Search Results for: Turkey

INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a reassessment of the model of relying on one or two outsourcing locations. It has demonstrated that when there is a major disruption caused by an emergency as serious as a pandemic, shipping and industrial processing can be disrupted.…

Japan may become a significant market for the halal food sector in future, predicts the Japan Halal Association, whose members are looking ahead to sustained growth once the Covid-19 pandemic ebbs. Faslin Mohammed Lafir, head of halal certification and international relations, of the Japan Halal Association, stressed that the country’s Muslim population is around 120,000 individuals at present, with an estimated 10,000 Japanese converting to the religion every year, boosting potential halal sales.…

When France’s fast-food chain O’Tacos (www.o-tacos.fr) announced in 2020 that it would be selling in Italy its halal-certified French-style meat and vegetable wraps, Italian Muslims took this as a sign that halal was going mainstream in their country. O’Tacos’ first Italian outpost will open in January 2022 in Rome (delayed by Covid-19) and more openings in 2022 are planned in major Italian cities, including Milan and Bologna, said Yassin Baradai, founder of Milan-based Meem Communication (https://meemcommunication.com/…

Fraud in the global halal food sector is emerging as a widespread problem. A series of scandals have rocked the industry worldwide, and shone a spotlight on the difficulty of eliminating non-halal practices from increasingly large and complicated food supply chains. …

The leaders of Tunisian textile industry argue that their independent development plans will help them weather Tunisia’s ongoing political storms, staying on track in growing export and internal markets.

When President Kais Saied announced froze parliament and sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi on July 25 (2021), there were initially scenes of jubilation, but these have morphed into fears about instability and uncertainty as he gathered power into his hands to rule by presidential decree.…

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 Bangladesh food industry is increasing its efforts to export halal foods to Muslim majority population countries. A senior government delegation is planning to visit Turkey and Indonesia this year to gather facts and advice on improving Bangladesh sales in these countries of halal food.…

For nearly a hundred years, the city of Jerusalem has been the scene of violent confrontations between Jews and Arabs. This is the most recent of struggles over this most disputed city that have continued for more than three thousand years.…

Istanbul is gearing up for its second fashion week of 2021, with the expectation of repeating the success of previous virtual events that reached some 25 million viewers worldwide.

With a physical Mercedes-Benz Istanbul Fashion Week (IFW) not feasible in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisers pivoted to a virtual event.…

THE TURKISH apparel sector is capitalising on sourcing diversification and changes in retailers’ orders in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Exports are up on last year, and the industry is laying the foundations for strong future demand as the sector expands.…

A comprehensive study of 3,650 students from 55 counties worldwide has indicated that the expansion of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has not reduced the attraction of moving countries to undertake in-person higher education in foreign universities and colleges.

Indeed, the study, by IDP Connect, part of Australia-based international student recruitment leader IDP Education, showed that 79% of students questioned were only considering overseas on-campus options.…

The food halal market for Portugal, a largely Christian country that was in the early Middle Ages part of the Muslim world, has been expanding, serving a growing local Muslim community and Muslim tourists keen to taste Portuguese food.

Between 711 and 1249, most of Portugal was under Muslim rule, which influenced its language and culture.…

THE TURKISH apparel sector is capitalising on sourcing diversification and changes in retailers’ orders in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Exports are up on last year, and the industry is laying the foundations for strong future demand as the sector expands.…

Istanbul is gearing up for its second fashion week of 2021, with the expectation of repeating the success of previous virtual events that reached some 25 million viewers worldwide.

With a physical Mercedes-Benz Istanbul Fashion Week (IFW) not feasible in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisers pivoted to a virtual event.…

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has unveiled plans to upgrade its recommendation 24 on transparency and beneficial ownership, stressing how the Pandora papers leaks confirmed the ML vulnerabilities posed by anonymous shell companies and other pro-secrecy arrangements.  In its proposals, FATF wants all countries to ban the issue of bearer shares and establish a beneficial ownership registry, “or use an alternative system that also enables efficient access to beneficial ownership information by competent authorities”.…

Turkish apparel manufacturers are investing significant sums of money in sustainability and traceability, implementing international standards, and adopting digitalisation in anticipation of more consumer demand for eco-friendly products.

With Turkey a higher-end (and cost) apparel manufacturing hub than east Asia, Egypt or Africa, the country’s industry is banking on its value-added production to retain as well as expand exports to Europe and North America.…

The Turkish apparel sector is looking to build on its long-standing record as a major apparel producer for the American market, offering quality products at a swifter time-to-market than its key competitors in Asia, especially China.

Turkey’s apparel exports to the USA remain robust – at around USD1 billion-a-year according to Mehmet Kaya, a board member of the Istanbul Apparel Exporters Association (İstanbul Hazır Giyim ve Konfeksiyon İhracatçıları Birliği – İHKİB).…

The new chair of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has said the body will consider reviewing its standard on intangibles, IAS 38. Following feedback from advisory groups and consultative bodies, Andreas Barckow said that IAS 38 is “more than 20 years old and has never been revisited other than for consequential changes resulting from other projects”.…

Hubris comes in many forms, but surely the rushed exit of American forces from Afghanistan to meet an artificial political deadline of the 20^th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the USA is a breathtaking example.

Rather than strengthening the agents of reform in Afghanistan, upon which the US and its allies have inefficiently spent trillions of dollars, this helter-skelter exit has undermined them, leaving at the mercy of a resurgent Taliban.…

INTRODUCTION

While debates continue over whether Aristotle actually said ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, the concept that a system can deliver more impact than each element of its technology acting alone is well established in the textile sector.…

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.…

The home textile sector is a strong growth segment for digital investments within the industry and the amount of innovation indicates this expansion has some way to go. There are good reasons why this segment is well suited to digitalisation. One is the rectangular form of most bed sheets, curtains and tablecloths – which aids fully automated cutting and sewing.…

Japanese paint companies have felt the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their bottom lines over the last 18 months, although their fortunes appear to have diverged in the first half of this calendar year. Firms that have a strong presence in China, where the economy has already bounced back strongly, are faring better than those that are primarily focused on domestic sales or export markets still struggling to shake off the lingering effects of the global health crisis.…

Mauritius’ textile and clothing manufacturing sector is expected to witness year-on-year growth of around 18.5% this year (2021) after suffering a severe Covid-19-related contraction of 28.6% in 2020. The National Accounts Estimates released by Statistics Mauritius in June (1) predict robust growth for country’s textile and apparel industry, which accounts for almost 50% of the country’s overall manufacturing.…

The European anti-fraud office (OLAF) and European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) have struck a cooperation agreement to ensure their future work dovetails. They have agreed to exchange information; set guidelines on reporting and transferring potential cases; and deciding how to mutually support each other’s investigations.…

INTRODUCTION

Until now, the use of sensors within garments has been regarded as a specialist technical exercise, usually as a means of delivering medical information to doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals. However, production advances, especially the integration of sensors within yarns using nanotech and conductive fibre is opening up a wider range of more user-friendly functions that could bring sensor tech to the mass consumer market.…

Turkey is struggling to recover its position as an important supplier of high-end and luxury fabrics, recouping sales lost on cost to Chinese rivals. The industry retains great potential strength, being the world’s fifth largest supplier of textiles selling USD12 billion exported annually, according to Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (İTHİB – İstanbul Tekstil ve Hammaddeleri İhracatcilari Birlig).…

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 Turkish garment and textile industry is investing heavily in Industry 4.0 across the manufacturing spectrum, as digitalisation and e-commerce becomes increasingly common place in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic has changed everything, shaking the business from the top to the bottom.…

Nearly a year on from a spottily-respected UN-brokered ceasefire between Libya’s warring factions, the country’s universities are hoping a planned new national government will deliver sufficient stability to overhaul their higher education system. Their goal is raising standards in both teaching and research.…

INTRODUCTION

Graphene has been hailed as a wonder material by its promoters – and for once in the tarnished history of scientific hyperbole – these claims seem to have significant merit. The reality is that graphene does not only offer textile manufacturers the ability to improve the functionality of their products, it helps them achieve this in an environmentally sustainable way.…

INTRODUCTION

The textile industry is one of the world’s oldest manufacturing sector, yet it is also one of the most dynamic, constantly reinventing itself. Today, the development of micro-factories might herald root-and-branch change in how the textile and clothing industry operates, a transformation driven by advances in digital textile printing.…

INNOVATIVE confectionery and sweet bakery companies will be able from next month (July) to explore applying for research funding from the European Union’s (EU) Horizon Europe programme, which has a budget of around EUR95.5 billion. This spending will last until 2027, with companies needing to form international consortia focused on food, ingredients and packaging projects to have the best chance of securing funding.…

MALTA’S only multiple casino operator has been fined over serious AML/CFT failings, with the country’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) ordering Tumas Gaming Ltd to undertake AML control reforms.

The company must pay EUR233,156 for breaching the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations.…

THE WIDE diversity of AML laws worldwide can complicate the enforcement of AML/CFT extradition proceedings.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations 37 and 39 say that governments should be prepared to extradite money launderers (and terrorist financiers) to another country if they both criminalise the underlying predicate offence.…

As the Turkish garment sector rebounds from the drop in sales last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry is looking to tap growing demand from European retailers – and consumers – for garments made closer to home, benefiting from its advantage of being the main near-shore supplier for Europe.…

As the Turkish garment sector rebounds from the drop in sales last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry is looking to tap growing demand from European retailers – and consumers – for garments made closer to home, benefiting from its advantage of being the main near-shore supplier for Europe.…

CUSTOMS forces can benefit from new sensor kit, enabling them to scan containers to ensure contents are as declared on docket – but to use these techniques to fight trade-based money laundering, they need to be integrated with accurate financial intelligence.…

Nearly a year after the Covid-19 pandemic adversely impacted the Turkish garment sector, the country’s clothing manufacturers are once again complaining of ill-treatment by major brands amid subdued market demand.

“The year has not started well. We are again facing some unfair treatment by some brands,” Hadi Karasu, president of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TGSD, Türkiye Giyim Sanayicileri Derneği) told just-style.…

Environmental regulation is becoming increasingly tight for textile companies and this of special concern for the higher-tech side of the industry where new fibres, chemicals and processes are delivering a cutting edge. This is especially the case for innovative segments such as performance and outdoor materials.…

INTRODUCTION

NEW technology can deliver effective maintenance strategies to clothing and textile manufacturers, helping them go beyond reactive and proactive maintenance, moving into the more sophisticated world of prediction. The goal is to deliver an optimum maintenance strategy that enables manufacturers to get the most value out of their plant and equipment by spending the least amount of time, resources and money to deliver effective performance.…

The Lahore-based Sapphire Group has been blazing a good practice example to Pakistan’s fabric manufacturing sector by focusing on innovation when many local competitors have failed to update their production practice and technology.

With an annual turnover of USD800 million and an asset base exceeding USD500 million, the Sapphire Group has been optimising its productivity though careful attention process timing targets.…

The US new administration of President Joe Biden has a real opportunity to help forge peace in Syria, and if it succeeds, it could reap a series of important foreign policy goals.

This Levant country needs calm and reconstruction. For that to happen, the Biden team needs to recognise that the Baathist regime of President Bashar Hafez al-Assad has won this conflict, and still has rights in areas controlled by Kurds.…

The US new administration of President Joe Biden has a real opportunity to help forge peace in Syria, and if it succeeds, it could reap a series of important foreign policy goals.

This Levant country needs calm and reconstruction. For that to happen, the Biden team needs to recognise that the Baathist regime of President Bashar Hafez al-Assad has won this conflict, and still has rights in areas controlled by Kurds.…

The director general of the European Textile and Apparel Confederation,

Euratex, has warned that the military takeover in Myanmar could halt what has been a boom in clothing export sales to Europe, which grew 40% in 2020, year-on-year.

Dirk Vantyghem told just-style this has been achieved through a major increase in Chinese investment into the country’s clothing industry – its upstream textile segment remains small.…

The Turkish digital printing sector was hard hit in 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic, but as demand for garments and textiles has rebounded, so has demand for new printers. Turkey is set to become one of the world’s top three digital printers in terms of capacity and machinery, with the trend for smaller print runs and retailers seeking orders made closer to home being major growth drivers.…

IMPORTANT building blocks of anti-fraud regulatory and law enforcement policies and programmes for the European Union (EU) have been introduced in the past two months, as the EU continues to grapple with endemically high levels of financial crime and corruption.…

The Gulf kingdom of Bahrain is kicking off 2021 with the grand opening of its new airport passenger terminal, a 210,000 square metre (sqm) building that is four times the size of the existing facility. Following its official opening on January 28, the terminal will be capable of processing 130,000 air traffic movements a year, up from 95,500 in 2019, and will have a handling capacity of 4,700 bags an hour. …

BRITISH and European Union (EU) confectioners must take care to ensure their products meet new origin rules if they want them covered by the duty free goods provisions of the new EU/UK trade agreement struck on Christmas Eve.

The 1,256-page deal includes complex and comprehensive origin rules, such as for chocolate, which can be deemed made in the EU and Britain if all dairy, eggs and honey used are sourced locally, as well as at least 40% of grains, malt, starches and wheat, (which must also not exceed 30% of costs).…

The Mauritius clothing and textile sector has been assessing its use of technology to reduce costs and boost efficiency as it mulls how to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic in good shape to compete globally.

Avinash Goburdhun, managing director and owner of Wensum Ltd, a company supplying formal wear to the UK and USA, said: “More emphasis is being laid on the use of technology across the factories, with more lean production and supply chain consolidation to reduce airfreight costs.”…

ARAB COUNTRIES MUST JOIN WEST IN DIPLOMATIC ENGAGEMENT WITH SYRIA TO FORGE NEW PEACE

After a 10-year-old civil war in which an estimated 400,000 people have died, calls for restoring diplomatic relations with the ruthless government of Bashar al-Assad, now controlling around 75% of the country, sound like bitter medicine.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has ramped up pressure on Turkey to stop exploratory oil and gas drilling in Mediterranean waters that EU member state Cyprus claims is within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Turkey’s state-owned oil company TPAO (Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı) has sent its drillship Yavuz south of Cyprus, notably testing areas close to Israel’s EEZ that have anticipated major gas deposits.…

The Turkish textile finishing industry is playing a key role in helping UK-based international chemical producer LiquidNano make and sell new DiOX high-performance fabric coatings for water and oil repellency and anti-viral properties, helping Turkey textile manufacturers target demand created by the Covid-19 pandemic.…

The Turkish textile finishing industry is playing a key role in helping UK-based international chemical producer LiquidNano make and sell new DiOX high-performance fabric coatings for water and oil repellency and anti-viral properties, helping Turkey textile manufacturers target demand created by the Covid-19 pandemic.…

Mavi, the Turkish denim giant, sold 9.7 million pairs of jeans worldwide in 2019, and, its chief executive has told just-style, has rebounded from the shuttering of the garment sector earlier this year with e-commerce sales doubling in its major markets.…

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.…

Textile industry innovators are seeking to create and improve naturally coloured cotton, that can reduce or even remove the need for manufacturers to add dyes that can be expensive and generate significant levels of pollution.

Natural coloured cotton is not new, with Liv Severino, head of Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, a state-owned research corporation affiliated with Brazil’s ministry of agriculture, livestock and food supply, noting evidence that human clothes were made from such fibres in the Andes 5,000 years ago.…

THE TURKISH clothing manufacturing sector says it has struck an accord with major brand buyers who they earlier this year accused of leaving them stranded during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic through contract cancellations, postponements, and payment delays.

This had left Turkish manufacturers with some USD3.5 billion in inventory and orders on hold, sparking action by trade bodies such as the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TGSD), which issued a letter of complaint in the International Textile Manufacturers Federation’s (ITMF) April newsletter.…

THE UNITED Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has proposed creating a permanent ‘observatory’ monitoring cocoa markets, assessing value and costs, to help chocolate sales revenues be more equitably distributed throughout supply chains.

In a report called a ‘Comparative study on the distribution of value in European chocolate chains’, the FAO said such “objectified and cross-checked data” would aid “a multi-stakeholder discussion” at national and global levels on revenue sharing.…

UNPRECEDENTED demand for aluminium cans caused by consumers drinking at home during lockdowns and associated restaurant and café closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will not cause long term disruption to this key canning market, say industry experts. Instead, manufacturers will work closely with customers to maintain supplies, European and United States (US) industry organisations have told CanTech International.…

The Syrian tobacco sector has been hard hit by the civil war and associated social conflicts, now stretching into their tenth year. Tobacco leaf volumes and planted areas have dropped by around a third since the start of these troubles, factories have been destroyed, and sanctions have forced international brands from formal trading channels in Syria.…

ITALY’s paint industry is hopeful that the end of the country’s Covid-19 lockdown will herald a surge in business, interrupted by the pandemic. Gianni Martinetti, president of the Paints and Varnishes Group of AVISA, the adhesives and sealants, paints and varnishes and inks division of national chemicals industry association, Federchimica said: “The hope is that, after two very hard months of lockdown, we can start again with the same liveliness that was found in the first quarter of 2020.”…

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.…

EUROPEAN sugar users’ association CIUS has warned about slow progress within the talks between the European Union (EU) and the UK over a permanent relationship after the current transitional Brexit period expires on December 31. The CIUS wants this period extended – a step that the British government is currently refusing to take.…

Egypt’s garment and textile manufacturing sector has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, despite strict lockdown measures not being enacted and factories being able to stay open.

“A lot of orders were cancelled, or delayed, and many companies went into Chapter 11 (bankruptcy),” said Mohamed Kassem, chairman of the Egyptian Company for Textile Parks Development, in Cairo.…

The president of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TGSD) has complained about the treatment his members have experienced at the hand of international brands during the Covid-19 crisis. By cancelling current and future orders, extending payment terms and demanding discounts, brands have devastated the Turkish garment manufacturing sector, with 80% of factories stopping production, and leaving them with an estimated USD3 billion in inventory on hold, said the TGSD boss.…

• 1MDB SCANDAL IN MALAYSIA SEES USD BILLIONS STOLEN AND HIDDEN

Malaysia 1MDB scandal is one of the largest money laundering cases ever, worldwide, with Malaysian courts considering charges over how at least USD4.5 billion was stolen and then spent or laundered from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad by former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his associates.…

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.…

CHINESE consumers, especially in younger generations such as Millennials and Generation Z, are increasingly concerned with eating healthily- and that includes snack choices. In a trend that may increase following the Covid-19 outbreak, sales of yoghurts, nut snacks and snack bars have all seen soaring growth in sales in recent years.…

INTRODUCTION – SERIES

A series of reports from WTiN is exploring the need for the textile and clothing sector to protect itself against attacks from cybercriminals as it invests in new transformative Industry 4.0 technologies – extended reality, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.…

DIGITAL textile printers continue to seek for technological ways by which they can leverage the innate advantages their equipment has over conventional printing, and one is exploring the use of nanoparticles in finishing chemicals – delivering innovation that can sharpen the existing competitive advantage in design and sustainability enjoyed by digital printers.…

A joint venture between Turkey’s Kıvanç Tekstil and India’s Reliance Industries involves the Turkish textile manufacturer producing textiles from supplies of 2,500 tonnes of recycled polyester feedstock received every year. Through an agreement inked in July 2019, Kıvanç Tekstil can manufacture and market Reliance’s R|ElanTM GreenGold fabrics under licence.…

NATIONAL minimum wages have been rising in clothing manufacturing outsourcing hubs around the world, with low and medium-cost manufacturing centres increasing pay rates, as their governments seek to balance the need for export competitiveness with the value of industrial peace to avoid production disruption and the ability to retain experienced staff.…

Morocco’s textile and garment industry is undergoing an intense process of development to better meet today’s business challenges and the intense competition within the crowded international garment production sector.  With a mere 10 kilometres of Strait of Gibraltar seawater between Morocco’s key port Tanger-Med and Spain, Morocco should be a natural choice to lead in short ordering and fast fashion for European markets, however things are never just that simple.…

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.…

WITH Middle East dairy sales expanding steadily, dairy suppliers from around the world are targeting its consumers, hoping to gain a foothold in an increasingly diverse marketplace that is often open to innovation.

Dairy Industries International attended the 4th Global Dairy Innovation Congress MENA 2020, held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), from January 20-21, where participants were encouraged by sales projections as from market researcher Euromonitor International that the Middle East (and Africa) dairy market should expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 3% between 2019 and 2023.…

THE FINANCIAL Action Task Force (FATF) has raised concerns about the effectiveness of the Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) given its involvement in a significant number of legal cases since the 2016 coup, which sparked a wave of government action against suspected or actual political opponents.…

THE UZBEKISTAN clothing and textile industry is eyeing a major increase in clothing and textile imports as its government liberalises what was until three-years-ago a largely unreformed post-Soviet state. A key goal is swapping raw cotton exports for overseas sales of added value textiles and clothing.…

The Netherlands-based investment trust, Impala Invest BV, has reached an agreement with creditors banks and will take over troubled Greek pigmeat, turkey, cheese and other deli product manufacturer Creta Farms, according to sources close to a planned deal. While company representatives have yet to release a formal statement on the plans, because Crete-based Creta Farms operates under temporary administration appointed from a court of first instance, the final approval of the deal is expected to be announced in the next few days.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for a more robust approach to defend European honey production, as bee numbers continue to fall. In a motion supported almost unanimously, the EP’s environment committee has called for the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – which is now under review – to include active steps on reducing pesticide use, which MEPs blame for honey bee deaths.…

Time was that the Gulf was a hotspot for paint and coatings sales and production, with frothy demand fuelled by major building projects – most met by locally manufactured product. But today, demand for paint in the Gulf countries is sluggish due to low oil prices, depressing overall economies and a drop in the number of infrastructure and real estate projects under construction.…

African garment and textile manufacturers are trying to create more synergy to better integrate the supply chain within the continent, but North African producers still dominate, and are expanding capacity, particularly in Egypt, say participants at a major regional industry meeting.…

The Chinese government has started doubling down on facilitating increased Chinese investment in the textile industry in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, notably in Central Asia, recent statements from the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) have indicated.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission – the European Union (EU) executive – has claimed its Erasmus+ higher education exchange initiative is significantly boosting tertiary studies for African students and academics, with 8,500 Africans benefiting this year (2019).

In a report on the programme, which has been hailed as a flagship of the EU’s positive international impact, the Commission said that this figure was poised to keep growing, so that it will have helped more than 35,000 African students and academics by 2020.…

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. …

Jordanian garment manufacturers and supporting institutions like the International Labour Organization’s Better Work Jordan, plan to introduce garment design training to add value to a sector that is primarily ‘cut and sew’.

Jordan exported USD1.8 billion’s worth of garments last year, just over half to the USA, at USD1.02 billion, but designs are primarily provided by buyers and retailers, with minimal design in-country.…

THE TURKISH plastics manufacturing sector has grown exponentially over the past decade, but growth has spluttered over the past year due to the country’s economic downturn and currency depreciation raising the cost of raw materials. Investment has also slowed, but manufacturers are optimistic the sector will rebound, with exports remaining strong.…

ISRAEL faces a particularly high terrorist-financing risk from outside its borders, while fraud, tax offences, organised crime, public sector corruption and the use of cash heighten domestic money laundering risks. The Israeli government has integrated these risks into its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) policies and laws.…

FAR from being the zone of volatility of the 1990s, eastern and central Europe’s economies and hence their paint and coatings markets, are enjoying stability and steady growth. In Croatia, for instance, according to market researcher Euromonitor International data, the paint and coating industry posted revenues of USD147 million, USD 2 million more than in 2017.…

As recycling schemes collecting waste paint become more common worldwide,

innovation within the field is being encouraged and rewarded.

Some manufacturers have developed processes to mix waste products with virgin paint to create reformulated paint for retail. Other organisations are supporting underprivileged community groups with free paint to protect and decorate public buildings.…

Months after taking the reins as president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Dr Rubana Huq is determined to fulfill her key goal of ensuring the industry effectively monitors its own environmental and health standards.

It is an important job given how the country’s clothing and textile sector has worked to improve a safety reputation battered by the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster.…

THE NONWOVENS industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is still struggling with over-capacity, while declining purchasing power has hit the mid- and higher-tier segments, prompting global players to reconsider product offerings.

MENA economies have been impacted by low oil prices and regional instability, with growth forecast at 1.5% this year, down from 1.7% in 2018, according to investment bank JP Morgan.…

Industry forecasts for Italy’s paints and coatings market are expected to remain relatively stable through 2019, mainly sustained by stability in the domestic construction and automotive sectors and continuing sales growth in foreign markets. Data from market research provider Euromonitor International released last December (2018) projected production turnover in Italy to grow by 0.5% in the 2018-2019 period, with an estimated value of just over EUR6.1 billion in 2019.…

EVERY manufacturing and agricultural industry has an impact on climate change – and the tobacco sector is no different. Faced with long-standing criticism of the health impact of its products, the tobacco industry is now facing attacks that its work generates carbon emissions and hence climate change.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

MARCH’S approval by the European Parliament of new European Union (EU) electricity market rules, designed to increase consumer choice, boost renewables access and cap power subsidies, were hailed by the European Commission as a new dawn for the creation of the EU’s much vaunted Energy Union.…

BANGLADESH’S major textile and clothing manufacturers are pumping millions of dollars into digital printing, encouraged by the lure of better margins, cost savings and shorter lead times, industry watchers say.

With conventional textile printing losing its prominence, the country’s top textile producers have spent around USD30 million buying European and Asian digital printing machinery in the past three to four years, industry experts have told Digital Textile.…

FOOD hazard reports relating to meat and meat products have been rising fast worldwide, according to data released by HorizonScan, a global food safety database which gathers food safety and inspection alerts from more than 115 sources in more than 70 countries.…

FOOD hazard reports relating to meat and meat products have been rising fast worldwide, according to data released by HorizonScan, a global food safety database which gathers food safety and inspection alerts from more than 115 sources in more than 70 countries.…

United States (US) President Donald Trump’s announcement, May 10, to slap 25% additional tariffs on plastics exports to China could increase opportunities for European plastics exporters, experts have told Plastics News Europe.

Mike Boswell, managing director of UK-based plastics products supplier Plastribution, said: “Sales could increase to the US, depending on which items, as US products will become more expensive because of duty barriers.”…

THE LONG lines of customer to the cash register in Inditex stores – the giant Spanish company behind High Street fashion brands Zara, Bershka and Pull&Bear (among others) – are also now buying personal care products as well as clothes. They funnel customers through shelves that are not only bursting with low-cost impulse buys, such as hair accessories, smart phone covers and key rings, but now also Inditex scents.…

TURKEY is delaying introducing new requirements and tariffs on textile imports from China while its government waits to see if there is any escalation in the ongoing Sino-American trade war. The government in Ankara has been mulling protecting Turkey’s textile trade with China since last June (2018), to lessen the country’s trade deficit with China, aiding Turkish manufacturers, according to Turkish newspaper 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.…

Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws have been used extensively by its government following the 2016 attempted coup, but fighting money laundering, corruption and financial crime has not been given the same priority.

With the rule of law undermined by the sacking or suspension of an estimated 150,000 members of the judiciary, civil service and military deemed part of the plot to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, eyes are on the mutual evaluation report being undertaken by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of Turkey this year.…

THE INTERNATIONAL clothing industry needs to take a holistic and assertive approach to fighting intellectual property theft and counterfeiting, which while can be easier to detect today, because of advances in data analysis, still poses a significant threat, an expert USA seminar was told.…

CHINA continues to be the largest source of clothing and accessories detected as being unsafe for consumers in the European Union (EU), according to data analysed by just-style from the EU Safety Gate database.

Formerly the EU Rapid Alert System (RAPEX), the database shows that of the 221 safety warnings issued by the system about apparel and accessory products in 2018, 102 of these lines were supplied from China.…

EXPERTS have raised concerns about what they regard an over concentration on arts and sharia-based courses by Somalia universities, when country’s re-emerging peacetime economy has a desperate need for science, business and industrial graduates.

A permanent political settlement in Somalia is still awaited, but the country is far more stable than the outright civil war and anarchy of the past – and so, say commentators, need more practical science expertise than the country’s universities and colleges produce.…

THE EGYPTIAN economy is still struggling to overcome the problem of low hard currency reserves, a challenge that has negatively affected the local paints and coatings industry due its high dependence on imports.

“There has been a crisis in terms of availability of US dollars to purchase raw materials and most of the raw materials are imported,” said Himanshu Vasisht, project lead for energy and chemicals at India-based market researcher Mordor Intelligence.…

THE PASSING of the USD5 billion annual clothing export milestone by Sri Lanka is especially significant, says its industry association, because it has been achieved while maintaining an “ethical and reliable brand”.

The country’s total clothing exports reached USD5.05 billion last year (2018 calendar year), posting an annual gain of 4.97% year-on-year, Joint Apparel Association Forum Sri Lanka (JAAFSL) secretary general, Tuly Cooray told just-style.…

THE JAPANESE nuclear sector may have the backing of its government, but a combination of technical challenges and public unpopularity is impeding plans to restore the country’s nuclear capacity towards its generation before the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

During a news conference on January 1, Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, was pessimistic about the industry’s future.…

TURKISH textile and clothing manufacturers are eyeing slow but steady export growth in 2019, overcoming the challenges of regional instability, weak European export markets and a cheap Turkish lira that makes imported inputs more expensive.

The Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM – Turkiye Ihracatcilar Meclisi) wants to bolster textile and garment exports by 10% to USD29 billion, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, the country’s national news agency.…

GOVERNMENTS can play a huge role in determining how, when and whether an airport is built – and freed from the market constraints that limit most businesses, these decisions can have big consequences – for good and for ill. When dealing with mega-projects costing billions of dollars, government airport constructions decisions can also have a lot of unintended consequences.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc has stressed that the EU would be firm in imposing access restrictions to EU airports for UK-owned airlines, should the UK crash out of the EU with no deal on March 29. Speaking in Brussels after meeting with Turkey’s transport and infrastructure minister Mehmet Cahit Turan, Bulc said she had been “personally been communicating with all the airlines way ahead of time” so they are aware of the risks of retaining UK majority ownership from that date.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), on US knitwear exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

MOROCCO’S clothing and textile industry association is optimistic about growth in the country’s apparel sector, with fast fashion sales to Europe driving expansion. Mohamed Tazi, general director of Morocco’s clothing and textile industry association AMITH (Association Marocaine des Industries du Textile et de l’Habillement) told just-style he is satisfied with the results of the sector regarding production and exports.…

JORDAN garment exporters maybe growing their export sales, but high costs and declining local purchases could weaken their ability to take advantage of robust growth in overseas demand, industry experts have told just-style.

Jordan’s garments exports are expected to have generated receipts of USD1.8 billion in 2018, and their value is expected to grow by at least 8% in 2019, a source at the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation told the Jordan Times newspaper this week.…

The African Union’s African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement is expected to provide a boost to Egypt’s garments industry and enable it to better compete in the global market, but logistics and Egyptian export red tape will pose a major challenge, say industry executives.…

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been touted by Beijing as a ‘win-win’ for all actors involved in the sprawling infrastructure project that connects the Far East with Europe – but it could be a double-edged sword for Turkey’s textile and garment sector, warn experts.…

NORTH Africa offers personal care product majors populous markets, close to European manufacturing centres, with large and growing middle classes (outside troubled Libya) – but trading in these countries is not without complication. Regulatory shifts, counterfeiting and some security concerns make these useful markets a challenge for brands to tap.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling sought by the USA on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), Canada, China, and Mexico on US confectionery and sweet bakery and associated ingredient exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

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.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), Canada, China, and Mexico on US drinks exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), Canada, China, and Mexico on US drinks exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

DIGITAL production technologies could help African manufacturers pick up business lost by Chinese rivals because of the trade war in the USA, with brands looking to take advantage of the free trade agreements that many African countries have with the USA and Europe.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has agreed to establish disputes settlement panels to rule on whether retaliatory duties imposed by Canada, China, and Mexico on US meat exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

COUNTERFEIT foodstuffs were the most common fake good seized by European Union (EU) customs in 2017 – making up 24% of the total – as fakers increasingly look the Internet to sell their illicit wares. Keith Nuthall unpicks the latest EU data on pirated products.…

THE SEVERE depreciation of the Turkish lira (TRY) this summer has adversely affected the car sector, with domestic sales halving. While the country’s USD31 billion automotive export market has not been so badly impacted, manufacturers’ bottom lines have taken a hit due to the higher cost of importing key raw materials.  …

A SYNDICATED loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is enabling Turkish company Aksa Akrilik, already one of the world’s largest manufacturers of acrylic and acrylic fibres, to significantly expand its operations.
The EBRD loan agreement, signed in July and covering seven years, was the fourth the bank has provided to Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayi A.S.,…

Charities continue to be at risk of being exploited by terrorist groups looking to transfer money and finance their operations, with the Middle East a high-risk area.

These non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are, however, criticising the extra scrutiny the sector is facing from regulators, banks and governments, saying it is driving charity financing into the shadows, actually increasing risks of financing by crime and terror groups.…

With traditional universities increasingly using web-based learning as a way of recruiting students world-wide, University World News spoke to the head of Italy’s top online university to see how it has developed a successful model for international higher learning

Enrollments for the 2018-2019 school year at the Rome-based International Telematic University, Uninettuno, have exceeded expectations, university rector Maria Amata Garito, shared with UWN: “I can confirm that enrolments have jumped quite a bit this year – up by circa 200% compared to last year,” said Garito.…

AMERICAN poultry exporters will gain improved access to Canadian markets under the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which was announced late Sunday night. (September 30). The deal has created new duty-free quotas for US chicken and turkey producers, chipping away at the Canadian tariff protection which underpins its supply management system.…

COMMENTATORS may scoff at President Donald Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ negotiating pretentions, but it would be hard to argue that the American food sector was not a winner in the new USA-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal, stuck on September 30.…

WHILE crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and the others have built their reputation and success of the reliability of their blockchain-based transaction records, it does not mean that these financial systems are immune to fraud. Indeed, fraudsters have found ample opportunities to exploit and subvert the eco-system that surrounds cryptocurrencies.…

TURKISH fabric producer Söktaş is significantly expanding its range of sustainable textiles as it looks to meet growing demand for fabrics with eco attributes.

The company – which had expanded its premium shirting fabrics range to fabrics for jackets and trousers – has now introduced organic cotton fabrics into its stock-supported ranges.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Mercosur negotiators went into crucial trade talks in Uruguayan capital Montevideo September 10-14, cheered on by automakers on both sides who want a deal, even though there are tough technical issues to resolve. The round is another bid to smash the deadlock over a future trade pact between the EU and the four founding Mercosur nations – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. …

A senior figure in the American cotton industry has told just-style of his concern that Turkey’s collapsing currency and trade disputes with the US government will cause it to import less US-made cotton.

The Turkish lira – TRY has dropped in value by 45% this year – indeed last September 12, USD1 bought TRY3.43, this September 11, it bought TRY6.43.…

A FAILURE to embrace and adopt science and technology is hurting the clothing, textile and cotton industries of Africa, delegates attending an International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) three-day conference in Nairobi, Kenya, from September 7-9. The annual conference, staged this year in a sub-Saharan African country for the first time in the ITMF’s 114 years of existence, heard experts commenting that a reluctance by African companies to adopt new technology had not only slowed growth in the apparel and textile sector, but was also potentially pushing companies towards stagnation.…

THE US meat industry will be counting the cost of retaliatory tariffs announced today (Sept 18) by the Chinese government on American meat exports. This follows the US Trade Representative (USTR) today confirmed that America will be imposing 10% tariffs on a wide range of products, including meat exports, from China.…

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. …

A TRADE and investment expert based in Istanbul has told WTiN.com that the prospects for Turkey’s textile industry are bright despite the current economic and political challenges facing the country.

The value of Turkey’s currency, the lira, has dropped by 45% this year due to a range of financial difficulties being experienced by the country.…

CANADA’S government has been talking tough about protecting the country’s supply management system, as negotiators conduct what might be the final round of talks to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with the United States and Mexico.

Faced with objections from US President Donald Trump about sky-high Canadian tariffs on out-of-quota imports of some foods, including chicken and turkey, Ottawa has stressed that it wants to preserve its supply management of these poultry products within Canada.…

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.…

THE SCALE of Italy’s paints and varnishes sector remained relatively unchanged through 2017, according to AVISA, a division of Federchimica, the national chemicals industry association. Werther Colonna, president of AVISA, told Polymers Paint Colour Journal (PPCJ) that the sector suffered a difficult year in 2017, marked by a succession of ups and downs, which translated into fluctuating monthly sales.…

CHINA’S plans to become a significant exporter of nuclear power technology to the USA may have been targeted by new tariffs announced in June by the USA, but the Chinese nuclear sector anticipated the move and is pushing ahead with its plans to create a comprehensive supply chain.…

The digital integration of Bangladesh’s booming textiles and garment sector is gaining pace, with ‘Industry 4.0’ becoming a watchword for becoming more competitive. One company that has been taking such technological development very seriously is the Dhaka-based DBL Group, which has targeted digital efficiencies to turbocharge its business growth. …

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.…

EASTERN Europe offers some significant advantages as regards digital fabric printing – it has a high skilled workforce, reliable utilities and transport, access to western European markets, and comparatively low wages.

Its fabric producers also look for technological niches that allow them to compete with Asian manufacturers on quality and western European companies on cost – and digital textile printing as a result is popular.…

THE NEWLY signed 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) could help Vietnam boost garment and textile exports to the lucrative Australian market significantly. But the Asian clothing makers may still face big challenges in taking market share in this mature market away from China, experts warn. …

THE LEBANESE government has moved to ban the sale of certain Turkish products, including textile imports worth USD123.3 million a year, to protect local production.

However, Lebanon’s textile manufacturing sector is small, raising questions as to why Turkish textile imports should be banned.…

THE AMERICAN tobacco industry has had to face up to retaliatory safeguard duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of USA-made tobacco and tobacco products, after US President Donald Trump imposed import duties on EU-made aluminium and steel imports.

The American duties came into force on June 1 and the EU reaction was swift.…

PAKISTAN’S law enforcers and regulators are on the front line when it comes to fighting terrorist financing, money laundering and financial crime in general, both within the country and from across its borders, notably conflict-riven Afghanistan. But its government and state agencies often send mixed messages over their commitment to fight terror finance.…

AMERICA’S pork exporters will be counting the cost of new 25% tariffs announced on Saturday (June 16), by the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council of China, on USA-made meat and poultry exports. The duties were a response to tariffs announced the day before (June 15) by the USA Trade Representative (USTR), on China-made meat preparation and poultry-keeping equipment.…

THE USA personal care product industry is under fire, with the European Union (EU) and Canada and Mexico announcing plans to impose protective duties on American exports following the decision by the Trump administration to levy tariffs on streel and aluminium exports on these key trading partners.…

THE USA personal care product industry is under fire, with the European Union (EU) and Canada and Mexico announcing plans to impose protective duties on American exports following the decision by the Trump administration to levy tariffs on streel and aluminium exports on these key trading partners.…

A EUROPEAN Commission plan to identify online and physical marketplaces outside the European Union (EU) where counterfeiting piracy or other forms of intellectual property (IP) abuse are common practices has brought hope to the cosmetics sector. Continuously confronted with counterfeit and black-market goods, the legitimate industry sees the EU’s upcoming ‘Counterfeit and Piracy Watch-List’ as a way to minimise financial losses from pirates and smugglers.…

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam, a religious duty every Muslim should perform once in their lifetime. But with 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide and the Hajj only occurring over five days every year, the event is a logistical challenge for the Saudi Arabian government, tour operators, hospitality service providers, retailers and accountants.…

Argentina’s auto industry had expected a near record year in 2018, but unexpected financial problems that have hit the country in the past month could push the economy into recession and dampen local demand for cars. 
These problems are a far cry from the optimism expressed on April 4, when the heads of three carmakers spoke bullishly about production and sales growth at a business conference staged in Buenos Aires by economic consultancy Invecq Consulting. …

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.…

TECHNIQUES for using forensic linguistics to detect fraud continue to be refined as experts debate the best and most reliable way to use such technology and practices. Indeed, specialists continue to disagree over how forensic linguistics should be used in the anti-fraud arena.…

Brazil is by far the country most-named in American investigations for crimes against the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), with China trailing behind in second place, according to the latest listing from a blog, FCPA Tracker. It says industries cited in the different FCPA probes tied to Brazil include power generation, waste management, oil and gas services, food production, steel manufacturing and telecommunications.…

SURGING rates of cybercrime are driving businesses of all kinds to devote more attention and resources to preventing cyber-attacks, and drilling employees on how to respond to attacks is a key and increasingly important precaution.

According to John Skipper, a UK-based cyber security expert at specialist technology and innovation consultants, PA Consulting,

“Every organisation should be training staff to recognise a potential threat and react correctly.…

A TEAM of Turkish experts has discovered how to use welding techniques to construct e-textiles for use in firefighters’ protective gear.

Since 2015, under a European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research programme-financed project led by the Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, universities, clothing manufacturers, and experts in smart textile technologies and electronics have been investigating the use of welding techniques to construct interactive textiles.…

THE NONWOVEN adult incontinence market in Europe is offering hygiene product manufacturers and brands a chance to profit in a wider sanitary segment that has been and remains highly competitive.

Western Europe has a high per capita consumption in sanitary protection and a fiercely competitive retailing environment, according to Miles Agbanrin, an analyst for market researcher Euromonitor International.…

Turkey’s textile exports appear to be moving ahead, with strong growth indicated in 2018, up 10.5% overall in March (2018) year-on-year, according to data from the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM). Exports of textiles and raw materials rose 13.8% year-on-year at the end of March 2018, to USD9.03 billion.…

VISITORS to the INDO Intertex in Jakarta, Indonesia, will not only be introduced to the state-of-the-art textile and garment machinery, but also meet with potential clients, exchange business insights around key areas such as sustainability and energy efficiency and expand connections, organisers said.…

The INDO Intertex textile machinery exhibition will be staged in the Indonesian capital Jakarta next month to boost investment in a textile and clothing sector that is growing, the show’s project manager Paul Kingsen said. 

“The theme for this year INDO Intertex is investment growth acceleration.…

GERMANY’S federal finance ministry has said it will lend EUR1.2 billion to a key Azerbaijan company involved in developing Caspian Sea natural gas, exporting it via a burgeoning pipeline network to central and western Europe. Azerbaijan’s ‘Closed Joint Stock Company Southern Gas Corridor’ (SJCC), formed in 2014 by presidential decree, will borrow the funds to help develop the Shah Deniz offshore gas field in the Caspian.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has warned that is prepared to impose temporary safeguard duties on imports into the EU of USA-made knitwear, as it launched its reaction to the establishment of American import duties on aluminium and steel imports. EU trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström told the European Parliament on March 22 that the preparations would continue despite the US exempting the EU from its metal duties until May 1, to allow discussions to continue.…

Brussels South Charleroi Airport has has to rethink its development plans after a January 25 ruling in the European Union’s (EU) General Court forced a 500% hike in its concession fee.  The court (part of the European Court of Justice) threw out Charleroi’s challenge to the European’s Commission 2004 decision that the EUR3 million annual concession fee that Belgium’s Wallonia Region was charging the airport was an illegal subsidy under the bloc’s state aid rules.…

SENOR Russian government officials have conformed to GlobalMeatNews plans to build Russia’s largest duck meat production unit, in the Iskitimsky district of Novosibirsk region (oblast), south-western Siberia.

Russian ministry of agriculture and Novosibirsk oblast bureaucrats said the unit would be constructed by the Ulybino Poultry Factory Company, a major Russian poultry producer.  …

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.…

A NEW multi-million dollar textile and clothing manufacturing hub is set to be established within the Crimea as a pressing Russian government priority to halt the annexed region’s trade in illegal textile products, according to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Boosting domestic textile production – initially in garment fabrics and subsequently technical textiles – is aimed in part to depress demand for illicit goods in the peninsular, predominantly from China and Turkey.…

TURKEY has become “a powerhouse” in the nonwovens sector and forecasts predict further growth of between 5-10% this year with “game changer” new products coming to market, according to industry insiders – but overcapacity is keeping margins tight, they warn.

Turkey is the largest nonwovens producer in the Middle East, and now the second largest in Europe, according to European nonwovens industry association EDANA.…

THE JORDANIAN cabinet has approved in principle a deal between Jordan’s ministry of energy and mineral resources and Iraq’s oil ministry to build an oil and gas pipeline linking the main southern Iraq oilfields near Basra and Jordan’s port, Aqaba. The Jordanian ministry has said that the 1,680km pipeline could daily pump one million barrels of oil daily and 258 million cubic feet of gas to Jordan.…

IF there is one issue that is a key focus of the north American nonwovens sector this year, it has to be the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Tri-lateral talks have now reached their eighth round, with an objective of achieving a new deal by this summer, although observers believe this timescale might slip.…

EXPORTERS of air cargo, including clothing and textiles, from five Middle Eastern countries to the United States are in the process of gearing up to comply with mandatory enhanced screening imposed by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The order, disseminated on January 22, requires six air carriers flying from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to participate in the TSA’s heretofore voluntary Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) programme.…

A NEW Turkish-Algerian public-private joint venture clothing and textile manufacturing facility is now under construction – with operations due to start this year. Its goal is to help transform the Algerian economy, diversifying it away from an over-reliance on oil and boosting its struggling clothing and textile sector.…

IF there is a quality that gives many Israeli companies an edge internationally, it is innovation. And this trait can certainly be said to run through the work of Israeli apparel major Delta Galil, based in Caesarea, northern Israel.

“We could not succeed if we were not innovative” said Isaac Dabah, the company’s CEO of Delta Galil, in an exclusive interview with just-style, held at his office.…

With China losing its sheen as a low-cost manufacturing heartland, Bangladesh’s clothing exporters are tapping into this opportunity by diversifying into another new higher margin segment — suits.

Senior executives and analysts told just-style how potential larger profits are drawing in major manufacturers, who are now confronting the challenges of building technical knowhow, recruiting skilled labour and attracting global buyers available. …

BEET and cane sugar exports from the European Union (EU) boomed in 2017, the year production quotas were scrapped (on September 30), according to figures released by the European Commission. They rose by 42.9% year-on-year, up from EUR631 million in 2016 to EUR902 million in 2017.…

FINANCIAL crime experts are urging Indonesia to step up its war on terror financing and money laundering highlighting the south-east Asian nation’s vulnerability to these threats. The USA state department’s 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) noted these threats are significant despite Indonesia neither being a regional financial centre nor an offshore financial haven.…

THE LAUNCH of a Turkish-Algerian joint venture is set to reduce textile imports into the North African country by as much as 90%, according to government officials. Claiming the initiative will operate Africa’s second largest manufacturing textile complex, in Sidi Khettab, in the northwestern province of Relizane, in Algeria, the country’s ministry of industry and mines says it will employ 25,000 people within three years.…

THE NONWOVENS market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is increasingly important to the global nonwovens industry, with rising consumer demand being generated by middle classes that are growing in size. Countries in the region are also comparatively young, with high birth rates, boosting demand for diapers and wipes.…

AN AMERICAN court has convicted a former executive of a Turkish state-owned bank for operating a duplicitous trading scheme that involved busting US financial sanctions against Iran. A key witness alleged that these actions had been approved by Turkey’s pugnacious President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.…

LURED by a shifting global market and better margins, Bangladesh’s apparel producers are rushing into the lingerie space, predicting Chinese manufacturers will secure fewer export orders for these lines as their costs rise.

This new niche opportunity for the Bangladesh industry is fortuitous, as it dovetails with the country’s textiles and clothing makers’ core strategy of moving from their traditional low-cost growth pillars, such as t-shirts, shirts, trousers, jackets and sweaters.…

Eurodon, one of Russia’s largest turkey producers, is planning to diversify its business through investing up to Russian Roubles RUB20 billion (USD338 million) in the building lamb production units within the country, the company has announced.

The risk benefits of expanding its risk portfolio have been made all too apparent in the past year, with Eurodon facing a series of outbreaks of avian influenza, which have helped saddle it with financial losses of RUB2.6 billion (USD44 million).…

THE EUROPEAN industrial minerals industry has reacted positively to the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers’ formal approval, December 4, of new anti-dumping rules. Scheduled to come into force on December 20, they may help the EU impose anti-dumping duties against Chinese dumped industrial mineral exports.…

THE TURKISH garment sector has responded to criticism that it has been illegally employing Syrian refugees, including children, by launching awareness programmes, sharing best practice models and initiating training schemes to reduce the commission of such unethical practices.

Most companies have also drawn up specific child labour remediation policies and human rights activists have noticed a marked improvement in the situation since it was first highlighted two years ago, with brands working in conjunction with manufacturers to ensure an ethical environment for workers.…

EGYPT is set to become a new player in the digital textile outsourcing business, with innovative companies now laying plans to digitise their finishing within a country that has a major role in serving global brands – its garment and textile exports were valued at USD2.01 billion in 2016.…

African clothing exporting countries are banking on rising costs in China and changing consumption patterns worldwide to attract buyers to the continent to take advantage of lower production costs.

Major hurdles abound, but manufacturers are hopeful that clothing facilities built from scratch that abide by international best practices will help the continent’s apparel sector develop.…

THE FIVE month-long diplomatic and commercial dispute between Qatar and the so-called ‘anti-terror quartet – ATQ’ of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt) continues and revolves around Doha’s alleged financial support for terrorist groups.…

EGYPT is trying to develop its upstream textile capabilities to bolster exports and be part of an integrated African continent-wide supply chain, linking its cut-and-sew and quality cotton fibre base. While Egypt exported USD764 million worth of fabric and yarn in 2016 according to the country’s Textile Export Council (TEC), challenges abound regarding Egypt’s efforts to generate more value-added textiles.…

THE NUMBER of Turkish textile firms making the most of advantageous business conditions in Serbia and setting up companies in the Balkan state is set to double by the start of the new year, economic experts have predicted.

Offering investors state-of-the-art established production facilities, access to a skilled workforce and financial subsidies on the table, Serbia has proved to be a prime location for Turkish investment, particularly in the textile industry.…

MOSCOW region’s Zhukovsky International Airport aims to become the first Russian airport to list an Initial Public Offering, with plans to float shares on a stock market within the next two to three years. According to Tomas Vaisvila, CEO of Ramport Aero, which operates Zhukovsky, the airport could list an IPO as early as spring 2019.…

THE EUROPEAN Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has warned of the major impact on British and other European Union (EU) knitwear companies, especially brands with integrated upstream fabric and finishing units, should the UK quit the EU as planned, on March 29, 2019.…

NON-governmental organisations (NGO), aid agencies and charities are under increased pressure to abide by international and domestic anti-money laundering and terrorist finance regulations, such as those imposed by the UK, US and European Union (EU), including international sanctions. But it can be tough for NGOs to comply with such rules when operating in countries where there is civil conflict or civil war.…

The Egyptian Pounds EGP1.6 billion (USD90.5 million) Egyptian colour cosmetics market has had steady growth over the past year despite the downturn in the economy, the depreciation of the Egyptian pound and some serious regulatory challenges.

According to market researcher Euromonitor International, in 2016, this market grew by 18% in value terms, year-on-year, mainly influenced by the positive performance of lip care products, primarily lipsticks.…

TURKISH textile and clothing businesses hope to see increased commerce with Bangladesh buyers as the two Asian countries forge ahead with striking a free trade agreement (FTA). “We concluded an FTA with Karachi [Pakistan]. We are going to find the midpoint with Bangladesh also,” said Başaran Bayrak, a council member of the Turkish Exporters Assembly, an autonomous government body working under Turkey’s ministry of economy, that acts as a bridge between the government and the private sector.…

THE RUSSIAN government plans to significantly increase Russian exports of textile and technical textile products to foreign markets over the next few years, officials have told WTiN.com.

Planned export volumes have not yet been disclosed, however, according to some sources close to the ministry of industry and trade, the government is targeting an increase of 100,000-150,000 tonnes in 2017-2018, with the possibility of a three to four-fold increase over the next few years.…

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). …

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.…

BANGLADESH’S government is considering proposals to establish a new national workplace health and safety system to replace the international Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, which are due to be wound up next June (2018).…

QATAR is a small country, roughly half the size of Wales and with a population of 2.5 million. But what it lacks in demography and geography, it makes up for in spending power – and its significant cosmetic surgery industry is a key beneficiary.…

THE RUSSIAN meat industry has reported that its profitability rose by 2.2 times between 2013 and 2016, actually benefitting from the tit-for-tat sanctions imposed by Russia and its western trading partners, according to the Russian ministry of agriculture.

In a report released on August 11, the ministry said state support for Russia’s meat industry increased following the imposition of sanctions.…

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).…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is planning to lend up to USD100 million to LUKOIL Overseas Shah Deniz Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia’s PJSC LUKOIL, helping it take part in developing Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field. This investment is a rare EBRD financing of a Russian company.…

TURKISH and Pakistani textile executives are divided in their opinion about the likely benefits of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under discussion between Pakistan and Turkey, with Pakistan opinion in favour, but less enthusiasm in Turkey.

Seven rounds of talks between the two sides have taken place and further talks maybe staged in August.…

Amid concerns about a growing shortage of workers in Russia’s textile industry, leading companies are looking to recruit staff from India, China and other emerging market nations.

According to latest data from the Russian ministry of industry and trade, the current vacancy rate across the country’s textile industry is 36%.…

RUSSIAN clothing and textile consumers are increasingly choosing to buy products with natural materials and brighter colours, grassroots retail managers in Moscow have told WTiN.com.

Speaking from the major wholesale and retail complex ‘Textile Profy Moscow’, which commands 120,000 square metres in selling areas, its managers said Russian consumers are increasingly eschewing subtle and muted colours.…

ROYAL Jordanian Airlines and Kuwait Airlines have been given permission to allow air passengers on USA-bound flights to resume carrying personal electronic items, including laptops, onto their planes, after they ramped up security measures. The bans, lifted July 9, had been imposed in March over American concerns that Islamic State members and other extremists could hide bombs inside laptops. …

THE FIRST phase of building the Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA), in Turkey, set to be the world’s largest such facility, is more than half complete, although a projected opening of early 2018 is not expected to be met.

There are some 20,000 people working on the project, forecast to rise to 30,000 as work progresses and developments around the airport get underway, such as an associated Airport City, including shopping malls, hotels and entertainment facilities, according to Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA), the airport’s operator.…

HUNGARY has signed an agreement with Russia’s Gazprom involving the central European country linking its gas distribution networks to the planned TurkStream pipeline, routing Russian gas via Turkey into Europe. Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto struck the deal with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, which involved Hungary building infrastructure to link with TurkStream, which will also cross Bulgaria and Serbia.…

TURKEY’S textile sector is holding its own, despite the political turmoil suffered by its home country political instability and war in neighbouring countries, with the industry predicting it will maintain exports this year, and welcoming government support for the sector.

According to data shared by the Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (İTHİB – İstanbul Tekstil ve Hammaddeleri İhracatçıları Birliği), of the USD142.6 billion dollars’ worth of goods and services exported by Turkey in 2016, around USD9.843 billion were made by the country’s textile sector (counting yarn, fabric, fibre and other textile raw materials).…

THE RUSSIAN government has announced that is planning to invest an additional Russian Rubles RUB145 billion (USD2,5 billion) into rejuvenating the country’s textile manufacturing sector. In the latest initiative designed to kickstart this ailing industry, the ministry of industry and trade has release a new approved strategy (on May 25) – it is designed to run until 2020.…

Greek savoury snacks specialist company Chipita has refused to confirm or deny reports that it plans to build a new plant for its products in Slovakia. The company told just-food.com that “it is interested in many markets (including Slovakia) and is constantly looking for opportunities.…

Vnesheconombank (VEB), one of Russia’s largest state-owned banks, may gain control over much of the Eurodon Group, the major Russia-based turkey producer, from its current owner, high profile business leader Vadim Vaneev, according to regulatory sources. The move, should it happen, would be because of money owed by Eurodon to VEB.…

THE LEBANESE haircare market has been in a state of flux over the past six years, reflecting the instability in the Levant. Following the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, the country’s haircare market grew as Lebanon took in more than 1 million Syrian refugees.…

NON-GOVERNMENTAL Organisations (NGOs), international aid agencies and charities are under increased pressure to abide by international and domestic regulations that ensure their financial probity and avoidance of corruption. But while there is often effective oversight in their home countries, when in the field, especially in conflict zones, NGOs can struggle to navigate local rules and adapt to difficult circumstances to ensure appropriate auditing is in place.…

WITH the UK having triggered Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, starting the two-year countdown to its exit from the EU, maybe no group outside the UK has more at stake than Irish farmers.

“Brexit presents the most serious threat to Irish farming and our agri-food sector in the history of the state.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

EUROPE’S nonwovens producers again served up a solid performance in 2016 against the background of (uneven and) uncertain trading conditions for the industry.

As usual, the just-published returns from EDANA, the representative organisation for the USD30 billion nonwovens industry in Europe, show some important national variations.…

THE NETHERLANDS-based Hendrix Genetics plans to build a complex producing hatching eggs for turkey chicks in Russia this year, according to the Russian ministry of agriculture.

Ina report, it has said the new complex will be able to produce 6.5 million hatching eggs per year, and the potential to increase volumes in future.…

A NEW food trade agreement has been struck between the European Union (EU) and Norway, especially helping EU exporters of meat and dairy products. Norway will open a new 1,600-tonnes quota for EU-made bovine meat and smaller quotas for EU exports of chicken and duck meat, pork, hams and sausages.…

Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has released a new Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG). This revised guidance encourages the development of corporate governance culture, not just within listed companies, but also state-owned enterprises, small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and licensed intermediaries. This code includes 36 practices to support strong board leadership; effective audit, risk management, and internal controls; and solid corporate reporting.…

Turkish textile entrepreneurs have been signalling a willingness to relocate their units to Bangladesh, tapping into the south Asian nation’s geo-economic significance, officials and diplomats say.
Interest was notably shown by Turkish investors in week-long seminars on Trade & Investment Opportunities in Bangladesh’, organised by  the Bangladesh embassy in Ankara, in April and this month (May), in five Turkish cities, including the capital Ankara, key textile production centre Istanbul, Kayseri, Bursa and Kocaeli province.…

THE SYRIAN car sector has been hit hard by the country’s ongoing civil conflict, now into its sixth year. From nearly 90,000 cars being imported into Syria annually before the rebellion against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad started in 2011, imports have now plunged to around 1,000 cars a year.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) paint and coatings companies and their retailers have been warned products on sale from June 1 must be classified, labelled and packaged in line with the EU classification, labelling and packaging (CLP) regulation (1272/2008). If not, they will have to be reclassified, repackaged and labelled or withdrawn from the market, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has said, noting that this deadline “marks the end of the transitional period for labelling mixtures.”…

THE MIDDLE East and Africa is certainly a promising regional market for nonwovens manufacturers, given the high level of economic growth in many countries and the rise of consumer-culture focused middle classes. But companies need to be sophisticated in their investment and sales tactics given the immense variety of economic and social fortunes experienced by countries in this most diverse region.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched a comprehensive study into the healthiness of consuming sugar, that could guidance telling consumers when to stop eating sugary foods, such as confectionery. An ad-hoc working group with expertise in dietary exposure, epidemiology, human nutrition, diet-related chronic diseases and dentistry will examine the issue, along with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which requested the work.…

Europe’s nonwovens producers again served up a solid performance in 2016 against the background of (uneven and) uncertain trading conditions for the industry. As usual, the just-published returns from EDANA, the representative organisation for the USD30 billion nonwovens industry in Europe, show some important national variations.…

AS the international glass market continues to recover from the global recession, experts predict emerging markets might be tempted to invest in plant development to manufacture their own flat glass rather than paying expensive import fees buying from one of the handful of major suppliers.…

THE BRAZILIAN government is taking urgent and comprehensive action to fight corruption and collusion between food inspectors and Brazil’s meat industry, an envoy to Brussels has told GlobalMeatNews.

The first secretary of the Brazilian mission to the European Union (EU), Henrique Choer Moraes, Moraes said that until now, technical analyses of the problem has not indicated risks to public health.…

This year’s Kingpins Show Amsterdam denim showcase heard that mills and consumers are driving technological innovation and design, rather than fashion houses. Recognition of the impact of social media on consumption; fabric wicking; as well as new blends and solutions devised to appeal to untapped consumer demands, were all highlighted.…

TURKEY’S automotive manufacturing sector is thriving, despite the political turmoil suffered by its home country political instability and war in neighboring countries, with the industry predicting an increase in exports this year.

According to data from the country’s Automotive Industry Association (OSD – Otomotiv Sanayii Derneği), of the USD142.6 billion dollars’ worth of goods and services exported by Turkey in 2016, around USD24.25 billion’s worth of these were manufactured by the Turkish automotive sector.…

THE DE-RISKING by major banks through cancelling correspondent banking relationships (CBRs) has started to raise such alarm that anti-money laundering institutions are starting to advise against such caution.

“There has been international pressure to make banks think twice about turning down customers and not just have blanket bans  on certain jurisdictions  or certain types of institutions,” said Sarah Ouarbya,  partner in Mazars, one of the UK’s largest accountancy firms and an international  specialist in audit, tax and advisory services.…

Experts have highlighted concerns over the exploitation of Syrian refugees working in the Turkish textile industry and called at a public forum in Hamburg for them to be registered to receive basic workplace protection. They urged the Turkish government and the clothing supply chain to work together to improve the plight of Syrians fleeing the war-torn country and seeking to establish a steady work life.…

DIGITAL printing is all about potential for production flexibility and creativity, and the technology can unleash new design, even in countries were higher tech manufacturing and finishing is rare – such as Russia.

Take Alexandra Kaloshina, the owner of the Moscow-based Solstudio Textile Design – she is pushing ahead with developing and printing innovative collections for a Russian market that is always hungry for new designs, and if they are locally-made – so much the better.…

EUROPEAN food and drink exporters will be preparing to boost exports through the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Canada (CETA), which has been provisionally approved by the European Parliament.

The deal, whose duty reduction and quota expansion elements could apply from April (2017) will phase out nearly 99% of tariffs on all food and drink traded between the EU and Canada over the next seven years.…

THE CONTINUED success of Europe’ major technical textile fair, Techtextil, Frankfurt, (the next event runs from May 9 to 12) illustrates how the continent’s technical textile sector is thriving on its innovation.

“We don’t know what the future brings. We only know where it will be exhibited.…

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.…

Terrorist financing is continuing in the Middle East, highlighted by the devastating attack in Istanbul over the new year. Radical Islamic groups still operate in Iraq and Syria, notably the Islamic State and the Levant, or ISIL (also known as ISIS), and the source of funding for these terrorist groups is a contentious issue.…

TURKEY’S textile and clothing sector witnesssed a drop in trade during 2016, according to new statistics, witht he industry struggling to deal with slowing growth in the global economy and political disruption in its home country last year. The weakness of the Turkish lira in exchage markets has also harmed the industry by raising the cost of inpts.…

THE DIRECTOR-general of the European Union’s anti-fraud office – OLAF – has argued that the only way to stop counterfeit cigarettes and other goods entering Europe is to tackle the trade at source. Giovanni Kessler spoke out at a joint OLAF press conference with the Belgian Customs and Excise Administration in December to showcase how their cooperation had smashed a cigarette smuggling ring.…

THE ISRAELI natural gas sector is undergoing significant expansion, with the country pushing ahead to plan to develop and commercially exploit new fields. Indeed, “this past year in energy has been the most dynamic year we have ever had,” said Dr Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of energy, at the annual Energy & Business Convention, held in Tel Aviv in November (2016).…

THE OLIVE oil industry has traditionally been dominated by some key major European players, notably Spain, Italy and Greece, but with global consumption rising, production is emerging in countries which have previously relied on imports.

International Oil Council statistics show how new production centres are being created.…

Arab Gulf governments are repeatedly accused of aiding terrorist financing on and, more often, off the record. Calls to get tough on these states have been sidelined by political and economic expediency, while Gulf moves to curb terrorist financing have been lacklustre and there may be risks ahead, reports Paul Cochrane, in Beirut.…

THE NORTH American Meat Institute has called on the new US administration of President Donald Trump to work hard to negotiate new bilateral trade deal with Asian markets now he has formally pulled American out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.…

AFTER culling more than 500,000 chickens in late November and early December 2016 due to a bird flu outbreak, poultry farmers in Japan have been encouraged by Japanese consumers’ loyalty to a long-held Christmas tradition: eating fried chicken. Data released by Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), which has strong market share in Japan, has shown that sales continued to rise this past festive season, with the firm achieving 7.9% sales growth over December 23–25 year-on-year, with sales of Japanese Yen JPY5.92 billion (USD51.4 million).…

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.…

NORTH Africa has never been a particular easy place to do business, but female and male consumers are prepared to spend on personal care products, and profits are there for the taking for companies that take time to understand these vibrant and often contrasting markets.…

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.…

THE HEAD of the European Union’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) has advised personal care product brand owners to work closely with customs authorities to help beat the counterfeit trade. OLAF director-general, Giovanni Kessler spoke out at a joint OLAF press conference in Brussels with the Belgian Customs and Excise Administration to highlight how their cooperation had brought down a fake perfume and cigarette smuggling ring.…

AS part of its continued efforts to shore up the country’s faltering economy, still reeling from the fallout of the attempted coup during July, the Turkish government has announced a programme of so-called “super incentives”, with the textile manufacturing sector being one of the beneficiaries.…

A new high tech clothing factory has been opened in the city of Pohar, in southwest Russia by the regional government of Bryansk, which will boost demand for technical textiles worldwide, potentially boosting Russia’s hard-pressed textile sector.

The Bryansk oblast operates the plant – which started operations in October – through an afflicted company in which it shares control with private investors.…

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.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) and the European Association of Sugar Producers (CEFS-Comité Européen des Fabricants de Sucre) have jointly called on the European Union (EU) to continue protecting producers with import tariffs, even as the EU negotiates 12 trade deals affecting the food industry.…

A global player in the textile tyre, composite and construction reinforcement technologies market, Turkey’s Kordsa Global is benefiting from a new research initiative as it seeks to remain a world leader in the market of tyre reinforcement technologies.

Keen to reinforce its own position as an innovator, in 2014 Kordsa Global entered into a partnership with Sabancı University to create the Composite Technologies Centre of Excellence.…

THE EUROPEAN Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is investigating if European Union (EU)-wide controls are needed to protect consumers against substances used in tattoo inks and permanent make-up (PMU) – with one solution expanding the scope of the EU cosmetics directive.

While the printing ink industry has suffered a recession, the tattoo and PMU ink sectors are booming in the wake of a huge increase in purchases of tattoos EU-wide.…

IRAN’S rose water export sector is facing the potential for rapid expansion now that the country can trade freely globally after the bulk of international banking and economic sanctions imposed over the Iranian nuclear programme were lifted this January (2016).…

With the country in political turmoil following an attempted coup in the summer and a subsequent economic downturn, the current situation in Turkey is having a negative impact on spending, particularly on luxury items including personal care and pampering products. Consumers, instead, are tending to stock up on essential items such as basic foodstuffs as concerns about the present crisis continue, but personal care products, especially higher end lines, are a lower priority for consumers.…

THE ATTEMPTED coup against the Turkish government on July 15 does not seem to have slowed down the development of the new mega-airport in Istanbul, with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announcing on Sunday (November 13) that the first stage of the new facility will be opened early 2018.…

AB InBev and Turkey’s Anadolu Efes are considering merging their Russian businesses, which would create Russia’s second largest beer producer, according to a spokesperson for the country’s industry and trade minister Denis Manturov.

He said: “Currently two possible scenarios of the merging of Russian assets of the companies are discussed, one of which involves direct purchase of the Russian assets of Efes by AB InBev, or the sale of the Russian business of AB InBev to Efes, in exchange of the increase of a stake in the Turkish company, where AB InBev already holds 24 percent.”…

High-profile terrorist attacks on Brussels Airport and Istanbul Atatürk Airport this year cast a long shadow over the 25^th AVSEC World Conference, titled ‘Evolving Risks, Integrated Solutions’. The event, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from October 25-27, brought industry leaders together for discussions, workshops and presentations focused on emerging threats; key among these was how to keep landside areas of airports secure.…

The Russian government is planning to facilitate up to USD300 million in private investment for the development of the national textile industry, according to an official spokesman of Denis Manturov, Russia’s minister of industry and trade.

He told WTiN.com that funds would be invested in the establishment of large-scale facilities specialising in textile production, with the aim of ensuring that such plants would be located across the country.…

PAKISTAN’S denim export industry hopes that help for the textile announced by the government in February (exemption from paying sales tax and payment of long overdue tax refunds) and in a meeting with industry leaders in September (a promised reduction in energy costs) will boost this promising segment.…

Turkey’s rocky political situation following the failed military coup of July 15, the following massive purges and recurring terrorist bombings may have a negative effect on the country’s large textiles sector, experts are warning.

“It’s likely to lead to some uncertainties, obviously, in the general economy,” Turkey-born economist Ozan Şakar, of managing director of London-based Descartes Capital.…

KNITTING production is likely to move away from its long-time Chinese production base and move closer to “home”, Lutz Walter, secretary general of the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (ETP) – the largest European textiles research and innovations network – told Knitting International at the 12-13 October ‘European Textiles: Going Digital – Going High-Tech’ conference in Brussels.…

TURKEY’S carpet sector continues to thrive according to recent trade data, with the industry association saying the sector was not harmed by the recent attempted military coup against the elected government.

According to recent figures from the European Apparel and Textile Confederation, Euratex, Turkey was once again Europe’s leading supplier of carpets in 2015, with a 3.5% year-on-year increase in sales from 2014, to EUR378 million last year.…

THE OILS and fats business has always been international, with its commodities and the products made from them, being traded worldwide. And as a result, the companies involved have always had to pay attention not just to the regulations of the country were they manufacture or source, but those of importing and transit countries.…

COTTON

Cotton maybe one of the most popular fibres for clothing and accessories because of its universality, timelessness, and availability, but this past year has shown that the fibre is not immune to volatile economic markets. World cotton production fell by 17% to 21.65 million tonnes in 2015-2016, the lowest volume since 2003-2004, according to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) customs authorities seized five million more counterfeit products at the bloc’s borders in 2015 than the year before, with China the originating country for 41% of these fakes, the European Commission’s latest annual report on the problem reveals.…

SOUTH Asia’s growing personal care product sector is of increasing importance to international brands, with growing middle classes among vast populations creating a honeypot market with consumers, many accustomed to English-language marketing.

As the region’s hub and overwhelmingly most populous country, India’s beauty and personal care industry will generate sales worth USD13.3 billion in 2016, growing by 14.2% year-on-year, according to UK-based market research firm Euromonitor International.…

Russia is ready to lift the existing embargo on the imports of food and agricultural products from Turkey imposed last year after diplomatic relations between the two countries soured following the shooting-down of a Russian fighter jet last November (2015). Arkady Dvorkovich, Russia’s first deputy prime minister.…

BIG marketing stunts can boost sales of technical textiles and maybe one of the biggest examples in Europe this year was created by world renowned artists Christo. He created ‘The Floating Piers’ on Lake Iseo, near Brescia, in northern Italy.…

FOOD and drink manufacturers based in Britain face a risk that their exports to the European Union (EU) will attract duties now the UK government has confirmed it will push ahead with leaving the EU following the June 23 Brexit referendum result.…

IN an ever more interconnected world, where reliable energy flows are of critical importance to sophisticated developed economies, the role of diplomacy in helping keep oil and gas flowing is perhaps more important than ever before.

Of course, oil and gas has always been an international business.…

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.…

AUSTRALIAN government and meat industry agencies are boosting their efforts to increase biosecurity for the country’s critically important livestock sector.

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has welcomed an Australian dollar AUD5.8 million (USD4.45 million) project boosting biosecurity systems for Australia’s livestock industries.…

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.…

TURKISH security sources are advising textile and clothing manufacturers in Turkey that the country remains a safe and secure country in which to operate, despite the crackdown following the attempted coup on July 15. Likewise, local and international players in the apparel and textile industry are noting that business continues to run smoothly.…

The Kenyan textiles and apparels industry has welcomed an anticipated trade deal between Kenya and Turkey designed to boost annual trade volumes between the two countries to USD1 billion, up from the prevailing USD144 million. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), an umbrella body that represents firms across the industrial sector in Kenya, sees this as a reinforcement of long standing trade partnership between Kenya and Turkey, as well as a win for textiles.…

Turkey may resume supplies of its textile products to Russia thanks to the recent improvement of relations between the two countries, according to the Russian ministry of industry and trade.

Despite the fact, that Turkish textile products were not formally included in the list of sanctions on goods imposed after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane last November, shipments to Russia have almost ceased with border controls impeding imports.…

WITH 4.8 million Syrian refugees registered by the UN, and many more displaced without registration, their impact on consumer markets outside their home country has been significant. The tobacco sector has been no exception. Indeed, even before the civil war, Syrians were keen smokers – with 2004 Syrian Centre for Tobacco Studies research indicating that 56.9% of men smoked cigarettes and 17% of women; 20.2% of men smoked waterpipes (shisha) and 4.8% of women; 29% smoked daily – 51.4% of men and 11.5% of women).…

allowing gas – including LNG – to be transported between the two countries, starting July 1 (2016). This deal was struck between the network operators for Bulgaria and Greece – Bulgartransgaz and DESFA. It will enable companies from both sides and other countries to make north- or southbound deliveries, boosting gas movements between Greece, Turkey, Macedonia and Ukraine.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has accused six European Union (EU) member states of failing to detect enough fraud in EU spending programmes where their governments have a significant management role. In its latest annual report on the ‘Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – Fight against fraud 2015’, the Commission said Austria, Britain and Finland had reported “a very low number of fraudulent irregularities, in particular in relation to the amount of frauds allocated to them” for  EU agricultural spending.…

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.…

HAVING a strong reputation for sustainable practice is increasingly a strong marketing card, for the confectionery sector as much as any other consumer industry. But with its extended international supply chains, demonstrating a high regard for environmental good practice is not always easy for the confectionery sector.…

The three suicide bombers that attacked Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport shortly before 10pm yesterday (Tuesday) were bent on harming the Turkish economy and generating public unrest, an expert has told Jane’s Airport Review.

Government officials confirmed 41 deaths, including 13 foreigners and 239 wounded.…

Indonesian negotiators must press harder to make progress on the European Union (EU)-Indonesia free trade agreement or textile manufacturers risk losing market share to neighbouring competitors like Vietnam, according to the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia). Its chairman Ade Sudrajat told WTiN.com…

A SENIOR official at the Istanbul Apparel Exporters’ Association has told WTiN.com that Turkey’s textile sector is increasingly being guaranteed business by the country’s emergence as a fast fashion supply hub, selling to Europe and beyond. Turkish suppliers, as well as well-known retailers such as LC Waikiki, Colin’s, Koton, Collezione and Mavi, are increasingly strong players in the world’s fast fashion markets, boosting their performance in short development cycles, rapid prototyping and small batches.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has protected four more meat traditional products – from Croatia, France, and Spain – by adding them to the European Union’s (EU) list of protected ‘geographical indications.’

This system prevents their sale under registered names across the EU, unless the products are made in their traditional home region and by established production methods laid down in the EU register.…

A SWEEPING review of Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, published in April 2016, has made more than 80 recommendations to tighten and extend the scope of this key piece of legislation. Among these are proposals to streamline due diligence obligations on the part of reporting entities while reinforcing auditing procedures, increasing the scope of the legislation to cover more professional categories and types of transactions and increasing surveillance particularly in the remittance sector.…

THE EUROPEAN nonwovens industry has been pushing ahead, maintaining consistent growth above increases in GDP for the whole economy, increasing its international collaboration, and the successfully exploring new markets. And while it is rarely prudent to make anything more than short-term predictions about cost and tariff problems, such difficulties faced by the European nonwovens sector seem have been pushed into the background. …

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.…

Apparel and textile companies face various risks when shifting sourcing and must consider carefully the location of the skilled labour they require; the effort and cost it will take to ensure a new supplier is meeting global standards; and the potential loss of a good relationship with their current suppliers.…

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.”…

Birla Spunshades, Aditya Birla’s vibrant, heavy metal-free, coloured spun-dyed viscose fibre, is helping Indian spinner score new orders linked to major international buyers. Fabric made out of Spunshades is being supplied to clients such as British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), to name two big names.…

CHINESE investors continue to grow their foothold in Turkey’s textile industry, an international direct investment information bulletin from the Turkish economy ministry has confirmed. Between January-December 2015, 60 new foreign companies have invested USD429 million in Turkey’s textile and clothing manufacturers, up 30% compared to the previous year, according to figures from Turkey’s economy ministry.…

Indonesian negotiators must press harder to make progress on the European Union (EU)-Indonesia free trade agreement or textile manufacturers risk losing market share to neighbouring competitors like Vietnam, according to the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia). Its chairman Ade Sudrajat told WTiN.com…

INCREASING demands on the part of European Union (EU) textile buyers for compliance with environmentally sustainable standards have inspired a major project launched by Moroccan trade groups into improving the practices of the country’s denim industry.

This is called the Moroccan Denim Cluster (MDC), founded in 2014 as an industry association for this segment.…

Kazakh aircraft have been improved under the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s ‘No Country Left Behind’ initiative.

The project started following investigations which uncovered concerns about the air-worthiness of aircraft in the central Asian country.

Resources and manpower were provided by a number of countries and was a co-operative effort between Portugal, Turkey, Singapore, Ukraine and the ICAO’s Air Navigation Bureau.…

KNITWEAR manufacturers used to plan production a year in advance, but the advent of fast fashion has changed all that. Today, suppliers are being asked to supply goods in some cases weeks in advance of a product line going to market.…

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drafted plans to led EUR1 billion to TANAP Dogalgaz Iletim, the Azeri-Turkish consortium developing the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TAP) from the Shah Deniz production field in Azerbaijan to European and Turkish markets. The loan, which still needs approval from the EIB board of directors, will help ensure the TAP project proceeds.…

Turkish denim firms have roared onto the global market in recent years, impressing consumers, terrifying the competition.

These companies are aided by Turkey’s high quality cotton – particularly that produced in the country’s Aegean region on the west coast. Aegean premium cotton is renowned for its ability to retain paint and for its softness and absorbency, all without genetic modification.…

WHILE international clothing buyers today have a lot of sourcing choices, this multiplicity of options can bring its own management headaches, making it important that brands make subtle, complex and fluid purchasing decisions to keep ahead of the competition, Global research firm McKinsey’s biannual sourcing survey – last published in 2015 – of chief procurement officers (CPOs) at leading apparel companies is an interesting window onto today’s complex sourcing landscape.…

Regardless of the debate about whether China is losing its shine as a clothing source, brands will always be looking for a competitive edge in new manufacturing hubs.

Myanmar’s low wage garments sector, for instance, is poised for rapid growth. The country’s first democratically elected government in 50 years is set to assume power in April and several reforms have already been made to bolster the country’s appeal as a sourcing destination for international clothing brands.…

With fast fashion demands growing and China’s costs rising, sourcing closer to home is certainly becoming a more commonly considered option for brands, speeding up clothing and textile supply chains, being particularly beneficial for smaller producers, according to experts. Companies sourcing locally can have faster turnaround times, potentially better relationships with suppliers, and greater quality control.…

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).…

The easing of international commercial sanctions against Iran is likely to boost both the country’s exports of non-ferrous metals and ores, well as foreign investment in the sector.

The Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (IMIDRO) is the key government agency boosting this work and it announced on March 14 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the China’s Sinosteel Corporation to establish an alumina production plant and aluminium factory in Iran, along with an associated power plant supplying on-site electricity.…

Uncertainty is growing within industry associations influencing the non-ferrous metals industry over the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union (EU) after a scheduled in-out referendum on June 23.

René van Sloten, executive director of industrial policy at The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), representing key suppliers to metal manufacturers, said: “If the result…is indeed that Britain would leave the EU, this would significantly impact on the way it trades with other European countries.…

Turkey maybe on the front lines of the so-called ‘war on terror’, but its new customs code asks no questions about incoming cash, while its definition of terrorism has been criticised for being contrasting with international standards. Furthermore, its judiciary’s independence and the reliability of the rule of law in Turkey has been called into question.…

The Islamic Republic of Iran has had to deal with financial sanctions imposed by the United States following the revolution in 1979, and then ramped up during the Bill Clinton and George W Bush administrations. But it was the multilateral financial sanctions imposed by United Nations Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs) and the European Union (EU) from 2007 onwards, and particularly in 2011, that hit Iran even harder, further narrowing an already limited window to operate financially in international terms.…

The construction of Istanbul New Airport will create a new hub for key emerging market country Turkeyu, replacing Atatürk Airport, located just outside of Istanbul. It processed 57 million passengers in 2014, according to a report released by the airport in 2014.…

THE BORDER-free European Union (EU) Schengen zone has continued to weaken, with the European Union (EU) telling the Greek government to boost its border controls or face additional checks on passengers travelling to and from Greece. Reporting on how Greece had dealt with migrants from Turkey, many escaping Syria’s war, the European Commission, concluded there was “no effective identification and registration of irregular migrants and that fingerprints are not being systematically entered into the system and travel documents are not being systematically checked for the authenticity or against crucial security databases, such as SIS, Interpol and national databases.”…

THE INDIAN government’s decision to increase its available subsidies to help companies purchase new textile machinery from 10% to 15% will boost the investment in the country’s technical textile sector, which has been struggling to build big capacities.

Under the ‘Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS)’, from January 14 (2016), a producer of technical textiles can avail itself of up to USD4.5 million as capital investment subsidy.…

Organisers of the 13th annual Istanbul Yarn Fair remain optimistic about the future of Turkey’s yarn segment, despite the country’s recent diplomatic crisis with Russia depressing this year’s turnout.

“Although the recent political issues have affected the number of Russian buyers who come to the fair, the relationship between Turkey and Russia is very strong and [built on a long history],” said Gülbin Bozkurt, project group director of Tüyap Fairs and Exhibitions Organization Inc, which organised the fair.…

If there is one region in the world that could benefit from a rationalisation of corporate governance structure, it is surely Asia, with its shifting sands of complex company ownership structures. Globalisation has only increased the size of subsidiary/parent relationship webs.…

BUREAUCRATIC red tape in Ethiopia has stymied Turkish firms’ once ambitious plans to set up shop in the country’s low costs textiles sector. “When you involve the government, this bureaucracy starts,” warned Kemal Oznoyan, a coordinator with Turkish textiles company Ayka Textile, whose Ethiopian subsidiary Ayka Addis has operated a USD140 million textile factory at Alemgena, west of the capital Addis Ababa, since.…

Following the international agreement limiting its nuclear power ambitions, Iran is essentially open for business. However, certain US sanctions remain in place, adding to Western banks’ caution in dealing with Iran, long a pariah to global investors and bankers. Indeed, the biggest challenge will be reintegrating Iran’s financial institutions back into the international system after their years’ long experience of dealing with, and circumventing, sanctions.…

The ongoing diplomatic row between Turkey and Russia over the Syria civil war continues to take a bite out of Turkish textiles exports, a bilateral trade which had already been declining.

After Turkey downed a Russian jet near its border with Syria in November, Moscow introduced an array of economic sanctions, including tightened custom checks on textile imports.…

Organisers of the 13th annual Istanbul Yarn Fair remain optimistic about the future of Turkey’s yarn segment, despite the country’s recent diplomatic crisis with Russia depressing this year’s turnout.

“Although the recent political issues have affected the number of Russian buyers who come to the fair, the relationship between Turkey and Russia is very strong and [built on a long history],” said Gülbin Bozkurt, project group director of Tüyap Fairs and Exhibitions Organization Inc, which organised the fair.…

FOOD and drink export subsidies are to be scrapped after a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, agreed to phase out these trade sweeteners. Developed country members have promised to remove export subsidies immediately for basic food products, with a slower phase-out for many processed foods and drinks, pigmeat and dairy products.…

Five years since the start of the Arab uprisings in 2011, instability is still impacting cosmetics sales in the Levant and north Africa. Last year saw a slight improvement on overall sales in 2014, the year the Islamic State spread through northern Iraq and Syria, but figures are down on 2013, and the growth projected in 2010, according to figures from market researcher Euromonitor International and estimates from cosmetics companies.…

It has taken more than half a decade for the cosmetics markets of eastern Europe to finally shrug off a long-running period stagnation that has characterised the regional market. Two underlying features – the financial crisis of 2008 and the completion of multinational takeovers in the noughties that saturated these post-communist markets – lay behind the extended period of slow, low or non-existent growth.…

THE JORDANIAN and Lebanese confectionery markets are both in a state of flux due to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, now into its fifth year. Local production has faced major competition from Syrian entrants fleeing the chaos of their home country, particularly in Jordan; while in Lebanon imports of parallel goods have soared over the past few years.…

An unofficial ban on the import of raw textile materials from Turkey has left Russian textile enterprises struggling to find alternative supplies among local manufacturers and maintain their production cycles. The situation has escalated so far that Russia’s ministry of industry and trade has recently asked industry representatives to compile a ‘white list’ of Turkish exporters who would be able to continue shipments to Russia, while the government in Moscow weighs the possibility of an official embargo on Turkish textiles.…

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.…

AN AGREEMENT has been signed between Bulgaria and Greece to build a 182-kilometre interconnector gas pipeline between Greece’s Komotini and Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora, which will help funnel Azeri gas sent via Turkey to eastern and central Europe. The pipeline will also ease Bulgaria’s energy exposure to Russia – it relies heavily on Russian gas exported via Ukraine.…

Jordan maybe a small country – with a population of just 6.6 million people, but it is one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the Middle East. A key reason is that production is export focused, particularly of generics. The country’s USD500 million-a-year turnover manufacturing sector had been steadily growing at 8% to 10% per year until 2012, according to the Jordanian Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Medical Appliances (JAPM).…

The conflict in Syria has seriously impacted trade and business in the Levant. The millions of Syrian refugees that have fled to neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan are putting economies under serious strain, causing the authorities to turn a blind eye to illicit trade and unregulated business.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has given its political support for strong action by the European Commission in the coming year to propose and implement concrete actions to create an ambitious Energy Union. Its goal is to freely trading power between the European Union’s (EU) 28 member states.…

A USD13 billion deal agreed by China to build two reactors for Argentina hinges entirely on the Chinese side putting up the financing, with a final arrangement on the cash deal to be inked in 2017. That’s according to sources in the Chinese nuclear industry.…

The increasing strength of the home textiles sector in Turkey has been signalled by the growth in a major international trade fair held annually in Istanbul. Exhibitors and delegates from worldwide attended the 21st Evteks International Home Textile Exhibition from May 19 to 23, which attracted approximately 125,000 textile professionals, according to statistics from organisers the Istanbul Fair Organization.…

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.…

The latest report from European Union (EU) police agency Europol report has revealed the true extent of “the complex reality” of counterfeit goods networks across Europe. But what are the latest scams and how successful has Europol been in tackling them?…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have suffered unevenly from Russia’s ban on EU food exports from last August, according to European Commission data.

While Finnish and Estonian extra-EU food and drink exports fell sharply in August-November 2014 compared to the same period in 2013 (32% and 22% down respectively), other EU food exporters saw only moderate falls in such sales, or even gains.…

A PLANNED free trade agreement (FTA) between Turkey and Pakistan will be a ‘win-win’ situation overall, according to a senior Turkish government official involved in the negotiations. When asked about the current status of the deal, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told WTiN.com:…

GOVERNMENT help in encouraging struggling auto markets can be very effective, but assistance needs to be phased out carefully so that sales booms do not turn into slump, the leader global automotive manufacturer federation OICA has told wardsauto.
In an exclusive interview, OICA (Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles) secretary general Yves van der Straaten pointed to the phenomenal growth in the Spanish car market as an example.…

The UK may still be a world-beating performer for developing offshore wind energy, but more still can be done onshore, as demonstrated by China’s wind-power growth, the Global Wind Energy Council’s (GWEC’s) secretary general Steve Sawyer has argued. Indeed, unveiling GWEC’s, Global Wind Report: Annual Market Update 2014, in a webinar April 1 from Istanbul, Sawyer noted that the UK at 813 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity produces more offshore wind energy than the rest of the world combined, with Denmark “a distant second”.…

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.”…

With the conflict in Syria entering its fifth year, there are 7.6 million Syrians internally displaced, and 3.8 million refugees, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – their health needs require specialist nursing skills.…

THE ONWARD march of nonwovens production in Europe appears to be relentless, but the drivers behind it have changed in recent years. Early markets for disposable products have matured and levelled off in many countries and newer applications have taken up the slack.…

Iraq’s government has been undertaking a series of policy twists to restrict the export of poultry products from Turkey. According to the Turkish Poultry Promotion Group, Iraq retracted a recent major increase in customs tax, only to halt all full chicken imports from Turkey as of April 8. …

THE CHINESE knitting sector facing transformation, being challenged by lacklustre economic performance in its key export markets, fast-rising domestic labour costs, as well as a determined government crusade for energy savings and emission reduction. The industry is, in general, cautiously optimistic about tackling these challenges and experts agree that if knitwear producers stick to their strategy of adding value through more sophisticated automation, they will manage to retain manufacturing supremacy over their south Asian and southeast Asian peers.…

The trend towards the dual sourcing of garments has accelerated since the middle of the last decade. The sourcing pattern involves initial volumes being sought in the east, with lead times of up to three months, and replenishment from locations closer to the consumer, within weeks or even days.…

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.…

ANIMAL welfare group Compassion in World Farming (CWF) has told globalmeatnews.com that European Union (EU) livestock transport rules are being broken within the EU and also when animals are exported outside the bloc.
Olga Kikou, the organisation’s European affairs manager, is concerned that while the EU’s regulation EC 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport insists that livestock receive rest, feeing and watering, it does not cap total journey durations.…

EGYPT’S USD1.23 billion oils and fats market has still to recover from the country’s post-revolutionary environment following the January 2011 uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Since then, Egypt’s economy has been on a downward trajectory, affecting consumer demand across the board.…

THE TRADE agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the USA could bring significant opportunities for paint machinery manufacturers if the two parties agree to align their technical standards.
The European Commission, which is negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on behalf of the EU, has said it would like to close the gap between the two sides regarding technical regulations affecting the marketing, use and conformity assessment of machinery, as well as electrical and electronic products.…

EUROPEAN cigarette smuggling has evolved and diversified over the past ten years, and international cooperation is often the best way to counter them, argue European Union (EU) anti-fraud officials. Meanwhile, the tobacco industry has accepted that liaising with these initiatives does bring benefits.…

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 PAKISTAN government has launched a diplomatic offensive to improve trade relations with Turkey, which it hopes will enable its textile sector to win back Turkish market share lost after Turkey initiated safeguard measures against Pakistani textile products in 2011. Turkey introduced a special high 42.2% safeguard tariff (called MHF Cess) on Pakistani knitwear and textile garment exports to protect its industry.…

The Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporter Associations (ITKIB) told WTiN.com this week that research and development in high value technical textiles will be a key focus for the Turkish textile sector as it aims for an export target of USD 20 billion by 2023.…

A leading industry figure in a Turkish province that specialises in home textiles claims that its manufacturers are shaking off the challenge posed by foreign competitors and are ready to seize export sales.
Speaking to WTiN.com, İsa Dal, chairman of the Denizli Textile and Clothing Manufacturers Association (DETGIS), said that his sector in Denizli, western Anatolia, has been expanding.…

One of Turkey’s leading producers of mattresses and other textile bed products has told WTiN.com that the country’s textile industry is benefiting from a significant increase in demand for such products.
Berna İlter, co-director of BRN Sleep Products, based in Kayseri, in Turkey’s Central Anatolia region, said growing wealth across the country has prompted a shift in bed buying purchases.…

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.…

The Egyptian textile sector is a mixed bag, succeeding in certain sub-sectors and struggling in others, while failing to add value to its core strength in cotton production. It has managed to weather the ongoing political instability, but exports are weak due to lower demand from Europe, and the overall sector is straining to keep up with global competition.…

One of Turkey’s leading producers of mattresses and other textile bed products has told WTiN.com that the country’s textile industry is benefiting from a significant increase in demand for such products.
Berna İlter, co-director of BRN Sleep Products, based in Kayseri, in Turkey’s Central Anatolia region, said growing wealth across the country has prompted a shift in bed buying purchases.…

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.…

In a country embroiled in an ugly armed conflict, the issue of confectionery may seem at first glance to be superfluous. In Ukraine, though, that is anything but the case.

Not only is confectionery a key industry for the country, but it is a highly politicised one.…

THE EUROPEAN Committee of Sugar Manufacturers (CEFS) has called on the European Union (EU) and US negotiators for a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) to exclude sugar and high sugar products from this planned trade agreement.

“The US market is a mature and saturated market, not attractive for the EU,” Marie-Christine Ribera, CEFS director general, told TTIP negotiators during an event dedicated to interest groups affected by the agreement, held in Brussels on February 4.…

The international Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has revealed to WTiN.com that the volume of cotton in Turkey produced in line with the BCI’s Better Cotton Standard System is forecast to triple within the next two years.

According to BCI data, the volume of ‘Better Cotton’ standard lint produced in Turkey in the 2013/14 season was 13,000 tonnes, with that figure forecast to almost double to 24,000 tonnes for the current 2014/15 season, and then grow by a further 54% to 37,000 tonnes in 2015/16.…

The international Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has revealed to WTiN.com that the volume of cotton in Turkey produced in line with the BCI’s Better Cotton Standard System is forecast to triple within the next two years.

According to BCI data, the volume of ‘Better Cotton’ standard lint produced in Turkey in the 2013/14 season was 13,000 tonnes, with that figure forecast to almost double to 24,000 tonnes for the current 2014/15 season, and then grow by a further 54% to 37,000 tonnes in 2015/16.…

A MAJOR Bangladesh knitwear company has launched an innovation that may inspire a new segment in this key outsourcing industry – ‘fake’ heavy knitwear.

DBL Group, based north of Dhaka, has developed this fabric for jerseys made from cotton or a blend of cotton and synthetic fibres. …

Chinese travellers are increasingly venturing to Greece, offering great potential for its tourism industry. And while Greece’s exotic landscapes and architecture attract visitors from China, the tourism industry could prosper still further from developing services and infrastructure designed to cater to this growing market.…

Turkey’s rapidly growing nonwovens industry is a rising star that everyone should be paying attention to. This was the general consensus at the second Turkish Nonwovens Symposium in Istanbul on November 10-11, held by EDANA, the leading global association of nonwovens and related industries.…

The Islamic State (IS) is increasingly acting like an established state, needing access beyond its territory to acquire spare parts, machinery and goods to keep the economy of its territories going. With regulatory enforcement more focused on funds going in to the Islamic State than out, this trade is being exploited, particularly via Turkey.…

Iraq and Syria are major hot spots in the fight against terrorism financing. Numerous militant Islamist groups are in operation, most notably the Islamic State (IS), with revenues derived from multiple sources, including extortion, seizures of grain, sales of oil, private donations and charities.…

THE ITALIAN government seems to have withdrawn support for the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea as European Union (EU) relations with Russia continue to cool. Italy was expected to be a key customer of South Stream gas, but its government is now promoting a new strategy securing a diversified range of energy imports, including supplies from Africa and the Levant.…

The president of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TCMA) has told WTiN.com that it is anticipating a slowdown in the Turkish textile and clothing industry’s export growth in 2015 due to difficulties in some of Turkey’s most important markets. Cem Negrin said that the Turkish clothing industry has reached its exports target of USD19 billion for 2014, representing growth of 9.2% on 2013.…

Price may still be king in shaping American consumer demand for meat products, but its influence is waning as buyers seek more information on sourcing and preparation, according to key industry surveys and multiple retail insiders.

This trend is apparent across all retail sectors, from supermarkets to club stores to butcher shops, according to a comprehensive 2014 survey published by the American Meat Institute (AMI).…

The Middle East and North African nonwovens sector is in flux. At the same time as extra capacity has come online, regional demand has been affected by political instability, forcing manufacturers to focus on exports and diversify their offerings.

“It is showing clearly now that the Arab Spring and political consequences have definitely delayed investment decisions by potential customers.…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is considering lending up to Euro EUR175 million to a private company planning to expand and running Dalaman airport, in south-west Turkey. This money would be lent to YDA Havalimani Yatirim ve Isletme AŞ, a special purpose company building a new domestic terminal and running it and the airport’s international terminal until 2040.…

With the conflict in Syria into its fourth year, the pharmaceutical and health care sectors in the country have been decimated, while an estimated 9 million people have been displaced. More than 3 million refugees have fled Syria to neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office.…

European Union (EU) poultry retailers may be penalised if they sell salmonella-contaminated fresh products, even when they are processed and packaged by another company, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. Its judgement came in a case involving an Austrian supermarket and local food safety authorities.…

The Turkish textile and garment manufacturer Ayka Tekstil has told WTiN.com that construction of its new textile and garment industrial zone in Ethiopia, which it is developing in partnership with the Ethiopian government, is likely to begin within the next two or three months.…

The Russian government is planning to nationalise the textile sector of Crimea, the former Ukraine region it annexed in March, helping spark a series of sanctions against Moscow by the European Union (EU), the USA and others. These restrictions include a ban on western companies trading with the Crimea, intensifying economic problems that have worsened since the Russian takeover.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced a further four European Union (EU)-funded marketing programmes promoting sales of EU-produced meat, within member states and abroad. These are in addition to the Euro EUR7.7 million programme promoting lamb sales run by British beef and lamb levy body Eblex, Ireland’s Bord Bía, France’s Interbev, announced earlier this week.…

Multilateral talks over Iran’s nuclear power programme have partly and temporarily eased certain sanctions against the country. Yet while businesses worldwide are keen to get into the lucrative Iranian market to offer all kinds of good and services, the overarching sanctions regime put in place by the United States, the European Union  (EU) and the United Nations still remains, as do the risks of doing business with Iran, considered one of the world’s riskiest jurisdictions.…

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 co-author of a new report highlighting major concerns about low wages in Turkey’s textile and garment industry has called for global brands sourcing from the country to act more responsibly.

‘Stitched Up: Poverty Wages for Garment Workers in Eastern Europe and Turkey,’ was published earlier this year by The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), an alliance of organisations including trade unions and non-governmental organisations in 16 European countries.…

A leading carpet producer in Gaziantep Province, which lies in Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia Region, and a major carpet production hub, has told WTiN.com that the industry is facing a number of challenges as the Turkish sector becomes increasingly competitive.

According to data from the Southeastern Anatolia Exporters’ Union (GAİB), Gaziantep’s annual exports of carpets are currently worth around USD1.5 bilion, with 227 carpet companies in Gaziantep that are members of export unions.…

THE TOBACCO sector and trade in the countries neighbouring Syria have been impacted by the flight of more than 3 million (some reports say 5 million) from its civil war. Due to the Syrian conflict, smuggling has increased to supply the Syrian market (still at least 17 million people), while the lack of governmental controls has promoted illicit sales in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, while the influx of refugees has led to growth in lower priced legitimate cigarettes.…

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%.…

Ayka Addis Textile – the Ethiopian subsidiary of the Turkish textile and garment manufacturer Ayka Tekstil – has told just-style that it is anticipating strong growth in its sales over the coming years due to a growing number of European retailers looking to source from Ethiopia.…

EUROPE is suffering economically from commercial aviation flights diverting to the Middle East and Turkey, where airports have far more spare capacity, Angela Gittens, the director general of Airports Council International World (ACI World) has claimed. Highlighting growth at Dubai and Istanbul airports at ICAO’s first Global Aviation Cooperation Symposium (GACS), she said: “Internal constraints in Europe [on airport capacity] are allowing more traffic to be carried to other areas – especially in the Middle East, where they have kept up with capacity, and Istanbul where they have a national public-private approach towards aviation – their economies benefit.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is assessing a planned acquisition of Zagreb international airport operator ZAIC by an international consortium charged with financing, designing, building, operating and managing a new airport terminal at Croatia’s main hub. Its members are Aéroports de Paris Management; France-based Bouygues Bâtiment International; the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC); Luxembourg-based pan-European infrastructure investor Marguerite Fund; and Turkey’s TAV Airports Holding.…

AS TECHNOLOGICAL security features in cosmetics and personal care products packaging become increasingly sophisticated and harder to beat, they will offer more intelligent and multi-functional security. From authentication, to tracking and tracing products during distribution, and preventing and detecting tampering, these systems help brands access their global distribution network, ensuring products move smoothly from production to consumer.…

Sourcing trends in fast fashion in Europe and north America are in flux, being affected by the economic downturn, changes in consumer behaviour and growing awareness of industry practices, especially in the wake of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh last year.…

THE PRESIDENT of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TCMA) has said plans by the Japanese fashion giant Uniqlo to open a production office in Turkey later this year are another indication of Turkey’s popularity as a textiles and clothing sourcing hub.…

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.…

The livestock sector in Syria has been seriously impacted by the country’s ongoing civil war, with poultry production down by over half compared to pre-conflict levels, cattle herds by 40%, and the number of sheep down by 30%. Meanwhile, veterinary services have almost collapsed.…

BRITAIN’s National Crime Agency (NCA) this month recovered more than USD7 million

(GBP4.22 million) after a High Court judge decided that a Turkish businessman was – on balance of probability – involved in international fraud and money laundering.

In pursuing a civil recovery operation, the NCA had submitted that Hakki Yaman Namli, resident in Turkey, had derived millions of US dollars, held in two UK bank accounts, from complex investment fraud and laundering.…

The cogeneration market in Turkey is in flux. Overall combined heat and power (CHP) capacity has dropped over the past decade from 15% of total energy capacity in 2004, to 14% in 2013, primarily due to high oil and gas prices in the wake of market liberalisation that made CHP less cost effective.…

The governments of the Eurasian Customs Union – Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia – are considering designing a collaborative package of measures aimed at developing their national textile and light industries. One key element of this programme will be combatting illegally produced and imported textiles and textile products into customs union territory.…

COUNTERFEIT medicines smuggled into Europe through the post and by couriers were among the more than 70,000 fake products intercepted during a joint customs operation code-named ERMIS. Coordinated by the Greek customs service and the European Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF, the operation involved customs officers from other EU member states, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, said the European Commission.…

THE CONFLICT in Syria, which has entered its fourth year, has had a major impact on the cosmetic market and industry, both in the troubled country itself and the neighbouring region. Exports to Syria, and distribution of cosmetics, has been severely hampered by the civil war, while the conflict’s spillover is impacting other countries, compounded by the 2.9 million Syrian refugees currently registered in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.…

THE MIDDLE East cosmetics market is weathering the region’s current political and economic instability in the region. While the markets in the Levant are experiencing tough times, Gulf sales continue to grow. Retailers and manufacturers are also offsetting the losses incurred in depressed and unstable countries by exporting to burgeoning African markets.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) confectionery sector was one of Europe’s major export earners in 2013, with the latest EU trade data showing that Euro EUR3.6 billion’s worth of chocolate, confectionery and ice cream was sold outside the EU last year.

Overseas chocolate sales were particularly impressive, rising 8.2% year-on year, rising to EUR31 million in 2013.…

MOVEMENTS of refugees can involve millions of people – all of whom are potential consumers – but tapping their purchasing power can be difficult for knitwear companies, even though their products are clearly useful for displaced people in poor accommodation.

The conflict in Syria has forced 2.5 million refugees to flee to the neighbouring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.…

The president of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TCMA), has said that Turkey is targeting strong growth in exports of Turkish textiles and clothing to the UK. Cem Negrin told a conference on Friday (May 30) that the Turkish industry was looking to capitalise on the growing number of British brands and retailers looking to source outside south, east and south-east Asia.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has revised guide prices for a range of poultry imports – if the value of exports exceed these levels, the European Union (EU) can impose additional duties on their sale.

Under the new rules, which should come into force in July, the EU has set a representative price for 100 kilograms of frozen chicken legs coming from Brazil at EUR135, while 100 kg of frozen boneless cuts coming from Argentina have been given a guide price of EUR294; from Brazil EUR220.50; Chile EUR315.70; and Thailand EUR254.60.…

Global steel transformation giant Bekaert is awaiting a European Commission decision on whether its plans to acquire Pirelli Tyre’s steel tyre cord business can go ahead. Bekaert expects a ruling this month (July) on the USD350 million deal to expand the company’s share of the global market from Brussels’ competition directorate general.…

A member of the Turkish Knitwear Industrialists Association (TRISAD) board of directors has called for Turkey’s entire knitwear industry to be located as a cluster in Anatolia, away from major cities such as Istanbul. The call comes from Irfan Yolcular, who as well as being on the TRISAD board is president of Istanbul-based Nıt Orme, which specialises in the production of spare parts as well as the supply of technical, design and consultancy services to the Turkish knitwear industry.…

INDIA’S newly launched Knitting Technology Mission (KTM) project is primarily trying to diversify the country’s knitwear exports with a shift away from cotton to manmade fibre based knitted goods. The KTM committee chairman Dr A Sakthivel has hailed the project as a “platform to add value across the supply chain.”…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is increasing its assistance to Ukraine, because of its ongoing political and military crisis, the development institution’s annual meeting has been told. The country is a core part of the EBRD’s eastern, central Europe and central Asia region of operation, along with Russia, which recently annexed Crimea, sparking a diplomatic firestorm.…

Final negotiations are under way to secure f a planned investment by Turkish textile manufacturer Akber to construct the biggest textile plant in Ethiopia so far.

A spokesperson at Ethiopia’s Textile Industry Development Institute (TIDI) confirmed to just-style that talks with Akber are taking place but stressed that a final agreement is yet to be signed, and that further details will be released soon.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has added borates, chromium, coking coal, magnesite, phosphate rock and silicon metal to the European Union (EU) list of critical raw materials, prioritising EU policy actions to secure supplies of these minerals.

By adding these six materials, it raised the number of minerals considered of critical importance to the EU economy to 20.…

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.…

The Istanbul Chamber of Industry (İstanbul Sanayi Odası – ISO) has identified actions the Turkish textile industry should take to capitalise on its potential, including an increase in research and development (R&D) and recruiting more skilled workers.

In a ‘Textile Industry Sector Report’ released earlier this month, the ISO identified strengths in the country’s textile industry, including high levels of production capacity in all sub-sectors.…

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.…

TURKEY is the Middle East’s largest oilseed producer, but domestic demand outstrips supply despite efforts to boost production. In olive oil, Turkey is increasing production and exports, being the fifth largest producer globally, with the sector valued at USD500 million, according to Tariş Zeytin ve Zeytinyağı – the union of olive and olive oil co-operatives.…

AS labour costs in China continue to rise, its apparel and textile industry is seeing orders being transferred to other outsourcing locations as foreign buyers seek lower cost manufacturers. This move could be especially damaging for smaller, low-end Chinese manufacturers, leaving China-based orders increasingly concentrated amongst larger companies, according to a report from the China Cotton Textile Association: “Small to medium manufacturers said their orders dropped sharply during the first quarter of the year while big manufacturers said they had enough orders to keep them busy,” it explained.…

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 INSTABILITY prompted by the crisis in Ukraine is increasing the risk of crime-tainted Russian assets being moved into new safe havens to avoid the effects of possible sanctions. With EU member state Cyprus long favoured by Russian investors, and likely to be covered by any sanctions, could the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) offer an attractive alternative?…

The textile industry in the Kahramanmaraş region, which lies in southeastern Turkey and is one of Turkey’s most important textile production hubs, is growing strongly through investments encouraged by a government incentive scheme. Growth is focusing increasingly on technical textiles.

According to data from the Kahramanmaraş Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kahramanmaraş Ticaret ve Sanayi Odasi – KMTSO), the value of the region’s textile exports reached USD679 million in the first 10 months of 2013, already 17% up on the total textile exports for 2012, which were USD581 million.…

BUDGET airlines have a major impact on airport expansion or contraction across Europe, but their importance can be particularly pronounced in countries towards the east, whose economies are still catching up with the west of the continent.

Even in Poland, which avoided recession since the financial collapse of 2008, some airports have asked city and regional governments for help when they cannot attract enough trade – in one recent instance following a decision by Ryanair to cut routes.…

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region ranks poorly in intellectual property rights protection and enforcement. While some countries, notably in the Gulf, are gradually improving, political and economic uncertainty in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings is hampering progress in much of the rest of the region.…

Turkey’s automotive market grew strongly in 2013, driven by strong economic growth and a government incentive scheme designed to boost investments in the sector. However, high taxes are limiting growth and imports still dominate the market.

According to data from Turkey’s Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD – Otomotiv Sanayii Dernegi), the passenger car and light commercial vehicle market grew 9.7% in 2013, with total sales reaching 853,378, compared with 777,761 in 2012.…

EVIDENCE is growing that Turkey’s knitting manufacturing industry is outsourcing an increasing volume of its production to contract knitters within Turkey, as it seeks to tackle a number of challenges faced by the sector.

Nesim Bensusan, president of Bensu AS, a knitwear manufacturer in Istanbul, told WTiN that in 2013 it reduced the number of its knitting machines from 40 to 20.…

REPRESENTATIVES from Europe’s food and drinks industry have backed an “ambitious and comprehensive” Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union (EU) and the USA However, they have asked negotiators to find creative ways to deal with technical trade barriers restricting EU-US food and drink commerce, including sanitary and phytosanitary rules.…

COSMETICS was one of the top five categories of dangerous products notified through the European Union’s (EU) rapid alert system on dangerous consumer products (RAPEX) in 2013, according to a report published yesterday (25 March) by the European Commission.

Out of the 2,364 notifications received last year, 106 were related to cosmetics (including haircare products).…

Beef production in the USA could be lower this year than in 2013, even though there are indications that the long decline in the national cattle herd may be at an end, a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) expert has told globalmeatnews.com.…

IRAN and Turkey are regional giants within the Middle East oilseeds sector, and while their industries have been performing the threat of political instability and unstable energy subsidies threaten their profits.

According to Bill Baker, foreign agricultural service analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Turkey and Iran constitute the two “major producers of oilseed crops in the Middle East.”…

Nearly 18 months since Australian exporters voluntarily suspended sheep exports to Bahrain, the CEO of the Australian Live Exporters’ Council Alison Penfold has told globalmeatnews.com that Australian exporters are keen to resume trading: “Bahrain is a market we value very highly.…

THE TURKISH pharmaceutical industry is aiming to undergo a fundamental shift over the coming years as it attempts to move from being a producer largely of generics to become an important global centre for the production of original medicines.
Its government has said that it wants Turkey to become one of the world’s top 10 economies in health services by 2023 – the centenary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic – and to become the Eurasian production base for medium- and high-level technology products.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) police agency Europol and the USA’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have successfully combined efforts to break a counterfeit cancer drug ring based in Turkey. Two Turkish nationals from Istanbul have now been charged with smuggling fake prescription medicine from Turkey and other countries into the United States.…

IRAN and Turkey are regional giants within the Middle East oilseeds sector, and while their industries have been performing the threat of political instability and unstable energy subsidies threaten their profits.

According to Bill Baker, foreign agricultural service analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Turkey and Iran constitute the two “major producers of oilseed crops in the Middle East.”…

TURKEY’S paints and coatings industry has set itself the target of becoming the third largest paints and coatings sector in Europe by 2023 as it seeks to become a key regional hub within the international industry as a whole.

According to data from Turkey’s Association of Paint Industry (Boya Sanayicileri Dernegi – BOSAD), the size of the Turkish paints and coatings market reached 840,000 tonnes in 2012, with a value of USD2 billion.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released official guidance on how to protect the environment when ‘fracking’ for shale gas. It has given European Union (EU) member states 18 months to follow its suggestions, saying it will “review the effectiveness” of this voluntary approach after this deadline.…

A NEW World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement cracking down on trade-based red tape, inappropriate fees and bad practice could have a significant and beneficial impact on the plastics industry if implemented in full, say experts. WTO officials may warn that it could take between three and five years for member countries to ratify this agreement on trade facilitation, but they argue changes should be worth the wait.…

Turkey’s knitting industry performed strongly in 2013 and its senior figures are optimistic about further growth in the coming year. According to data from the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TCMA), exports of knitted apparel from Turkey grew by around 10% in 2013, reaching USD8.49 billion in the first 11 months of the year.…

THE WORLD’S tobacco trade is not always a straightforward affair, being held up by export and import licence applications, port dues, quality checks, corruption and unusual red tape. A new World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation, struck last December, is designed to ease some of these difficulties.…

The Turkish textile and clothing industry is looking to boost the number and quality of trained professionals entering the sector as it seeks to establish Turkey as a key centre for the production of high-quality, design-led textile and apparel.

Mustafa Balkuv, chairman of the Turkish Knitwear Industrialists Association (TRISAD), told WTiN.com…

Law enforcement and the judiciary are under threat in Turkey amid political wrangling and corruption probes. Thousands of police officers have been reassigned, the deputy of a financial crime unit has been dismissed, and the independence of the judiciary has been brought into question.…

Over recent years, Turkey has become one of the world’s most important emerging markets. Positioned at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, over the past five years Foreign Direct Investment has grown from just over USD1 billion to an annual average of USD13 billion.…

A director at the China Cotton Association has welcomed the planned replacement of China’s national cotton reserve programme with a system of subsidies. The move was unveiled in a formal opinion released on January 19 by the country’s State Council. Government subsidies will be first trialled in China’s largest cotton production base Xinjiang, north-west China, in 2014, and be gradually rolled out to other areas, according to the opinion.…

WHILE Turkey has beaten out China as the United States’ top cotton export market, the US industry does not expect the shift to last.

Turkey has received 1.68 million bales (about 0.38 million tonnes) and China 1.4 million bales of the USA’s total commitment (cotton already shipped plus contracts for cotton delivery not yet shipped) of 6.95 million bales for the 2013-2014 crop year, figures from the US Department of Agriculture show.…

TURKEY’S clothing industry is anticipating stronger export growth in 2014, despite growing concerns within the sector about increasing pressure on price from European retailers.

Cem Negrin, president of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TCMA) said that the Turkish garment industry is aiming for growth of between 9% and 10% in 2014.…

TURKEY’S tobacco leaf industry enjoyed a boom year in 2013, with total tobacco production for the 2012 crop (purchased in 2013) up 52.6% to 69,348 kilogrammes (kg), according to data from Turkey’s Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Authority (Tütün ve Alkol Piyasası Düzenleme Kurumu – TAPDK).…

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 EXPANSION of the Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport (PMIA) in Medina, Saudi Arabia, has long been overdue, with the facility having struggled to handle the spike in pilgrims visiting the two holy sites of Mecca and Medina. In a first for the Gulf region, the expansion is a public-private partnership, with Turkey’s TAV Airports Holding Company operating a 25-year concession that is expected to be rolled out elsewhere in the kingdom.…

BRAZIL-based textile industry conferences in 2014 will focus on innovation, with the country’s fabric sector seeking to trade up to higher end products.

Fairs such as Première Vision, have been growing in size. The bi-annual event was staged this month in São Paulo from January 21-22, with a follow up meeting from November 4 to 5.…

TURKEY’S cosmetics market is continuing to expand rapidly, despite slowing economic growth in the country as a whole over recent years. GDP rose by an average of 5.2% per year between 2002 and 2011, before slumping to 2.2% in 2012. Growth of 3.7% was forecast for 2013, with similar growth also expected in 2014.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, in Istanbul

TURKEY’S cosmetics market is continuing to expand rapidly, despite slowing economic growth in the country as a whole over recent years. GDP rose by an average of 5.2% per year between 2002 and 2011, before slumping to 2.2% in 2012.…

Turkey’s textile and clothing industry is aiming for higher growth in its exports during 2014, with a drop in the value of the Turkish Lira over recent months a key factor, WTiN has been told.

The Lira fell to a new all-time low of TRY2.33 against the dollar on Friday.…

THE FINAL investment deal on piping gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II field has been struck, confirming Europe will receive 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually from 2019. The gas will be shipped via the upgraded South Caucasus Pipeline through Georgia and the new TANAP pipeline across Turkey, linking with the planned Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) through Greece and Albania to Italy.…

SINCE 2007, Turkey has been on the receiving end of repeated warnings from Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to improve its combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime. While an anti-terrorism bill has now been passed, shortcomings still remain and new risks have emerged in Turkey’s difficult neighbourhood.…

AS peace-talks finally got underway in Geneva, aimed at ending Syria’s bloody civil war, one economically devastating consequence is all too clear: Syria’s energy sector has come to a near standstill. The government has lost control of key oil producing areas to the rebels, international oil companies have left the country, and the regime has had to resort to round-about methods to secure energy imports to offset production losses.…

TURKEY’S increasing focus on technical textiles is reflected in the programmes of two major international conferences that look set to be among the highlights of the country’s busy textile events programme in 2014.

A sixth International Conference on Future Technical Textiles (FTT 2014) will be held in Istanbul on October 15-17.…

WINNERS AND LOSERS

RETAIL

WINNERS

ASOS

Fashion retailer ASOS showed online convenience and price are still a winning combination with shoppers. The UK-based online retailer continued its impressive trajectory this year, announcing pre-tax profit had reached GBP54.7m (US$88.3m) for the year ending 31 August, compared to GBP40m in the same period of last year, with retail sales jumping 40% to GBP753.8m, up from GBP537.9m last year. …

THE DIPLOMATIC stand-off between the European Union (EU) and Russia over their respective links to Ukraine throws into stark light the EU’s desire to secure energy security of supply and to decrease its reliance on an unpredictable Russian government. These needs were reflected in the announcement in October of a list of 248 energy infrastructure projects that the EU wants built in in the next decade, all in some way connecting EU member countries through electricity, gas and oil links.…

TURKEY’S increasing focus on technical textiles is reflected in the programmes of two major international conferences that look set to be among the highlights of the country’s busy textile events programme in 2014.

A sixth International Conference on Future Technical Textiles (FTT 2014) will be held in Istanbul on October 15-17.…

A EUROPEAN Union-funded ‘BETITEX’ research project has brought together a consortium of 10 partners to develop protective, biodegradable textiles that can kill ticks and bedbugs. The Euro EUR1.5 million (USD2.06 million) project will focus on developing personal protective equipment for small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and also “domestic use in the form of home linen,” according to a European Commission note.…

The Arsan Textile Group, one of Turkey’s leading textile businesses, is to invest in its finishing department next year to help the company produce a more diverse range of fabrics. The company says it wants to meet growing demand for products with a variety of looks and textures from its clients, which include several major European brands.…

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 Ethiopia government has reported export earnings of USD29 million for the country’s clothing and textile industry in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2013-4). 

This exceeds by more than 50% the USD19 million earned by the industry in Ethiopia during the same period in the previous financial year.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission is attempting to move the legal boundary where tax avoidance becomes tax evasion, criminalising some aggressive tax planning that has caused controversy across Europe. The move is one a number of recent practical tax and anti-fraud law reforms that Brussels has been pushing to help tax authorities in the European Union (EU) collect reasonable levels of revenue.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian confectioners can look forward to increasing their trans-Atlantic trade once a new free trade agreement between the EU and Canada comes into force, probably in 2015.

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced on October 18, will remove most tariffs for confectionery and sweet bakery products imposed by both sides on each other’s exports.…

Many confectionery manufacturers in the United States continue to make strides in sustainable packaging, focusing on reducing inputs and using more recyclable materials. However, ice cream manufacturers have prioritised cost savings and consumer trends in the past few years over eco-friendly features, stagnating innovation in sustainable ice cream packaging.…

Turkish textile company Kivanc Tekstil, which recently secured a EUR3.7 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) to expand its weaving capacity and boost its energy efficiency, has told WTiN.com that it is targeting Russia and China as key growth markets.…

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.…

China’s textile industry must create new competitive advantages to compete with emerging low-cost producers such as Vietnam and Bangladesh in today’s tough export climate, according to a senior official with the China National Textile and Apparel Council.

“It’s clear from the trade data that apparel exports in low-cost countries including Vietnam and Bangladesh are growing faster than those in China and we must increasingly look to expand the value of exports rather than rely on bulk selling at low prices,” said Liu Yaozhong of the council’s international trade office at a seminar during the Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics trade show Tuesday.…

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.…

Turkey’s textile and garment sector is aiming to significantly expand its sales to key global markets outside of Europe, such as the US, while continuing to grow exports to European Union (EU) countries over the next few years, WTiN.com has been told.…

While Syria is mired in its bloody civil war, it remains targeted by multilateral sanctions. But despite being essentially cut off from the international banking system, Damascus is evading these sanctions by using Russian banks, and is being financially propped up by Iran.…

A PARTNER at advisors McKinsey has argued that Bangladesh’s advantages in low cost and convenience for brands will ensure its clothing and textile sector keeps growing, despite the Rana Plaza disaster.

Dr Achim Berg led a study released at last week’s World Fashion Convention, Shanghai, which concluded that about 72% of the total 29 chief purchasing officers (CPO) surveyed are planning to move orders from China to other Asian countries in the next five years, although China will still remain as the largest sourcing market.…

INTERNATIONAL clothing and textile experts gathered near Shanghai last week (September 23-7) to discuss solutions to China’s twin challenges – dealing with less foreign demand, while managing rising production costs.

Speaking at the 29th World Fashion Convention, Shanghai, staged in nearby Kunshan, Texhong CEO Hong Tianzhu told delegates it was time for Chinese manufacturers to upgrade their plant and processes, while moving some production outside China.…

SOFTWARE solutions specifically designed for the knitwear industry can save time and money while moving products from design to production more quickly.

Paris headquartered Pointcarré International is a leader in computer aided design (CAD), its innovative Pointcarré knit software and its various modules being used by major brands such as Ralph Lauren, Hot Sox, K.…

A EUROPEAN regional runway safety seminar has heard that “more efforts are still needed to promote existing guidance material” on reducing runway incidents, including advice from the meeting’s organiser ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Staged in Istanbul, Turkey, from November 6-8, a summary of discussions noted that while “consensus exists on the importance of collaborative approaches and safety information exchange” improving runway safety, “legal and cultural obstacles remain in some cases”.…

More academic papers are now available for free than in paid-for peer reviewed journals, according to a study released yesterday (Wednesday) by the European Commission’s directorate general for research and innovation.

“This new research suggests that open access is reaching the tipping point, with around 50% of scientific papers published in 2011 now available for free,” Brussels said in a statement.…

While Egypt’s economy is reeling from ongoing political instability following the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood led government in July, clothing manufacturers are still operating and completing orders.

“The situation is not so bad. What you see on TV is not the full picture.…

IN the global telecoms market where customers are now kings and queens, while once-dominant operators are humble stewards, only the best servants will survive. And these will be companies that offer their masters and mistresses exactly what they want – or it will be ‘off with their heads!’…

TURKEY’S textile sector has been struggling to export its products to India, but it is finding the south Asian giant a useful source for importing dyeing and finishing machinery, yarn, fabric and cotton, industry experts have told WTiN.com.

Indian dyeing and textile finishing machinery is increasingly popular in Turkey, as its quality has risen while prices remain competitive: “In past three years we have sold 50 machines to the textile companies in Turkey,” said Mr K Venkat Reddy, managing director of Gujarat-based Kusters Calico Machinery Ltd.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) food and feed safety rapid alert network (RASFF) has warned of a spate of problems involving salmonella contamination of imported meat and meat products. In some instances, consignments were exported from outside the EU, and others, within it.…

THE INDIAN apparel industry has made progress with backward integration over last five years but exporters rely too heavily on refunds of custom duties when re-exporting apparel based on fabrics and fibres bought outside the country, a Li & Fung India executive told a New Delhi conference on Friday (July 19).…

IT is common sense that for really fast fashion, sourcing should be made as close to a home market as costs will allow. And for the world’s two largest fast fashion markets – the European Union (EU) and the United States – geography does provide some useful neighbours able to offer lower cost out-sourcing, albeit not as cheap as in east and south Asia.…

To meet apparel and textile brands’ desire to move into fast fashion, manufacturers have begun to embrace new production processes that improve efficiency and performance. Apparel and textile manufacturers have been slower than many other manufacturing industries to embrace supply chain improvements in speed, but are now succumbing to pressure from brands moving into fast fashion retail.…

THE INDIAN cotton textile industry has increased its global competitiveness over the last decade, but still its exports have not shown the corresponding results, said a report compiled by Zurich-based consultancy agency Gherzi. Entitled ‘Cost Benchmarking Study – India vis-à–vis Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, China, Pakistan and Turkey’, it was commissioned by the Indian Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council and released in New Delhi last week (July 25).…

‘LA TORRE PUIG,’ the 22-storey Puig Tower now being fitted out in the Plaza de Europa, of the Catalan capital, Barcelona, for Puig SL, the family owned fragrances and fashion firm, will be yet another landmark building for one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.…

India’s new textiles minister Kavuru Sambasiva Rao told an international textile conference in New Delhi on Friday he wants the textile sector to be relieved from rigid labour laws that prevent manufacturers working 24 hours-a-day. Rao, who was appointed last month (June), said that he is pushing for the Indian cabinet to approve new legislation in the southern state of Karnataka that would give the industry more flexibility in laying-off workers and to allow women to work night shifts in factories.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU)-favoured Nabucco pipeline carrying Azerbaijan gas to western Europe will now almost certainly never be built, after Azeri gas consortium Shah Deniz decided to sell its gas to the rival Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The decision came after Greece announced it would sell its natural gas grid operator DESFA to Azeri state energy company SOCAR: the TAP pipeline would run through Greece to Italy, linking with pipelines in Turkey.…

Croatia’s paint and coatings industry is aiming to capitalise on the benefits of the country’s recent July 1 accession to the European Union (EU), and is hoping that an economic recovery can also help the industry return to growth over the next year.…

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.…

A leading industry body representing Turkish textile and apparel manufacturers has told WTiN that the country’s textile and garment sector has been unaffected by the anti-government protests and strike action that have hit the country over the past two weeks. The demonstrations entered their 15th day on Friday (June 14), and a two-day strike by thousands of trade union members took place in Turkey’s major cities last week.…

TROUBLED Turkey’s textile sector is to get a shot in the arm with the launch of a major Chinese-owned yarn manufacturing plant in Balıkesir, west Turkey, south of Istanbul. Shanghai-based Texhong plans to invest about USD180 million in the factory complex, which will supply more than 16,000 tonnes of core-spun cotton yarn and blended yarn to the European Union (EU) market annually, Qiu Ming, general manager at Texhong Turkey told WTiN.com.…

RECENT technical advances and headline projects show how companies with market leadership in high voltage direct current (HVDC) and Ultra HVDC (UHVDC) are pushing the envelope of what these technologies can do.

Since Sweden’s ASEA (now part of Swiss multinational ABB) installed the world’s first commercial HVDC link, under the Baltic Sea to the Swedish island of Gotland in 1954, it has become the technology of choice for transmitting current over very long distances on land or subsea.…

TURKMENISTAN’S growing textile sector may in future provide opportunities for foreign investment through the privatisation of state-owned manufacturing units, a spokesman from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in Ashgabat told just-style.

But overseas investors needed to take care, he said, noting a lack of international best practice within the sector – warning investment in the central Asia republic was a “long shot in the mid-term if not further in the future”.…

THE TURKISH textile and garment industry body told just-style said that there has been no disruption to its delivery of orders following the civil unrest that has been taking place in the country for more than a week. The anti-government protests, which began on May 31 in Istanbul, extended to a two-day strike in Turkey’s major cities on June 4 to 5 by thousands of trade union members.…

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”.…

The challenges of working out whether textiles are sourced, produced or manufactured ethically are magnified by the plethora of eco-labelling schemes that apply to the industry. According to the Vancouver, Canada-based Ecolabel Index (www.ecolabelindex.com) there are 436 ecolabels worldwide, of which at least 24 cover textiles, clothes, other apparel and garments (while several others potentially overlap into the industry).…

Poland confirmed plans in 2012 to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with a view to importing supplies from Qatar, it seemed like the latest example of eastern European energy ministries trying to avoid energy dependence on Russia. Plans to develop shale gas in Poland and the Baltic States fall into the same category, along with policies to build energy infrastructure linking Poland and its Nordic and Baltic neighbours.…

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.…

A growth in alleged steel smuggling into Colombia has sparked concern by steel workers unions, who have successfully pressured the government to take action against illicit trades. The Colombian authorities are investigating recent steel imports from China and Mexico, fearing they may have breached the country’s trading laws.…

THE ARAB Spring may have increased short-term doubts about the political stability of Europe’s southern and eastern Mediterranean neighbours, but the long-term case for energy cooperation between these regions is surely unarguable.

Europe needs more energy than it can generate, and it has (for the time being at least) money to buy energy from north Africa and the Levant.…

SUMMER 2013 marks an important milestone in the evolution of the European Union (EU) regulatory framework and financial support for Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E) that will contribute towards the European Commission’s goal of a single-energy market for gas and electricity. Oil and carbon dioxide (CO2) transport from carbon capture and storage systems also figure in the picture.…

INDIA’S technical textile industry is encountering some serious obstacles as it tries to meet its government’s ambitious expansion targets, but optimism still prevails.

“Technical textile usage in the country is only 10-15% of total textiles,” said Shashi Singh, executive director of the India Technical Textile Association, “But India is a big market and we are creating awareness about this nascent industry.”…

The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) has drafted plans to promote the use of pre-baked technology in aluminium smelter electrolysis units through a possible USD50 million loan to Turkey’s only liquid aluminium manufacturer Eti Aluminyum. The money would help modernise the company’s aluminium smelter plant located in Konya, in south-central Anatolia, by converting the existing Soderberg electrolysis technology to proven prebaked anode technology.…

THE EVER-CHANGING sourcing equation is a challenge to the global garment and textile industry supply chain. There is talk of moving production back home to western countries – bringing it closer to market- but its viability is being questioned. Meanwhile in Asia, where the majority of clothes are currently produced worldwide, the sourcing landscape is changing, experts say.…

IT is a long way from China, east Asia and south Asia to the key developed world markets or Europe and America. And with fashion being so dynamic, demand for a line could have dampened in the months between placing an order and receiving delivery.…

The latest financial crisis to hit the Eurozone – hitting the diplomatically-recognised portion of Cyprus – is perhaps a case study in how to mismanage a banking-reliant economy and of how the international community can err when applying a fix.

As Accounting & Business went to press, the divided Mediterranean island was faced with the prospect of having to stop all government payments unless fresh money pours in by April 24.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have suffered unevenly from Russia’s ban on EU food exports from last August, according to European Commission data.
While Finnish and Estonian extra-EU food and drink exports fell sharply in August-November 2014 compared to the same period in 2013 (32% and 22% down respectively), other EU food exporters saw only moderate falls in such sales, or even gains.…

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.…

IRAN is under sanctions from the United States, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations, and last year the US tightened the screws even more. As President Barack Obama said following his re-election in November, 2012: “We’ve imposed the toughest sanctions in history.”…

PROFITS from human trafficking are estimated at USD32 billion-a-year and growing, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), with the trade one of the fastest growing international crimes, now second to the drugs trade and ahead of arms trafficking. But despite its emotive nature as a crime, only recently has the money laundering angle to human trafficking been taken more seriously, and there is still a way to go.…

IN recent years Ethiopia’s knitwear industry has experienced a boom. As well as several major companies, including Primark, Tesco, and H&M now sourcing knitwear from Ethiopia, some Asia-based factory owners have moved production to Ethiopia, and various domestically-owned plants are developing.…

BANGLADESH and Turkey are knitwear rivals, with differing levels of development. Bangladesh overtook Turkey in 2010 becoming the world’s second largest knitwear manufacturer (by output) in the year ending June 2010, pushing the Turks into third place.

In the year ending June 2010, Bangladesh exported 7.78 billion pieces of knitted items or USD 6.48 billion worth of knitwear, overtaking Turkey’s shipment of 7.74 billion pieces, according to BKMEA.…

NONWOVENS manufacturing has grown fast in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with most of the major players less than two decades old. With a burgeoning population and strong export potential, MENA production has in general doubled over the past five years, especially in the region’s manufacturing hubs of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which currently have the strongest nonwovens sectors.…

RUSSIA is now the world’s highest value market for super premium fragrances, in a development that appears to reflect the fabulous wealth of the burgeoning Russian middle and upper class.

The price of premium fragrances ranges wildly. At the top end, the latest super premium fragrance from Giorgio Armani (Armani Prive La Femme Bleue) is limited to only 1,000 bottles, and retails in Moscow with a price tag of around USD600 for a 100ml bottle.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) confectionery manufacturers and their suppliers stand to boost their export sales and reduce import costs with the launch of talks to forge the two largest bilateral trade deals ever sought by the EU – with the USA and Japan.…

Universities should be more transparent about what their offer through their PhD programmes, to better allow students to compare doctoral studies across Europe, Thomas Jørgensen, the author of the recently concluded Accountable Research Environments for Doctoral Education (ARDE) project told University World News in Brussels today.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked oil and gas companies to participate in a major public consultation designed to help it draft reforms promoting the development of new energy technologies. Brussels is planning to release a new policy paper on the subject in the middle of this year.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has put forward an action plan aimed at creating a lasting remedy for Europe’s troubled olive oil sector which has suffered a near-calamitous loss of profitability in recent years. Unveiled last June, the plan follows a sequence of temporary and not wholly successful boosts to the sector in the form of injections of private storage aid between October 2011 and May last year.…

CYPRUS is under intense pressure to clean up its act  – at least on the south of the island, controlled by the internationally recognised government- in battling what some foreign creditors, with Germany at the forefront, see as a widespread money laundering problem.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) Japanese knitwear manufacturers are assessing the opportunities offered by the planned EU-Japan free trade agreement (FTA), with negotiations about to begin, having been authorised by the European Union (EU) member states before Christmas.

“We will try to develop good contacts with the Japanese industry to try to come up with solutions during the negotiations that could be beneficial for both whenever possible”, said Luisa Santos, head of international trade at the European apparel and textile confederation (Euratex).…

Malaysia’s textile and clothing industry is planning to focus on three key areas – higher value fashion, dyeing and finishing, and technical textiles – to sustain strong growth and continue to compete with significantly lower-cost competition elsewhere in Asia.

The country’s textile and apparel exports grew 28.4% to USD3.8 billion in 2011, according to the Malaysian Textile Manufacturers Association (MTMA), with a further significant increase expected in 2012.…

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.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Counterfeit, mislabelled and substandard meat products have been seized in an international police operation spanning 29 countries, coordinated by Interpol and European police agency Europol. Sausages, ham, lamb, chicken and beef were seized, a Europol spokesman told globalmeatnews.com.…

BY MARK ROWE, MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS, AND MOHAMMED YUSUF, IN NAIROBI

INTERNATIONAL civil aviation procedures are designed to create predictability. But they are not usually applicable for airports in territories that have declared independence, but have not achieved full international recognition, or a seat at the United Nations.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

AFTER two years from the entry into force of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP) between the European Union (EU) and the United States, the European Commission patted itself on the back, claiming the agreement is working.…

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 JONATHAN DYSON, IN ADDIS ABABA

A GROWING number of major retailers are sourcing textiles and clothing from Ethiopia, as the country’s industry undergoes a major expansion programme. Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) became the latest high street giant to begin purchasing textiles and garments from Ethiopia in November.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INDIAN government agency charged with the development of the national poultry sector has been hit by an outbreak of bird flu on one of its turkey farms, the Office International des Épizooties (OIE), the world animal health organisation has said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

European Commission officials have warned that the European Union’s (EU) annual Euro EUR140 million meat and livestock market intervention budget is facing deep cuts. Heads of government will meet November 22-23 in Brussels to agree an overall 2014-20 EU spending deal.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

STANDING firmly in the middle of the Wi-Fi, cloud, and M2M revolutions has delivered explosive growth for Openet, an Irish based global leader of real-time transaction management software and services.

The middleware firm’s story and strategy neatly illustrates challenges facing operators and the solutions that innovation can provide.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

GREECE has clamped down sharply on movements of livestock on the Aegean island of Kos, to prevent bluetongue virus spreading to other islands and the Greek mainland. It follows reports of 10 cases being discovered in sheep and one in goats on the eastern Aegean island, which is just 4km from the Turkish coast.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

NEW European Union (EU) rules on animal welfare applying from January 2013 might depress the quality of EU-made poultry meat, a spokesman for a major Dutch poultry producer told an international conference in Brussels on the protection of animals in slaughterhouses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN government wants to secure European Union (EU) geographical indication protection for local rose oil. It says the cosmetics and perfume ingredient is of such high quality, that it should be registered in Brussels, preventing manufacturers selling ‘Bulgarian rose oil’ unless it is manufactured in Bulgaria by traditional methods.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

10 SEPTEMBER 2012

MOROCCO, Tunisia, and Egypt – respectively the sixth, seventh and sixteenth largest exporters of knitwear to the European Union’s 27 member states, as measured by sales value – have traditionally been competitive knitwear producers and exporters.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

The economic sanctions imposed on Syria last year by the United States and Europe to pressure Damascus to end its violent crackdown on protesters has made doing business in Syria difficult, especially financial transactions. But the sanctions are being evaded, with Lebanon a prime conduit for goods and capital outflows.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS

INCREASING passenger traffic and aircraft movements have required an expansion of Croatia’s Zagreb Airport, which serves the country’s capital, in the form of a new passenger terminal which should be fully operational by 2016.

"Given the imminent entry of Croatia into the European Union [EU] in January 2013, and the existing attractiveness of the capital Zagreb, we need bigger, better, more beautiful and more efficient facilities – which will certainly be achieved with the construction of a new passenger terminal," Tonci Peovic, general manager of Zagreb Airport (Zra?na…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

It has been a been a turbulent time in the Middle East since the Arab uprisings swept much of the region over the past year-and-a-half, with not only sales of cosmetics, toiletries and perfumeries being depressed by losses in consumer confidence, but also distribution being harmed, especially by the protracted conflict in Syria.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS

THE TURKS used to run the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as colonial overlords – now with the country enjoying its independence since 1991, its government has shown its confidence in welcoming a Turkish company TAV Airports Holding to run its two international airports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FEAR of conviction over beefed up foreign bribery rules is growing in the USA, a consultants’ report is claiming, but scandals involving graft overseas continue. BDO USA released findings from a survey of 72 corporate directors of public companies with turnovers exceeding USD250 million.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, IN BOLOGNA

MORE than 110 academics and university administrators met in Bologna, Italy on September 21 for the twenty-fourth anniversary conference of the Magna Charta Universitatum – a declaration on fundamental university principles that has now been signed by over 750 universities worldwide.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

OUTSOURCING textile and apparel production is a necessary step along the supply chain for many large international brands, which – more than often – have long-standing relationships with manufacturers abroad. These partnerships have to start from somewhere, though – and with economic development continuing to grow in the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and other emerging market countries, there are many third-party companies and services that can help international buyers choose the right manufacturer.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

RUSSIA’S ban on certain live cattle and pig imports from the European Union (EU) is being used by the European Commission as a method to assess whether Russia will deliver on the commitments it made when joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO).…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

THE DEMAND for natural ingredients-based skin care products has been growing so fast in China that both multinational and domestic cosmetics companies are pouring new products onto the market to attract consumers, both men and women, with different levels of income.…

BY ROBERT STOKES IN MÁLAGA

THIS year I have abandoned my premium brand sun screen in favour of a Deliplus private label product sold by the Spanish supermarket group Mercadona for around EUR 5.00, saving around EUR 12.00 into the bargain.…

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 MARK ROWE

WITH its location adjacent to Europe’s key fashion centre Italy, a highly skilled labour force and low wages, Albania’s textile industry is repositioning itself amid the unrelenting economic crisis that is gripping Europe. A well-educated workforce and widely spoken Italian, English and Greek add to the appeal, according to Diana Cekhodima Sokolaj, president of the Albanian Fashion Designers Association.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Manufacturers and suppliers in the fashion production chain used to have a fairly cut and dry job: procure a certain amount of fabrics and materials at the beginning of the season to be manufactured into a predetermined number of apparel items in specific styles, colours and sizes.…

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 PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

Syria’s long uprising and associated sanctions has removed some competition for national tobacco company GOT. But a collapse in the Syrian pound has made inputs more expensive. And now GOT is facing an asset freeze in Europe as sanctions tighten.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, IN LUCCA

The Politecnico di Milano, one of Italy’s leading technical universities, has announced that from the beginning of the 2014 academic year, all Master of Science and PhD courses will be taught exclusively in English. The switch to English at the expense of Italian however has met with opposition from some of the institution’s professors, and 285 have signed a petition to the Rector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing to release calls for research proposals commanding millions of Euros of European Union (EU) funding, offering opportunities for innovative coatings companies exploring the potential of nanotechnology. The initiative is the last batch of funding under the outgoing EU seventh framework programme on research, which ends next year.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

ALGAE have been heralded as the universal raw material of the future for biofuels, agricultural feed, nutritional supplements, biochemicals and cosmetics. They gobble up CO2, can clean up waste water, and many will thrive in seawater when the fresh variety is usually limited to the sunnier climes where algae can be grown more cheaply.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

LAST year the Turkish government announced it had set a target of building a "minimum" of 20 nuclear reactors by 2030. Detailed plans have been developed to commission two nuclear power plants, and the Turkish government has announced plans for three more plants to meet rising power demand and ensure energy security.…

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 MJ DESCHAMPS

THE EUROPEAN Commission is considering the introduction of laws that would force European Union (EU) member states, consumers and producers to increase the amount of metal that is recycled and re-used from waste streams. These would include EU mandated taxation on waste; compulsory ‘pay-as-you-throw’ schemes charging consumers who fail to recycle metal waste; and enforced producer responsibility schemes, obliging manufacturers to support the costs of organising the collection and recycling of specific waste streams.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

ALGAE have been heralded as the universal raw material of the future for biofuels, agricultural feed, nutritional supplements, biochemicals and cosmetics. They gobble up CO2, can clean up waste water, and many will thrive in seawater when the fresh variety is usually limited to the sunnier climes where algae can be grown more cheaply.…

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 RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI, AND LEAH GERMAIN

THE LEADER of India’s key marble association stepped into an international row about his country’s marble trading policy, opposing the reduction of import restrictions, including marble import duties, on lower quality marble that is mined near Indian marble centre Kisharngarh.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE laws that would require European Union (EU) member states, consumers and producers to increase the amount of raw materials recycled and re-used from waste streams are being considered by the European Commission, one industry expert warns that increasing taxes on waste could have a negative impact.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

ANCIENT, natural techniques for making dyes and pigments have been made available today’s textile industry as a result of a European Union (EU)-funded research project, Med-Colour-Tech. A consortium of Mediterranean institutions, headed by the Ormylia Art Diagnosis Centre, operating under the auspices of the Sacred Convent of the Annunciation, Dependency of the Monastery of Simonos Petra at Greece’s Holy Mountain, identified dyes and materials used in different historical periods.…

BY JAMES FULLER

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) executive, the European Commission is trying to defeat criticism of a multilateral treaty opposing counterfeiting through a high stakes legal manoeuvre, with officials saying the outcome is of critical importance to Europe’s powerful auto sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is coming down hard on European Union (EU) member states which have yet to sufficiently liberalise their natural gas industries, breaching the EU gas directive, agreed as long ago as 2009.

It has sent legal final warnings to Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia saying they have two months to show how they will comply, or face possible cases at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

DUE largely to the surging growth of Dubai-based airline carriers Emirates and flydubai, government-owned operator and manager Dubai Airports is currently juggling the development of the new Al Maktoum International Airport at logistics hub Dubai World Central (DWC), as well as the USD7.8 billion expansion of the Dubai International Airport (DXB).…

BY MEGAN DETRIE, IN CAIRO

A YEAR after the break out of the civil war in Libya which ousted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from power – but paralysed the economy – the north African country’s airports are just now beginning to reopen, with construction projects likely to resume in the coming months.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

DESPITE much political turmoil over the course of the past year in Egypt, the country’s ongoing airport expansion projects have not been suffering. For the past decade, major expansion and renovation works have been underway, to handle the surge in foreign tourists to the North African country; which jumped from 5.5 million in 2002 to 14.7 million in 2010.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

THE DEVELOPMENT of commercial legislation in Turkey has not kept pace with the country’s blistering economic growth over the past decade. While structural economic reforms have been carried out, a foreign investment law passed, and GDP levels have more than tripled since 2002, Turkey has been slipping down the ranks in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report, dropping five places in 2011.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

Turkey’s economy has been on a roll for the past decade, with its GDP more than trebling to reach USD735 billion at the end of the 2010 fiscal year. With a population of 75 million and ideally situated at the crossroads between east and west, Turkey has built up a strong manufacturing-based economy.…

BY MARK ROWE

ALTHOUGH it has been likened to a 21st century Silk Road, the southern gas corridor is currently making painstaking and troubled progress; inching its way through the political and economic strife that stands between the Caspian Sea and Western Europe.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

WHILE the Iraqi government has implemented regulations that are both anti-money laundering (AML) and for combating the financing of terrorism (CTF), it has had lacklustre results in enforcement due to ongoing instability in the country. Corruption and endemic smuggling are also major problems.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

THE SYRIAN economy is in bad shape: sanctions have been slapped on the country by the United States and the European Union (EU), and the uprisings that began in March last year continue unabated. But while one of Syria’s main revenue earners – fossil fuel oil – has been affected by instability and international sanctions, its olive oil sector has had its best year ever harvest, estimated at 200,000 tonnes.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS AND LENA SMIRNOVA

AFTER 18 years of negotiations, Russia has finally gained approval to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a key diplomatic move that could have profound consequences for the country’s textile market and industry.

A ministerial meeting of the WTO in Geneva anointed Russian accession on December 16, making the country the WTO’s 155th member.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FUTURE of the natural gas sector is guaranteed in any viable European Union (EU) energy mix, the European Commission has said in a major policy paper. In its ‘Energy Road Map 2050’, Brussels argues that gas is the relatively clean fuel that will buy the EU time to adopt new energy technologies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WINNERS

TUNISIA

Of all the countries disrupted by the Arab Spring revolts in 2011, Tunisia liberated itself in the swiftest and most business-friendly fashion. This key European supplier rid itself of despotic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January14, and one week later, its textile and clothing sector was back at work.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed its long-awaited package of measures designed to prevent major oil or gas rig accidents that could pollute European Union (EU) waters. They have been collated into a proposed regulation, which would have to be followed to the letter by member states, if the proposal is approved by MEPs and EU ministers.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

UPRISINGS in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) this year have hit demand for printers in Lebanon, which has long been the printing hub of the region. Lebanese printers canvassed privately for Print Week MEA report that the upheavals have seen demand from Egypt and Syria decline, while transportation has been marginally affected from Lebanon due to the situation in neighbouring Syria.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a major political initiative to prevent European Union (EU) member states being played off against each other in energy negotiations with major suppliers, such as Russia. It has proposed legislation that would insist national EU governments give Brussels information on any current deals and negotiations regarding energy supplies, including, but not only, oil and gas.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY is the fifth largest importer of oils and oilseeds in the world, with demand being driven by its burgeoning economy, sizable food export industry, and a population of 74.8 million people. But while its demand for vegetable oils is outstripping local production, in olive oil production the country has set its sights on rising up the global rankings from its current fifth place to become the second largest producer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers this week authorised the European Commission strike a gas supply deal with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, which have substantial reserves under and near the Caspian Sea. The agreement would focus on a pipeline system running under the se from Turkmenistan to Azerjaijan.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

THE growth of data revenues and emerging markets contrasted with lacklustre domestic business, particularly in southern Europe, have dominated latest financial figures from the EU’s ‘big five’ telcos – Telecom Italia, Telefónica, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone.…

BY MINDY RAN

ROTTERDAM is already Europe’s largest port and hence of importance for the import and export of waste materials from and to the European Union (EU) and this role is to strengthen.

For Rotterdam, the world’s fourth largest industrial port, behind China’s Shanghai and Ningbo, then Singapore, already utilises 26,000 acres, of which 12,500 acres are commercial sites and 13,500 acres water docks, rail lines, roads and pipeline zones.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LITTLE more excites the international auto industry more than the search for an alternative to fossil fuels, and an American company is now looking seriously into the idea of using a heavy element thorium to generate locomotive power.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY’S USD2 billion paint market may be forecast by manufacturers to grow between 12% and 13% this year on the back of a resurgent construction sector; however, paint exports are currently struggling. This is because of a combination of lacklustre market demand in Europe along with the troubles companies are facing in terms of implementing European Union (EU) regulations required as Turkey meshes with the EU’s REACH chemical control system.…

BY CRAIG HOWIE AND MJ DESCHAMPS

SINCE a ban on smoking tobacco on American naval submarines was enacted on last December 31, the number of sailors turning from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco products has boomed, a naval expert has told Tobacco Journal International.…

BY MARK GODFREY

COTTON prices have eased in 2011, lifting the price pressure on major brands, according to VF Asia Pacific president Aidan O’Meara. The Hong Kong-based executive, who oversees 30 brands in the region, says it was the first time in 19 years at VF that he had seen inflation of production costs.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA’S textiles ministry’s top official Rita Menon has predicted at a conference of Indian clothing exporters the country’s garment exports would rise to US dollars USD14 billion for the year to March 2012, 26% higher than the previous year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INTERNATIONAL commercial deal creating a global player in the polyester market has been given regulatory approval by the European Commission. It has allowed a takeover of German polyester producer Trevira by Thailand’s Indorama and Italy’s Sinterama. All three companies have different roles within the polyester sector: Trevira produces and supplies polyester textile chips, staple fibres and filament yarns; Indorama manufactures polyethylene terephthalate resins, preforms and bottles; while Sinterama manufactures polyester filament yarns for home textiles, apparel, the automotive and other manufacturing industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONSULTANTS report for the European Commission on the impact of biofuel expansion has warned that a reliance on bioethanol could damage the European Union’s (EU) fossil fuels security of supply.

Written by experts from Wood Mackenzie, Ricardo and Celeres, the paper – just released by Brussels – says that with bioethanol sources focused on Brazil and a few other countries, "there is a risk of a high degree of reliance on few sources of ethanol supply."…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE MIDDLE East’s confectionery market (including the Gulf, the Levant, Egypt (but not elsewhere in north Africa), Iraq Iran, Turkey and Israel) was valued at US dollar USD113 billion in 2009, while annual chocolate sales exceeded USD4.2 billion, according to USA-based TNS Media Intelligence.…

BY MARK ROWE

RENEWABLE energy investments may often be low in price, but when there are enough of them, they make a difference in a region’s energy profile. Such is the case for eastern Europe, where many millions of Euros are being invested in green energy projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Iran are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their plastics exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system.

The European Commission announced yesterday (May 10) it wanted to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so henceforth those regarded by the World Bank as high or upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZIL and Argentina are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their knitwear exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system.

The European Commission announced yesterday (May 10) it wanted to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so henceforth those regarded by the World Bank as high or upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ARGENTINA, Uruguay and Iran are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their food exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system, which lowers EU import duties for emerging market and developing countries for more 6,200 tariff lines, including many food products.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

Turkey taxation hike encourages smuggling

Increases in tobacco taxation in Turkey have helped prompt a surge in smuggling. Turkey is geographically poorly placed to resist illicits given its proximity to Iran and Bulgaria – known sources of contraband.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

CENTRAL Asia is often in the news regarding political instability, and the complexity of the region’s borders and ethnicities make for an opacity that can encourage the growth of organised crime. Also, being far from the centres of anti-money laundering activities and standard setting – in Europe, north America and east Asia, the region’s often authoritarian governments have a poor reputation regarding the enforcement of law and judicial probity.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZIL and Argentina are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their cosmetics exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system. The European Commission wants to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so those regarded by the World Bank as high-or-upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

WHEN is a power plant deemed to be dedicated to a major customer? Obviously a key consideration is its location – but what if locating a major power plant right next to an industrial consumer is not acceptable?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRAZIL and Argentina are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their textile and clothing exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system.

The European Commission announced yesterday (May 10) it wanted to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so henceforth those regarded by the World Bank as high or upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.…

BY CRAIG HOWIE

SINCE a ban on smoking tobacco on American naval submarines was enacted on last December 31, the number of sailors turning from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco products has boomed, a naval expert has told Tobacco Journal International.

The ban proscribes the use of all combustible tobacco products anywhere on a submarine, a tall-order for smoking sailors, given boats are submerged for up to three months at a time.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE FUEL pipeline network around the Caspian and Black Seas increasingly resembles a London Underground map, a comparison enhanced by the latest potential addition to the lattice, known as the AGRI scheme.

AGRI, the acronym for the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector, is a proposal for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) transportation across the Black Sea.…

BY MARK ROWE

LEAKED NATO documents have indicated that the prime minister and senior officials in Kosovo have close links to organised crime. That presents a daunting challenge to law enforcement officials, but their task is made more problematic by the pervasive nature of corruption in the country.…

BY LEE ADENDOORF, KEITH NUTHALL and MJ DESCHAMPS

EUROPEAN Union (EU) governments are facing a political crossroads on a key question whose answer will have an important impact on the EU knitwear sector – both manufacturers and retail. That is the issue of rules of origin and whether there should be an EU-wide law that says clothing and accessories (plus a wide range of other manufactured goods) should be sold with labels saying which country they are made in, if they are imported from outside the EU.…

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 SAMI HALABI

BEFORE the county’s 1975-90 civil war Lebanon was an oil transit nation, with pipelines running through its territory from Saudi Arabia, and export terminals on its shores. Today, the country cannot even produce the electricity it needs to power its cities and is completely dependent on imports of oil and gas for energy.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

The Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association (TGSD) has said delicate negotiations are under way to ensure every part of Turkey’s apparel industry supports a potential widespread introduction of anti-dumping duties on clothing and textile imports. These would be imposed on deliveriesfrom countries not having free trade agreements with Turkey, which excludes the European Union (EU), but includes many key emerging market suppliers, such as Bangladesh and Cambodia.…

BY ANDY HOLDER

THE INTERNATIONAL gold market may be relatively small, but the metal’s rapid rise in price in the past 18 months to over US dollars USD1,400/oz(up from USD900) has given fraudsters the opportunity they need to tempt investors with some pretty audacious offers to join the ‘gold bug’ club.…

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 PAUL COCHRANE

OVER the past five years Egypt has cemented its position as a fashion hub for European and American high street brands, with average annual garment exports earning the country US dollars USD2 billion, yet domestic labels are generally not exported and high-end clothing manufacturing is still very niche.…

BY MARK GODFREY

FINANCING is the crunch issue in Armenia’s newly announced plans to build a new unit at its Metsamor nuclear power plant. The VVER (water-water energetic reactor) 1000 reactor to be built in a 50/50 joint venture with Russia’s Atomstroyexport will, according to Armenian government sources, be operational by 2018.…

BY SAMI HALABI

THE KNITTING industry in Turkey is undergoing a paradigm shift as its business model moves from one that relied on margins to one that is dependent on quantity. The economic downturn of late 2008 and 2009 left the industry in a situation with stock orders down to a minimum and the industry having to adapt to a new market dynamic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MJ DESCHAMPS

WHEN the European Commission heralds the oncoming launch of a major new energy initiative, it is usually wise to await the details with a healthy dose of scepticism. A master of hyperbole and repackaging old policies as new, the devil is always in the detail with grand European Union (EU) announcements.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

KNITWEAR manufacturers in Tirupur, the southern Tamil Nadu state city that accounts for 60% of India’s knitwear exports, have struggled to retain sales due to high cotton prices, forcing manufacturers to look to synthetics as an alternative. In 2009, the city’s total exports of garments and knitwear rose to US dollars USD2.55 billion, after dipping 10% in 2007-2008, but the rise in cotton prices has led to a 15-20% drop in production and job losses of 25,000.…

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 MJ DESCHAMPS

With the global textile and clothing industry this year emerging from a deep slump, it is perhaps understandable that there were going to be unexpected twists and turns in the sector during 2010. Of course, the fashion business is always colourful, and attracts characters and innovation.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

EXPORT development and digital trends dominated discussion at the 30th annual staging of Liber, Spain’s leading book fair, in Barcelona last week.

With Spain still gripped by recession, short-term hopes rest on exports and e-books. Government figures released at Liber showed book exports of all kinds rose 5.4% to EUR482 million (GBP402 million) in 2011.…

BY VILLEN ANGANAN

The constant risk of financial crisis and economic malaise in the European Union (EU) is real and may have worrisome consequences for the Mauritius textile sector.

This Indian Ocean island state’s important textile and clothing sector has been dealing with the global recession in 2009, causing a contraction of 2.9% in output through a fall in demand from US and Europe markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

27

THE BANGLADESH textile industry and its chemical suppliers will improve its environmental standards helped by a wing of the World Bank and five major clothing brands. The bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), working with H&M, Kappahl, Lindex, Levis and Mothercare, will use regional and international consultants to transfer knowledge to Bangladeshi consulting firms and auditors to work with textile companies to assess existing environmental practices, then improve waste-management and energy efficiency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed imposing stiff 22.3% definitive anti-dumping duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of Chinese-made aluminium road wheels for motor vehicles.

This tariff threatens to choke off a cheap and plentiful supply of wheels to EU automobile manufacturers, consuming large amounts of Chinese aluminium.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GERMAN government is giving Euro EUR1.2 million to a UN project expanding and upgrading small and medium-sized generic pharmaceutical manufacturers in Asia and Africa. It is run by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and aims to spread medicine manufacture across a continent where production is mainly concentrated in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.…

WINNERS

TURKEY

This was the year when Turkey really came into its own. With a well-established and successful clothing and textile industry, supping Europe, Russia and the Middle East, its industry this year laid claim to becoming a fashion centre. August’s Istanbul Fashion Week caught a lot of global attention with 21 catwalk shows, an audience of 40,000, and more than 500 overseas guests.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a new monitoring system for EU wholesale markets for natural gas, with the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) being charged with detecting and deterring market abuse and manipulation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EURO EUR6million research project will see scientists collect, isolate and classify marine organisms, including sea anemones, tunicates and micro and macroalgae, from the world’s seas and oceans, and look for active biochemicals with potential medical uses. The 2010-1014 MAREX project is coordinated by the University of Helsinki, Finland, working with researchers from Belgium, Britain, Chile, Finland, France, India, Italy, Lebanon, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has now approved a European Union (EU) regulation insisting that personal care products imported from outside the EU, Turkey, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein be labelled or marked with their country of origin. MEPs agreed the words ‘made in’ and the country of origin must be written on labels in English or a local language understood where the goods are sold.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has now approved a European Union (EU) regulation insisting that clothing and textiles imported from outside the EU, Turkey, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein be labelled or marked with their country of origin. MEPs agreed the words ‘made in’ and the country must be written in English or a local language understood where the goods are sold.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ASSOCIATION of European Wheel Manufacturers (EUWA) has welcomed the decision of the European Commission to propose a stiff anti-dumping duty on Chinese-made aluminum wheels imported into the European Union (EU). However, carmakers, represented by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) are unhappy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHEMICAL mixtures and preparations – covering almost all paints and coatings – are to get a special screening by inspectors to ensure their chemical ingredients have been registered under REACH, the European Union (EU) chemical control system. The pledge from the REACH Forum for Exchange of Information comes as the first key REACH registration deadline approaches – November 30, covering bulk and especially dangerous chemicals.…

Katherine Dunn, International News Services 

This summer in a characteristic feat of headline grabbing, the Danish People’s Party, or the Dansk Folkparti, announced their proposal to stem the flow of non-Western immigrants into the country. But such a pronouncement was nothing new. The party has made its name on an anti-immigration platform in this small, still culturally homogenous Scandinavian country.  

And it spends much of its time trying to ban minarets and attempting to uphold its particular brand of nostalgic ‘Danishness’. As a result, alongside the Netherlands Freedom Party and the British National Party, the DF has become a poster child for a wave of xenophobic sentiment on the rise across Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THREE of the world’s major public financing institutions have started due diligence on the Nabucco gas pipeline project, work that could release billions of Euros into the troubled project. If they are happy, the European Investment Bank (EIB) could invest Euro EUR2 billion, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) EUR1.2 billion and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, EUR800 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is developing standards for natural gas fuelling stations to help promote vehicles using this alternative fuel. A new committee ISO/PC 252 will coordinate the work, developing two standards: on fuelling stations for compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE MULTILATERAL Guarantee Agency, of the World Bank, is considering a US dollar USD 5 million guarantee to foster a petrochemical industry in Iraq. Turkey’s Karo Dis Ticaret ve Sanayi Ltd wants planned investment in an Iraq PET plant protected against transfer restriction, expropriation, war and civil disturbance.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY’S clothing and textile sector has rebounded this year on the back of strong sales to Europe and emerging markets, with clothing exports up 11% to US dollar USD9.5 billion as of August 2010, and textile exports reaching USD4.1 billion, up 23% on 2009.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES, PAUL COCHRANE

CYPRIOTS are Europe’s heaviest smokers, according to figures from European Union (EU) pollsters Eurobarometer. For those living in the internationally recognised predominantly Greek Republic of Cyprus (RoC) portion of the island, consumption of consumers aged 15 and above during 2009 averaged 21.7 cigarettes daily, and those in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 21.6.…

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 PAUL COCHRANE

MUSLIM fashion is traditionally conservative – a far cry from the often flashy fashion runways of the West. But a younger Muslim generation of female ‘hijabistas’ is combining Islamic values with high fashion, working hijabs and other head coverings into high-end, high fashion knitted and crocheted outfits.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIAN garment exporters are losing to competition from China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh, said a recent report released by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Shipments to the European Union (EU) and the US account for nearly two thirds of the country’s textile and apparel exports, but registered a decline by value of 11% in 2009.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is to combine forces with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the coming year to examine offshore oil and gas safety in the light of the Gulf of Mexico spill.

At an ‘Energy Dialogue’ meeting in Brussels, senior OPEC and EU officials agreed to organise an international roundtable on minimising offshore safety risks early 2011, which could spark new regulations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s international trade committee has welcomed Turkey reforms to its intellectual property protection of manufactured goods, especially cosmetics. In a detailed motion on the operation of the European Union’s (EU) customs union with Turkey, the committee said: "Counterfeit products, particularly pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, represent a major problem in EU-Turkey trade relations and reduce the attractiveness of Turkey for foreign direct investment."…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, and KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN imagining Europe’s greenest and most efficient energy systems, the countries of the former Yugoslavia do not readily spring to mind. The simple truth is Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and even Slovenia have a reputation for having ageing energy dirty systems.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE SUNFLOWER family is joining the ranks of other genetically sequenced oil crops, as a Canadian-led project maps the sunflower genome, part of the largest flowering family on the planet – with significant potential for commercial benefit for the oils and fats sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is lending Russia’s largest glass bottle manufacturer Russian roubles RUB460 million (around Euro EUR12 million) to help reduce its foreign exchange exposure and swap maturing debts for a single longer-term local currency facility.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

REFORMING the customs union between the European Union (EU) and Turkey would boost the key EU-Turkish textiles and clothing trade, the European Parliament’s international trade committee has said.

A communiqué said despite industrial goods traded between Turkey and the EU being duty free, "customs union mechanisms need to be fully functional, bureaucracy simplified, and remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers removed."…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY’S US dollar USD2 billion (Great Britain Pounds GBP1.3 billion) Turkish paint sector is projected to grow 10% in 2010, rebounding after over a year of stagnant growth in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The country is Europe’s sixth largest paint manufacturer (for those who consider Eurasian Turkey part of Europe).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALYSHAH HASHAM

CANADA – long a difficult jurisdiction for the tobacco sector – became tougher still on July 5, when a national ban on manufacturing and selling most flavoured cigarettes, cigarillos and blunt wraps came into force.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and EMMA JACKSON

AUSTRALIA’S tobacco industry can be expected to put up a strong fight against a federal government proposal to mandate plain paper packaging for its products. And it will doubtless have the support of the international tobacco industry because this planned legislation is a clear test case.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it comes to the power sector, it certainly pays to be green in eastern Europe right now. The London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), whose mandate is to bring sustainable development to eastern Europe and central Asia, has been especially active in promoting green energy across the region.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

CONFECTIONERY manufacturers in the Middle East are not only ideally placed geographically to sell their products to the rich European Union (EU) market, they are assisted by a series of free trade agreements either in place, or in the works.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW European Union (EU) body coordinating around Euro EUR1 billion in food-related research from 20 European countries has started work. The ‘scientific advisory board for the EU joint programming initiative (JPI) on agriculture, food security and climate change’ will plan and manage national food industry research securing future supplies and reducing climate emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel has refused to set an advisory limit for the intake of sugar by European Union (EU) consumers. EFSA’s panel on dietetic products, nutrition and allergies has concluded in a comprehensive assessment of dietary requirements for EU consumers “there was insufficient evidence to set an upper limit for sugars”.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES

THE GREEKS – the heaviest smokers in the European Union (EU) and by some counts the world – may start to reduce tobacco consumption significantly, with taxation rising steeply as a result of the country’s ongoing financial crisis.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN and KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a new programme helping countries wanting to join the European Union (EU) adopt EU pharmaceutical regulations and work with the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Brussels’ Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) Programme will help the governments of Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey who are negotiating EU entry and those awaiting formal membership talks: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

DESPITE an ugly recession, Turkey’s elite have kept the country’s luxury fashion industry afloat. Indeed, it is thriving – particularly in Istanbul, where the majority of Turkey’s affluent population resides, and where many international and European luxury brands have been setting up shop.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OFFICIALS from the European Union’s (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF have revealed to just-drinks how an international EU customs operation seized counterfeit and smuggled coats and scarves. OLAF said the Matthew II operation was organised by the Czech Republic, working closely with Poland and OLAF: all EU countries were invited to participate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ROMANIAN customs officers participating in an international anti-smuggling action have seized 20 tonnes of undocumented perfume from a lorry – containing scents in Gucci, Versace, Calvin Klein, Chanel and other packaging. The raid was coordinated with other actions across Europe by European Union anti-fraud unit OLAF.…

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 PACIFICA GODDARD

LAST year in Latin America, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris International (PMI), the region’s two dominant companies, battled to maintain profits through declining volumes. Overall, Latin America was profitable for both companies. For BAT, profits were mainly attributable to a strong performance in Brazil, and improved premium brand sales, however volumes sales declined throughout the region.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

JUST six years ago, in March 2004, Ireland was the first country in the world to impose an outright ban on smoking in workplaces. A lot of European governments have followed its lead though Ireland (plus the UK and, surprisingly, Turkey) remain the only countries in Europe where the ban is total – that is it applies to smoking in all enclosed public and workplaces without exceptions.…

BY BART PEETERS and KEITH NUTHALL

EGYPTIAN smokers were shocked this January to discover a picture of a drooping cigarette on their packets, accompanied by the warning in Arabic: "Long term smoking will affect marital relations." The mere hinting at potential impotence caused quite a controversy in Egypt’s conservative society, in which the average smoker remains overwhelmingly male.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, KARRYN MILLER and KEITH NUTHALL

IRAN may be a democratic theocracy, but it certainly does not take the moral high ground when it comes to tobacco smuggling. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has in the past identified Iran as being one of only two countries in the world where more than half the cigarette market share comprises contraband.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH a new European Commission in office, major decisions can now be made on pushing ahead with European Union (EU) energy policy priorities: Brussels has released a Euro 4 billion package of 31 gas infrastructure (and 12 electricity) projects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) RAPEX consumer alert service has reported a spate of sales bans and withdrawals of clothes with drawstrings, because of concerns that they could strangle wearers. Last week RAPEX publicised sales bans in Bulgaria of China-made J.S.J.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ENERGY trading rules for the 35 eastern European and central Asian countries that are signatories to the Energy Charter Treaty have been changed to mirror World Trade Organisation principles. The treaty, which covers most of Europe, but excludes Russia and Turkey, aims to underpin liberalisation and transparency in the energy sectors of member countries.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE NEXT few years are likely to see several countries accede to the European Union (EU), with significant implications for the personal care sector. Local producers of toiletries, detergents and cosmetics, as well as multinationals in a number of countries, are closely following the negotiations conducted by their governments.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE and KEITH NUTHALL

SYRIA is such a staple of Middle East political turmoil, it is easy to forget that it is a near neighbour of Europe: less than 200 miles of sea separate it from Cyprus and it borders Turkey, which could be a European Union (EU) member by 2020.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

TURKISH and Spanish companies are planning to research recycling painted plastics such as food containers. Led by Turkish plastics manufacturer Enplast Plastik Kimya Sanayi Ticaret, their researchers plan to use innovative high performance filters and coupling agents to separate paints from plastic to create high value-added waste products.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

TURKISH and Spanish companies are planning to develop equipment able to recycle printed and dyed plastic food containers. Led by Turkish plastics manufacturer Enplast Plastik Kimya Sanayi Ticaret, their researchers plan to use innovative high performance filters and coupling agents to separate coatings from plastic to create high value-added waste products.…

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 ANCA GURZU

INFRASTRUCTURE and technology costs are the two important factors when talking about promoting intermediate alternative fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG), the Center for Automotive Research, a US-based non-profit organisation, has told wardsauto.…