Search Results for: japan

BY DEIRDRE MASON, PACIFICA GODDARD, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR

JR EAST Railway Co, formerly a division of Japan National Railways, is buying Kiknokuniya’s 17-store chain of high-end Tokyo-area food supermarkets. The deal will see JR East open new stores to further boost retail operations in its lucrative station malls, which already clock up a trillion yen (US$11.2 billion) in annual sales.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA

INTRODUCTION

"INDIA can emerge as a leader in the global food processing industry," said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December 2009 while addressing a conference of food processing ministers of different Indian states in New Delhi, noting the country’s US$100 billion food processing sector grew by 14.7% in 2009.…

BY MARK ROWE

MOLDOVA would appear to fit the description of a far away country about which the world knows nothing. But its location, adjacent to Romania, (one of the two most recent European Union (EU) member states, Ukraine, the Black Sea and the disputed, politically uncertain region of Transnistria (which remains formally part of Moldovan territory, while its government has little authority there), is extremely familiar, and favoured, by counterfeit cigarette producers and traffickers.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR

JAPAN’S Ito-Yokado, the supermarket arm of Seven & I Holdings, is to further reduce the employee headcount at its Tokyo group headquarters, redeploying about 12% of its staff to retail outlets.

The head office workforce had already been reduced from around 1,000 to the current 820 in the year to February 2008, but the continuing downturn in consumer spending has forced further reductions.…

BY ANCA GURZU, MARK ROWE, PAUL COCHRANE AND KARRYN MILLER

THE COPENHAGEN conference on global warming may failed to have delivered a comprehensive global warming deal, but it did at least highlight an international consensus on the need to fight climate change and conserve energy: as a result, the global sales of paints and coatings that reflect heat and hence reduce the need for air conditioning are likely to rise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CONSORTIUM operating the Nord Stream project gas pipelines between Russia and Germany has decided on the three companies who will supply the million tonnes of steel required to build a second line. Europipe (Germany), OMK (Russia) and Sumitomo (Japan) will share a Euro 1 billion contract: Europipe will supply 65% of the steel; OMK 25 %; and Sumitomo 10%.…

BY MARK GODFREY

A SLUMP in exports dented China’s economic growth in 2008, but a strong recovery which lifted GDP growth to 10% in the second half of 2009 appears to have ensured strong retail sales across all fronts. That is why growth of cosmetics sales in China remained strong at 10% in 2009, according to the China Association of Fragrance Flavour and Cosmetic Industries (CAFFCI).…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, PACIFICA GODDARD, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL

NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES

WITH so much competition in design and price within the apparel and textile sector, manufacturers are always looking for an edge. One way in which they can steal a march on competitors is with fibre innovation. And with new technology allowing the incorporation of increasingly complex arrays of chemicals and particles, even on the nano-scale, the opportunities to develop a revolutionary new fibre or mix of fibres are maybe greater today than ever before.…