Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
UK FRAUD LOSSES ALREADY HIT GBP1.3 BILLION IN 2021
UK fraud victims have already reported losses of GBP1.3 billion (USD1.8 billion) between January 1 and July 31 this year, the equivalent to the whole of 2020, according to newly published data (1) from Britain’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau. In the first seven months of 2021 there were 289,437 reports of fraud, including cybercrime, compared to 39,160, with reported losses of GBP414.7 million, in the same period last year and 216,166 fraud reports for 2020.…
EL SALVADOR TEXTILE AND MANUFACTURING SECTOR RECOVERS 74.8% OF THE EXPORT VOLUME AFTER TOUGH 2020
After a Covid-disrupted 2020, the clothing manufacturing industry in El Salvador is now recovering fast, with sales pushed increasing demand in its key United States export market. Sales to the USA gathered USD1.5 billion in the first semester of 2021, USD664 million more than the same period in the previous year (+74.8%), according to data from El Salvador’s central bank (Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador).…
GREEK METAL PACKAGING SECTOR REMAINS MIXTURE OF MAJORS AND SMALL PLAYERS, FIGHTING COVID-19 DISRUPTION
The Greek metal packaging sector is characterised by fragmentation between two multinationals and a larger number of smaller Greek enterprises. This defines a national industry that is primarily inward looking, with few exports. Vasilis Papapanousis, sales director at leading tinplate manufacturer ELSA SILGAN Metal Packaging SA, told CanTech International that exports do not account for more than 5-10% of the total Greek production metal packaging.…
INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY ROUND UP – ICCO POISED TO WEAVE SUSTAINABILITY INTO GLOBAL COCOA AGREEMENT
THE RULING council of the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) is preparing to agree major reforms to the International Cocoa Agreement, which should see the agreement increase its commitment to boost sustainability in the chocolate sector.
Council members are considering final changes committing the ICCO to ensuring that cocoa production, processing and manufacture is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.…
THERMAL BATTERIES KNOCK AT DOOR OF COMMERCIAL VIABILITY
Last July (2020), Infracapital, the infrastructure team at UK-based investment managers M&G plc, invested EUR 110 million (USD130 million) in EnergyNest, a small Norwegian company that has developed a novel thermal battery technology. Its ThermalBattery (a trademark) batteries, consisting of a concrete-like storage material made from abundant, recyclable and non-hazardous geomaterials, store excess industrial heat until needed, enabling the transfer of industrial waste heat into electricity and renewable power in industrial heat processes.…
PAKISTAN DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING BUSINESS GROWS DESPITE COVID OUTBREAK
WITH an estimated annual growth of 15% regarding Pakistan’s future digital textile printing business, according to (WHO?), the sector’s outlook is positive, notably because of increasing digitally printed textile exports.
This growth has continued in the past 18 months, despite Covid-19, with more than a million cases as of July, albeit with a low confirmed death rate of 23,500 from its 225 million population.…
JAPAN PAINT COMPANIES PULL AWAY FROM COVID-19 SLUMP, BUT STRUCTURAL NEED FOR EXPORTS REMAINS
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.…
EASTERN EUROPEAN PAINT MANUFACTURERS RIDE THE COVID-19 DECORATION BOOM – BUT INDUSTRIAL COATINGS SALES WEAKEN
Eastern Europe is often a region of diversity when it comes to paint and coatings sector trends, but in the past year, the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted most sectors in a similar way. They experienced booms in DIY decorative sales, weaker industrial coating sales and are mow struggling with increased input costs.…
EU ROUND UP – EU AMENDS ECOLABEL RULES FOLLOWING TITANIUM DIOXIDE REFORMS
THE EUROPEAN Commission has tightened rules on whether packs of paints and coatings integrating titanium dioxide (TiO2) can carry European Union (EU) eco labels. The EU executive has ruled that from October 1, (2021) manufacturers can no longer use the whitener in EU Ecolabel paint and varnish products, when TiO2 concentrations exceed 0.010% by weight.…
NIGERIA’S UNIVERSITY TAX FUND PLANS FINANCE SUPPORT FOR NIGERIA’S PROJECTED EDUCATION EXPANSION
The leaders of Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) have unveiled spending priorities for a government agency that spent Nigerian Naira NGN300 billion (USD728 million) this past academic year (2020-1).
Speaking at the fund’s Taxpayers’ Forum, in Lagos, on August 12, Mr Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, the chairman of the fund’s board of trustees, said, working with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the fund had increased its Tertiary Education Tax take from NGN200 billion (USD485 million) and has tasked the FIRS to increase its tertiary education tax collection to NGN500 billion for next year (USD1.21 billion).…