Search Results for: South Africa

Despite having high solar radiation with between 2,800 and 3,500 hours of sunshine in a year (when there are 8,760 hours for each non-leap year), the solar energy potential in East Africa is yet to be fully exploited.

But in this region, it is not fossil fuels that dominate.…

DISTRICT heating is an efficient way to provide heat, that can reduce carbon emissions compared to individual property-based heating. So, it is maybe heartening to learn that the Chinese central government and its municipalities are both growing district heating and encouraging the use of cleaner energies to power them.…

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

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

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

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

While the USA-China trade war currently dominates headlines, nonwovens analysts predict it will be a “relatively short-term” issue and not harm north America’s growing nonwovens market in the longer term.

With smart applications and sustainability driving the sector worldwide, the north American nonwovens market looks set to capitalise on these growth areas, aiding recovery from a past 10 years marred by economic weakness and volatile crude oil prices.…

Peruvian clothing manufacturers are betting on a local fibre with international renown to grow exports: alpaca. “Instead of exporting the raw materials, we want to export more value-added products,” Raúl Rivera, marketing manager of Michell & Cia, an Arequipa, Peru-based maker of alpaca fibre, yarns and garments, told just-style. …

THE GOVERNMENTS of Mauritius and Madagascar are intensifying their efforts to improve cooperation between the respective textile and clothing sectors of these Indian Ocean island states.

Mauritius officials stressed to just-style how nine major Mauritian textile and clothing enterprises have set up production units in Madagascar, helping boost the economy of this relatively less developed country.…

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.…

Japan’s Itochu Corporation has signed an agreement with the Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute and the Ethiopian Investment Commission to further develop the Horn of Africa nation’s growing textile industry. 

The Tokyo-based company declined to comment on the scale of the financial investment in the project but did confirm that it is part of the firm’s global expansion plans. …

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

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