Search Results for: South Africa

A key question in any industry is to what extent robotics will be able to replace the human hand. This issue is especially pertinent for textiles and clothing – where sensor-based automation increasingly carries out human tasks such as assessing the feel of textiles and quality control.…

The list of Russian assets seized by its European and north American opponents grows ever larger, with super yachts joining bank accounts and expensive properties being sequestered. But could they be sold? Should they be sold? And should the money be spent on rebuilding Ukraine, if it drives out the Russian invader?…

While forecasts of a global recession are far from conclusive, the World Bank has in its latest international economy assessment released in September (2022) warned that such a downturn is a real possibility for 2023. (1) The reason is potential government spending tightening to deal with inflation rates not witnessed since the 1990s or earlier: “To stem risks from persistently high inflation, and in a context of limited fiscal space, many countries are withdrawing monetary and fiscal support,” noted the bank.…

The Mozambique government has proposed that companies, in the public and private sector, should be obliged to contribute 1% of their payroll to finance vocational education institutions in its country. The reason is that Mozambique companies and public bodies are struggling to recruit quality Mozambican graduates, forcing managers in ongoing major projects on gas and mining to hire ex-pats from the foreign labour market.…

More than 60% of police officers surveyed worldwide ranked crimes such as money laundering, ransomware, phishing and online frauds as high or very high threats, in Interpol’s first-ever Global Crime Trend report (1). Furthermore, more than 70% expect crimes such as ransomware and phishing attacks to increase or significantly increase over the next three to five years.…

In recent years, Iranians have been driving growth in the Middle East’s cosmetics market, but worsening economic and political developments in Iran have restricted this growth. That has not deterred some personal care product companies, however, who continue to prosper in the country, whose market of 84 million people has significant potential.…

The Spanish can market and industry, which has developed an international reputation for its dominant fish canning sector, is increasingly innovative, driven by contemporary trends in its beverage sector, with sales of canned water and wine joining a promising market which has traditionally been based on beer.…

The South Korean aesthetics market is regarded by UK-based market researcher GlobalData as the fastest growing in the Asia-Pacific region, with an anticipated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 7% between 2022 and 2030, displayed remarkable resilience during the pandemic.…

China’s nonwovens industry is preparing for ongoing long-term growth, bolstered by increasing demand for nonwovens globally and inspired by the drive for digitisation within the country, to improve manufacturing productivity and efficiency. With support from national government policy and initiatives to boost digitisation in nonwovens manufacturing, industry majors and small-and-medium-sized business owners alike are pursuing greater use of industry 4.0 tech, noted the Europe-China Eco Cities Link Project, a project backed by the European Union (EU) and the Chinese government [1].…

The benefits to knitwear manufacturers of investing in sophisticated machinery and software may be undeniable, but when an industry can call on a large pool of cheap human labour, companies need to see clear financial benefits from acquiring such tech.

This dilemma is particularly stark in south Asia textile and clothing outsourcing centres, where labour can be particularly low cost.…