Search Results for: hong Kong

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

WHILE China is desperately in need of nurses – 1.9 million to be exact, according to the nation’s ministry of health – the opportunities for overseas healthcare providers who are not ethnically Chinese are limited, as the government requires all nurses working in China to be able to pass a national test in Mandarin.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

THE ALIBABA Group, China’s largest e-commerce company and the world’s biggest online trade platform, has been fighting to preserve its reputation for probity as it tries to take its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Alibaba.com private for up to Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY20 billion (USD3.1 billion) in cash.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

DESPITE the increasing number of roll-outs of RFID item-level tagging by retail giants such as Walmart, JCPenney, Marks & Spencer and supply chain giant Li & Fung, the price of RFID inlays (the electronic component that comprises of an antenna made of copper, silver or aluminium along with a silicon chip attached to a synthetic backing) has not been budging, with UHF Gen 2 RFID smart tags (the industry standard) hovering anywhere between USD0.096 and USD0.26 cents, according to supplier network RFID.net.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

BEING label conscious these days means more than consumers recognising brands or retailers and manufacturers complying with legislation at the point-of-sale. Labels – be they hangtags with mobile barcodes, labels directly printed onto a garment, or a chip sewn into a care label – now represent a fundamental piece of the production process that can be leveraged to save money and increase sales.…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

CHINESE clothing and textile manufacturers in key provinces are raising wages amidst heightened fears of labour shortages.

"We are about to lose 50 per cent of our workers after the (Chinese New Year) holiday, and hiring new workers will be difficult," Sea An, spokesperson for Shenzhen-based A.M.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

MANY eyes are focused on how the fraud by Chinese companies listed on domestic and overseas bourses will be tackled in 2012 given that company involved in a notorious 2011 case, Sino Forest, is facing potential bankruptcy, after a research house Muddy Waters claimed it listed in Toronto on false data.…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

WITH a growing interest in colour cosmetics amongst Chinese women, many companies are developing innovative and unique packaging that especially appeal to younger consumers.

Market research firm Euromonitor International has stressed in a report that international marketing has helped fuel this trend: women between the ages of 15 and 30 living in urban areas of China have been widely exposed to Western and Japanese makeup and are gravitating largely towards colour cosmetics because of this.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

IT is a sign of a mature market that all social groups are offered products in a sector, with all kinds of retailers selling across a country – and China is certainly maturing in this way as regards the personal care product sector.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WINNERS

VF

In one of 2011’s biggest deals, US-based VF announced its plans to buy major footwear brand Timberland in a US$2bn takeover. As well as boosting earnings by US$700m a year, the purchase would leverage VF platforms in Europe, Asia and Latin America, and boost e-commerce operations.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR the past decade, innovative paints and coatings manufacturers have been creating a buzz around sustainable, ‘smart’ coatings that self-clean, do not chip, and are more aerodynamic. Many of the claims for such materials were made while the inventions were still in the laboratory.…