributes was sold globally.…

THE GROWTH in fast fashion contracts struck between brands and Vietnam’s burgeoning outsourcing will boost demand for machinery and equipment in the Vietnamese textile sector as much as the new trade deals that have been struck by Hanoi, according to industry insiders.…

THE SUBMISSION to the White House by the US Department of Commerce of a report recommending whether and how the USA should impose tariffs on automotive and related parts on national security grounds has provoked significant concern worldwide.

President Donald Trump has 90 days from February 17 (to mid-May) to decide on whether to impose the tariffs under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has included four American external territories – Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa – on a proposed blacklist of weak AML/CFT jurisdictions released today (Feb 13).

Brussels’ updated list includes 12 countries that are viewed with concern by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the Bahamas, Botswana, North Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen. …

The coatings market of South Korea looks on track to achieve modest growth this year, with gains in architectural coating sales and a mild revival of marine coatings projected to offset a deteriorating outlook for automotive coatings. The overall South Korea paint and coatings market in 2018 has been estimated by market researchers Frost & Sullivan at USD4.5 billion in sales and 1 million tonnes in 2018, making it the fourth largest coatings market in Asia, in both value and volume terms – behind China, Japan and India.…

THE DYNAMIC east Asian powerhouses of Hong Kong and Singapore are both models for good practice in anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) – sharing both an efficient and open UK-inspired legal system and a need for a clean image internationally that helps maintain their status as hubs of global trade and finance.…

A FREE trade zone system in Egypt, linking its businesses with Israeli suppliers, is being targeted by Chinese companies wanting to access the USA, as the Trump trade war risks exports to America through standard channels. The resulting investment has been welcomed in Egypt, but some clothing and textile industry commentators are warning that large Chinese firms could muscle out local players unless Egyptian businesses are given time to mature.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has continued to push reforms to European Union (EU) VAT legislation to boost the fight against VAT fraud. It has tabled a directive and a regulation whose goal is to establish an electronic business portal for VAT declarations allowing companies selling goods online to EU customers to administer their VAT obligations in one e-government system.…

Considerable investments continue to be made in Italy’s beauty and personal care market continue despite this being a stagnant market, according to sector-specific and general economic data and forecasts,

Despite this, global retailers in the beauty and personal care (BPC) industry continue to eye up what remains one of continental Europe’s largest domestic BPC markets, knowing that consumer demand remains solid, even if not growing.…

WITH the Asia-Pacific coatings market and industry being one of the most dynamic worldwide, experiencing continuous robust growth, the potential for additives to give brands an edge in seizing market share is increasingly important.

Backed by buoyant construction, automotive and marine industries across the Asia Pacific, the region’s paint and coatings additives market is showing promising growth, analysts say.…

It is hard to avoid either a cosmetics store or an advertisement for one in Chinese cities today. A mind-boggling wave of new retailers set up by investment firms to cash in on the cosmetics and personal care boom are eagerly seeking franchisees around the country.…

THE VIETNAM Chemicals Agency us ramping up efforts to remove lead from paints in Vietnam – officially requesting to be considered a partner in the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead in Paint, a voluntary partnership formed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).…

FINANCIAL institutions and other anti-money laundering reporting sectors within Vietnam have had to grapple, since January 1, with a revised Penal Code, which has changed how money laundering is defined in criminal law.

In its 2018, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), the USA State Department notes that this “revises the money laundering offence and adds criminal liability for legal persons involved in money laundering.”…

With the USA re-imposing sanctions on Iran, and international financial institutions wary of dealing with the country, Tehran is dusting off its pre-2015 sanctions-busting playbook. Old networks are being renewed, including with neighbouring countries and China, but there are more obstacles for the Iranian government to contend with this time around.…

Already a world-leader in terms of knitted products for the sports clothing and outdoors-wear sectors, Japan’s Descente Ltd this July opened a state-of-the-art research and development centre that the company anticipates will help it create “the world’s fastest high-performance wear”.

According to the Osaka-based company, the new initiative is built on the concept of being “fast”.…

A BUDDY training system has been launched by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), enabling countries with significant regulatory capacity to help other states prepare for the upcoming CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) scheme. ICAO has been training national officials to advise on ensuring CORSIA’s legal requirements are written into local laws and also on building the emissions data monitoring, reporting and verification systems they need to measure their airlines’ carbon footprint.…

MPs in Canada have returned to their House of Commons after the traditional summer break, when they are expected to vote on a draft law, the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, that would ban the testing of cosmetics and their ingredients on annals in Canada and block the sale of personal care products that have been assessed using such techniques.…

As he took in the fourth Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week (ASFW) in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa last week, Kenneth K Han, managing director of Shints ETP Garment Plc, said he is optimistic over the country’s potential in the textile and apparel sector, despite many challenges.…

SOUTH Korea’s textile exports to Vietnam and the south-east Asian country’s garment exports to South Korea are forecast to register continued robust growth on the back of a range of free-trade agreements linking the two countries.

Data compiled by the department of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware in the USA, stressed how South Korea has for a long time been a leading supplier of textiles for Vietnam, last year (2017) accounting for 17.8% of Vietnam’s total textile imports in value terms, whereas Vietnam is quickly becoming the second-largest garment supplier for South Korea after China, with 30.9% of all imports in 2017 in value terms, up significantly from just 1.7% in 2007.…

Indonesia is seeking to open new markets for its textile and garment products – not only are free trade agreements with Australia and fellow Asian countries are on the cards, the industry’s association and the government has announced, but the industry is also targeting African export sales.…

CHINA’S State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) aims to between 2016 and 2020 double domestic sales of premium cigarettes whose retail prices exceed Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY200/carton of 10 packs (USD29.10), or CNY20 per pack, (‘category one’ in Chinese language), compared to 2011-2015 sales.…

Cryptocurrencies have made a big splash across Asia, and governments have taken very different regulatory approaches to curb associated financial scams and money laundering.

While there is one group of countries that has banned the operation and use of cryptocurrencies entirely, including China, India and Vietnam, a second category spans countries that see cryptocurrencies as potentially boosting their own financial sectors.…

THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) today branded the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity a failure, claiming its efforts have not delivered the production cuts that markets need to stabilise prices.

In a strongly worded statement released after a forum ministerial meeting was staged today (Sept 20) at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), in Paris, the USTR argued that the group’s results to date “leaves us questioning whether the Forum is capable of delivering on these objectives”. …

A new report from Transparency International has found that only 11 major exporting countries in the world significantly punish companies that pay bribes abroad. The report, called ‘Exporting Corruption’, also found that more than half of world exports come from at least 33 jurisdictions, including several European Union (EU) member states, where companies that export corruption along with their goods and services face weak consequences. …

The UK and Australia are poles apart geographically but share the aim of becoming leaders in using or selling hydrogen for energy. The scheduled unveiling in November (2018) of a conceptual design to convert an eighth (8.3 million) of the UK’s population to 100% low-carbon hydrogen gas between 2028 and 2035 matters.…

NEGOTIATIONS for a free trade agreement between Indonesia and the European Union (EU), which will pave the way for greater opportunities for the textile and garment sectors, are entering a final phase, the head of Indonesia’s textile industry association said.

“Negotiations are entering the sixth round.…

THE INDIAN government has been sending out conflicting signals about its trading policy for its important knitwear sector. While it last month (July 18) announced it was increasing import duties for some key knitted apparel and knitwear inputs, talks are moving ahead to forge a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with 16 Asian counties.…

THE MALAYSIAN government has approved a new minimum wage of Malaysian Ringgit MYR1,500 (USD368) for the private sector, but the new wages floor will be phased in gradually.

“If we push for higher minimum wages, cost of production will go up and we will not be competitive,” Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad told the country’s national news agency, Bernama, today.…

China seems to have given the world nuclear industry back its mojo this summer with two big moves: the signing in June of an order for four Gen 3+ VVER-1200 reactors from Russia’s Rosatom. This certainly got the bubbly flowing at the World Nuclear Exhibition, in Paris, in late June, following two years of sluggish investment in this globalised industry.…

With a historic heat wave plaguing the Korean peninsula since the middle of July, killing at least 29 people and hospitalizing 2,300 others with heat-related illnesses, it is little surprising that suncare product sales have been booming in South Korea.

And while traditional sun protection products such as parasols and straw hats have sold well – July sales up 83% and 37% year-on-year respectively, according to local e-commerce website Auction, (www.auction.co.kr),…

BEAUTY product labelling and decoration might not be the most obvious way for a brand to boost sustainability, but such is the pressure to green-up, such considerations are being woven into product appearance.

Edinburgh, Scotland-based UWI Technology Ltd is a case in point.…

INDIA’S paint industry has been exempted from a mandatory biocide registration requirement under the national Insecticides Act (1968) if the biocides are used as a dry film preservative. However, new guidelines issued by Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) in June have told the Indian paint industry that they must use registered biocide products at recommended dosages, or protective labelling rules will kick in.…

Japan’s personal care sector experienced continued growth in 2017, with shipments surpassing Japanese Yen JPY1.6 trillion (USD14.34 billion) during the year to record a new record high. Virtually every sector recording an increase in sales on the previous year. Figures for the January-April period of 2018 suggest that this positivity is being carried over into this year, boding well for Japanese personal care product companies.…

Vietnamese officials say that last year’s shock withdrawal by the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been overcome as Vietnam has in any case entered into 16 other bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs).
This includes the forthcoming Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – which includes all the TPP partners bar the USA, and the European Union-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA), creating numerous opportunities for textile-garment investors.…

THE RUSSIAN government has confirmed plans to double its country’s exports of textile products by 2025, according to the state press-service. In comments sent to WTiN.com, Russia’s deputy minister of industry and trade Viktor Yevtukhov, currently responsible for the development of Russia’s textile sector, said his administration was optimistic, with exports of Russian textile products currently show good results.…

THE ASIA-Pacific region has many of the elements needed to create a burgeoning nonwovens market and industry. It has growing middle class consumption of basis personal products and continued manufacturing and infrastructural expansion for industrial nonwovens. These items can be supplied my new mass-production in emerging market countries and niche lines from the region’s richer developed industrial economies.…

UK and remaining European Union (EU) food producers are becoming increasingly anxious about the prospect of Britain crashing out of the EU single market without a replacement trade deal. It is a scenario that could leave British manufacturers facing crippling tariffs, border delays and reams of red tape.…

THE ASIA-Pacific technical textiles sector is still robust – with China’s industry continuing to grow, with bulk products still a focus. Meanwhile, more developed economies such as South Korea and Japan keep honing their output, looking for specialist niches and edges created by innovation.…

THE OUTLOOK for European Union (EU) beef, sheep and goat meat imports looks bleak, with sales tumbling, according to an EU agricultural markets 2018 and 2019 forecast released by the European Commission.

Beef exports started falling by December 2017, and this has continued into this year, with exports almost 15% lower in the first four months of 2018 year-on-year.…

A GLOBAL meeting of senior aluminium executives worldwide has heard calls for a multilateral solution for the problem of overcapacity. The goal would be integrating China and its state-owned enterprises into the world trading system in a way that is acceptable to major market economy regulators.…

SOUTH Korean conglomerate Lotte Group has announced a major expansion of production at its plant in Kaluga, western Russia, which will involve building a new manufacturing line and double the capacity of an existing line.

A statement sent to just-food said that the construction and installation work should be completed by this November.…

ACHIEVING regulatory convergence in the USD465 billion global cosmetics industry (Euromonitor 2017 figures) is an important long-term goal, industry experts agreed at European personal care product association Cosmetics Europe’s June 13-14 annual conference 2018 in Brussels. Europe is a key market for this industry – providing EUR77.6 billion’s worth of personal care product sales last year, and supporting more than two million jobs, said Cosmetics Europe president Loïc Armand, also president of L’Oréal France.…

CHINA’S State Council has announced reductions in mainland VAT, with businesses being saved Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY400 billion (USD62.8 billion) in this year alone, it has said. Rates have been lowered (from May 1, 2018) from 17% to 16% for manufacturing and other industries, and 11% to 10% for transport, construction bills, standard telecommunications service, and direct farm output purchasers by consumers (12% when these goods are bought by manufacturers for onward processing).…

OFFICIAL projections for Vietnam’s garment and textile exports in 2018 are bright but input imports for garment and textile production were more than half of the value of garment and textile exports in 2017, highlighting the need for increased domestic sourcing, industry analysts say.…

The Indian government has launched a disputes proceeding at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), protesting at the USA’s imposition of duties of 25% and 10% on imports of India-made steel and aluminium products.

New Delhi argues that the tariffs, imposed on March 23 by the Trump administration to protect and expand American aluminium and steel production, break the WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its Agreement on Safeguards.…

AS China’s retreat from mass market clothing production continues, Bangladesh knitters are eyeing another added value knitwear niche – sportswear. Following the industry’s success in boosting sales within the profitable lingerie segment, Bangladesh manufacturers are ramping up production in sports apparels, although some experts say that work is needed on boosting its supply chain, particularly of manmade fibres.…

Unlike the limited range of minerals used in fossil fuel production, many minerals, metallic and nonmetallic, are used in renewable energy technologies. However, production is often low and concentrated in a limited number of countries – creating potential strategic supply problems.…

EXPERTS have expressed mixed reactions on how a proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), now years in the making, could help revive the garment and textile sector in South East Asia.

The 16-member bloc that includes the 10 ASEAN member countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and six other countries – Australia New Zealand, China, India, Japan and South Korea – have been negotiating the deal since November 2012.…

THE ORGANISERS of Italy’s premier beauty trade fair, Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, are claiming a record number of visitors and international buyers attending this year’s 51st edition of the event from March 15-19. Exceeding the 250,000 visitors from last year’s Cosmoprof, attending foreign buyers, distributors and retail representatives grew 11% in 2018, year-on-year.…

THE SOUTH Korean cosmetics market, currently evaluated by Frost & Sullivan at USD12.4 billion and growing at 7% year-on-year, is leaving behind the negative effects of a de facto boycott by Chinese tourists. The travel freeze, sparked by Seoul’s decision to install a US-made anti-missile system to protect itself from North Korea, has been in place since early 2017.…

VIETNAMESE textile manufacturers should invest in new machinery so they can take advantage of the incoming free trade agreement between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) say German trade and industry representatives.

Germany’s Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (Verband Deutscher Maschinen-und Anlagenbau (VDMA) expects the forthcoming EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA) to lift Vietnamese garment exports to the EU with the help of more imported machinery to boost textile production.…

SWEEPING tax reforms introduced by The Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte designed to raise funds for infrastructure improvements, may cool a protracted vehicle sales boom in the country, experts warn.

The first stage of changes under a Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law (TRAIN) came into force in January and the resulting higher excise taxes saw sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles drop by 9.5% and 8% respectively in the first quarter of the year compared to January-March 2017.…

For the first time since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, the African country’s tobacco selling season opened on March 21 this year with long time ruler Robert Mugabe no longer in power.

Former President Mugabe resigned last November (2017), faced with impeachment proceedings from Zimbabwe’s lawmakers, with the country’s generals and his own ZANU-PF party having turned against him.…

THE KUWAIT Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) has chosen South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) to operate, manage, maintain and develop the new terminal four (T4) at Kuwait International Airport. IIAC won a tender, which – said the DGCA – means the IIAC would start operations within 90 days of signing the contract.…

International activity to understand and potentially extract natural gas from methane hydrates has intensified since 2010 with the continuation and launch of new research and development (R&D) projects and field production tests offshore and onshore, as shown in a new overview by Carolyn D Ruppel, chief of the gas hydrates project at the United States Geological Survey (USGS).(1)…

FACED with its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) backlisting and a big USA fine of a major Taiwan bank, this island country has introduced AML/CFT reforms. Whether it has done enough will be assessed later this year when the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), of which the island is a member – as Chinese Taipei, a nod to China’s insistence that Taiwan not be treated as an independent country – undertakes a third round of APG mutual evaluations.…

SINCE the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the USA, the UK, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union (EU), foreign financial institutions have – in theory – been allowed to do business with Iran.  But the reality – as ever with relations with Iran – is proving to be a good deal more complex.…

A new set of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies could offer criminals an opportunity to conduct illicit financial activities and evade anti-money laundering (AML) protocols, aided by an undeveloped patchwork of fragmented systems of regulation.

AML industry analysts have warned that urgent international action is required to curb cryptocurrency ML, with criminals increasingly switching funds between cryptocurrencies offering anonymity features, hindering the detection and identification of users.…

INVESTORS at this year’s Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention have been voicing concerns that the supply of key minerals used to make batteries may not be able to keep pace with demand.

At an investors forum dealing with energy materials and technologies, a series of graphite, cobalt and manganese miners highlighted the increasing demand for the minerals, and the lack of sufficient supplies to meet future expectations.…

WHILE United States President Donald Trump’s imposition of import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium on March 8 included a waiver for Canadian and Mexican exporters, his administration continues to stress this relief could be temporary.

In the March 8 presidential proclamation imposing the steel duties, Trump stressed “ongoing discussions with these countries” alongside his decision “to exempt steel articles imports from these countries from the tariff, at least at this time”. …

Japan is now the United States’ leading export market for beef, in value and volume, and largest market for pork exports in value, according to 2017 trade data released by the US department of agriculture (USDA).

In the past calendar year, Japan imported 307,559 metric tonnes of US beef, an increase of 19% year-on-year, worth USD1.89 billion, which marks a 25% increase in value year-on-year from 2016.…

SOUTH Korean companies in the digital textile print supply chain are aware that Asian rivals beat them on price, but are managing to stay afloat through better quality, company managers have told Digital Textile.

“Chinese products are very competitive with their prices, but their quality is still not good enough to satisfy global standards,” said Hani Kim, a manager at the overseas sales department of Unitrade, a Seoul-based manufacturer of heat transfer film for digital textile printing.…

EXPERTS on Britain’s civil nuclear industry have warned that the UK is running out of time to prepare itself for the country’s exit from European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), due to the complexity of replicating its nuclear standards in UK law. …

RENÉ Descartes may have said ‘I think, therefore I am’, to judge if he was human. But when deciding whether a robot is an autonomous being, the real test may be whether it pays tax. As regulators, business leaders and philosophers ponder the impact of robots with artificial intelligence (AI) that choose actions, learn from their environment, and perform tasks better and faster than their flesh and blood developers, the question of their fiscal responsibility is becoming serious.…

THE MALAYSIAN textile industry is pinning hopes on a government decision to reintroduce an export-targeted grant to revive the sector’s declining overseas business.  

The decision to reintroduce the Market Development Grant, offered to SMEs, was announced during the 2018 national budget unveiled in October 2017.…

Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to build 16 nuclear reactors, both small and large, to generate 17GWe by 2040. While no tenders have yet been awarded, the kingdom is working with numerous international partners to develop its nuclear infrastructure and safety systems.…

JAPAN’S long-standing exposure to organised crime groups such as the Yakuza means that however effective the country’s anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems maybe, they will continue to face sophisticated challenges.

Despite enhanced criminal and civil legislation targeting Japan’s underworld groups, such as the February 2000 Act on the Punishment of Organised Crimes and the March 2007 Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds (See part 4 at https://www.npa.go.jp/sosikihanzai/jafic/en/maneron_e/manetop_e.htm),…

EUROPEAN UNION (EU) finance ministers have agreed to remove eight jurisdictions, including much-criticised Panama that gave the world the ‘Panama Papers’ scandal, from the bloc’s tax haven blacklist, only a month after it was created.

A EU Council of Ministers statement said this decision, which has now been slated by members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and environmentalists, followed “commitments made” by the listed jurisdictions “to remedy EU concerns”.…

WHILE Mongolia is a low-income country, with an annual per capita income of approximately USD3,590 in 2016 (said the World Bank), its economy is heavily reliant on mining, so increasing foreign investment in the sector is boosting the risk of dirty money entering the country.…

THE USA’S Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed banning correspondent bank relationships within the United States for the Latvia-based ABLV Bank which it says has aided money laundering. With US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin immediately backing the move, the clampdown is sure to happen, maybe within three months.…

CONSUMERS do not like sales tax, and they are particularly sensitive to tax-based price increases when new taxes are introduced. So, it is maybe no surprise that personal care product sales in the Middle East have been dampened by the introduction of value added tax (VAT) in both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January 2018, inflating beauty product prices.…

Vietnamese textile and garment industry officials have capped a bumper 2017 with forecasts for further robust export growth this year if it can overcome challenges from neighbouring country textile sectors by investing in skills, equipment and automation. 

Le Tien Truong, general director of the Vietnam National Garment and Textile Group (Vinatex), predicting a year-on-year increase of 10% in export value, to USD34 billion, from 10.23% annual growth in 2017 when exports totalled USD31 billion.…

THE AUTOMOTIVE sector is a hotbed of growth for industrial performance materials like nonwovens. And the global market for such materials have the potential to cross the EUR2 billion mark soon, according to Germany-based Freudenberg Performance Materials Holding SE & Co KG.…

FINANCIAL fraud, as all practitioners know, has become increasingly international, a trend that will doubtless continue. For law enforcers based on national units of theoretically sovereign countries, this poses challenges, and one particularly tough nut to crack are procedures to extradite suspects to face trial in the country where their alleged victims reside.…

The trend to combine the brand power of cosmetics and food products, or ‘foodmetics’, has become prominent across global beauty markets, with consumers increasingly convinced about the strong connection between good food and beauty.

Consumers trust that healthy eating directly impacts their appearance, and this is opening up a range of possibilities for cosmetics manufacturers wanting to tap into the marketing power of using food ingredients.…

*The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has published a blacklist of jurisdictions it thinks do not cooperate sufficiently with international efforts to reduce tax evasion. They are American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers today (December 5) adopted a money laundering blacklist, bringing widespread criticism because the listing – designed to prevent tax fraud and evasion – only covers countries outside the 28-nation bloc. Despite the European Commission screening 92 jurisdictions worldwide, the final list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in taxation matters only contains 17 jurisdictions: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam (another US territory), South Korea, Macau (a China special administrative region), the Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).…

MORE airports will be able to welcome the largest civilian airliners from 2020, a senior Boeing manager told an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) conference this week (Dec 12), as the manufacturer is confident it will roll out large planes with folding wing-tips by that year.…

THE EXECUTIVE secretary of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has said that he hopes his government will make progress next year in forging trade deals with the USA and European Union (EU), boosting textile exports to these key markets.…

THE HUMAN resources sector has been urged to put pressure on governments and investment fund managers in Asia to strengthen pension provisions as they deal with the consequences of rapidly aging populations.

And HR and economics experts have warned that corporate HR teams have a critical role to play in educating the workforce about the extent, however limited, of their pension provision and working with company bosses to strengthen policies within their organisations to compensate for the lack of robust schemes in existence.…

PERSONAL care product packagers are taking increasing care over the design and development of secondary packaging, noting that this can impart brand value, just in the same way as the elegant primary packaging that has always been part of the personal care product experience.…

Consumers in the home of cosmetics, France, appear to be combining the long-established traditions of French-made products with the ultra-modern twist of Korea-inspired ‘K-beauty’ items in their latest personal care trends.

Traditionally, mention France and cosmetics in the same breath and an image of class and sophistication is brought to mind.…

Shinsegae Food, the baking unit of South Korea’s leading retail conglomerate Shinsegae Group, on October 30 in a filing to the KRX Korea Stock Exchange announced that it plans to invest South Korean Won KRW51.9 billion (USD46.6 million) boost its bakery output.…

With its history of currency counterfeiting, drug trafficking, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the laundering of related proceeds and payments, there is surely no state worldwide that has a worse money laundering track record than that of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea).…

Money laundering in South Korea (formally the Republic of Korea – RoK) has been associated by law enforcers with domestic criminals, official corruption and ethnic Koreans living abroad – which is not particularly unusual.

But, South Korea has an additional exposure to money laundering – its close and difficult relationship with the world’s most isolated pariah state – North Korea.…

AS a developing country with a fast-growing, cash-based economy, Vietnam presents strong potential for money laundering and other financial crimes. Weak regulations and poor governmental oversight of the financial sector add to the challenges the country faces in combatting financial crimes.…

INNOVATIVE schemes are required to beat workplace stress and challenge organisational culture if HR bosses are to prevent Singapore’s productivity levels being damaged by increasingly worrying wellbeing issues, experts have warned.

Singapore-based Centre for Effective Living (CEL), a company promoting the psychological wellness of organisations, said they have seen a 10%-20% rise in the number of clients from the public as well as private sector seeking their help.…

LAOS, or the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), with its population of just 7 million, is the least developed member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a communist one-party state where corruption is rampant and transparency scarce. …

MYANMAR has made impressive progress towards building a system meeting international standards to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. But huge swathes of the economy still lie outside regulatory control, and rapid modernisation presents the authorities with fresh challenges.

The country’s ethnic and political fragmentation, with 14 states and regions with extensive powers, and its location in the opium-producing ‘Golden Triangle’ region, including Thailand and Laos, make it particularly vulnerable to the illicit drug trade and its associated dirty money flows.…

IT is no surprise that Singapore has a significant exposure to money laundering and terrorist finance. It is one of the world’s largest financial centres, a major free-trade hub and has neighbours where corruption and Islamic extremist insurgent groups remain are real threats.…

*Gender differences in east and southeast Asia for personal care products sales have always been narrower than in much of the world and they are closing fast. Selling personal care products to men, including colour cosmetics, is big business and getting bigger.…

IF the future of beauty in South Korea has a face – then that could be male, say beauty experts. Indeed, market researcher Euromonitor International expects sales of genderless beauty products to grow strongly in this key market in 2018, including face masks, BB/CC creams, toners and mists, lip gloss and tints, as well as sun protection lines. …

THE UNITED Arab Emirates (UAE) has long been a fertile ground for colour cosmetics brands thanks to its large young population (its median age is just over 30) and the presence of image conscious consumers. Despite the pressure of rising costs and fierce competition among brands, the country’s colour cosmetics market experienced moderate growth in 2017 compared to 2016, increasing an estimated 4% in value terms to reach Emirati Dirham AED1.1 billion (USD299.4 million), according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

COMMERCIAL motivation coupled with a desire to make a difference in people’s lives is driving a new wave of social entrepreneurs in Singapore.

While social enterprise start-ups in Asia have traditionally been non-profit non-government organisations (NGOs), the new trend is for tech-savvy millennials to launch innovative and profitable, but also socially-inclusive projects.…

CONCERN is growing over the ability of Hong Kong’s education system to produce graduates with the skills needed by the Special Administrative Region’s (SAR) economy.

Hong Kong children start school early. While there’s a well-established government-run education system, every parent who can afford the fees wants to send their children to a private school.…

VIETNAM’S textile and clothing and textile sector is looking to sell more product into Asian markets such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, while solidifying its traditional export bases like the US and EU, the latest trade data indicates. 

Last year, Vietnam exported USD2.28 billion’s worth of clothing and textiles to South Korea – a 7.45% gain compared with 2015, according to Vietnam customs data analysed by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS). …

HONG Kong continues to be a thriving cosmetics and personal care market, with its local consumer base enjoying ample spending power and with traders benefiting from its strategic location as an import gateway to mainland China.  

GlobalData, a provider of business information and analytics, valued Hong Kong’s cosmetics and market at Hong Kong dollars HKD18.1 billion (USD2.3 billion) in 2016, largely dominated by imports.…

THE AUSTRALIAN cosmetic and toiletry retailing market has experienced modest growth amidst fierce competition over the past decade, figures reveal, with a constant stream of new products, many environmentally conscious, maintaining consumer interest in an otherwise saturated market.

According to California-based market research company IBISWorld, more than 18,000 people work in almost 4,000 businesses in the cosmetics industry in Australia, a country of more than 24 million people.…

THE UNITED Arab Emirates (UAE) may hold an enviable portion of the world’s oil and gas reserves, at 4% and 3.5% respectively. But this has not stopped the country diversifying its long-term energy sources through developing nuclear power. With generation imminent, nuclear energy regulators and companies are watching closely how this rare event – a country embarking on a new civilian nuclear programme – rolls out.…

The European Union (EU) has become the largest importer of Myanmar garments, purchasing almost as much from the country in 2016 as the next two largest destinations combined, according to United Nations trade data.

“It’s been quite a swift development, but we had to work hard to earn it,” said Khine Khine Nwe, general secretary of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, noting that the EU was the third largest buyer in 2014 and second in 2015.…

LIKE its neighbour Japan, South Korea has a tradition of using public baths and spas, notably their 24-hour jimjilbangs, with hot and cold soaking pools, bathing and massage areas, saunas, entertainment lounges and communal sleeping.

As a result, the country’s spa and beauty salon sectors seem largely unaffected by the drastic decline in Chinese tourist arrivals amid retaliatory measures by Beijing over Seoul last year allowing US forces to deploy THAAD defence missiles on South Korean soil.…

WHEN the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) released its annual set of global statistics in June (2017), and South Korea was not among the world’s 24 countries that performed the most surgical and nonsurgical procedures in 2016, there was considerable surprise.…

SOUTH east Asia’s countries are as culturally diverse as those in Europe, and far more contrasting in economic development, so it is no surprise that their personal care product markets differ in their tastes and priorities. Fortunately, with the region’s largely emerging market economies still on a robust growth trajectory, and its more developed economies solidifying their wealth, the usual personal care product sale trend is one of expansion, albeit unevenly and sometimes with set-backs.…

TAIWAN, a now a high-income economy with a population of 23.6 million and a per capita income of USD22,453 in 2016, (International Monetary Fund figures), has been witnessing robust growth in its cosmetics and personal care products manufacturing. In 2016, this grew by 5.99% year-on-year to Taiwan dollars TWD21.1 billion (USD700 million), according to an estimate by the Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center (IEK), a Hsinchu-based public-initiated think tank.…

AS Ethiopia rapidly emerges as a key clothing and textile hub of Africa, the country has been making impressive strides as a knitwear manufacturing and sourcing centre, attracting the attention of global clothing majors.

“International buyers are beginning to buy knitted clothes from Ethiopia including Zara, Tesco, H&M [Hennes & Mauritz] and Decathlon,” said Fassil Tadesse, president of the Ethiopian Textile and Garment Manufacturing Association (ETGAMA).…

SINGAPORE has been rated the best city in the world to live for professionals wanting to work in start-ups, according to a survey by furnished apartment web-rental platform Nestpick. The website’s researchers assessed 85 cities, looking at their start-up ecosystems. It assessed average salaries for entry level and experienced positions regarding project management, technology and marketing roles.…

TEXTILE finishers in Brazil should take heed of local consumers’ demand for complex and colourful design in fabrics, traders at SAARA, Rio de Janeiro’s biggest open-air market, have told WTiN.com.

Grassroots interviews at this market in the city’s historic centre said Brazil’s mass market fabric tastes eschew simplicity – the market, originally founded by immigrants at the end of the 19^th century, is a medley of shopfronts selling everything from sports equipment and beach chairs to makeup and plastic jewellery.…

The Korea Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI), which is South Korea’s primary agency for the development of the textile industry, expects South Korean textile and garment investment in Vietnam to grow, albeit with shifting focuses as a response to the US abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).…

Japan’s top cattle and meat producers are gearing up to compete in the country’s next ‘Wagyu Olympics’, the country’s premier beef cattle show, to be held in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, on September 7–11. Delegations of wagyu experts, industry insiders and farmers from each prefecture as well as overseas groups are expected to attend for competitions as well as wagyu taste challenges and opportunities to exchange information and good practice.…

WITH the Asia-Pacific continuing to be the hub of global industrial growth and also a nexus of technological innovation, the region’s non-wovens sector has been making the most of these benefits, increasing both output and quality.

The Chinese nonwoven fabric sector, for instance, has been growing steadily, with 8-10% year-on-year growth in recent years, surpassing the average growth rate of the country’s entire textile industry.…

MONGOLIA remains one of the world’s key global production centres for cashmere, and its importance seems to be growing, with its cashmere garment exports increasing – total 2016 overseas receipts were USD9.6 million, up 196% since 2009.

Demand is driven by Mongolian goat fibres’ unique characteristics, most importantly of which its length of 38-45cm and thin microns facilitating the manufacturing of garments with higher quality than those made from Chinese and Afghan goat fibres. …

THE TRADE deal announced by the European Union (EU) and Japanese on July 6 that would cut tariffs and harmonise technical regulations has been welcomed by Japan and EU auto-makers – although the Europeans are expressing caution.

Brussels and Tokyo said they had stuck a “political agreement in principle” for an economic partnership agreement, that would phase out vehicle tariffs over seven years and bring regulatory convergence through a special auto annex. …

PAKISTAN’S ministry of industries and production has granted Category-A Greenfield investment status to four automobile manufacturing investors to set up manufacturing plants – effectively greenlighting their projects to establish auto-making plants in the country.

Shah Jahan Shah, spokesperson for Pakistan’s ministry of industries and production said he ministry had signed an agreement with these July 17 (2017).…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) textile sector has welcomed the striking of an economic partnership agreement between the EU and Japan,

“It will really provide a huge opportunity to both partners to help companies to enhance their bilateral trade, investment and cooperation.…

ORGANISERS of a major three-day India Textile 2017 exhibition in Gujarat have hoped to use the event to encourage product diversification and better supply chain links within the country’s growing textile sector.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oft quoted maxim – ‘from farm to fibre, fibre to fabric, fabric to fashion and fashion to foreign markets’ – was the guiding principle for the event that concluded in Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar on July 2.…

THE BURGEONING automotive manufacturing sector of central Europe’s Slovakia is paying close attention to an inquiry by the European Union (EU) executive, the European Commission, into how its government supports the sector. The upcoming decision by the Commission, which has powers to ensure national governments do not distort the EU’s single market by subsidising local industrial champions, could have significant implication for the future of Slovakia’s auto sector.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned that the Chinese government is planning to introduce what it calls “unjustifiable food certification requirements” for imports into China. This alert comes in a new annual report from the EU executive on international trade and investment barriers, looking at developments last year (2016) and upcoming changes.…

CJ CHEILJEDANG Corp, South Korea’s leading maker of processed foods, in a Korea Exchange (KRX) filing on June 12^th announced KRW541 billion (USD479.3 million) investment into the construction of a processed food production facility in Jincheon County in central South Korea.…

SAFETY concerns have been the key driver in rising sales of hair care products in South Korea, new figures suggest. According to market researchers Euromonitor International, the country’s haircare product market grew last year (2016) by 3% year on year to Korean Won KRW1.2 trillion (USD1.1 billion).…

Singapore will review its 80 bilateral agreements on avoiding double taxation to ensure they do not help companies avoid paying tax where relevant business activity took place. This follows its signing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD)-sponsored Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.…

THE HUMAN resources sector has been urged to put pressure on governments and investment fund managers in Asia to strengthen pension provisions as they deal with the consequences of rapidly aging populations.

And HR and economics experts have warned that corporate HR teams have a critical role to play in educating the workforce about the extent, however limited, of their pension provision and working with company bosses to strengthen policies within their organisations to compensate for the lack of robust schemes in existence.…

AUSTRALIA is witnessing something of a sea change when it comes to natural and organic cosmetics.

Jill Chambers, founder of a natural and vegan cosmetics company The Makeup Factory, based in Perth, told Cosmetics Business Markets “Just a few years ago there was a huge misconception that if a brand was natural it wasn’t effective.”…

While South Korea has not yet ratified the UN’s Paris Agreement dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, its important automobile industry has been making serious commitments to green practices, including the transition from solvent-based to waterborne coatings.

According to New Jersey, US-based coatings consulting firm Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney, the South Korean passenger car and light vehicle coating market involved supplies of 60,000 tonnes in 2016, and these are becoming increasingly environment-friendly: about one-quarter of basecoats sold are now waterborne.…

THE PLANNED introduction of mandatory audit firm rotation (MAFR) by the South African Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) has sparked widespread dissention within the country’s business and accounting communities This is despite that the reform’s goal is to strengthen auditor independence and audit quality and that there are some calls for the move to be brought forward from the current introduction date of April 1, 2023.…

THE INDONESIAN government must do better in controlling illegal imports of textile and textile products, Anies Soengkar, chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) branch Pekalongan, Central Java told WTiN.com.

This representative of a key textile production zone in Indonesia said that illicit imports are entering the country for distribution by door-to-door delivery networks.…

VIETNAM is working hard to develop an upstream parts manufacturing base, but this goal is proving hard to achieve and meanwhile, regional liberalization through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is threatening the country’s auto assembly segment.

In many ways, it is crunch time for Vietnam’s auto sector.…

Italian state-controlled oil and gas producer ENI has cemented its role as a major gas player in Mozambique, after further defining in 2017 the scope of its Coral FLNG (floating liquified natural gas) project in this southern African country. However, doubts are emerging that ENI will actually deliver significant volumes of Mozambique’s huge gas reserves to Italy, and consequentially the rest of Europe, as an alternative and more secure source of natural gas.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission must propose a new blacklist of non-European Union (EU) countries considered high-risk money laundering locations, after the full European Parliament (EP) overwhelmingly a proposed list yesterday (May 17), by 392 votes to 80, with 207 abstentions.

A Parliament spokesperson told Money Laundering Bulletin the Commission had no deadline to produce its third list of countries needing to face stricter controls doing business in the EU, but was expected to do so in the next “few months”.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) pig meat producers were big winners in boosting export sales over between last March (2016) and February (2017), according to the European Commission, with receipts rising by more than 33% compared to the same period last year. The EU pigmeat sector earned EUR5.4 billion in export earnings from March 2016 to February 2017, EUR1.35 billion more than the same period in the previous year, leading the United States and Canada as the second and third most important pigmeat exporters, reported EU statistical agency Eurostat.…

Political uncertainty over US trade deals sparked by the ascension of President Donald Trump to power should be eased to avoid stifling innovation in the country’s technical textiles industry which could see it marginalised on the world stage, insiders have warned.…

A STAGGERING 62% of Asia-Pacific consumers (including China and India) buy natural and organic cosmetics and another promising 32% are keen to buy them – making the region a hotspot for manufacturers of such lines. But this impressive growth also has made the region a perfect breeding ground for greenwashing, experts warned.…

SALES of personal fragrance products maybe on the rise among the 1.4 billion people market of mainland China, but thus far, growth is still almost solely attributable to millennials residing in the big cities, market researchers say.

Retail sales of personal perfume products grew by 8.9% in the whole of 2016 from the previous year to just Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY6.1 billion (USD885 million), with the competitive landscape remaining firmly in the hand of foreign players, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

HONG Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will ease listing requirements for certain infrastructure companies, notably those involved in projects aiding the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative. This aims to promote transport infrastructure helping move Chinese goods to central Asia, southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.…

KENYA’S EDUCATION MINISTER CALLS FOR LESS GOVERNMENT MEDDLING IN AFRICAN UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

Kenya’s education minister has called for African governments to pull away from direct management of their country’s universities, saying such meddling is unnecessary and can hinder the development of effective management.…

THE PAINT and coatings sector in Egypt is growing, but its progress has been unsteady, reflecting its bumpy political progress since its 2011 revolution that brought down long-standing President Hosni Mubarak. While a construction boom dominated by huge public private partnerships (PPPs) is driving up sales of decorative paint, according to industry analysts, a weak automotive sector is holding back overall growth with slow sales of refinishing paint.…

It is fair to say the eyes of the UK paint and coatings industry are firmly on Brussels and Downing Street now that Article 50 has been triggered and negotiations on Britain quitting the European Union (EU) are now under preparation.…

AMERICA may have scrapped its major sanctions against emerging outsourcing centre Myanmar, and brought back the southeast Asian country’s GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) access to USA markets, but the impact on the clothing trade has so far been underwhelming.

Apparel factory owners in Myanmar say American buyers have simply not materialised in the numbers that some expected.…

South Korea’s Lotte is to create a new united investment wing, under a major restructuring of the Lotte group. This separate division will assume control of the investment business of Lotte Food Co, Lotte Shopping Co, Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co and Lotte Confectionery Co – although it will formally be owned by Lotte’s confectionery wing.…

THE EUROPEAN Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) is predicting that trade in clothing and textile products between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) will grow significantly once the free trade agreement struck between the two jurisdictions comes into force next year (2018).…

Cambodia’s garment industry is in a curious situation, with statistics indicating that export earnings from this key Asian fabric and yarn buyer are on the rise, despite evidence that overseas sales should actually be falling. According to one industry insider, this makes it difficult to project how the Cambodian clothing sector will perform in 2017 and hence how much it will spend on supplies.…

Brazilian overseas beef meat sales are set to grow in 2017, according to projections from the Associação Brasileira das Indústrias Exportadoras de Carne (ABIEC). “Our export forecasts for 2017 are USD5.5 to USD6 billion, said Antônio Jorge Camardelli, the ABIEC president.…

South Korea’s ministry of agriculture, food and rural affairs announced yesterday (March 13) that it plans to lift chicken import tariffs from early April to stabilise local chicken prices.

These have been rising since the ministry on March 6 banned imports of US poultry after a strain of H7 bird flu virus was confirmed at a Tennessee, USA, chicken farm that supplies poultry major Tyson Foods.…

South Korea on March 21 lifted an import ban on chicken from BRF, a major Brazilian poultry exporter that has been at the center of a food safety scandal involving meatpackers allegedly paying off inspectors to overlook practices including processing rotten meat.…

ASIA’S technical textiles sectors continue to grow, fuelled by ready buyers in domestic and overseas markets, but governments can and do help too – keen to promote these sustainable high tech industries.

China is a case in point. Its industry and information technology ministry plus the National Development and Reform Commission in January (2017) jointly issued development guidance for technical textiles as part of China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which runs from 2016-20.…

THE cosmetics sector of South Korea, evaluated at USD12 billion in sales during 2016 by market researcher Frost & Sullivan, has been enduring a tough crash course in political risk since its government agreed to host the US missile-defence system Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD).…

THE USE of airless technology in packaging is largely about zero product waste, preserving product integrity and less packaging material – and it obviously gels well with the growing trend towards sustainability. That explains the uptake in this technology led by cosmetics packaging, industry experts argue.…

THE ASEAN Audit Regulators Group (AARG) and the big-four audit firms have agreed a measurable goal to improve audit quality within south-east Asia. The project involves Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand; along with Malaysia’s Audit Oversight Board, Indonesia’s Finance Professions Supervisory Centre, Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission.…

The technology is known as ‘dynamic inductive charging’ and has been trialled in a range of scenarios across different continents. And one system, in South Korea, is now in operation on a live transport route, on roads in the towns of Gumi, in the country’s southeast, and Sejong, in central South Korea.…

The chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API) has expressed cautious optimism about President Donald Trump’s rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact and re-confirmed the need to boost Indonesia’s competitiveness.

Trump pulled the USA out of the agreement on January 23, and while that could be bad news for the other 11 TPP partners, including regional textile sector competitors Malaysia and clothing hub Vietnam, the deal had yet to include Indonesia.…

As the drive to encourage electric vehicle (EV) ownership gathers momentum, so does the desire to install automated recharging systems, such as devices built into roads that top up batteries as autos motor on.

The technology is known as ‘dynamic inductive charging’ and has been trialled in a range of scenarios across different continents.…

South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister Yoo Il-ho has confirmed that his government has begun drafting a talent-based immigration system to serve as a key driver of economic competitiveness in the future. According to Yoo, the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC) has created a task force to counter the country’s demographic changes and plans to produce mid and long-term immigration policies in the first half of the year.…

THE BANK of Thailand is pushing for Thailand to better educate its workforce to cope with digital development, with a lack of research and development (R&D) investment being blamed economic stagnation within this southeast Asian country. The call comes as Thailand’s GDP per capita was just USD5,814.77 (World Bank figures for 2015) when China’s was USD8,027.68.…

THE EUROPEAN beef sector must keep its direct payments at a time when the European Union (EU)’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is under review, according to new research highlighted by the European Parliament.

‘The EU cattle sector: challenges and opportunities – milk and meat’ report, published February 27 by the parliament’s agriculture and rural development committee, says these payments play an important part in farm-household income.…

One month after staunch free-trade opponent Donald Trump became US President there are many policy decisions still to be confirmed and clarified to get a full idea of the impact his presidency will have on the trade in technical textiles. His accession comes during an unstable time for international trade – it is arguably even less clear how the UK’s planned exit from the EU will work out for the sector.…

The vice chairman of South Korean electronics giant Samsung Jay Y Lee, was arrested on bribery charges last weel (on February 17) and is being held in custody awaiting a decision on his indictment. Lee, the heir to the family business is accused of paying South Korean won KRW43 billion (USD38 million) in bribes to Choi Soon-sil, a confidante of the now-suspended President Park Geun-hye, in return for political favours.…

KEY MESSAGES

*The nuclear industry has an ageing staff and needs to recruit new professionals as they retire

*Its strong health and retirement benefits packages could help it attract the new staff it needs

*The nuclear industry outside north America has a strong expat component, making it easier for recruit staff from abroad

INTRODUCTION

The nuclear industry sector is facing some significant human resources challenges, but new research carried out by Airswift and Energy Jobline indicates that the nuclear sector can still compete for talent.…

Researchers believe designers will expand the use of graphene in textiles for bio-medical, sportswear, fashion, furnishings, military and security equipment.

Isolated by scientists from graphite in 2004, a layer of pure carbon, graphene is the thinnest known compound. It is just one atom thick (a million times thinner than a human hair), the strongest compound ever discovered (between 100-300 times stronger than steel), the lightest material (with one square metre weighing only 0.77 milligrams) and very flexible.…

AS many leading fashion brands are stepping up use of Australian Merino wool, Chinese fabric makers with a long track record of in-house research and development (R&D) into wool are finding themselves better positioned than latecomers to reap the fruits of this trend.…

WINTER sportsmen and women are busy training for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, in South Korea, from next February 9 to 28 (2018), and part of their preparation will be securing the best clothing and footwear made from carefully drafted technical textiles.…

ELECTRONICS and gadgets such as smart watches may have reached their technological and popularity limits, but smart textiles – materials, for example anti-bacterial, that react to environmental or physical stimuli – are here to stay, industry experts argue.

Speakers at this year’s FUTEX – the 7^th Innovative Textile European Convention on ‘interactive textiles for health, sport and the home’ emphasised the bright future for ‘wearable’ technology.…

MORE than two thirds of countries rated for public sector corruption in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) failed to score 50, the halfway point between 0 and 100, with zero regarded as totally corrupt and 100 as unimpeachably clean.…

SMART e-textiles are set to revolutionise the industry in the coming years as the wonder material of the 21st century is introduced into an array of innovative applications.

Researchers believe designers will expand the use of graphene in textiles for bio-medical, sportswear, fashion, furnishings, military and security equipment.…

UNITED States (US) President Donald Trump’s decision on January 26 to sign an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) should provide opportunities for European Union (EU) dairy exporters, according to European dairy experts.

“From an EU dairy perspective, we would hope that the European Commission will continue to make an effort in our European trade negotiations, especially with Japan,” Alexander Anton, secretary general of the European Dairy Association, told Food & Drink Technology News.…

The South Korean coatings market, estimated by Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney Inc, a New Jersey, USA-based consulting firm for the polymer and chemical industries, at 840,000 tonnes worth USD3.5 billion in 2016, has been challenging for suppliers in 2016-17, as demand is affected by two opposite trends.…

SHIPPING container manufacturers in China have been struggling to deal with the country’s new string of environmental regulations aiming to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions – effectively forcing them to switch from solvent-based to water-based paints.

The changeover, proposed by the China Container Industry Association and endorsed by the government is occurring in two stages, with container factories located in southern China required to only use water-based products for all containers, other than certain specialised containers, since July 1, 2016; this to be followed by factories in the rest of China from April 1 this year.…

CHINA’S central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), has issued a new anti-money laundering and terror finance reporting requirements for all financial institutions inside the country. The rules come into force July 1. They cover banks, brokers, foreign exchange, online and mobile payment systems and insurance companies, who will have to file reports to the central bank, via their headquarters or via representative institutions, if a client requires daily cash transactions exceeding Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY50,000 (USD7,261) or a larger amount of USD10,000’s worth in foreign currency.…

THE HONG Kong and Pakistan government have signed a comprehensive agreement on avoiding double taxation. Pakistani tax paid by Hong Kong companies will be credited against Hong Kong taxes on the same profits, with the reverse applying for Pakistan companies. Pakistan’s withholding tax rates for Hong Kong residents on royalties and fees for technical services (both currently 15%) will be capped at 10% and 12.5% respectively.…

Hacking and data breaches keep Asian IT departments awake at night, but many of the most serious cyber security incidents can be prevented with greater vigilance from HR professionals. Of course, there are a wide variety of risks being posed to companies from online environments, from denial-of-service attacks, to Trojan programmes that monitor computer use, and theft of identities and intellectual property.…

2016 – Winners and losers

RETAILERS & BRANDS

WINNERS

US-based sportswear brand Under Armour delivered its 26th consecutive quarter of 20%-plus revenue growth in the third quarter of 2016, with sales increases across all divisions. Net sales were up 22% in the third quarter to USD1.47bn.…

PHOTOS posted on the Chinese microblog platform Weixin (commonly known in English as WeChat) from the Indonesian holiday island of Bali recently are emblematic of key trends in China’s cosmetics and personal care markets, notably booming ecommerce sales. Over 100 Chinese sales managers – technically self-employed and operating on commission – flew to Bali as guests of USANA Health Sciences Inc, which in 2010 acquired BabyCare Ltd, a China-based direct selling company that develops, manufactures and sells nutritional products.…

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has urged Malaysia to reverse a trend of 15 years of low labour productivity by improving education and labour skills – helping the country meet its government goal of becoming a developed nation by 2020.…

Vietnam’s upstream textile manufacturing sector remains hampered by lack of investment, poor infrastructure and personnel shortages, although government efforts are expected to ease some difficulties, a seminar at the recent VTG Textile & Garment Exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) has heard.…

THE PROMISE from US President-elect Donald Trump to withdraw the USA from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement on his first day of office has prompted widespread nervousness in auto-sectors around the world.

His rejection of the deal could scupper an agreement negotiated over five years by the United States; Australia; Brunei; Canada; Chile; Japan; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Peru; Singapore and Vietnam.…

HUMAN resources experts in the Asia-Pacific region are mulling the potential impact of US President-elect Donald Trump abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. He has promised to withdraw the US from the agreement on his first day in office.

And without American participation, the pact seems dead in the water: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently said it would be “meaningless,” while Vietnam, whose export-driven economy was expected to be one of the major beneficiaries of the TPP, has withdrawn the proposal for ratification in its National Assembly.…

LEADING French automaker Renault could soon start producing vehicles in Pakistan, the chairman of the south Asian country’s Board of Investment (BOI) has predicted to wardsauto. Miftah Ismail said that the manufacturer had submitted an application to the government of Pakistan seeking permission to produce cars locally, initially in a joint venture with Ghandhara Nissan, which is Renault’s global partner.…

JAPAN has confirmed a third outbreak of avian flu in as many days, prompting the cull of thousands of farmed birds in the north of the country. The highly pathogenic H5 strain was detected in ducks found dead at a farm in Aomori Prefecture, northern Honshu, on November 28 while, some 450km away in Niigata Prefecture, western Honshu, dead chickens at a poultry farm tested positive at two separate sites on November 28 and 30.…

SINGAPORE, Japan and South Korea have stopped poultry imports from Denmark after an Avian Influenza virus (H5N8) outbreak affected the country’s entire poultry sector. This is the first outbreak of the virus in Denmark since 2006, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, (Fødevarestyrelsen – FVST) told GlobalMeatNews.…

SUB-Saharan Africa offers the personal care product a real chance to see solid and steep growth in sales in upcoming years, with the region’s middle class growing in size and prosperity, served by international brands boosting their retail presence, especially in larger urban markets.…

THE MALAYSIAN government has released its 2017 budget with a pledge to reduce corporation tax by between 1% and 4% for companies with significant increases in taxable income during 2017 and 2018. The budget will also mandate a cut in income tax from 19% to 18% for small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).…

Specialised debtor finance products for the garment industry are a niche area that continues to grow, and these services are increasingly being offered worldwide. Craig Michie, head of trade finance at Australasian debtor finance company Scottish Pacific, explained to just-style: “We see entry level businesses who need as little as AUD50,000 [USD38,000] and larger businesses who need upwards of AUD50 million but the challenge is the same for both – how to keep trading when the cash cycle is so long in the apparel trade,” he said.…

THE SHORTAGE of skilled labour is the “second most pressing issue next to political instability” that is hindering growth in Thailand manufacturing firms, a Bangkok-based World Bank expert has told People Management.

Indeed, the south-east Asian country’s skilled labour shortage has been getting worse: for example, the number of weeks it takes to fill a vacancy for a skilled worker in Thailand has increased from about five weeks on average in 2007 to about eight weeks in 2015, said the World Bank’s east Asia and Pacific programme leader for poverty and human development Lars Sondergaard.…

As China’s banks get bigger, they are also drawing the attention of global money laundering investigators. Eyes were certainly focused on Bank of China (BoC) earlier this year: the bank stands accused Florence police and public prosecutor’s office of funnelling EUR4.9 billion from Italy to China between 2007 and 2010 with Italian authorities claiming much of that figure was from the proceeds of crime.…

Non-wovens textile manufacturers are likely to benefit from a soaring Chinese market for their products, thanks to a fast ageing population, the government’s recently launched two-child policy, and demand created by air pollution that continues to plague the country, and international conference in Shanghai has head.…

Sun protective clothing is continuing to move from its health-focused niche origins to become a general and versatile product, protecting consumers of all ages from the harm of prolonged sun exposure. What first began as products for children or for people with varying skin ailments, such as melanoma or xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), a rare disease where the body is unable to repair damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) light, the market has been expanding robustly.…

PERSONAL care product and cosmetics manufacturers are continuing to invest in sustainable materials – such as responsibly-sourced cardboard and bio-plastics. Indeed, such green alternatives can boost sales in markets where consumers are increasingly concerned with the environmental impact of products. But packagers still face challenges in ensuring these meet the standards of their clients, particularly in premium sectors.…

The most current pressing issue for Taiwanese human resources executives is arguably the failure of the island’s enterprises to timely craft leadership succession plans. There are the headline-grapping stories such as that of Morris Chang, 85, founder of the world’s largest semiconductor maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC), who has held on as chairman and returned as chief executive officer (CEO) in 2009 after having temporarily passed on the position.…

BIG data in the world of commerce can have a mercenary aspect, telling companies detailed information about potential customers, to target them with offers to increase revenue.

But it is not the whole story.

In civil aviation, big data can also improve safety, efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, Marco Merens, chief, integrated aviation analysis, at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) air navigation bureau told Jane’s Airport Review.…

AS a decades-long prohibition on production and sale of the ‘cannabis sativa’ plant and its components are falling away throughout North America, the use of hemp as a personal care product ingredient is on the rise.

In the United States (US), four states have legalised recreational cannabis (Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska), along with the capital territory Washington DC, while 21 states have legalised medical marijuana, boosting growth in the legal consumption and production of the plant.…

The cosmetics surgery sector in South Korea, the industry’s undisputed bellwether in Asia, expanded strongly in 2015, with the number of total cosmetics surgery procedures growing by 17.9% year on year, to 1.2 million, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).…

THE ASIA-Pacific coatings additives market is big business, and is getting bigger. According to Pune, India-based market research organisation Markets and Markets, the coatings additives market in the Asia-Pacific region will be worth USD2.81 billion in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 7.2% until 2021.…

WORKFORCE DEMOGRAPHICS

East Asia is a very varied region in terms of economic development. Take the 10 members of trade bloc ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations): with 632 million people, demographics greatly vary, from aging Singapore and Thailand, to the younger and emerging economies of Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.…

Myanmar has launched an association for textile manufacturers aiming to build a vibrant industry from its current small base of factories and traditional manufacturing.

The Myanmar Textile Manufacturers Association (MTMA) was launched in July, with support from the country’s ministry of industry.…

A wealth of experience in creating natural fibres – from cotton, hemp and silk to bamboo, banana and paper – combined with cutting-edge technology is giving Japanese companies an international edge in making eco-friendly fabrics. Scientists are bringing together old and new as they re-examine ancient practices and consider innovative techniques to bring new products to market.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) knitted fabric importers are continuing to focus their sourcing overwhelmingly on Turkey, China, and South Korea, according to data released by the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex). With their low production costs, fabric expertise, and advantageous free trade agreements, these countries offer key benefits as a sourcing destination.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) knitted fabric importers are continuing to focus their sourcing overwhelmingly on Turkey, China, and South Korea, according to data released by the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex). With their low production costs, fabric expertise, and advantageous free trade agreements, these countries offer key benefits as a sourcing destination.…

A Myanmar Textiles Manufacturers Association has finally been launched, following years of discussion about creating an upstream textile-specific body in this fast developing south-east Asian country.

Finished garment exports from Myanmar have more than doubled from 2011-12 to 2014-15, from USD497 million to USD1.02 billion according to statistics from the country’s Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).…

THE ENERGY market in Asia is one of the most dynamic sectors in the region, and so government policy and regulation is having to be nimble and flexible, trying to coax production in a sustainable direction.

Take the deregulation of Japan’s household electricity market, which went into effect on April 1.…

Vigorous expansion of export-oriented manufacturing and construction in 2015 spurred the fastest GDP growth in Vietnam in seven years, at 6.7% year-on-year, according to the Asian Development Bank. And although coatings consumption correlates generally well with economic growth, in Vietnam the 2015 year-on-year coatings production increase outpaced general economic expansion – it rose 11.1% year-on -year in 2015, to Vietnamese dong VND13 trillion (USD587 million), according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

Paint and varnish manufacturers in Japan experienced a disappointing 2015, with sluggish purchasing from the construction and automotive sectors translating into meagre 0.3% growth over the fiscal year. Analysts predict that growth will pick up in the short term, in part as a result of a spike in demand from the construction sector ahead of Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games – although industry players are concerned about the longer-term outlook for the sector.…

VIETNAM’S textile sector faces significant challenges as it seeks to profit sustainably from new commercial opportunities offered by international trade deals, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a major industry conference has been told. The Vietnam Textile Summit 2016 was held from June 29-30, at The Reverie Saigon, an upscale hotel in downtown Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).…

THE EUROPEAN Commission adopted today a list of high risk countries that have “strategic deficiencies” in their anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing regimes, working under powers from the fourth anti-money laundering directive (4AMLD). Under the law, European Union (EU) banks will have to carry out additional checks on financial flows from these countries.…

THE UK’s vote on June 23 to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future electricity industry regulations in Britain, and the UK’s regulatory relationship regarding power supplies with countries remaining in the EU.

Victory by the ‘Leave’ side in Britain’s in-out referendum enables the UK government to kick off an exit process by invoking Article 50 in the Treaty on European Union, which gives notice that member state wishes to leave.…

FACED with evidence that international charities continue to face restricted access to banks over de-risking concerns, the global AML body the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) voted at its plenary session in South Korea in June to revise its Recommendation 8 and the accompanying Interpretative Note addressing the problem.…

Banking security chiefs and their opponents in their opponents in the underworld of cybercrime are fighting a “cold war arms race” with no long-term solution in sight, fraud specialist academics have told Fraud Intelligence.

And if anyone should doubt that this threat is not just profound, but global in scope, witness that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB – Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti) announced last month that it had arrested 50 members of a gang believed to have been responsible for a Russian Roubles RUB1.7 billion (USD 26.6 million) bank cyberhack using the Trojan programme ‘Lurk’ to collect customer data.…

South-east Asia is a region that has sharp contrasts in economic development, from between the wealth of Singapore to countries such as Myanmar, where poverty is endemic and consumer markets are relatively undeveloped.

Such contrasts pose challenges for personal care product companies seeking regional strategies to tap the markets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) 10 countries, whose cosmetics suppliers have to comply with the standards of the ASEAN Cosmetics Directive, which was modelled on European Union legislation.…

Liberalising Myanmar’s cosmetics market is expected to grow significantly in coming years as it has one of south-east Asia’s largest populations (53 million people) and a growing middle class. However, however consumer sophistication and spending power remains low compared with many countries in the region – its 2014 gross national income per head was USD1,280, according to the World Bank.…

Scandinavia’s colour cosmetic sector is poised to grow between 2016 and 2019 after two years of slumping sales, with Sweden being the stronger national market, according to UK-based market intelligence firm Mintel.

Even Sweden has had a bumpy ride, however: in 2013, Sweden’s SEK41.12 million (USD4.78 million – at current exchange rates) colour cosmetics market up from SEK35.9 million (USD4.18 million).…

SINGAPORE has promised that it will implement the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has said it accepts profits should be taxed where real economic activities generating them are performed and where value is created.…

THE UK’s personal care and cosmetics industry faces uncertainty and potential future trade challenges with the European Union (EU) following the 52% to 48% June 23 referendum vote to leave the EU. “No longer being part of a single market for the free circulation of goods and no longer being a key player in the development of legislation governing those goods will be a major challenge to the cosmetics industry as it will be to all other sectors of the UK industry,” Chris Flower, director-general of the UK’s Cosmetic, Toiletry & Perfumery Association (CTPA), told Soap Perfumery and Cosmetics.…

COSMETICS and personal care product labelling and decoration continues to play a key role in differentiating brands on the shelf and creating an experience for the consumer. While many companies are moving towards more simple, clean looks, other higher-end brands still prefer eye-catching, metallic designs.…

THE UK’s vote yesterday (June 23) to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future food and drink regulations in Britain. The same applies to market access for companies operating from Britain or seeking to export to its consumers.…

A consortium headed by France’s Vinci Airports and Orix Corp, a financial services company based in Tokyo, took over the operation of Kansai International Airport and Osaka International Airport on April 1. The Japanese government is hoping that the deal will be the first of a series of privatisations of the nation’s often under-utilised airports.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s trade directorate general and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office have said that they will be assessing the impact of Britain’s anticipated exit from the European Union (EU) on the planned EU-US Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP).…

THE UK’s vote last week (June 23) to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future meat and livestock regulations in Britain. The same applies to EU market access for British meat and livestock companies or exporters from the rest of the EU wanting to target British consumers.…

A SENIOR UK-based defence and security think tank has called on governments, financial institutions and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to take fresh action to stop money being moved to finance illicit nuclear weapon programmes.

A paper from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has called on governments to start imposing tougher and more comprehensive actions against financial flows that could help build nuclear weapons.…

THE UK’s vote last Thursday (June 23) to quit the European Union (EU) creates deep uncertainty over the shape of future nuclear industry regulations in Britain. The same applies to EU market access for British nuclear fuel and component companies or exporters from the rest of the EU wanting to target British nuclear operators.…

South Korean spandex-manufacturer TK Chemical Corp, an affiliate of the SM Group conglomerate, yesterday (May 26) confirmed to just-style that it will build a 10,000-tonne-a-year spandex plant with an initial investment of South Korean Won KRW80 billion (USD68 million) in Iran.…

THE UNITED States Trade Representative (USTR) has highlighted its continuing concern about intellectual property rights violations in the pharma sector, citing claims that 20% of medicines sold in India are fakes.

In its annual ‘Special 301 Report’, the USTR said it notes “its particular concern with the proliferation of counterfeit pharmaceuticals that are manufactured, sold, and distributed in trading partners such as Brazil, China, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Peru, and Russia.”…

Yesterday’s (May 17) easing of US sanctions against Myanmar to improve bilateral trade and allow more financial transactions to take place could result in more US fast-food companies establishing a presence in the former pariah state.

The US treasury, for instance removed seven state-owned enterprises and three state-owned banks (the Myanma Economic Bank, Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank), from a blacklist.…

Brazil’s economic and political crisis is delaying plans to develop its nuclear power industry, experts say. This could be a lost opportunity to help the country reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by 2030, and 37% below 2005 levels by 2025 as committed by the government at the United Nations’ 21st Session of the Conference of Parties (COP21), in Paris last December (2015).…

Russian automotive consumers suffering in their country’s current economic recession are delaying vehicle purchases and investing in single, more expensive family cars rather than buy several small cars for individual use, experts have told wardsauto.

They are commenting on data that has confounded predictions that the country’s volatile financial situation would mean a return to purchasing cheaper and smaller car models, such as the Ladas driven during the Communist years.…

Seizures of contraband cosmetics have become an increasingly common sight on local TV in China. A recent case in point (this March – 2016) saw 1,488 boxes of South Korean cosmetics seized from a forty-foot container in the east coast port city of Qinhuangdao, about 300km east of Beijing.…

ITALY’s parallel Cosmoprof and Cosmopack shows always push quality in key aspects of the personal care product industry and its 2016 edition was all about precision, personalisation, portable beauty and high-tech beauty solutions

An innovative new beauty product presented at this year’s 49^th edition of the international beauty trade show, Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna [March 18-21, 2016] proves that, like smart-fashion, the cosmetics and personal care sector is ready for portable technology.…

Japan’s struggles with an ageing and declining population have been a frequent sources of angst for many sectors of the national economy in recent years, not least the cosmetics and personal care products industry. And while its domestic sales maintained moderate growth in the three years from 2012, there has been concern about the plateau that Japanese consumers would inevitably reach and the decline that would follow.…

Japan’s struggles with an ageing and declining population have been a frequent sources of angst for many sectors of the national economy in recent years, not least the cosmetics and personal care products industry. And while its domestic sales maintained moderate growth in the three years from 2012, there has been concern about the plateau that Japanese consumers would inevitably reach and the decline that would follow.…

INNOVATIVE ways of powering trains are poised for mainstream use in the global transport industry. Today, the most common trains are still those powered by diesel engines, but there is a continuing shift towards electricity and alternative power sources.

“With rail expected to play an increasingly important role in future transport systems…there is a lot of focus on how it should be more energy efficient,” said Andrew Foulkes, a communications manager at Ricardo Rail, a UK-based railway engineering and consultancy firm.…

NORTH America’s textile sector – of which technical textiles comprise nearly 70% production by value in the USA and just below 50% in Canada – has grown slowly when compared with global production. And growth within the industry in North America will further slow by 2020 due to competition from the Asia-Pacific region and Western Europe, according to industry analysts at Euromonitor. …

South Korea’s ministry of health and welfare (MOHW) has released new guidelines designed to encourage consumers to balance their diet through eating more grains, fruit and vegetables. The ministry’s advice – released on Monday (April 11) also advises Korean consumers to eat less sugar, sodium and fat.…

South Korea’s food industry will have to follow new government labelling guidelines – part of Seoul’s strategy to encourage healthier eating by consumers. Under the rules released by the ministry of health and welfare (MOHW)on Monday (April 11), nutrition labelling on food packaging, manufacturers of snacks, processed foods and beverages will be required to display the sum of all monosaccharides and disaccharides in products.…

An anticipated boost for garment exports has failed to materialise since the Philippines was granted Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) by the European Union (EU) in December 2014. Receiving GSP+ status meant that a total of 6,274 Philippines export products were given duty-free access to the EU market.…

Airless packaging producers around the world are increasingly giving brands a cutting edge in market competitiveness – the technology is spreading in North America, Asia and Europe, although it is struggling to find footholds in Latin America.

In the most mature airless packaging markets within north America and Europe, companies have introduced innovations combining airless technology’s protection of product with extra features that allow, for example, more precise application and help brands with customisation.…

With the desire for packaging beauty being an integral part of north-east Asian consumer culture, it is perhaps no surprise that Japanese and South Korean cosmetics companies have led the way with compacts – whose popularity is spreading worldwide.

The ultimate combination of utility and design, when Japanese cosmetics companies start developing a new compact product, its packaging needs to meet two basic requirements: it has to delight the user with the way it looks, and it must be easy and convenient to use.…

Rising affluence, together with growth across feeder industries are translating into solid results for the Indonesian coatings sector. The paints and varnishes market in the country generated sales of Indonesian Rupiah IDR24,733 billion (USD1.9 billion) in 2014 according to the latest data available from market researcher Euromonitor International.…

ONCE clothing sourcing was all about China. No longer. Recent years have seen a continuous decline in China’s export industry, especially in labour-intensive sectors such as clothing and shoe manufacturing, because of rising labour costs and an appreciating Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY or RMB).…

Boxes are not known for their excitement, but personal care product companies are making secondary packaging more alluring by designing them to give consumers an enticing glimpse of the goods inside. They are also using their collective imaginations to create aesthetically desirable mixes of different materials and textures, maybe combining these with visually arresting spatial design.…

VIETNAM as almost a “sole supplier of textile products” among Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) member countries is banking on the TPP deal to expand its textile market share, according to VITAS – the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association. Moreover, a spokesperson from the association said that “many Hong Kong, South Korean, and Australian firms are developing and planning major textiles FDI [foreign direct investment] in Vietnam to produce yarn and fabric, the supporting textiles industry for apparel production.”…

Chinese tourism is changing the locations where cosmetics are sold internationally – and also changing how corporations are marketing to a savvier and better travelled breed of Chinese consumers, according to a detailed research report by a Hong Kong investment bank.…

Australian and New Zealand confectionery and ice cream manufacturers have been broadly supportive of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that was finalised towards the end of 2015, recognising the potential for securing export sales in lucrative Asian markets. That said, there is some caution, given the TPP delivers more potential for America’s juggernaut of a confectionery sector to roll into local stores.…

Considering the ongoing doldrums within the global economy, 2015 was not a bad year for South Korea’s coatings manufacturers. The sector’s cautiously positive sentiment mainly survived because Korean coatings consumption has been boosted by a domestic construction boom that made up for lacklustre demand from the east Asian export powerhouse’s carmakers and shipbuilders.…

MANUFACTURERS of powder coatings in Asia are creating multiple applications products, such as combined fire retardants and anti-bacterial materials, whilst looking to maximise the use of sustainable ingredients. Producers in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea especially continue to produce innovative solutions.…

Free trade agreements with the United States and Europe are essential if the Indonesian textile market is to flourish and compete with strong regional rivals, according to analysts and sector leaders.

The Indonesian government has said it wants to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement agreed by 12 Pacific Rim countries last October (2015).…

THE MYANMAR government is pushing ahead with developing a textile and clothing industry hub at Myawaddy, just over the border from key Thailand manufacturing zone Mae Sot, which has prospered from access to cheap Burmese labour and Thai tax breaks.

This has long annoyed Myanmar government officials, who decided they wanted to build an industrial zone on their side of the border.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is incorporating the latest guidance from the European auto industry into its plan for rolling-out connected cars across the European Union (EU), drawing on advice from manufacturers favouring swift, coordinated deployment. A key, stressed a report published in January by the Commission, the EU’s executive, is for the installation of ‘cooperative intelligent transport systems’ (C-ITS) allowing vehicles to communicate with other vehicles, other road users, traffic signals and roadside infrastructure.…

Bangladesh’s imports of scrap metal has risen sharply as local steel millers turn to billet production, bolstering supplies encouraged by growing demand for finished products, Steel First has learnt.

Industry insiders said the south Asian nation imported around 1.5 million tonnes of steel and iron scrap in 2015 and estimates suggest that annual imports could surge to around 2.5 million tonnes by the end of this year.…

China has admitted in a new white paper that its nuclear emergency response mechanism is “inadequate” for coping with “new situations and challenges” arising from its nuclear power plants. And the document, issued by China’s State Council (effectively its cabinet) has admitted that the country is still lagging behind its nuclear power competitors regarding both technology and trained manpower.…

VIETNAM as almost a “sole supplier of textile products” among Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) member countries is banking on the TPP deal to expand its textile market share, according to VITAS – the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association. Moreover, a spokesperson from the association said that “many Hong Kong, South Korean, and Australian firms are developing and planning major textiles FDI [foreign direct investment] in Vietnam to produce yarn and fabric, the supporting textiles industry for apparel production.”…

CHINA’S central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), has issued a new anti-money laundering and terror finance reporting requirements for all financial institutions inside the country. The rules come into force July 1. They cover banks, brokers, foreign exchange, online and mobile payment systems and insurance companies, who will have to file reports to the central bank, via their headquarters or via representative institutions, if a client requires daily cash transactions exceeding Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY50,000 (USD7,261) or a larger amount of USD10,000’s worth in foreign currency.…

THE NUMBER of mainland Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong and Macao is set to fall sharply, and while Chinese travellers are becoming more enamoured with longer-haul destinations such as Australia and the US, worries over safety is weakening demand for visiting France.…

PRIVATE label brands for cosmetics and personal care products are attracting consumers with an increasingly wide range of offerings that stress their value-added nature, as well as affordable prices. Reflecting private labels’ innate reliance on quality and function rather than image, manufacturers supplying these products have been especially focusing on using scents to add value, from traditional florals to more adventurous notes.…

The beauty and personal care (BPC) market in Italy ended 2015 on a positive note, recording marginal growth in market sales, production and exports, according to a December 2015 report ‘Trends and Investments in the Cosmetics Sector’, released by the national cosmetics trade association, Associazione Italiana delle Imprese Cosmetiche (Cosmetica Italia).…

TUBES, bottles, and jars for packaging cosmetics and personal care products are not only becoming increasingly user-friendly and sustainable, suppliers and brands are looking for extra added-value features to promote sales. These range from useful applicators and storage devices to precision dosing, attracting consumers looking for convenient packaging.…

Birla Cellulose’s is exploring the use of its premium fibre modal to create a relaxed luxuriant look for its spring-summer collection 2017, to be featured at the Première Vision Paris fashion show this February.

The focus is on relaxed chic, in tune with the viscose staple fibre global leader’s tagline of natural fluid fashion.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it will be probing the possible abuse of bilateral double taxation treaties forged by European Union (EU) member states with non-EU countries, to detect tax avoidance.

The Commission has opened a formal investigation into how Luxembourg has taxed McDonald’s, assessing concerns that it allowed the US fast-food giant to avoid paying tax on its EU royalties in the Grand Duchy.…

A year after the Russian rouble suffered its worst single-day drop in exchange rate value in 16 years, Russians are more cautious about buying cosmetics and are showing a tendency to downgrade to cheaper products or seek out sales items. Experts are expecting increased competition in these lower cost segments in the coming years, as well as growing consumer interest in local brands and natural cosmetics. …

If the 2013 and 2014 were all about the rise of South Korean personal care product brands in China, then 2015 was the year that regional currency wars and weaker economic sentiment at home dictated how Chinese consumers spent on cosmetics and toiletries.…

IT has been a tough year for China’s growing economy, which has experienced some unexpected faltering in 2015, but facial care product sales have continued to surge ahead.

Retailers of these products have posted strong and sustained growth rates, increasing by 8% in the whole of 2014 to Chinese Yuan Renminbi – CNY142 billion (USD22.1 billion) and are estimated to have grown by another 10.2% in 2015, to CNY (also known as RMB) 156.4 billion, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

MALAYSIA’S Audit Oversight Board (AOB) has revoked the registration of an audit firm for the first time since the regulator was established by the Securities Commission Malaysia in 2010.

It has scrapped the registration of Wong Weng Foo & Co, managing partner, Wong Weng Foo and partner Abdul Halim Husin, from December 2.…

Although the final details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement have yet to be agreed, it is all but certain that the TPP’s free-tariff treatment for Vietnamese garments will see substantial amounts of yarn being shipped from US textile mills to garment factories in Vietnam, with the resulting clothing returning to the USA as finished ‘Made in Vietnam’ products.…

European Union (EU) beef farmers have called for help finding new markets to make up for the loss of exports to Russia in the wake of the crisis over Ukraine.
Jean Pierre Fleury, chairman of EU farm and livestock producer association Copa-Cogeca’s beef working party, has issued a plea to the European Commission, calling on it “to take urgent action to improve the EU beef market situation.”…

Myanmar has set a target for garment export earnings at USD2 billion for the 2015-16 fiscal year. “Myanmar’s export volume last year was USD1.46 billion – however we are yet to receive data from Germany and Latin America. Our expectation is that when we do, it will stand at USD1.5 billion,” said U Myint Soe, chairman of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA).…

Sustainability improvements in the Asian outsourced clothing and textile sector are far from being the sole preserve of China. In Cambodia, Tonlé, a sustainable garment-making firm based in Phnom Penh, obtains 90% of its fabric from factory cut-out and 10% through sustainable suppliers to make a zero-waste clothing line.…

Manufacturing powerhouse South Korea began its cap-and-trade system on January 1, 2015 as a part of an overarching goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4% reduction below 2005 emissions levels. If achieved, that would leave emissions at 30% lower in 2020 than they would be if current increases are maintained.…

THE INDIAN hair care market – estimated at being worth Indian Rupees INR152 billion (USD 2.3 billion) in 2013-14 (Source: Madras Consultancy Group) is growing, through the young and thriving Indian middle class, a general retail boom and cosmetics and personal care product marketers targeting smaller towns and rural areas.…

The business outlook for South Korea’s coatings manufacturers was a mixed bag last year, with demand from some key buyers, such as construction, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and automakers, slightly increasing, but demand from shipbuilders has fallen. According to estimates made by Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney Inc, a New Jersey, USA-based consulting firm for the polymer and chemical industries, consumption of coatings in South Korea in 2014 reached 1.8 billion wet formulated pounds, valued at USD3.3 billion.…

Vietnam held its annual Vietnam Saigon Textile & Industry Expo in combination with the Vietnam Saigon Garment & Accessories Machinery Expo from April 9-12, the double event serving as a barometer for the sectors’ high expectations about the country joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.…

DESPITE a recent report from the European Commission claiming the European Union (EU) 2011 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with South Korea was behind a 90% hike in car exports to the Asian nation by July 1, 2014, South Korean manufacturers consider the agreement beneficial to both parties.…

Demand for marine and anti-fouling paints has expanded significantly since Denmark’s Hempel laid claim to producing the first antifouling coating for ships’ hulls in 1917. With a greater understanding of the economic benefits of anti-fouling paints and tougher environmental legislation, marine paints are very much at the forefront of coatings technology today.…

China’s new found taste for olive oil is growing, opening up new sales channels for olive oil producing countries and Morocco is one potential beneficiary. Morocco is the fourth largest exporter of olive oil and olives after the European Union (EU), Turkey and Tunisia, currently producing between 100,000 and 120,000 tonnes per year of which 25,000 tonnes are exported.”…

The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), Moscow’s financial intelligence unit (FIU), has singled out individual and commercial customers using Russian banks from 41 countries for special transactions reports. Among these countries on the “blacklist” are the U.S., Canada, the European Union (28 states), Australia, Norway, Iran, Syria, Sudan, New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico Switzerland, North Korea and Zimbabwe.…

THE POLISH, Scottish, Austrian and Belgian meat sectors are significant winners in the latest announcement of European Union (EU) marketing financing designed to help food companies seize more sales within and outside the EU.
They will benefit from multi-million Euro sales and marketing programmes, 50% funded by the EU, announced yesterday (Tues April 21).…

AUSTRALIA’s push to re-define its agricultural produce under a unified name -‘True Aussie’ that signifies products are clean, green and safe – is helping the countries meat exporters, claim industry leaders.
In Japan alone 50% of Australian beef packs sold at retail now carry this logo, Meat and Livestock Australia International Business Manager in Japan, Andrew Cox told GlobalMeatNews.…

The Philippines government’s department of labour and employment (DOLE) on April 24 signed an agreement with the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (FOBAP) that aims to ready the country’s exporters for a projected influx of foreign buyers by bringing them helping them meet major importing countries’ standards on social protection for workers.…

EXPORTERS of liquid milk and associated products to the European Union (EU) will have to work harder to secure sales in future from April 1, with the EU finally scrapping its production quotas from that date. They may also have to fend off new tough competition from EU exporters in their domestic markets.…

In the highly competitive global lollipops market, manufacturers are creating innovative additions to this traditional confectionery to attract consumers with innovative designs attempting to generate an emotional response to these products. Around the world, lollipop manufacturers are tailoring shapes and designs to match seasonal holiday images; incorporating glow-in-the-dark features; and combining confectionery items such as lollipops and gum.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project will end this month (March), having discovered inhibitors for viruses, which could hasten the development of effective drugs. The EU-funded EUR21.8 million SILVER project (the EU contributed EUR 12 million) was launched in October 2010.…

GERMAN-made automobiles were the largest source of reports regarding potentially dangerous motor vehicles made to the European Union’s (EU) RAPEX consumer alert network in 2014, analysis of its data shows.
There were 194 notifications to the system relating to automobiles and parts last year, the fourth largest category following toys (650), clothing and textiles (530) and electrical appliances (217).…

The Hong Kong unit of Luthai Textile Co Ltd, China’s leading producer of yarn-dyed fabric and shirts manufacturing, has informed its shareholders of a plan to invest USD150 million building a new Vietnam-based textile plant. The factory, whose location has yet to be disclosed, would have 60,000 spindles, with an annual output of 30 million metres of yarn-dyed fabric.…

WHILST India is far from being a centre of sun-worshipping hedonism, the country’s fast growing young consumer market is increasingly aware and willing to use sun-care products. Younger middle class consumers are combining a long-standing cultural preference for lighter skins with growing health awareness and a desire to spend more leisure time in the sun, even if (usually) fully-clothed.…

SOUTH Korea’s personal care product industry is credited with developing the sheet mask, a facial covering made from microfiber, paper or hydrogel, impregnated with skincare products – and this delivery method is still popular with Korean consumers.
Indeed, in South Korea, spending on sheet masks grew 11.6% in 2014 to South Korean Won KRW80 billion (USD72.34 million), following a 9.3% decrease in spending in 2013.…

East Africa is emerging as an attractive sourcing alternative for apparel and textile producers around the world as costs in Chinese outsourcing centres rise especially. With cheaper labour and resources, the region has already attracted foreign investment, particularly from Asia.

International apparel and textile producers are looking hard at Ethiopia as an attractive production and sourcing destination.…

Taiwan is easing its 11-year-old import ban on offal and by-products sourced from United States and Canada-reared cattle over Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) concerns, by planning to classify six types of beef byproducts as “non-internal organs”, effectively clearing the way for their import.…

ADDITIONAL pressure is being placed on Macao anti-money laundering (AML) authorities to reduce the illicit flow of money between the Chinese special administrative region (SAR) and mainland China. This month (February 2015), officials from mainland China’s ministry of public security (effectively the police force) have this month been meeting Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) officials to set up a system that monitors transactions through UnionPay (China’s state-owned card payment clearing company) in Macao.…

The Philippines’ once formidable knitwear sector has been shrinking in size in the past two decades, but the Pacific archipelago’s inclusion in the European Union’s (EU) Generalized System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) preferential tariff scheme from January 1 is now filling remaining manufacturers with some hope for another heyday.…

AN INTERNATIONAL regulatory cooperation pilot involving medicine regulators sharing real time assessments about generic medicines is now in full flow. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is leading the initiative, building on the European Union’s (EU) experience of cooperation between national regulators.…

TOILETRIES sales in the Arab Gulf countries remain robust, an oasis of economic and political stability in a turbulent Middle East. Elsewhere in the region, the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the rise of the Islamic State, has seen toiletries sales plummet.…

With 685 million wet pounds of coatings sold for USD730 million in 2013, the Vietnam market consumed only a tiny fraction of Asia-Pacific region’s total of 36 billion wet pounds sold for USD50 billion that year, according to Kusumgar, Nerlfi & Growney, Inc, a New Jersey, USA-based consulting firm for the polymer and chemical industries.…

THE SOUTH Korean men’s toiletries market in 2014 grew to a value of USD221.81 million and a volume of 28.25 million units. New data from market research provider Canadean Ltd shows 2014 year-on-year increases in value of 6.9% and volume of 5.6%.…

STAGNATION in international air freight traffic is not good news for the world economy, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) International Transport Forum.

This ‘ITF Transport Outlook 2015’ noted that air freight tonnes transported to and from the EU and the United States declined strongly after the shock of 2008, then rebounded quickly reaching pre-crisis peak by early 2010.…

JAPAN’S textile sector, including technical textiles, has long enjoyed a reputation for producing innovative and high-quality products that meet – and surpass – consumers’ needs. Over the years, companies from across the industry, ranging from low-tech spinning operations to the manufacturers of cutting-edge technical textiles, have invested heavily in their research and development divisions and their personnel to stay ahead of the competition.…

FOR ASIA’S private label cosmetics manufacturers, orders by Asian brands have been replacing those from western companies, as Asia has become the top personal care product market besides the US and Europe. Indeed, some countries in the region are still seeing high growth rates.…

THE SOUTH Korean cosmetics sector is hoping that a new bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) struck between its country and China in November will ease sales of their products into the world’s largest market.

This is despite the fact that the deal did not make much headway in reducing Chinese duties, given the FTA leaves cosmetics in a ‘hyper-sensitive goods’ category for Beijing.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) regulations on certain textile products Belarus and North Korea should soon be clearer and more user-friendly, according to members of the European Parliament trade committee. At a meeting in Brussels this Wednesday (Dec 3), Jaroslaw Walesa, the Polish centre-right MEP in charge of negotiating these reforms for the parliament, backed the liberalisation proposals as “technical but not controversial”.…

US meat exporters are to launch inexpensive cuts of American corn-fed beef in the Taiwanese market, with demand for premium products being depressed by soaring prices for American beef, accompanied by lacklustre consumer spending power on the island. The US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) recently partnered with a Taipei five-star hotel to promote plate fingers, petite tenders, and clod hearts, which with prices between Taiwan New Dollars TWD250 (USD7.91) to TWD550 (USD17.41) per kilogramme would roughly cost half the price of the currently popular rib eye, fillet, and boneless ribs.…

In keeping with Singapore’s wider economy, the country’s paint and coatings sectors continue to thrive. It is taking advantage both of the city-state’s strategic location close to the world’s largest marine and port industries, and the continuing affluence of the domestic, decorative market.…

In keeping with Singapore’s wider economy, the country’s paint and coatings sectors continue to thrive. It is taking advantage both of the city-state’s strategic location close to the world’s largest marine and port industries, and the continuing affluence of the domestic, decorative market.…

THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMA) has released guidance on the maximum amount of three phthalates that should be allowed in pharmaceuticals, because of safety concerns. These plasticisers – diethyl phthalate (DEP), polyvinyl acetate phthalate (PVAP), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) – can be used to make medicine capsules.…

CHINA’S huge cosmetics market remains a battleground for the world’s multinational personal care product players and they are still more than holding their own against local manufacturers and brands, especially in higher end segments.

The country’s overall cosmetics and personal care product market was worth Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY274 billion (USD44 billion) in 2013, according to data provided by market analysts Euromonitor International.…

ADAPTIVE licensing methods such as that proposed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are indeed useful in the development of medicines for rare diseases, Martin Andrews, the senior vice-president at GSK Rare Diseases, has told the World Orphan Drugs Congress 2014.…

The newly announced textile joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries and China’s Shandong Ruyi Science and Technology Group could inspire many more such deals, shifting of textile and clothing production bases from China to India, experts have told just-style.

“The aim of this joint venture is to try and capture the global market,” said Devkishan Manghani, chairman, textile trade, Southern Gujarat Chambers of Commerce told just-style, regarding the deal, which will see Reliance integrate its textile manufacturing capacity with the JV.…

The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) is reaching out to higher education institutions in other neighbouring countries to establish collaborations that will encourage more foreign students to enroll for distance learning.
University vice chancellor Professor Tolly Mbwette said the institution’s board hoped to spread its influence regionally: “We are now the largest distance learning university in the region and our plan is to take distance learning to most countries in East Africa and those under the Southern African Development Community [SADC] by 2016.”…

Afghanistan is undergoing a transition of sorts. A new president has taken office who is keen to curb corruption and bolster business, while US-led forces are slated to be reduced, albeit a full withdrawal is not happening as expected. Meanwhile, Kabul managed to not be blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2014, although major challenges remain in the war-torn country and the country remains on FATF’s watch list.…

THE RESPONSIBILITIES of Singapore accountants to report suspicions that their clients maybe involved in money laundering or terrorist finance have become tougher since November 1. New guidelines released by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) have strengthened requirements for accounting firms to establish anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) controls.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) seems to have sparked a regulatory trend with its REACH chemical control system, with more and more countries in Asia adopting REACH-inspired chemical management laws. Thus textile finishing units, companies and suppliers will have to pay increasingly close attention to chemical regulations in Asia-Pacific countries such as China and South Korea.…

INNOVATIONS in bottles and jar manufacture, from using waste food as feedstock to creating gas bubbles in traditional materials to lighten packages and reduce material inputs, are helping personal care product companies reduce costs and their environmental footprint simultaneously.

And where companies are really smart, they can use these innovations to improve aesthetics, and add functionality features.…

SOUTH Korea clothing executives have welcomed the bilateral free trade agreement signed on Tuesday (November 11) between China and South Korea, telling just-style this should ease the export of South Korean clothing exports to China. No details on rules of origin and duty elimination have been revealed, but South Korean textile industry insiders are nonetheless optimistic.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) might have been making the regulatory heavy weather with its REACH chemical control system, but paints and coatings companies increasingly have to pay close attention to developing chemicals regulations in Asia-Pacific countries such as China and South Korea.…

DESPITE the huge risks involved in states funding weapons of mass destruction in breach of international non-proliferation rules, this problem has not received the same attention as anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) in compliance regimes. Only over the past two years has world’s senior AML body the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) started to address shortcomings, while the United Nations is moving from a decade of awareness building to pushing implementation.…

GHANA continues to be recognised as one of Africa’s success stories. The country remains relatively peaceful and stable, and its economy has grown at an annual average of around 6% over the past six years. As a result, it is maybe not a surprise that Ghana was ranked healthily at 5.88 (10 being the worst score) in the 2014 Basel Anti-Money Laundering index, among the lowest in west Africa, only bettered by established democracy Senegal, with 5.43.…

THE FINANCIAL Action Task Force (FATF) has warned Iran it faces tighter international scrutiny of its financial services and dealings, should it fail to criminalise terrorist financing and boost its suspicious transaction reporting (STR) requirements.

In its latest assessment of jurisdictions failing to comply with FATF anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) recommendations, the global AML body singled out the Islamic republic, giving Tehran until February (2015) to make reforms, or face the consequences.…

THE AMERICAN government has complained of delays by the outgoing European Commission that leaves office on November 1 regarding the authorisation of new bio-tech food products and ingredients for use in the European Union (EU). In a strongly worded message to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) disputes settlement body, the US said that the EU had failed to leave decisions to regulatory committees acting on European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) advice.…

THE CLOSE relationship between the textile sectors of Vietnam and South Korea could be intensified by the end of the year, with the two countries’ governments saying they want to conclude a bilateral trade deal this year.

Talks have been ongoing since September 2012.…

NORTH Korean textile product exports to China are expected to quadruple to USD800 million by the end of 2014 from 2010, according to the Seoul-based Korea International Trade Association (KITA) – giving Chinese clothing firms a welcome supply of cheap fabric.…

THE STRENGTH and diversity of Bangladesh knitwear producers’ supply chains is one reason why this key outsourcing location is so popular with international brands. And indeed, attention to the supply chain is the mantra of Bangladesh knitwear boss Mohammed Abdul Jabbar.…

THE CATTLEMEN’S Beef Promotion and Research Board in the USA will spend USD10.5 million of its USD39 million investments planned for the fiscal year of October 1, 2014-2015 to promote beef sales in its domestic market.

The goal of this consumer information campaign is to “improve domestic preference for beef by educating consumers about things like beef safety, nutrition and health, convenience, taste and value,” the board’s communications manager Diane Henderson told globalmeatnews.com.…

THE AVERAGE tax burden in the developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) have continued to rise, up 0.4% in 2013, to 34.1% of GDP, compared with 33.7% in 2012 and 33.3% in 2011. A new OECD report said the largest 2013 increases were in Portugal, Turkey, Slovakia, Finland, and Denmark, which has the highest tax-to-GDP ratio among OECD countries – 48.6%, followed by France, 45%, and Belgium, 44.6%.…

THE EUROPEAN meat market is not in crisis following the embargo imposed by Russia on meat from the European Union (EU), a European Commission expert has told globalmeatnews.com.

Looking at price levels and producers’ margins, Dr Kai-Uwe Sprenger, market officer for animal products at the European Commission’s directorate general (DG) for agriculture, said that there are no significant variations in these two areas so far.…

GARMENT exporting outsourcing centre Cambodia relies on overseas laboratories for the bulk of its textile testing because it lacks local facilities, meaning there is a significant potential to develop such locally-based services, experts have told WTiN.com.

Most of Cambodia’s textile testing is undertaken in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and China because the handful of local laboratories’ capability to handle “restricted substances testing is very limited” while others lack the capacity to handle big orders, said Ms Kris Wan, senior manager of the global softlines development office of SGS Consumer Testing Services, in Hong Kong.…

Although the outgoing European Commission president José Manuel Barroso on his late-August visit to Vietnam presented the planned European Union (EU)-Vietnam free-trade agreement (FTA) as a nearly finalised deal – and Vietnamese state media predict the signing will happen in October – the Vietnamese textile industry is still unsure about the FTA’s potential impact.…

South Korea is a society that values image and status. It is said that looking good is a sign of your respect towards others. Men and women of all ages in the country typically place great emphasis upon looks; personal grooming and beauty routines are of utmost importance. …

The Vietnamese textile and garment industry has yet to prepare comprehensively for the onset of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Economic Community (AEC) next year. “We are not aware of any AEC impact studies, and I cannot even provide an educated guess,” an otherwise helpful representative of a Vietnamese textile association in Ho Chi Minh City told WTiN.com.…

Two new textile machinery exhibitions due to be held in Turkey in October are expected to provide a significant boost to the country’s textile industry as it seeks to expand its range of machinery across its long textile and clothing supply chain.…

Taiwan’s main airport, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, is to undergo a major expansion, increasing its annual passenger capacity from 32 million to 60 million by 2030. Located halfway between the capital Taipei and the island’s industrial heartland along its western coast, the airport is planned to become the centerpiece of the government’s highly ambitious Taoyuan Aerotropolis project, which with an estimated investment of Taiwan New Dollar TWD600 billion (USD20 billion).…

SKIN whitening and anti-ageing products represent key growth segments for cosmetic manufacturers targeting expanding and increasingly integrated markets in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. Indeed, producers of these products are set to benefit from a single ASEAN port of entry when the fully integrated ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is launched next year (2015).…

Tech-savvy South Korean publishers were out in force at the Beijing Book Fair this weekend hoping to strike sales and partnerships. South Korea’s e-book players looking for partnerships in China have an edge, said Kim Tae-won, head of ebook sales at Seoul-based Book n Book.…

European Union (EU) meat production is projected to start growing in 2014, according to the European Commission, as Europe’s economic recovery solidifies. This could be up 0.7% year-on-year for beef, veal, pigmeat, poultry, sheep and goat meat. However, exports might fall for pigmeat and poultry, with Russian import bans especially causing problems for pigmeat.…

Market dynamics are shifting east to west for the Canadian steel industry as demand from the country’s flourishing oil and gas industry outstrips traditional manufacturing.

Requiring CAD4 billion’s (USD3.76 billion) worth of steel annually, the country’s energy industry, overwhelmingly based in western Canada, currently represents more than a quarter of country’s demand for steel, which totals CAD14 billion (USD13.17 billion) annually, according to the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CPSA).…

A proposed antidumping duty on imported yarns being considered by the Indonesian anti-dumping agency (KADI) could increase production costs, eroding Indonesia’s competitive edge, the chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API) Ade Sudrajat has warned.

The committee’s inquiry was sparked by a petition from a group of Indonesian yarn producers, including Indorama and Asia Pacific Fibers, who say they are being undercut by foreign companies aggressively entering the market, selling yarn below cost price and allegedly breaking World Trade Organisation (WTO) regulations.…

EXHIBITORS at two key international textile and shoe exhibitions in Vietnam have spoken personally to WTiN.com on the value of investing time and money appearing at such shows.

The Vietnam International Exhibition on Garment Manufacturing Equipment and Fabric 2014 was organised concurrently with the International Shoes and Leather Exhibition 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City from July 16 to 18.…

COSMETICS and personal care product companies are increasingly looking to eco-friendly packaging to deliver green marketing as well as practical cost-saving advantages. Producers are seeking to raise consumers’ awareness of environmentally-sensitive products by using packaging materials such as wood and decoration such as reusable ribbons and scarves; encouraging thrift by offering refillable fragrance bottles; and saving costs by using lighter packaging materials, that can also be flagged as sustainable on labelling.…

AN INFLUX of big-brand café and convenience retail chains is whetting China’s appetite for sweet bakery, including in smaller cities. Brands are diversifying and moving upmarket, offering coffee and seating.

Take Beijing’s Beixinqiao, in the city’s older quarter, a busy intersection of residential blocks and a hub for restaurants and youth-focused fashion stores.…

JAPAN’S paint and coatings industry is continuing its steady recovery after a trying five years in the aftermath of the global economic crisis, although companies and analysts believe that the sector will see some gradual shifts in focus in the years ahead.…

THE HONG Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) has welcomed the launch by the Hong Kong government of proposals to reform the special administrative region’s regulatory regime for auditors of listed companies and other organisations.

There will be three months of consultation (ending September 20) on the proposals whose goal is enhancing the independence of Hong Kong’s audit regulators.…

Energy production and distribution is often the bedrock of sustainable economic development, and for an archipelago such as Indonesia, onsite power and small grids will always be the most sensible option. The government of south-east Asia’s most populous country has released a Masterplan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia’s Economic Development (MP3EI) whose goal is developed economy status by 2025.…

THE UNITED States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is to go into force on July 1. Aimed at curbing tax evasion by US citizens around the world, foreign financial institutions (FFIs) are required to report on US account holders, but over 200,000 FFIs and 123 countries have not yet signed up.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a new directive designed to speed the roll-out of high speed broadband systems across the EU. The new legislation insists that any utility network operator – including electricity and water companies, as well as telcos – should have the right to offer telecoms operators access to their infrastructure to install broadband systems.…

ACCORDING to conventional wisdom, Vietnam’s near-certain inclusion in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will clearly be a major boon to the Southeast Asian country’s textile industry. The planned multinational free-trade zone encompasses 12 countries that together make up 40% of global gross national product (GNP).…

The Indian steel industry has welcomed the initial steps taken by the new government to boost domestic manufacturing by expediting statutory clearances for new projects; removing hindrances to raw material supplies; and promising more clarity in future decision making.

“The government is giving us hope that lot of projects which have been held up due to environmental regulations are [already] being cleared,” said Sushim Banerjee, director general Institute for Steel Development & Growth, in Kolkata. …

A NEW agreement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reduce many of the formalities facing exporters could give fresh impetus to cosmetics companies engaged in world trade, although some business leaders say it was only one of a number of problems they faced.…

Increasing power tariffs in Indonesia could force textile and garment manufacturers to double their raw material imports, according to Ade Sudrajat Usman, chairman of the Indonesian Textiles Association (API).

The API chair told just-style that electricity consumption already constitutes 15% to 20% of production costs for textile manufacturers in the country.…

A SUPERVISOR of an American company in Vietnam’s Binh Duong Province has told just-style how she saw demonstrations against foreign ownership of clothing and textile companies turn into ugly riots. But industry insiders in other Asian countries claim the resulting damage will not seriously deter future foreign investment.…

Foreign companies setting up production bases in Vietnam will have to take additional care when hiring staff because of a new labour law decree, a union official has told just-style.

Dr Tran Thi Thanh Ha from the labour relations department of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour stressed that the new ‘Decree No 03/2014’, which came into force on March 15 (2014) would increase controls strengthened last year by another law (Decree No.…

The reorientation of South Korea’s steel plate makers towards clients making marine installations for offshore oil and gas companies might guarantee future business, but there is a risk of falling margins, a report has warned.

UK-based energy industry market researchers and consultants Douglas-Westwood has warned especially that such energy work can need eight to ten times less plate per USD of order value compared to conventional ships.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Trade Centre (ITC) and the Cambodian ministry of commerce are trying to revive Cambodia’s silk production sector, as the country is importing almost all its total 400 tonnes annual raw silk requirement.

Currently, only five tonnes of Cambodian silk, which is noteworthy because of its natural yellow colour, is produced in the country each year.…

Taiwan textile industry insiders have told WTiN.com that the recent riots in Vietnam will not deter future investment in this key emerging market outsourcing country.

Serious attacked on Taiwanese textile businesses in Vietnam were suffered when on May 13 and 14 local mobs – protesting against China’s recent installation of an oil rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea – ransacked and torched hundreds of foreign-owned factories.…

At this year’s Vietnam Textile & Garment Industry Expo, which bills itself as “the biggest and the most important event in the textile and garment industry of Vietnam”, only 60 of the 502 companies exhibiting were Vietnamese. WTiN.com visited the show, in Ho Chi Minh City, last month noting that 283 exhibitors were Chinese companies, with fabric, accessories and machinery manufacturers of 22 other countries making up the rest.…

CAMBODIA’S thriving garment industry could double its exports if the country’s local textile production is ramped up, Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) chairman Van Sou Ieng has told WTiN.

“The industry could expect an increase in export figures by 100%” if local textile and yarn production was expanded, Mr Ieng said.…

Colombia’s struggling automobile sector is anticipating the April 15 launch of a new government program designed to help it follow the successful tactics of its principal competitors abroad.

The primary objective of the scheme, PROFIA, (Development Program for the Automotive Industry) is to help the sector recover market share from cheap imports, notably by imports by slashing tariffs on parts and materials imported for vehicle assembly.…

Asking a 31-year old with little prior branding experience to turn around the fortunes of a retail brand almost as old as her may seem foolhardy, yet the quirkiness and fresh perspective commanded by Dee Poon may deliver the rebranding success the ageing high-end shirt specialist PYE needs.…

Bangladesh flat-steel product major Appollo Ispat has renewed a hot rolled coil supply memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation and the Marubeni-Itochu Corporation.
“The demand for steel products is rising, even in rural areas,” Abdur Rahman, deputy managing director with Appollo Ispat Complex Ltd, told Steel First.…

A FREE trade agreement signed between Canada and South Korea could see increased investment by the nuclear fuel hungry Korea in Canada’s abundant uranium resources.

The agreement – inked on March 11, and Canada’s first with an Asian country – lays down rules on how South Korean investments should be made in Canada, with a focus on boosting transparency and predictability, according to a note from the Canadian government Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).…

CHINA has announced that it will re-admit pork and poultry imports from Chile, having suspended them last July (2013) over concerns about dioxin contamination.

China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has however posted a statement insisting that importers submit animal health documents and no–doxin-contamination test reports from Chile’s Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG).…

WHEN the Percassi family, owners of the successful make-up brand KIKO Make Up Milan, purchased in October 2013 a UNESCO-listed historic industrial site called Crespi d’Adda in northern Italy, it was not only a sign of their success, but proof of the old adage that tough economic times can be good for the beauty industry. …

THE SINGAPORE Parliament has beefed up the powers of the country’s accounting regulator, especially over corporate service providers. MPs passed an accounting and corporate regulatory authority (amendment) bill, which will insist corporate service providers be registered as filing agents, able to help companies with their establishment, legal advice, regulatory filings, office hosting and secretarial services.…

As India’s general election approaches, private sector steel manufacturers have told Steel First of their deepening concerns about the country’s national steel ministry, even though forecasts predict growth in the sector this year.

Speaking to Steel First, some manufacturers have accused the steel ministry of failing to adequately protect their interests.…

An official at the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) has predicted to Steel First that the trade agreement struck between Canada and South Korea on Tuesday could increase demand for Korean-made steel.

The official, who had worked on the trade deal talks, explained that there were currently “no fixed plans” to create Korean car plants in Canada and also that any increased demand for Korean cars in Canada arising from the deal would probably not be met by the two Korean-owned plants in the USA (in Georgia and Alabama.)…

A TRADE agreement struck between Canada and South Korea this week (Tuesday March 11) has raised fears in the Canadian automobile about a potential increase in South Korean automotive exports.

Upon the agreement’s ratification (which may happen within a year), South Korea will remove all existing tariffs, including on all passenger cars and light trucks (8%) and all automotive parts (3% to 8%) exported from Canada.…

THREE of the world’s biggest marine coatings markets – China, South Korea and Japan – have a lot in common even though they face diverse market conditions across Asia, according to market analysts. China’s shipyards will power growth in the Asia-Pacific marine coatings market, but it is the major international coatings companies and their China-based joint ventures that remain in prime position to benefit, according to new research from consultancy Frost & Sullivan.  …

THE FOURTH largest country in the world by population, with an expanding middle class, Indonesia is an attractive base for many of the world’s global paints and coatings companies.

Mr Yoichi Yonehara took over the helm at PT Kansai Prakarsa Coatings two years ago and in that time he has had the opportunity to witness not only a coatings industry in evolution but also a country in a period of great change.…

CANADIAN industrial mineral producers look set to benefit from a new free trade deal signed by their government with South Korea. Canada’s key potash sector is welcoming the agreement.

With South Korea being a key developed target market, lacking many mineral resources and needing to fertilize a strong agricultural sector, Canada already has a healthy industrial mineral trade with South Korea.…

The Aluminium Association of Canada has welcomed the striking of a Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement, saying it will help its industry boost sales to South Korea.

Once the deal has been ratified (probably within a year), 98.7% of tariffs levied on metal and minerals traded between the two countries will be eliminated.…

CANADIAN meat exporters have welcomed a Canada-South Korea free trade agreement announced yesterday (March 11), saying it will boost trade and help them compete for sales in South Korea’s often wealthy markets.

“The absence of an FTA [free trade agreement] with Korea was causing substantial and growing prejudice to the Canadian pork industry due to the tariff rates since all of our key competitors in South Korea have FTAs in place,” said Jean-Guy Vincent, chair of the Canadian Pork Council.…

MYANMAR has earned more than USD1.1 billion in 2013 from garment exports since the European Union (EU) restored GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) trading privileges to the country, the vice-chairman of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, Dr U Aung Win, told just-style.…

South Korea’s plans to drastically cut the number of university places in the country over the next decade, because of declining population rates, has caused unease and disquiet within the country’s higher education. The South Korean minister of education Seo Nam-soo has said the government plans to cut 160,000 university places by 2023.…

WITH the deadline for the UNESCO Education for All goals now just two years away, a consensus is emerging that post-2015 global efforts to expand education should focus on the tertiary sector. That was the outcome of an Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda seminar staged on Wednesday (January 5) in Brussels that brought together educational experts and policy makers, hosted by the Norwegian government.…

Personal care product multinationals have long been known for their eagerness to invest in China, even during the recent global recession. That is why the decision by two renowned PCP companies to retreat from China in the past month is so remarkable.…

SOURCING in Asia has been a merry-go-round for many buyers in recent years. As the era of low-cost Chinese manufacturing draws more or less to a close, several countries have leveraged their low cost labour to capture a significant volume of the world’s lower end knitwear manufacturing, while others have sought to extend their reach into higher value-added manufacturing by investing in infrastructure and training.…

SOURCING in Asia has been a merry-go-round for many buyers in recent years. As the era of low-cost Chinese manufacturing draws more or less to a close, several countries have leveraged their low cost labour to capture a significant volume of the world’s lower end knitwear manufacturing, while others have sought to extend their reach into higher value-added manufacturing by investing in infrastructure and training.…

AUSTRALIAN beef and veal exporters have been buoyed by data from the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) showing record export numbers for the industry in 2013. The country exported nearly 1.1 million tonnes of chilled and frozen beef and veal in 2013, up 14% from the 963,779t achieved in 2012.…

Australia and South Korea concluded negotiations for a free trade agreement in December last year that could see tariffs for Australian pharmaceuticals slashed by as much as 8 percent. Under the agreement Australia’s fourth largest trading partner South Korea will eliminate tariffs for Australian manufactured goods including pharmaceuticals and vitamins over the next 7 years.…

Canada’s higher education sector has welcomed a comprehensive strategy released by the Canadian government for recruiting more foreign students into its institutions.

Announcing a new International Education Strategy on Wednesday (Jan 15), the country’s international trade minister Ed Fast accepted that Canada could profit more from the lucrative global international student market.…

THE TAIWAN textile dyeing and finishing sectors have never quite recovered from the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) abolition of global textile quotas in 2005. It resulted in the closure of many stand-alone units by making their labour-intensive manufacturing processes on the relatively wealthy island uncompetitive.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

AS businesses and consumers increasingly adopt a ‘digital lifestyle’ using mobile platforms such as tablets and smartphones, communication services providers (CSPs) are asking how best to monetise services while lowering costs. CSPs want to maximise yield per customer and reduce the churn for users consuming a range of data, voice and SMS text services.…

BY JENS KASTNER, in Taipei

THE TAIWAN textile dyeing and finishing sectors have never quite recovered from the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) abolition of global textile quotas in 2005. It resulted in the closure of many stand-alone units by making their labour-intensive manufacturing processes on the relatively wealthy island uncompetitive.…

AS businesses and consumers increasingly adopt a ‘digital lifestyle’ using mobile platforms such as tablets and smartphones, communication services providers (CSPs) are asking how best to monetise services while lowering costs. CSPs want to maximise yield per customer and reduce the churn for users consuming a range of data, voice and SMS text services.…

SPANISH meat producers secured increasingly healthy prices in 2013 as the country crept out of recession in the second half, figures from its ministry of agriculture, food and the environment (MAGRAMA) show.

Category E pork (55% – 59% leanness) rose by 11.4% on 2012 to average EUR1.936 per kilo, 10.3% greater than the European Union (EU) average, peaking at EUR2.171/Kg.…

INDONESIA’S nonwovens market is expanding rapidly, in particular because of rising demand for consumer products. At around 246 million people, Indonesia has easily the largest population among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc. The country’s economy has grown at an annual average of 6% over recent years, although there are signs that growth could be slowing, with the World Bank forecasting growth of 5.6% in 2013 and 5.3% in 2014, compared with 6.2% in 2012.…

PLANS to open more branches of foreign universities in South Korea Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) are back on track, say managers of the development. The US-based George Mason University, and the University of Utah, and Belgium-based Ghent University, are planning to open branches at Incheon this year (2014).…

THE GOVERNMENT of South Korea is expected to announce a new corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard this coming year, which could increase target performance to 20km/liter, wardsauto has learnt. A senior official at the transportation energy team of the Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) expects the change to have a positive impact on the industry by encouraging manufacturers to develop more fuel efficient vehicles, including hybrids, electrics, and clean diesels.…

INCREASINGLY stringent regulations governing the cold chain transport of medicines for human use are tipped to become a major driver for the uptake of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology by pharmaceutical suppliers in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to a recent report published by industry analysts Frost & Sullivan, America and Europe currently divide the biggest slice of market share in the global market for cold chain RFID.…

MALAWI’S government is working furiously to win back international donor support suspended over a multi-million euro corruption scandal involving dozens of officials and ministers close to the country’s leader, Joyce Banda, southern Africa’s first female president. Bill Corcoran reports from Lilongwe.…

WHILE the European Union’s (EU) ban on sales of cosmetics with ingredients tested on animals was imposed as recently as March 2013, its impact has been felt as far away as east Asia.

Japan’s cosmetics firms, for instance, prepared well in advance for the change in legislation.…

THE GOVERNMENT of South Korea is expected to announce a new corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard this coming year, which could increase target performance to 20km/liter, wardsauto has learnt. A senior official at the transportation energy team of the Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO) expects the change to have a positive impact on the industry by encouraging manufacturers to develop more fuel efficient vehicles, including hybrids, electrics, and clean diesels.…

Lump new car sales with the larger used car market, which accounts for around 60 percent of total sales, and overall sales are down 7 percent on last year, according to the Automobile Importers Association.

Yet while a drop in second-hand car sales is a boon to dealerships – and an environmental plus when it comes to the country’s carbon emissions, with fewer fuel-inefficient clunkers on the roads – the market has gone through a radical change in recent years that can be summed up in one word: downsizing.…

THE LIBERALISATION taking place in Myanmar has been making the global textile and clothing sector excited about the country’s thus far untapped potential to export indigenous and mainstream textiles. Aung Min, research director of the business insight and social insight department at the Myanmar Marketing Research and Development Co.…

The chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API – or Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has welcomed a move by the Indonesian trade ministry to end restrictions on imports of cotton fabrics that have been in place since May 1, 2012.

Ade Sudrajat told WTiN.com…

FORD is pressing United States and European Union (EU) negotiators involved in the world’s largest ever bilateral trade talks to write promises not to manipulate currency exchange rates into the resulting agreement, its executives have told wardsauto.

In a private briefing, executives from the US car giant said they wanted to create a global precedent by writing these commitments into the planned EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).…

The European Commission is assessing a law passed by Russia’s parliament, the Duma, which might head off a global trade dispute over scrapping second hand vehicles. Brussels wants to see if the Duma has truly abolished a contested recycling fee on imports of second-hand vehicles that is supposed to push promote good environmental practice when they are scrapped.…

THE EUROPEAN Research Council (ERC) will be able to recruit top young scientists from South Korea following an agreement signed by the European Commission and the South Korean government last Friday (Nov 8) in Brussels.

The agreement will make it easier for South Koreans to join research teams led by ERC grantees and be funded by the ERC for six to twelve months.…

A rise of 7.7% in the value of pig meat exported by Belgium in the first half of 2013 (3.4 % increase by volume) was sparked by new European Union (EU) legislation covering the housing of pregnant sows, according to Joris Coenen, marketing manager at the Belgian Meat Office (VLAM).…

THE SRI Lanka knitwear industry Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) has been pushing the island’s government for reforms to help the sector continue its current growth. Tuli Cooray, secretary general of the Sri Lanka Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) told Knitting International: “Last year from our total exports, the knitwear amounted to almost 47 per cent, a sharp increase from a share of 34 per cent in 2002.…

ORGANISERS of the 13th Vietnam International Textile & Garment Industry Exhibition last week (October 24 to 27) noted a surging attendance, but some visitors suggested a broader range of exhibitors could pay dividends.

Staged at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh Exhibition & Convention Centre, the event brought 210 textile machinery and fabric and accessories exhibitors from 10 Asian countries into contact with an estimated 10,000 visitors.…

BARELY a year in office, China’s new government under President Xi Jinping has made more moves towards economic reform than the previous administration in its 10 years in power. Mr Xi has promised to reboot China’s economy by paring back regulations as well as the preferences enjoyed by the state-owned sector, which monopolises many industries, including finance.…

THAILAND’S new tax incentive scheme, due to take effect in just over a year, is provoking mixed reactions from tax experts and foreign investors.

As the country looks to move away from low-cost, low-value, environmentally damaging manufacturing industries towards those that might foster a sustainable, knowledge-based economy, Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) has drawn up a new investment promotion policy that will go into effect in January 2015.…

PRODUCERS of confectionery mixing machinery around the world continue to improve their machines, but generally opt for incremental improvements in sanitation and multi-purpose functions rather than creating entire new products.

Dutch confectionery equipment producer Tanis Confectionery, plans to unveil new mixing technology at Germany’s Interpack processes and packaging trade fair in May, Leo Tanis, CEO of Tanis Confectionery told Confectionery Production.…

One of the world’s largest antimony metal and tri-oxide manufacturing facilities, with a 20,000 tonnes per annum capacity, is to open in Oman. At an estimated investment cost of USD60 million, London-listed integrated antimony development company Tri-Star Resources has entered into a joint venture with the Oman Investment Fund (OIF), the Arabian Gulf country’s sovereign wealth fund, and Dubai Transport Company affiliate Castell Investments Ltd to build and operate the antimony roasting facility.…

Any market and industry benefits from supply diversification, so major textile and clothing companies can take heart from continued innovation amongst fibre and fabric producers over sourcing. This extends, for instance, to sourcing material from unusual places such as milk and fishing nets, while creating more opportunities for traditional sources such as flax.…

HIGH tech innovators in sportswear and outdoor equipment are developing fabrics and garments that do more and perform better, from health monitoring to slowing the effects of aging. Many inventions spring from unlikely source materials, for instance waste milk. And for sports, manufacturers have to be especially clever – ensuring their innovations avoid creating uncompetitive advantages that break sporting rules.…

In the 1950s, Japanese companies’ technical and industrial expertise put them at the forefront of the textile innovation, leading the move from the ‘rayon era’ to the polyester, nylon and acrylic of the ‘synthetic fibre era’. While the industry is a lot smaller than it was, it is now focused on specialist products and quality over quantity.…

IF further evidence was needed that Asian outsourcing is becoming increasingly mature, with a reliance on international supply chains, then the FOB division of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s Nha Be Garment Corporation Joint Stock Company (NBC) is a case in point.…

A EUROPEAN Commission-ordered report has highlighted significant

shortcomings in gas interconnectors crossing national European Union (EU)

borders that are restricting the development of an EU gas market.

This ‘Study on Entry-Exit Regimes in Gas’ by the Netherlands’ DNV KEMA and

COWI Belgium said the absence of virtual trading points or short-term capacity

products are “highly critical barriers for the development of a well-functioning

entry-exit system”.…

PETRONAS, Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas (O&G) company, plans to increase the country’s O&G production and resource addition at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.5% over the five years 2013 through 2017.

This target follows Petronas’ announcement in January 2013 of plans to spend MYR186 billion (USD56.7 billion) on the country’s O&G sector over the next five years, and to increase significantly its production activities for both hydrocarbons.…

A BRITISH plastics chemical supplier has welcomed a ruling from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) board of appeal that will clarify procedures for submitting safety information during REACH registrations. Canterbury-based Thor was told by ECHA that a safety dossier on its flame retardant AFLAMMIT would be ignored because it was submitted after the agency had issued a draft decision refusing registration and requiring even more safety tests.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Zinc Association has published an English language version of a new South Korea mirroring European Union REACH chemical control legislation. The Act on the Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (or Korea REACH) was approved by the South Korea National Assembly on April 30, and practical guidance is awaited from the country’s environment ministry.…

WHILE it is hard to generalise about a region as diverse as Latin America, the truth is that many of its consumers are more concerned about personal appearance than is typical elsewhere in the world, and that is good news for the personal care product industry.…

THE NEGOTIATIONS for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and the United States, which started this month in Washington DC (July 8), could push the world towards a truly global vehicle regulatory system for the first time, according to EU sources close to the negotiations.…

WHILE the European Union’s (EU) auto sector is happy to see its trade imbalance with South Korea decreasing two years into the controversial free trade agreement (FTA) linking these two vehicle-making powerhouses, European car makers complain that they are still struggling to access the South Korean market.…

As befits a country as connected online as South Korea traffic controls in its capital Seoul are organised centrally and in an integrated way. As one of the world’s largest cities, with a population exceeding 10 million, Seoul has notoriously heavy traffic.…

a nervous Afghanistan ponders its future after 2014, when NATO forces are scheduled to withdraw, its banking authorities have started to overhaul the country’s anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) laws to align them with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations and best international standards.…

THE INDONESIAN Textile Association (API – or Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia) has told WTiN that the Indonesian government is considering revamping its policy programme designed to boost investment in the sector. He added that the industry is also looking to improve its own competitiveness by focusing increasingly on higher value products.…

KYRGYZSTAN’S promising textile and garment industry increased “textile and garment exports 17-20% between 2010 and 2011,” a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) official in the Kyrgyz capital Bishtek has told just-style, quoting most recent available figures. Indeed he claimed the Kyrgyzstan government’s goal of increasing garment and textile exports by 60% from 2012 to 2015 is “achievable”.…

Although major US companies have shown interest in importing garments from Burma, Dr U Aung Win, vice-chairperson of Myanmar Garments Manufacturers Association has cautioned that systems and infrastructure need to be improved and restructured before significant US-Burma clothing and textile commerce can begin in earnest.…

PLASTICS companies have not responded comprehensively to requests from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) that they register certain ingredients and polymers in the now completed second registration process under European Union (EU) chemical control system REACH. ECHA says that by the May 31 deadline for registering chemicals made, used or imported in quantities of 100 tonnes or more, there were 984 substances left unregistered that companies had earlier promised to register.…

may be a big concept, but the road to making personal care product packaging greener is made of small incremental steps that can both provide green marketing benefits and reduce costs.

Recent innovations include reducing the size of containers, while maintaining the volume of product they hold, alongside innovations in using renewable resources and keeping packaging waste out of landfills.…

SUSTAINABILITY may be a big concept, but the road to making personal care product packaging greener is made of small incremental steps that can both provide green marketing benefits and reduce costs.

Recent innovations include reducing the size of containers, while maintaining the volume of product they hold, alongside innovations in using renewable resources and keeping packaging waste out of landfills.…

SOUTH Korea’s paint and coatings sector displayed sturdy stability in 2012, weathering an ongoing global economic slowdown that has affected growth rates in Asia, as well as Europe and north America. However the industry is worried about a new environmental law that has been inspired by the European Union’s (EU) REACH legislation.…

Personal care product investors and traders are eyeing Burma with a “gold rush mentality,” Marita Schimpl, head of qualitative research and new business development at Yangon-based Myanmar Survey Research (MSR), has told Soap Perfumery and Cosmetics.

Now that Burma has opened up to trade and investment and international sanctions are falling away because of democratisation, Ms Schimpl said: “Everyone thinks they can’t miss out.…

PAINTS and coatings companies have not responded comprehensively to requests from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) that they register certain coatings ingredients in the now completed second registration process under European Union (EU) chemical control system REACH. ECHA says that by the May 31 deadline for registering chemicals made, used or imported in quantities of 100 tonnes or more, there were 984 substances left unregistered that companies had earlier promised to register.…

The agreed acquisition of Spain headquartered steel waste recycler Befesa Medio Ambiente has moved on with formal notification to the European Commission for consideration by European Union competition watchdogs.

Befesa’s Spanish parent Abengoa announced in April that it had struck an exclusive agreement to sell 100% of its subsidiary to an acquisition vehicle of a fund managed by private equity firm Triton Partners in a deal valued by Abengoa at EUR1.075 billion and which was approved earlier this month by Abengoa bondholders.…

INDONESIA’S mining industry is richly endowed with natural resources. United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports stress how the country ranks among the world’s leading producers of tin, copper and nickel, with sizeable reserves of other key ores such as bauxite, gold and silver.…

A World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel has been authorised to settle a row between China and Japan over Chinese anti-dumping duties on high-performance stainless steel seamless tubes imported from Japan.

Tokyo argues that these duties break global commerce rules, notably the WTO’s anti-dumping agreement and its general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT).…

The Argentine government’s economic protectionism is thwarting the growth of e-book sales, experts at the International Book Fair in Buenos Aires said this week.
The country’s 39th book fair, which ended on Monday, was attended by a total of 1.1 million people, said fair organisers.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced a series of three-year spending programmes helping meat producers from around the European Union (EU) sell their products at home and abroad. The money funds “public relations, promotional or publicity campaigns” said Brussels, with spending being augmented by matching funding sourced from industry groups and national governments.…

With 53,000 North Korean workers failing to show up for work at the inter-Korean Kaesong industrial complex since Tuesday, the area’s key clothing and textile manufacturing plants have ground to a halt. The industrial park in North Korea’s border city of Kaesong houses 123 South Korean companies that employ North Koreans as manufacturing sector laborers.…

THE ANNUAL conference of the European University Association (EUA) has debated how rankings systems need to become more sophisticated benchmarks as the higher education system worldwide becomes more internationalised.

Speaking to University World News after last week’s event in Ghent, Belgium, Ms Lesley Wilson, the EUA’s Secretary General, said that while “everyone has a different view” about rankings, they need to deliver sophisticated benchmarking systems with which institutions will be able to compare themselves against other learning bodies.…

A REGULATION aimed at ensuring the rollout of broadband networks across the European Union (EU) is achieved more cheaply and swiftly has been proposed by the European Commission. It tries to force member states to ensure new buildings are broadband ready, while telling incumbent telcos to give access to their physical networks to broadband service providers.…

CHINA’S demonstrable skills in clothing and textile manufacture has yet to yield dividends in the technical textiles field, with the country still relying heavily on imports, especially for high-end products such as carbon fibre, high temperature fibre and medical textiles.

In 2011, China spent USD3.4 billion importing  technical textiles, including woven and unwoven lines, mainly from the US and Japan – up 22.7% from USD2.77 billion during 2010, according to Beijing-based China Nonwovens and Industrial Textiles Associations (CNITA).…

THE NEW South Korea government of Park Geun-hye, 61, the country’s first woman president, looks unlikely to waver from its predecessor’s staunch support of the ambitious South Korean nuclear energy programme.

Ms Park has not explained in detail how she will run her country’s atomic energy industry.…

COLOMBIA industry associations and politicians have warned the country’s automotive industry is at risk following the signing of a free trade agreement with South Korea in February.

The free trade agreement, which is expected to come into force at the end of this year, will eventually allow South Korea-made vehicles to enter the South American country free of the current 35% tariff.…

WITH AREVA celebrating 30 years of operations in China in 2013 its head of operations in the country is hoping for an expansion of joint ventures as well as overseas collaboration with Chinese partners in uranium sourcing.

Speaking in Beijing, Rémy Autebert, senior executive vice-president for Asia, explained how he hopes to see a doubling in the number of joint ventures with Chinese partners, from the company’s current four.…

IF there is one crime condemned worldwide it is the sale and smuggling of counterfeit medicines. Sometimes close copies and sometimes dangerous substances – this crime kills on a grand scale.

Counting the number of its victims accurately is difficult, because of the subversive nature of the trade, but some think-tanks have tried.…

INCREASED competition and a weakened global economy have not dimmed expectations for Vietnam-based knitwear exporters, with two major trade deals looming, able to guarantee duty free exports to the US and the European Union (EU). They will also remove non-tariff barriers impeding trade, boosting optimism amongst established exporters of quality Vietnam-made knitwear.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed using European Union (EU) legislative power to force member states to make alternative fuels available to transport consumers. It has proposed legislation that would set a minimum number of public electrical charging points per EU country by 2020: for instance, 122,000 in Britain, and 150,000 in Germany.…

THE NEXT 12 months will be crucial in the positioning of Greenland as a major source of rare earth metals (REM). A general election on March 12, could give a pro-independence, pro-mining party a renewed mandate in the Danish island’s autonomous government.…

New tantalite ore concentrating equipment will be installed in Ethiopia to boost the value and output volume of existing plant to meet rising demand for the rare earth metal, Metal Bulletin has been told.

It is also pushing ahead with plans to build of a new value added plant, making products such as tantalum salt, powder, bar, sheets, wire, negate and nobiumpentoxide.…

A free trade agreement (FTA) resulting from negotiations announced last week between the European Union (EU) and Thailand is expected to eliminate import tariffs still imposed on some European steel products, such as flat-rolled products of non-alloy steel and bars and rods.…

WHILE it is always sensible to handle reports emerging from North Korea with care, it appears undeniable that the country does manufacture cosmetics and other personal care products and could, if current hopes of liberalisation are ultimately realised, become a new market for international players.…

NOONE has been hanged for fraud in England since 1811, but not every country is so advanced:  today the death penalty is still applied for people convicted of fraud in China, Iran and North Korea among others. And even below the ultimate sanction, deterrents to committing fraud can look frightening in many countries of the world.…

REPRESENTATIVES of European and international accountants’ organisations expect a planned free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and Japan, which is currently being negotiated, to indirectly trigger an increase in the demand for accounting services. This would come largely as an indirect effect of European Union (EU)-Japan trade of all kinds being boosted, Olivier Boutellis-Taft, chief executive of the Federation of European Accountants (FEE), told Accounting & Business.…

CHINESE investors in London’s property market are becoming increasingly important players, and the signs are that the flow of Yuan into the UK capital could keep growing. Michelle Zhang, who heads up the China desk at DTZ London, said: “CIC [China Investment Corporation] would be viewed as the most active Chinese investor and now have a number of prime London property holdings;” she highlighted the Chinese sovereign fund’s recent GBP245 million purchase of Deutsche Bank headquarters Winchester House, from KanAm, undertaken alongside Invesco.…

A WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel has been established to rule on whether US bans on Argentine beef imports are legal under global trade laws. Argentina’s government says the restrictions are illegal under the WTO’s general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) and the WTO agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary measures.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) should be the second supplier of pork to the Japanese market, up from the fourth place now, once a planned EU-Japan free trade agreement (FTA) is in place, Jean-Luc Mériaux, secretary general of the European Livestock and Meat Trading Union (UECBV) told globalmeatnews.com…

THE ONLINE market for perfume and cosmetics in the USA has bucked five years of recession then patchy economic recovery to grow steadily as more people connect to the Internet and get the e-commerce habit. Distributors such as America’s Estée Lauder Companies and Canada’s Lise Watier have prospered online and through mobile platforms offering customer interaction, convenience, and access to international markets.…

MAJOR new opportunities are emerging for both international and domestic cosmetics brands in Thailand, due to strong economic growth, increasingly sophisticated consumers, and a vibrant market in which new products and innovations are leading to growing competition.

The economy in Thailand, with 70 million consumers, is a key mid-sized and medium-income market, and has recovered strongly from the severe floods in 2011 that affected much of the country, with GDP growth forecast at 5.7% for 2012.…

INTERNATIONAL brands have been growing in emerging markets worldwide, but it would appear that where a newly wealthy country develops a local industry with quality products, they can lose market share. Taiwan is a case in point. Its beauty and personal care market – last year worth USD3.4 billion and traditionally heavily dominated by international brands –  has seen domestic players steadily clawing back more market share: extending from a mere 15% in 2007 to a relatively handsome 25% in 2012.…

COUNTERFEIT cash can be a most useful tool for money launderers. When made properly, high value notes can be moved around the world and spent without recourse to banks, credit card operators and other financial institutions.  And with the increasing sophistication digital counterfeiting technology, this criminal industry is today a truly global enterprise: high quality banknotes can be faked almost anywhere in the world.…

MUCH was expected on the anti-money laundering (AML) front from President Barack Obama’s first USA administration. But the verdict of professional AML observers is that while important gains were achieved in some areas, the overall effect was blighted by a curious failure of will to follow through. …

MUCH was expected on the anti-money laundering (AML) front from President Barack Obama’s first USA administration. But the verdict of professional AML observers is that while important gains were achieved in some areas, the overall effect was blighted by a curious failure of will to follow through. …

WITH the global hunt for new rare earth reserves intensifying, claims from North Korea that its prospectors have identified 20 million tonnes of rare earth metal reserves have raised more interest than most statements from this isolated communist state.

Such statistics are usually taken with a pinch of salt, but around the same time South Korea’s Bank of Korea released data suggestion its northern neighbour had mineral deposits – including rare earths – worth around USD6 trillion.…

DECLINING demand from the USA and European Union (EU) for Bangladesh knitwear has not dampened the world’s second largest clothing exporter from aiming high. Rather, Bangladesh is planning to more than double its current knitwear exports, to USD20 billion by 2020, seeking out new markets.…

THE CREATION of a harmonised customs system within the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2015 should be better exploited by its regional clothing and textile industry through better vertical integration, a conference was told this week.…

Colombia’s clothing export sector is eyeing Europe as a key market for diversifying its sales away from a reliance on the United States and neighbouring South American countries. Senior industry officials speaking at the major Latin America textile and apparel trade fair, Colombiatex, staged last week in Medellin, said they would pro-actively seek out European sales.…

AS the New Year turned, economists have focused on how China’s economic growth is steadier pace than in the last decade and the auto sector following suit. Speaking exclusively to wardsauto, Dong Yang, secretary general and executive vice chairman of the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers (CAAM), said China sales and output of autos in 2012 should maintain the previous year’s year-on-year (YoY) increase of 5%.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE oxygen is essential to human life, it can of course also be a cosmetic product’s worst enemy.

For most cosmetics manufacturers, prolonging the life of their products means creating packaging with as tight a seal as possible – hence, the industry’s growing demand for airless packaging, helping assure both a brand and its consumer that a cosmetics product will be good to the last drop.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; AND HEATHER TAN, IN SINGAPORE

THE WEALTHY southeast Asian market of Singapore should welcome imports of European manufactured cars based on European Union (EU) technical and safety standards and approvals under a new trade deal finalised this week.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

WITH the Chinese government issuing a nuclear safety plan in October and a new political leadership now assuming office for the next 10 years, the world’s nuclear industry is awaiting firm moves on building new reactors in China.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN BANGKOK

THAILAND’S textile and garment industry is aiming to diversify its export markets as it faces a significant drop in demand from its key American and European Union (EU) markets.

Thai garment exports for 2012 are forecast to fall by 10% to USD2.8 billion, while the country’s textile exports for 2012 are expected to dip by 15% to USD3.5 billion, according to figures from the Thai Garment Manufacturers Association (TGMA).…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WINNERS

Bangladesh

Despite its well-trailed labour and environmental problems, analysts still backed Bangladesh as having the potential to become a long term apparel sourcing hotspot. Indeed, ready-made garment exports could triple within a decade, as buyers move sourcing away from China, according to research by McKinsey & Company.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON, AND JULIAN RYALL, IN TOKYO

EUROPE’S automakers have reacted with ill-disguised dismay to the European Union’s (EU) decision (announced last Thursday) to begin negotiations with Japan for a free trade agreement (FTA). The motor industry’s trade association ACEA said "independent studies have shown that this deal is a one-way street as far as the automobile industry is concerned."…

BY POORNA RODRIGO

The Indonesian Textile Association (API) has said it will be trying to increase export sales for its members in other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member countries in 2013, amidst declining European Union (EU) and USA demand.…

THE KNITWEAR manufacturers of Taiwan are being challenged by headwinds from the global economic downturn, which has undermined their smart high-end export strategy. Last year was not a good one – as indicated by drops in exports of circular-knit fabric and knitted clothing apparel of 2.74% to USD1.265 billion and 10.97% to USD178 million respectively in the first eight months compared to the corresponding period of 2011.…

BY JENS KASTNER, IN TAIPEI

Facing a fragile global economy, rival South Korea’s aggressive free trade agreement (FTA) strategy, as well as an appreciating local currency, Taiwan’s textile and apparel manufacturers have placed their bets on innovation. And indeed, their strong focus on upgraded and functional textiles appears to be paying off.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN automotive industry has welcomed a ground-breaking initiative announced today by the European Union’s (EU) executive that future planned EU free trade agreements would be assessed for their potential damage to Europe’s auto sector, before negotiations begin in earnest.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN ADDIS ABABA

The leader of Ethiopia’s clothing and textile sector has claimed eight South Korean companies are to open textile and garment plants in his country, in a new industrial park close to the capital Addis Ababa.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has today approved a shake-up of its special low duty system for poor exporting countries, which is expected to change tariffs paid on a wide range of industrial minerals paid on their entry into the EU.…

BY MARK ROWE

The cosmetics market for Asian men is thriving where other sectors struggle. "Men’s skin care products appear to exist in a different economic world to much of rest of the industry," said Diyva Sangameshwar, a spokeswoman for market researchers Euromonitor based in Singapore.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PAINT and coatings companies using nanoparticles in the European Union (EU) will not have to contend with a special nanotechnology environmental health law after the European Commission opposed creating such legislation. This follows a long review, where some environmentalists have pushed the idea, citing the unusual behaviour of nanoparticles, notably how they migrate within consumers’ bodies.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) auto sector risks experiencing the meltdown that hit the American industry in 2008-9 if EU political institutions keep imposing detailed new regulations and free trade deals, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne told a Brussels conference yesterday.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has today approved a shake-up of its special low duty system for poor exporting countries, which is expected to change tariffs paid on steel and iron and relate ore paid on its entry into the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PLASTICS companies using nanoparticles in the European Union (EU) will not have to contend with a special nanotechnology environmental health law after the European Commission opposed creating such legislation. This follows a long review, where some environmentalists have pushed the idea, citing the unusual behaviour of nanoparticles, notably how they migrate within consumers’ bodies.…

BY MARK ROWE

NORTH Korea, the world’s most secretive state and the focus of many international diplomatic headaches, has an unexpectedly burgeoning sector: the country’s knitwear industry.

As one might expect for this tightly and centrally planned economy, the knitting industry is controlled by the central communist government: all knitting mills and factories are controlled by the Knitting Industry Management Bureau.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has today approved a shake-up of its special low duty system for poor exporting countries, which is expected to change tariffs paid on a wide range of meat paid on their entry into the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has today approved a shake-up of its special low duty system for poor exporting countries, which is expected to change tariffs paid on a wide range of metals paid on their entry into the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S developed countries are enthusiastically or moderately implementing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) anti-bribery convention, so that 52.3% of world exports are sold by countries opposing graft. So says the latest Transparency International report that says the leading established economic players are now leading by example: with the USA, Germany, Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark all praised for actively implementing the convention.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Commission, the European Union’s (EU) executive body, is handicapping Europe’s automotive sector with unrealistic carbon reduction demands, while risking more mid-market import competition with free trade deals, the chief of Europe’s auto industry has warned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission will postpone auctioning pollution permits sold under its emissions trading scheme (ETS) to potential further price falls, but has not decided how many allowances will be sold later. ETS permit prices are already depressed as Europe’s economic woes left oil and gas users with unused rights to emit carbon.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, IN TOKYO

AT present it takes one hour and 32 minutes to complete the transfer between Tokyo’s two main airports Narita and Haneda, hampering the city’s efforts to be seen as the most important aviation hub in western Asia.…

BY JENNIFER CHANG, IN SOUTH KOREA

THE KOREA Trade Commission (KTC) has dismissed fears for the future of South Korean pork processing after an indigenous company blamed falling sales on cheap European imports following a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

UPDATED data released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has highlighted the rarity of foreign bribery convictions worldwide. Bringing records from 1999 up to December 2011, the OECD reported that globally just 151 people and 42 organisations (including companies) had been found guilty of this offence in the past 12 years.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN BOLIVIA

THE INDUSTRIAL production of lithium carbonate and lithium-ion batteries in Bolivia has moved a step closer following the formation of a joint venture between Bolivia’s state-owned mining corporation Comibol and a South Korea consortium led by the country’s state-run mineral development corporation Korea Resources Corp.…

BY CARMEN PAUN AND WANG FANGQING

A PLANNED free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and Japan could end the Japanese BSE-linked ban on EU beef and veal imports, say industry representatives.

The European Commission has asked the EU’s 27 member states for a mandate to start negotiations with Japan by the end of the year, and these will cover non-tariff issues such as sanitary and phytosanitary rules as well as duties.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON; AND JONATHAN DYSON, IN LIMA

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) executive the European Commission is hoping that the negotiation of new free trade agreements (FTAs) between the EU and Colombia and Peru will be the springboard for penetration by European auto-manufacturers into markets that have been pretty well off limits to them in the past.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, IN CAPE TOWN

SOUTH Africa has deposits of rare earth elements (REEs) to rival that of Australia, and the country is poised to take advantage of this increasingly strategic resource, according to Mintek, the government’s mineral technology organisation.…

BY KITTY SO

THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed a 120% increase in European Union (EU) pork exports to South Korea in the first year of a free trade agreement (FTA) that reduced tariffs for pigmeat.

Speaking to the Meat Trades Journal, Roger Waite EU agriculture spokesperson said: "It seems as if a good part of it may be linked to the FTA…"

A European Commission communiqué said pork exports to South Korea had "grown faster than average" compared to other exports, citing almost Euro EUR200 million in new trade for pork alone.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON, AND JULIAN RYALL, IN TOKYO

EUROPE’S carmakers are setting out tough pre-conditions to anticipated negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Japan over a free trade agreement (FTA). The two sides have just finalised a "scoping exercise" setting out goals for an FTA and the EU auto sector is laying down some red lines, worried about unfair competition if European tariffs on Japanese autos are lowered or scrapped in a free trade deal.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

SOUTH Korea’s paint and coatings market may be mature but that has not stopped it from showing steady growth. According to business research firm Timetric, which has a South Korea office, the country’s architectural paint market was worth USD582.9 million in 2010 and USD600.8 million in 2011.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN LIMA

PERU’S clothing and textile industry has been moving up market to carve out sales in a sector whose low end continues to be dominated by Asian suppliers, and the country’s dyeing and finishing sector is benefiting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POLITICAL agreement has been struck between the three main European Union (EU) institutions over a new directive on the sulphur content of marine fuels burnt in EU waters. Complying with the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) MARPOL Convention, sulphur content for ships in the North Sea, the English Channel and the Baltic Sea will be capped at 1% until December 2014 and 0.1% from January 1, 2015.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, IN HANOI

WITH similar tropical and sub-tropical climates giving personal care product consumers some similar requirements as regards skin care, the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region could be regarded as one by lazy marketers.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT; AND MARK GAO, IN ISTANBUL

MOST states in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) have mulled developing nuclear power over the past decade, from Morocco to Egypt, and Jordan to Saudi Arabia, but only the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is coming close to embarking on the nuclear option thus far.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN LIMA

PERU’S clothing and textile industry has been moving up market to carve out sales in a sector whose low end continues to be dominated by Asian suppliers, and the country’s dyeing and finishing sector is benefiting.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE cities such as Milan, Paris, New York City, and London have historically been seen as the global ‘fashion hubs’ – acting as meeting spots for high-end designers, fashion shows, luxury retail outlets and fashionistas – the rise of fast fashion has been diffusing that concentration a bit; making cutting-edge trends more accessible to the rest of the world.…

BY E BLAKE BERRY, IN POLAND; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; AND MJ DESCHAMPS,

WHILE southern and western Europe’s economies falter, being mired in debt, eastern Europe’s coatings market is now growing solidly amidst economic performances that are recovering from a recession that hit the region hard.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE ARAB world maybe liberalizing, amidst sometime violent struggle, but the world still awaits a Central Asia spring. Five former Soviet states straddle this region – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan – and all, to varying degrees, are struggling to develop internationally-recognised financial reporting standards, business ethics and commercial regulation.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

CONSTRUCTION in Europe is traditionally associated with metal, steel and other heavy materials, but plastics and plastic composites are increasingly used as energy and cost-efficient options for buildings, bridges, houses and other structures.

Construction contributes more than 20% of demand for plastics in Europe – the second largest market segment after packaging, according to Brussels, Belgium-based trade association PlasticsEurope.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN AREQUIPA, SOUTHERN PERU

PERU’S Inkabor, one of the world’s leading borates producers, is significantly increasing its product range as it capitalises on growing demand in several key sectors, senior managers told Industrial Minerals. Speaking at its Rio Seco boric acid and borax plant in Arequipa, southern Peru, Flavio Magheri, Inkabor managing director, said that Inkabor’s sales grew by 15% in 2011, with 10% growth forecast for 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has extended until December 2014 the right of non-European Union (EU) countries’ companies and public bodies to issue within the EU accounts that clash with international financial reporting standards (IFRS). Brussels has to be convinced their governments are moving towards using IFRS, and the move follows the expiry last December 31(2011) of a previous exemption for such accounts issuers – the new exemption has been backdated until then.…

BY HANA KAMARUDDIN, IN SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

Students in some Asian countries, such as Japan, Indonesia and South Korea now earn credit hours for voluntary work, an incentive that builds volunteering into the university assessment system and promotes community work as an integral part of higher education, a conference has been told.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN the European Union (EU) set up the world’s first carbon trading market in 2001, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), advocates heralded a new dawn: carbon pollution could be brought under control in a way that benefited the environment while not damaging industrial interests.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, MJ DESCHAMPS, LEAH GERMAIN AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE BYELECTION victories in Myanmar/Burma by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her political allies have loosened the tough trade sanctions that have thus far hampered efforts to develop the country as a new sourcing hub for knitwear and other clothing products.…

BY KARRYN MILLER AND JEN SWANSON, IN YANGON

MYANMAR’S clothing industry looks set to grow as the country once shunned by the west starts to reform. Following pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest in November 2010, the government has taken steps to boost foreign relations and attract investors from abroad?although…

BY MARTIN FOSTER, IN TOKYO

JAPANESE convenience stores are diversifying products and services to survive in a market with an ageing and shrinking population, also aggressively expanding overseas to lock-in new revenue.

The Japanese population shrank by 259,000 people – including non-Japanese – to slightly less than 128 million people in the year to October 1, 2011, the greatest annual decline since 1950, according to figures from the ministry of internal affairs and communications.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto industry is awaiting the announcement by the EU executive, the European Commission, of a moratorium on new technical regulations, which could come in June. If it happens, it will be announced by EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani, who is responsible for technical rules on vehicles across the EU, and is worried that a European auto sector, already having a tough time, is being hamstrung by a conveyor belt of new rules.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto industry is awaiting the announcement by the EU executive, the European Commission, of a moratorium on new technical regulations, which could come in June. If it happens, it will be announced by EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani, who is responsible for technical rules on vehicles across the EU, and is worried that a European auto sector, already having a tough time, is being hamstrung by a conveyor belt of new rules.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD AND JONATHAN DYSON, IN LIMA

SOME of world’s most coveted fibres, Vicuña, Guanaco, Alpaca and Llama, all hail from rugged Andean region in South America. Vicuña fibre, known locally and in the trade as the "gold of the Andes" and "the fabric of the gods" is a key part of the global high-end luxury market for rare and superfine fibres.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN the European Union (EU) set up the world’s first carbon trading market in 2001, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), advocates heralded a new dawn: carbon pollution could be brought under control in a way that benefited the environment while not damaging industrial interests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PLASTICS companies in the European Union (EU) storing potentially dangerous chemicals on their premises will have to by 2015 abide by tougher management standards preventing industrial accidents. This is because the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council of Ministers have struck an agreement on the contents of a new law – the Seveso III directive – that will include new safety rules for chemical-using businesses.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, IN BRUSSELS

Improving research cooperation between South Korea and the European Union (EU) was a key focus of a summit in Seoul this week (Wednesday, 28 March). In a speech in South Korea, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso noted higher education links between both sides were weak: "There are fewer researchers from South Korea participating in EU research programmes than researchers from many other countries."…

BY KARRYN MILLER

IF any two countries could be deemed vulnerable to Chinese dominance of rare earth supplies, it surely has to be east Asia’s high tech exporters par excellence Japan and South Korea. From smart phones to electric cars, these two Asian nations continue to drive technology forward, but with rare earths an essential component of many electronic goods, these Tokyo and Seoul are scanning the region for new sources of these key minerals.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE USA’s Under-Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sánchez has told just-style he is optimistic about the impact on the American textile and clothing sector of new bilateral trade deals struck by the Obama administration with South Korea, Panama and Columbia.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

BILATERAL trade agreements between European Union (EU) and emerging economies have helped cushion EU plastics moulders and machinery suppliers as more important domestic markets have weakened in recession and the Eurozone crisis.

It is a two-way street: lower priced machinery from China and India has made inroads into EU markets for applications requiring less technologically sophisticated kit.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

DESPITE winning import duty concessions under the newly enforced free trade agreement between the US and South Korea, American beef producers will still not be able to export beef over the age of 30 months. The import of older beef remains banned under Korean health rules to prevent the spread of BSE.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PHARMACEUTICAL Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) organisation has called on the South Korean government to make its system of reimbursing patients for medicines more transparent now the US-South Korea free trade agreement is in force (from March 15).…

BY KARRYN MILLER

A STROLL through Myeong-dong, one of Seoul’s busiest shopping districts, gives a good idea of the magnitude of the popularity of South Korea’s cosmetics and skincare industry: according to the Korea Tourism Organisation there are approximately 1,000 cosmetic shops and hundreds of skincare stores within this small quadrant, alone.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE recent rumours in Russian media that 7-Eleven, the US-based international chain of convenience stores, would be expanding into Russia, the company has denied the claims.

"There is no basis of foundation about 7-Eleven developing in Russia," a spokesperson for the company told just-food from its Texas, USA, headquarters.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

RESTRICTIONS on imports appear to be driving profits for Chinese scrap processors focused on domestic waste metal collection. There has been a huge increase in profits for private firms in 2011 processing non-ferrous metals – up 53% according to data published in February by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

WITH a growing interest in colour cosmetics amongst Chinese women, many companies are developing innovative and unique packaging that especially appeal to younger consumers.

Market research firm Euromonitor International has stressed in a report that international marketing has helped fuel this trend: women between the ages of 15 and 30 living in urban areas of China have been widely exposed to Western and Japanese makeup and are gravitating largely towards colour cosmetics because of this.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has drafted a plan ensuring cash-strapped international nuclear fusion project ITER would have funding of Euro EUR2.573 billion from 2014 to 2018. European Union (EU) ministers in December approved emergency spending for ITER to see the France-based research project through 2012 and 2013, and now the Commission is looking ahead for four more years’ money.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RETAIL – WINNERS AND LOSERS

WINNERS

MARKS & SPENCER

Times may still be tough in its home British market, but M&S showed forward-thinking foresight in 2011- on sourcing transparency and the environment: potential key issues for future consumers.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE ONGOING influx of more complex, scientific formulations in anti-aging creams, skin care solutions and more, paired with an economic climate that does not exactly allow its consumers much breathing room for frugality, is highlighting the need for cosmetics packaging to keep products fresh.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR the past decade, innovative paints and coatings manufacturers have been creating a buzz around sustainable, ‘smart’ coatings that self-clean, do not chip, and are more aerodynamic. Many of the claims for such materials were made while the inventions were still in the laboratory.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LEADING powers of the automotive industry worldwide have agreed to attempt forging common technical standards for the still evolving electric car sector. An agreement struck today (Thursday) in Geneva, Switzerland, will see the United States working with the European Union (EU) and Japan within two working parties: their goal is to write a formal global technical regulation (or regulations) on electric cars by 2014 and debate informal standardization.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

NATIONALISM and the energy industry have made uneasy bedfellows throughout history, yet Scotland is attracting substantial international investment in renewables despite having, since May and for the first time, a majority government committed to winning independence from the UK.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

UNIQLO thinks big, talks big and has big ambitions – and analysts believe the company does indeed have what it takes to become the biggest clothing retailer in the world within the next decade.

It will clearly face a series of obstacles on its way to that title.…

BY MARIANNE BROWN and KEITH NUTHALL

A CHINK of light in the gloom spread over the nuclear industry by Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster can be seen to the south, where south-east Asian governments seem keen to push ahead with their nuclear expansion plans regardless.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Maritime Bureau (IMB) has warned scrap buyers to beware of fraudsters selling phantom waste metal cargoes that never arrive at port. The IMB – part of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – says the scam involves a sophisticated abuse of bills of lading, letters of credit and associated documents.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Maritime Bureau (IMB) has warned heavy melting scrap buyers to beware of fraudsters selling phantom waste metal cargoes from Trieste, Italy, that never arrive. The IMB has reported 13 such scams (one involving aluminium profiles) involving a sophisticated abuse of bills of lading, letters of credit and associated documents.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

RECYCLING products as large as motor vehicles; or encouraging public authorities to buy environment-friendly autos seem such good ideas, laws insisting this happens is surely just commonsense? Not so in Europe, it would appear, where a string of countries are in trouble for not implementing the European Union’s recent (EU) green procurement directive; and one – Italy – is facing potential legal action for flouting the EU’s end-of-life vehicles (ELV) directive, even though these was approved in the year 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS within the European auto industry about the trade deal initialed last October by the European Union (EU) and South Korea have been addressed today (Wednesday) at the European Parliament. Meeting in Brussels, its international trade committee gave its approval to draft legislation, allowing the swift reintroduction of trade barriers, should the deal create a surge in Korean car exports to Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and DAVE YIN

THIS has been the year where the European Union (EU) considered imposing a draconian origin labelling law that would have been a major headache for knitwear manufacturers and retailers. In the winter, the European Parliament was seriously discussing insisting on a regulation forcing knitwear and crocheted clothes and accessories imports into the EU to carry country of origin labels.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE

DUBAI International Airport (DXB), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is planning to launch a large-scale passenger flow measurement project to track the movement and activity of passengers from the second they enter the airport complex.

From the airport’s growth statistics, it appears the trial has not come a moment too soon; DXB is one of the fastest growing airports in the world and could become the busiest in the near future.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

SOUTH KOREA: Student stress fuels suicides as standards rise

Karryn Miller

A spate of suicides amongst South Korean students has fuelled fears that the country’s higher education system is too tough, with pressures increasing as universities seek to compete with institutions overseas.…

BY MARK GODFREY

WITH some researchers (most recently Credit Suisse’s China analysts) predicting Chinese e-commerce revenues will grow 100%-a-year to 2015 it’s not surprising international brands are scrambling to understand and tap the dynamics of the country’s web portals. Top of the local business-to-consumer pile Taobao has evolved from an eBay knock off to a massively popular resource for wholesalers and B2C operators.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

THE ASSOCIATION of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) covers 10 distinct countries, each with a unique culture, mirroring the personal care product markets of the European Union (EU). However, these nations do share some similarities – and maybe more than northern, southern and eastern Europe, especially when it comes to what ASEAN consumers have inside their cosmetics cabinets.…

BY WANG FANGQING

Major Japanese snack manufacturer Calbee has inked a deal with its long-term business partner in South Korea -Haitai Confectionery – to set up a 50-50 joint venture in June 2011. Located in Wonju-si, Gangwon-do of South Korea, the JV – to be called Haitai-Calbee Co.,Ltd…

BY JOHN PAGNI

FINLAND is bucking the post-Fukushima trend of abandoning nuclear power, pushing ahead with its reactor construction programme.

The cost of building Olkiluoto 3, the 1,600MW European pressurised water reactor nuclear power plant is currently Euro EUR3.2 billion. Although four years behind schedule, project supporters remain positive: "Once we were told it would be delayed, the timetable didn’t matter.…

BY MARK GODFREY

WHEN for quality industrial coatings is strong, international brands would do well to watch for new lines of business – and China’s booming ship-building sector is a case in point. China has achieved a long-held ambition in shading South Korea to the title of world’s top shipbuilding nation: according to the China Shipbuilding Industry Association Chinese yards rolled 51 million deadweight tonnes (dwt) of new ships in the first 10 months of 2010, while new orders for the period (54.6 dwt) were double the total for the same period in 2009.…

BY WANG FANGQING, MINI PANT ZACHARIAH, KARRYN MILLER and KEITH NUTHALL

EMERGING market coatings exporters sometimes claim tough environmental rules in rich jurisdictions are nothing but a form of protection. And while such arguments can always be contested, it is certainly true that the European Union’s (EU) ongoing and longstanding biocide review will throw up obstacles to Asia-Pacific coatings manufacturers wanting to secure sales in Europe.…

BY MARK GODFREY

CHINA’S shipbuilders are clearly on a roll, the nation having surpassed South Korea and Japan to become the world’s top builder of vessels – and specialist maritime coating manufacturers are taking notice. Data from maritime consultancy UK-based Clarkson Research Services Ltd shows spending on new vessels in 2010 saw a year-on-year increase of 106%.…

BY LEE ADENDOORF, ALYSSA MCMURTRY, MAKKI MARSEILLES, and KEITH NUTHALL

GLOBAL olive oil manufacturing is on a roll, with the International Olive Council (IOC) saying 2009-10 world production was 3.02 million tonnes, a season-on-season increase of 354,500 tonnes (+13%). This would be the second best olive oil production year ever, next only to the record of 3.17 million tonnes produced in 2003/04.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A HEAVY fuel oil-fired power plant supplying 30 MW of electricity to Haiti has started operations on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. The US dollars USD57 million plant was funded by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), South Korea’s Korea East-West Power Co, Ltd, and local investors.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

FOR those doubters who claim the world’s senior anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) organisation the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) does not have much clout, a look at the case of Ecuador makes instructive reading. Last February, the Paris-basedFATF issued a stinging criticism of this South American country, with a public statement officially listing Ecuador as a country with serious AML/CFT deficiencies, along with such dubious fellow travellers as Angola, Ethiopia and North Korea.…

BY Karryn Miller

An innovative foreign higher education park scheme in South Korea is set to proceed, even though the worldwide recession has caused some overseas universities to postpone plans to locate branches at the Songdo Global University Campus.

Full report on University World News site.…

By Karryn Miller

Inter-racial marriages may be on the rise throughout Asia but they still hold a minority position. Homogenous countries like Japan and Korea are slowly adapting to the idea of mixed families but legally and socially there is room for improvement.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

Kurdish Iraq tobacco market is Middle East black market hub

International tobacco companies entered Kurdish Iraq after the US-led invasion. But political instability has made this a tough market to operate in. Black market trades thrive. And there are a wide variety of brands from around the world available.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PRICE in Europe of tough polyester yarn used to make automotive textile parts such as seatbelts and airbags could rise following the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers ordering an anti-dumping duty on exports from China. These 9.8% tariffs will cover Chinese exports to the EU of ‘high tenacity yarn’ used by auto manufacturers, including monofilament of less than 67 decitex.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

JAPAN is being accused of trying to write its own official asbestos testing system into an international standard, because it knows it does not work and so will get its government off the hook for asbestos exposure cases.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS, KEITH NUTHALL

THE KNITWEAR sector, especially at the higher end of the market spectrum, is a prey for organised counterfeiters. Sophisticated illicit manufacturers, especially in emerging markets, create copies of established brands, that can be high enough quality to fool, but poor enough to disappoint the consumer after a few wears.…

BY DANIEL PRUZIN

A protocol to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) addressing the illegal trade in tobacco products will not be completed until early 2012, after delegates at a recent conference in Uruguay shied away from serious talks on the topic.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

AS the market for electric vehicles (EVs) picks up, the infrastructure for recharging them will inevitably have to keep pace – so, according to US-based consultants in global clean technology markets Pike Research (NOTE: CORRECT), there will be around 4.7 million EV charging units operating worldwide by 2015.…

BY MARK GODFREY

Albert Ng, Ernst & Young

Managing partner and chairman of E&Y’s China business, Hong Kong native Albert Ng has over 25 years of professional experience in the accounting industry in China and Australia. That background will be valuable as he moves the firm on from an embarrassing settlement over its auditing of Akai Holdings, a bankrupted Chinese electronic manufacturer and retailer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

COUNTRIES negotiating a plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) fighting fake products have announced that all remaining problems have been resolved and a final text is being drafted. This will allow the European Union (EU) and its member states, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the USA to ratify the treaty.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A FINANCIAL rescue package for ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project was in major jeopardy last night as European Union (EU) politicians failed to agree an EU budget for 2011. The package had included a commitment to find an additional Euro EUR1.4 billion in additional EU funds for the global nuclear fusion project in 2012 and 2013, which is 45% funded by the European Union.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

18

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the takeover by Unilever of Sara Lee’s body and laundry care businesses, on condition it sells off the US company’s Sanex brand and related business in Europe. Following an inquiry as the European Union’s (EU) lead competition authority, Brussels concluded there were particular concerns regarding Unilever’s future dominance of some EU deodorant markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

REGULATING an industry as dynamic and fast-changing as the electronic communications sector is always tough, especially when attempting to create rules through an international organisation as slow as the European Union (EU). But that is the tough task that the EU’s digital agenda Commissioner NeelieKroes has set herself, with detailed plans being released throughout 2010, notably in her ‘Digital Agenda for Europe’ communication (policy paper).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RETAIL – WINNERS AND LOSERS

WINNERS

H&M

The Sweden-based brand expanded across the world this year, planning to open 220 new stores, mostly in western Europe and the US. Hennes & Mauritz’ (H&M) third quarter sales of SEK26.89bn (US$4bn) showed a sharp 14% increase on the previous quarter.…

BY DAVID HAYHURST

THE NEW president of OICA (the International Association of Vehicle Manufacturers) has warned American auto-manufacturers that they risk being left behind in the global race for new technologies. Speaking at his Paris office with wardsauto, Patrick Blain, now six months into his new job, and after this month’s OICA general assembly in Bucharest (October 20 and 21), said it was European and Asian automakers who are setting the pace and working together with their governments to effectively tackle issues of emissions and rising fuel costs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PERSONAL care product sector should benefit from a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), now largely negotiated. A draft text has been released by the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

BEFORE September 8, few people anywhere had heard of Zhan Qixiong or his battered fishing boat. However, since the Chinese fisherman and his 14-strong crew were taken into custody by the Japan Coast Guard on September 8, Zhan has found himself at the centre of an escalating geopolitical row that has already put planned discussions over gas and oil deposits between Beijing and Tokyo on hold and is ratcheting up broader tensions in the region.…

BY WANG FANGQING

LOTTE Samkang, a Seoul-based food manufacturer of Lotte Group, will pay Korea Won87 billion (USD780.3 million) to buy Pasteur Milk, the eighth largest dairy products manufacturer in South Korea. "We will keep the brand Pasteur and continue to produce its current products in the near future," said a spokesman of Lotte Samkang.…

BY MARK GODFREY

SUSTAINED economic growth and soaring passenger numbers are both reasons why Beijing is building a long-mooted second airport for commercial and cargo use. Digging into a US dollar USD$400 billion national fund for infrastructure, the Chinese capital is opening a new airport to cope with expected overcrowding at the city’s Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA), which added its celebrated dragon-styled Terminal Three only two years ago.…

BY OSAMA DIAB

THE EGYPTIAN Refining Company (ERC) signed a deal in August to build a US dollar USD3.7 billion second-stage greenfield refinery adjacent to the existing Mostorod refinery 40 kilometres northeast of Cairo. The purpose of the new hydro-cracking and coking refinery is to take its needs of fuel oil from the nearby Mostorod refinery owned by the Cairo Oil Refinery Company, the biggest oil refining company in Egypt contributing 20% to Egypt’s oil refining capacity, and transform it into lighter fuel such as ultra-low sulphur diesel.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

9

A UNITED Nations campaign could – if successful – significantly increase worldwide demand for soap. Its Global Handwashing Day has highlighted how diarrhoeal and acute respiratory diseases kill 3.5 million children aged under five annually, and that washing their hands after using toilets and before handling food can reduce such deaths by 40% and 23% respectively.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, WANG FANGQING

AUTO dealers in Britain will certainly see the affect of the European Union’s (EU) recent signature of a free trade deal with South Korea. Once ratification procedures have been cleared, the EU’s import duties on cars made in South Korea (mostly 10%) will disappear within 60 days.…

BY WANG FANGQING

LOTTE Confectionary, the Seoul-based subsidiary of South Korea’s top food conglomerate the Lotte Group, has opened a its first Russian food plant in Obninsk city, 102 km southwest of Moscow. It will manufacture Lotte’s signature Choco Pie confectionery to supply Moscow and the Ural-Siberian area, said Lotte’s spokesman.…

BY MARK ROWE

IN the truly global market of the paint industry, nowhere has the maxim of work local, sell local, been adhered to more rigorously than in southeast Asia. The region’s paint market is fiercely competitive, driven by developed nations such as Singapore and populous rapidly developing countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MJ DESCHAMPS

EUROPEAN car makers will push for additional changes to the controversial European Union (EU)-South Korea free trade agreement when it is placed before the European Parliament for ratification. The spokesperson for the European automobile manufacturers association ACEA Sigrid de Vries told wardsauto it wanted the deal’s text revised to help Europe’s auto sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SIGNIFICANT benefits to tobacco and tobacco product companies will present themselves if a deal on the long-running Doha Development Round is clinched next year at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). And some diplomats at the WTO’s base in Geneva are asking if agreement is not reached next year, whether the current negotiations will be scrapped.…

BY WANG FANGQING

AS a country famous for mass production of textiles and garments, China has been, maybe surprisingly, importing more and more expensive fabrics from overseas. For example, China purchased 155,000 tonnes of wool from January to May 2010, up 15.2% year-on-year, with Australia, New Zealand and South Africa being the top three suppliers.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE US DOLLAR USD$2 billion Turkish paint sector is the sixth largest in Europe, yet when it comes to its coatings trade with the Asia-Pacific region, Turkey imports a lot more than it exports. Turkey has had fluctuating business with the Asia Pacific region – defined as China, South Korea, Japan, the Indian subcontinent, South-East Asia, Mongolia, Australasia, the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, and the Cook Islands.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, AHMAD PATHONI, MARK ROWE

SOUTHEAST Asia is a growing and diverse market for international personal care product brands, despite the challenges (and some losses) cased by the recession. The region contains relatively rich emerging markets (and the very rich city state of Singapore), and its major poorer countries, notably Vietnam and Indonesia are growing fast and emerging robustly from the recession.…

BY MARK ROWE

IS the recession’s worst over for the jet fuel aviation industry? Passenger traffic during this late spring and summer has risen sharply compared with flights year-on-year, giving hope to an industry that Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), described last year as "structurally sick".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) auto dealers importing South Korea-made cars in future beware – if they sell too many, punishing import duties may make them too expensive for average consumers. The European Parliament has to ratify a trade deal struck last year lowering tariffs for commerce between the EU and South Korea and is worried an influx of cheap South Korean car imports could harm European manufacturers.…

BY WANG FANGQING

SOUTH Korea’s leading snacks manufacturer, Lotte Confectionary started to manufacture its Choco Pie biscuit on July 21 at a newly completed plant in Chennai, southern India. A Lotte spokesman said the company wanted to boost Indian production of Choco Pie, which was popular locally, claimed, for its convenience.…

BY MARK GODFREY

ANYONE familiar with Beijing’s nightlife scene will have noticed a sure rise in the number of women smokers over the past couple of years. An increase in the number of women smokers, from a small base, has encouraged a local cigarette industry facing a public ban on smoking in public places in 2011 as well as rising taxes and an anti-smoking lobby growing in assertiveness.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has reimposed for five years – albeit at a lower level of 19% – anti-dumping duties on silicon exported to the EU from China and South Korea. Ministers acted because of concerns removing the tariffs would allow unfair undercutting of EU producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TOWN of Asbestos in French-speaking Québec, Canada – named after the mineral that underpins its economy – is waiting to see whether its provincial government will approve a Canadian dollar CAD58 million (US dollar USD56 million) loan enabling an underground mine to tap an immense deposit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FOR growing markets such as electric cars, keeping regulatory standards simple can make or break a new technology. It can also give manufacturers a head start in the race to dominate a new market, if they are located in countries where rules are relatively straightforward and similar to those in other jurisdictions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally proposed that the European Union (EU) adopts the global technical standard for electric vehicles – as agreed in 1997 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Assuming the EU Council of Ministers and European Parliament agree, then EU countries will have the same rules for manufacturing electric cars – preventing national rules impeding the sale of cars from different member states.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

AS trade barriers continue to diminish, clothing brands are becoming more global. However it is not as easy for the sizes of their goods to be quite as worldly. International players need to adapt their fits for different target markets but that level of adaptation varies by country.…

By Karryn Miller, International News Services

Inter-racial marriages may be on the rise throughout Asia but they still hold a minority position. Homogenous countries like Japan and Korea are slowly adapting to the idea of mixed families but legally and socially there is room for improvement. In these countries acceptance of multicultural couplings goes from one extreme to other being both a source of glamour and a point of discrimination.

In Japan a popular reality TV series “Okusama wa Gaikokujin” (literally my wife is a foreigner) held a prime-time spot in 2006 and 2007. Each episode focused on a mixed family and how the foreign wife coped with Japanese life. The series may have sated Japanese people’s curiosity about intercultural couples but in the process it separated inter-racial marriages from other marriages making them appear novel, different, and sometimes even strange.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

ACCORDING to the Korean Paint & Printing Industry Cooperative (KPIC), South Korean paint and coatings sales hit US$3 billion in 2008, up 4% from the previous year. KPIC accredited the boost to an increase in sale prices due to higher raw material costs, rather then profits however.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RELEASE today (May 27) by the European Commission of new binding rules on how the various elements of the European Union (EU) auto sector should compete has been welcomed by the industry. Why? Because – largely – automakers, sellers and repairers got what they wanted.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

After the disappointment of the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009, global warming campaigners have hoped UN climate change talks at Cancun, Mexico in December will thrash out a viable successor to the Kyoto agreement, which ends in 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to restore for five years – albeit at a lower level of 19% – anti-dumping duties on silicon exported to the EU from China and South Korea because of concerns removing the tariffs would allow unfair undercutting of EU producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a European Commission proposal erasing a trade loophole that has enabled Chinese exporters to the European Union (EU) of steel ropes and cables to evade an anti-dumping duty by illicitly diverting supplies through South Korea.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed erasing a trade loophole that has enabled Chinese exporters to the European Union (EU) of steel ropes and cables to evade an anti-dumping duty by illicitly diverting supplies through South Korea. It has asked the EU Council of Ministers to extend the Chinese 60.4% duties to cover steel ropes and cables exported from South Korea – regardless of whether they are South Korean-made.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

JAPANESE industries in general have had a tough past couple of years and the cosmetics sector is no exception. That said, manufacturers here have largely stressed the positive and developed a range of innovative new products that meet the needs of ever-more demanding consumers and opened up new product areas.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR

JAPAN-BASED convenience store operator FamilyMart plans to increase its number of outlets worldwide to 25,000 by the 2015 fiscal year, from its current 16,000 stores, according to its president Junji Ueda. The biggest increase will be in China, where it will boost its stores from 360 to 4,500 – centred on Shanghai, where the port-city has the infrastructure and distribution facilities to support the expansion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN IMPORTANT step has been made towards guaranteeing the safety of electric and hybrid cars, with the adoption by the UN’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations of a new technical standard on this subject – a global first.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, EMMA JACKSON, PAUL COCHRANE and JULIAN RYALL

INTRODUCTION

Professionalisation is a key trend in today’s drinks sector, particularly as export markets are growing fast in emerging markets. With brand loyalty up for grabs, it is critical for alcoholic drinks producers especially to maintain and raise quality.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

INTRODUCTION

There are signs around the world that the textile market is beginning to recover from the global economic crisis, and developing markets will be leading that recovery. Asia is, of course, at the forefront, but many countries in Latin America have also weathered the crisis and have come out in a surprisingly decent position, with their dynamic textile and apparel industries well positioned for future expansion.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR

JAPANESE food companies are planning to further reduce prices, under pressure from retailers, according to a survey by leading business daily, the Nikkei. It has forecast that 40% of food and daily goods firms plan to cut prices in the coming financial year – beginning March.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

VIETNAM has worked hard to convince foreign companies they should look past neighbouring China for their knitwear needs. Through an increasing commitment to quality, along with strong government support, Vietnamese knitwear firms are starting to see the fruits of their labour and tags ‘made in Vietnam’ are becoming more common both domestically and abroad.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UN World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations has adopted a technical standard guaranteeing electric and hybrid car safety. This will enter European Union law, and probably regulations in Japan, South Korea and other European countries. The standard details protection from high voltage parts; mandates indication displays showing electric engines are on; and brakes preventing movement during recharging.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, FRANCES WANG, AHMAD PATHONI, WILLIAM BARNES, KARRYN MILLER and KEITH NUTHALL

THE PEOPLE of Okinawa are famous – even in ageing Japan – for their longevity. The women of this sub-tropical chain of islands have the longest life expectancy in the world, at nearly 89 years, they have the lowest mortality rate from chronic diseases linked to ageing and the highest ration of centenarians in the world – nearly six times the rate in other industrialised nations.…

BY CRAIG HOWIE

THE POPULAR television programme Sex in the City famously glamourised New York’s luxury clothing culture, and Los Angeles’ high-end boutiques were given the star treatment in the 1990 film Pretty Woman. And America has long been the world’s largest market for high-end clothing.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

THE ACCEPTANCE by European Union (EU) politicians of a common standard for hydrogen vehicles should make it considerably easier for manufacturers to sell vehicles to a continental rather than a national market.

It has now been more than two years since the EU executive – the European Commission – proposed a technical standard for manufacturers.…

BY JULIAN RYALL and KARRYN MILLER

RETAINING a competitive advantage in a saturated market is never an easy task but the job becomes even more challenging during a financial slump. East Asia’s most developed countries Japan and South Korea have a strong record in technical innovation and their paint and coatings companies always bear close examination for inventions and good practice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AFTER-SALES services maintaining electric and hybrid cars should in future receive better protection from shocks from the 500 volts coursing through their circuits. The UN’s World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations has adopted the first technical standard on electric/hybrid car safety.…

BY ANDREW SALMON

TO assess the state of financial sanctions and how they are affecting Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, the first man to ask is an unassuming-looking Englishman named Nigel Cowie. "We have not been affected [by the latest sanctions] in terms of the need for increased compliance," said Cowie, CEO of Pyongyang-based Daedong Credit Bank.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR, FRANCES WANG, RAGHAVENDRA VERMA and KARRYN MILLER

The Asian beer market, having overtaken Europe, is now the largest in the world, according to Japanese brewery Kirin. The region accounts for 31.7% of global consumption, compared to 30.8% for Europe, claims the annual report from the Kirin Institute of Food and Lifestyle.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, PACIFICA GODDARD, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, PACIFICA GODDARD, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IT has not traditionally featured on prospectors’ radar but Mongolia is quickly emerging as an Asian oil exporter. Thanks to rising oil demand from China, the Petroleum Authority of Mongolia has inked production-sharing agreements on 12 oil fields with explorers from north America, Australia and China.…

By Keith Nuthall, International News Services

For many journalists covering globalisation affairs, the end of the European Union’s (EU) banana trade dispute with the USA and Latin American countries is like the loss of an old friend. This dispute – which ended today – has been subject to formal World Trade Organisation (WTO) proceedings since 1996. Its resolution is a rare ray of sunlight in Geneva, where multilateral trade talks have long been mired in self-interest and complacency.

The Doha Development Round of global trade negotiations – which itself has been lumbering on since 2001 – appears far from completion. The political and commercial impetus that pushed its predecessor, the 1990s Uruguay round, towards great success, is nowhere to be found with Doha.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, ANCA GURZU, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHINA has come under increased pressure to scrap export restrictions on certain key non-ferrous metals, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) establishing a disputes panel to adjudicate complaints about these rules. With the European Union (EU) being joined by the United States and Mexico as formal parties to this dispute, the outlook could be serious for China if it loses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A HOPEFUL sign that European Union (EU) and American energy policies could become more complimentary in the future has come with the launch of a new EU-US Energy Council in Washington. It will formalise transatlantic discussions on strategic energy issues such as security of supply and developing low carbon energy sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and KARRYN MILLER

THE AMERICAN and South Korean auto sectors are closely watching the outcome of informal talks between their governments over removing trade barriers within the 2007 US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, which still requires ratification. The deal was negotiated by the old Bush administration, and is now being reviewed by Obama team, ahead of any renewed ratification push in the US Congress – with the auto sector being a key focus.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, WANG FANGQING, and ANCA GURZU

FOR consumers, sizing is easy – you know your size and you can tell if it has changed. But for knitwear manufacturers exporting internationally, sizing correctly for various regions can be a frustrating task.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round in the doldrums this year, the European Union (EU) has been focusing on bilateral trade deals and European confectionery producers will benefit.

The most important of recently struck agreements has been an EU-South Korea trade deal, which will create a virtual free trade zone between the signatories.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN plant sector could benefit significantly from a new South Korea-European Union (EU) trade agreement, the European Commission has revealed. Duties on construction equipment made in South Korea and exported to the EU will vanish upon ratification of the agreement.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

EGYPT

Eastern Tobacco Company

450 Al Ahram Street, Giza

Tel : +20-18-5724711- 5724332 – 5724945

+20-23-5793326

www.easternegypt.com

British American Tobacco Egypt

City Stars Complex

Star Capital – Tower 4A

Omar Ebn El Khattab Street

Postal Code 11771

Heliopolis, Cairo

T: (+20) 2 480 1080

Japan Tobacco International (Regional)

2nd Floor, Lophitis Business Centre

249, 28th October Street & Emiliou Hourmouziou Corner

CY-3035, Lemesos

P.O.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled details of how the new South Korean-European Union (EU) trade agreement will benefit knitwear manufacturers and retailers in Europe and South Korea. Upon ratification of the agreement, duties on EU imports of most clothing products from this key trading partner will disappear.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ONE of the lynchpins of the European Union’s (EU) single market is its public procurement rules, which try to ensure pubic authorities, and some utilities and transmission operators, openly tender for their major purchases. The aim is that all EU suppliers have a fair crack of the whip in offering them goods and services.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

DESPITE following the global trend of increasing anti-smoking campaigns and placing stronger warning labels on cigarette packets, tobacco sales in South Korea are not declining. In fact, the industry has seen a slow but steady rise in total sales over the last few years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Automobile Manufacturers Association (EMEA) has condemned a European Union (EU)-South Korea free trade agreement, initialed today (15-10), for giving Korean automakers an unfair advantage in EU markets.

At the heart of ACEA’s concern is a "duty drawback" provision allowing South Korean manufacturers to reclaim duties paid on imported car parts and components from low-cost neighbouring countries such as China, while benefiting from the scrapping of EU customs duties for assmbled vehicles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN packagers and converters will be able to source materials and equipment more cheaply from South Korea in future because of a new free trade agreement negotiated with its government by the European Union (EU).

The deal scraps import duties levied by the EU (and South Korea) on many products and materials traded between them, and should, claims Brussels, stimulate commerce: "The agreement will create substantial new trade in goods and services (up to EUR 19 billion for EU exporters, according to one study)…"

Most paper and card, including paper and card sacks and bags made in South Korea, are already imported into the EU duty free, but that is not the case for other packaging materials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled details of how the new South Korean-European Union (EU) trade agreement will benefit the plastics sector in Europe and South Korea. Upon ratification of the agreement, duties on EU imports of most plastics products will disappear.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DRINKS industry could benefit strongly from a new South Korea-European Union (EU) trade agreement, the European Commission has revealed. Releasing details of this comprehensive deal, Brussels has shown how duties on a wide range of drinks products traded between the parties will vanish upon ratification of the agreement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled details of how a new South Korean-European Union (EU) trade agreement will benefit the nuclear energy sector in Europe and South Korea – boosting trade in equipment and fuel inputs. Notably, upon ratification of the agreement, 5.7% duties on EU imports of South Korean nuclear reactors will disappear, as will 3.7% tariffs on machinery and apparatus for isotopic separation, (and parts); fuel elements and nuclear reactor parts; and 2.7% duties on a wide range of water boilers that could be fitted into EU nuclear power plants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ITALIAN luxury fashion house Brioni is launching a fragrance in London today (Oct 14), as its new CEO Andrea Perrone pushes ahead with expansion plans, especially in Asia. Perrone, nephew of company founder Gaetano Savini, assumed control of the company this July from a governing committee (which served upon).…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA will strongly promote the export of organic food items to European Union (EU), United States, Switzerland, Japan and South Korea, the country’s Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has announced. It wants to double exports from their current level of US$100 million in 2008.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIAN automobile component manufacturers, who have been catering to international car companies, are taking additional value out of the supply chain by getting involved in the designing of auto parts.

With strong engineering skills, design and development capability, Indian companies such as Tata AutoComp Systems, Sundram Fasteners and Bharat Forge, have established their own brand names and registered intellectual property rights for their products.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

TAKE a stroll through any of South Korea’s Lotte department stores on the weekend and you could be mistaken that the recession has ended. It is here you’ll see droves of affluent consumers inspecting the latest in luxury fashion before snapping it off the shelves.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TIME was when video games were simple pastimes, basic computer fun with classics such as ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’. But that is ‘so 1980s’. In the 21st century, the games of choice are interactive and involve spending money – the name is massively multiplayer online games (MMOG).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Automobile Manufacturers Association (EMEA) estimates the cost of importing cars from South Korea could fall by as much as Euro 1,000 per vehicle – maybe more – following a European Union (EU)-South Korea free trade agreement, initialled on Thursday (15-10).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled details of how the new South Korean-European Union (EU) trade agreement will benefit the textile and clothing dying and finishing trade sector in Europe and South Korea. Notably, upon ratification of the agreement, duties on EU imports of South Korean-made acid, basic and reactive dyes will be scrapped – they are currently 6.5%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled details of how the new South Korean-European Union (EU) trade agreement will benefit the paint and coatings sector in Europe and South Korea. Notably, upon ratification of the agreement, 6.5% duties on EU imports of South Korean-made paints and varnishes, (based on synthetic and chemically modified polymers), will be scrapped, as will 6.5% tariffs on prepared driers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled details of how the new South Korean-European Union (EU) trade agreement will benefit textile and clothing manufacturers in Europe and South Korea. Upon ratification of the agreement, duties on EU imports of most clothing products will disappear.…