Search Results for: japan

Few countries could claim to have weathered Covid-19 well but Singapore, micro-managed and highly-educated, is high on the shortlist. Even so, Covid-19 has had a detrimental effect on the southeast Asian city state’s paints and coatings sector and its impacts continue to linger.…

The China National Coatings Industry Association (NCIA) on July 31 informed members that it has been told by the ministry of ecology and environment to investigate the production, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste in the coating industry and compile a management guide based on the investigation’s findings.…

Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal is one of the largest ever embezzlement and money laundering cases, with Malaysian courts considering how at least USD4.5 billion was stolen and then spent or laundered from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Former Prime Minister Najib Razak has now been convicted of charges associated with the scandal.…

Japan is set to surpass its renewable energy targets well before its 2030 deadline, aided by a booming biomass sector benefiting from favourable government programmes and private sector investment.

Of Japan’s total 1.065 trillion kWH generated electric power expected in 2030, the Japanese government pledged that 22–24% of it would be sourced from renewable energy, of which 3.7% to 4.6% would come from biomass.…

UNPRECEDENTED demand for aluminium cans caused by consumers drinking at home during lockdowns and associated restaurant and café closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will not cause long term disruption to this key canning market, say industry experts. Instead, manufacturers will work closely with customers to maintain supplies, European and United States (US) industry organisations have told CanTech International.…

THE INTERNATIONAL trade in tobacco products and inputs contains significant variations in prices that might indicate the presence of trade-based money laundering – of TBML – a specialist database indicates. Certain trade flows are exploited by money launderers seeking to move criminal proceeds from one country to another through artificial pricing – deliberate over- and under- invoicing.…

The Syrian tobacco sector has been hard hit by the civil war and associated social conflicts, now stretching into their tenth year. Tobacco leaf volumes and planted areas have dropped by around a third since the start of these troubles, factories have been destroyed, and sanctions have forced international brands from formal trading channels in Syria.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is funding an international research project that is developing new fast ways of making colloids – mixtures of one substance comprising insoluble microscopic particles suspended in another substance – the building blocks of most coatings. It is the nature of paints and coatings are that they are colloids – liquids that contain ingredients that give paints and coatings their colours, textures and functional abilities.…

THE ASIA-Pacific region, even one-party states such as China, have developed legal protections for whistleblowers, although the comprehensive protection more commonly found in Europe is still usually absent.

South Korea is one jurisdiction leading the pack on developing robust whistleblower protections.…

THE ASIA nonwovens sector has been reaping the benefits of booming demand for protective medical materials during the Covid-19 crisis. But like the pandemic, this roaring demand will end, and nonwovens producers need to ready to a post-Covid-19 market.

This will mean reining in growth, but as David Price, founding partner of US-based management consultancy specialising in nonwovens Price Hanna Consultants, said, with regional nonwovens sales per person still low in global terms, the “market penetration for disposable and durable nonwovens in southeast Asia and China” is likely to grow regardless.…