Search Results for: America

BY WANG FANGQING

CHINA’S perpetually rising costs and currency have, of late, been undermining China’s export industry. However, this has encouraged Chinese clothing retail entrepreneurs to appeal to their domestic market, notably its demographic of Internet-savvy, younger generation consumers. And of course, a key benefit of serving domestic consumers is the ability to create brands and control the whole industrial process, from sourcing materials, to design, manufacture and marketing.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

SAUDI Arabia is rapidly developing the extraction of its bountiful mineral resources, with international companies inking contracts over the past month to explore for zinc, copper and gold. Australian mining company Alara Resources announced that it is to buy a 50% interest in the Khnaiguiyah (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT) zinc and copper project, and the Mutiyah and Umm Hijja projects (all are west of the capital Riyadh) through a joint venture with the Saudi-based United Arabian Mining (Manjem), according to a company statement.…

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 PACIFICA GODDARD, KARRYN MILLER, GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, KEITH NUTHALL

FOR niche spirits, obscure can be good – and so products made in countries not renowned for their spirits production can gather export market cache. Latin America and the Caribbean are regions where effort by buyers can pay dividends.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

SALES of new cars are still holding up surprisingly well despite the global downturn, but within a few years of their purchase, how many of them will be running on retread tyres?

The signs are that the market for retread and recycled tyres will grow, as world demand for rubber grows, particularly in China.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

DEFINING a niche drink is an arbitrary matter and what may pass as niche today may well be considered mainstream tomorrow. Flavoured vodka, for instance, had a relatively specialised following in Europe until a few years ago – now it is classified as an official spirit drink under European Union (EU) regulations.…

BY OSAMA DIAB

THE EGYPTIAN Refining Company (ERC) signed a deal in August to build a US dollar USD3.7 billion second-stage greenfield refinery adjacent to the existing Mostorod refinery 40 kilometres northeast of Cairo. The purpose of the new hydro-cracking and coking refinery is to take its needs of fuel oil from the nearby Mostorod refinery owned by the Cairo Oil Refinery Company, the biggest oil refining company in Egypt contributing 20% to Egypt’s oil refining capacity, and transform it into lighter fuel such as ultra-low sulphur diesel.…

BY PAUL RIGG

THE DIRECTOR of Spanish e-book platform Libranda has welcomed an announcement at LIBER, the international book fair for the Spanish speaking world, that Spain’s ruling socialists plan to "super-reduce" e-book IVA [VAT] to 4%. The announcement came from Alfredo Rubalcaba, who is the socialists’ candidate to become prime minister in the upcoming Spanish elections next month.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SENIOR US state department official has confirmed that America is sending 50 specialist contractors to Libya to track down an estimated stockpile of 20,000 Man-Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS) hidden in this vast desert country. Assistant secretary of state Andrew Shapiro said Washington was "very concerned about the threat…posed" to "civil aviation" by MANPADS missiles.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it comes to palm oil production, there are – despite growing production in South America and west Africa – only two major players on the global stage – Malaysia and Indonesia. Cultivation in south-east Asia accounts for around 80% of the world’s global supply – which in turn reached a record high of 45.9 million tonnes in 2009-2010.…