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AFRICAN garment and textile manufacturers have a long way to go to increase capacity, develop the supply chain and diversify overall production away from North Africa, an industry conference staged in Cairo has been told. But while north Africa accounts for more than USD10 billion out the continent’s USD13.54 billion in clothing and textile exports (during 2016, according to international trade data), the much discussed potential of Africa as the world’s next sourcing hub is starting to materialise.…

THE DRAFT UK/European Union withdrawal agreement released yesterday (Wednesday, November 14), could create separate national food regulators for Northern Ireland that are based in a remaining EU member state. A technical annexe to the deal says that “national reference laboratories” with responsibility for advising on a wide range of food legislation in Northern Ireland “shall not be read as including the reference laboratory in the United Kingdom”.…

DIGITAL production technologies could help African manufacturers pick up business lost by Chinese rivals because of the trade war in the USA, with brands looking to take advantage of the free trade agreements that many African countries have with the USA and Europe.…

With different forms of fraud skyrocketing, demand for surveillance is not only growing but becoming more diverse, with companies offering services ranging from old-fashioned stakeouts to high-tech detection. A Market Guide for Online Fraud Detection, released in January (2018) by research and advisory firm Gartner Inc, forecasts that the fraud detection and prevention marketplace is expected to grow significantly by 2022.…

THE PERCEPTION of beauty and hence the design and supply of personal care products is slowly changing in sub-Saharan Africa as its increasingly wealthy middle class consumers take a more personalised approach to how they look. The region has a widely diversified consumer-base, whose varied tastes are pushing brands to rethink personalising cosmetics and personal care products like never before. …

MPs in Canada have returned to their House of Commons after the traditional summer break, when they are expected to vote on a draft law, the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, that would ban the testing of cosmetics and their ingredients on annals in Canada and block the sale of personal care products that have been assessed using such techniques.…

WITH reputational risk being an increasing concern for investors, the demand for information in accountancy reports that goes well beyond the balance sheet is growing. And, companies want to be sure that such data is of solid quality – making emerging forms of external reporting (EER) assurance the key focus of a high-level accounting meeting staged in Brussels on November 8.…

THE EUROPEAN car industry has slammed the “excessively aggressive CO2 reduction targets” for new heavy-duty vehicles – trucks and lorries – backed by the European Parliament – the European Union (EU)’s directly-elected legislative body – on November 14 in at the Strasbourg plenary session.…

Paint markets throughout much of the Middle East are experiencing a downturn due to the region’s political instability and economic slowdown. However, manufacturers are nonetheless betting on a rebound as larger projects re-start and reconstruction begins in certain markets.

In the oil-based economies of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, lower oil prices have hit government budgets, causing state-backed projects to be suspended or delayed, while having a knock-on effect on the wider economy.…

AN INDUSTRIAL chemical used to make paints, primers, varnishes and coatings should be regarded as carcinogenic and regulated accordingly, a European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) committee has concluded. Its committee for risk assessment (RAC) said that exposure butanone oxime carried this risk as well as causing drowsiness or dizziness if swallowed and being harmful in contact with skin, could cause damage to the upper respiratory tract after a single exposure and damage to the blood system through prolonged or repeated exposure.…