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China + ASEAN: China's President Hu Jintao met leaders of 45 Asian and European nations and organisations at the opening ceremony of the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit in Beijing on October 24. He said China's sound economic growth was in itself a major contribution to global financial stability and economic growth. Since the beginning of this year, he said, China had taken robust measures to address the complex changes in the global economic environment and the grave challenges from nature. "We have maintained relatively fast economic growth and steady development of the financial sector. The fundamentals of the Chinese economy have not changed," President Hu pointed out.

However, he added that on the other hand the global financial crisis has noticeably increased the uncertainties and factors for instability in China's economic development. China is now confronted with many difficulties and challenges in its economic endeavour.

Earlier, at another level, China had concluded an agreement with the ASEAN countries on trade in services under the framework agreement on comprehensive economic co-operation between ASEAN and China. The agreement was signed at the ASEAN-China summit held in Cebu, Philippines, which was attended by leaders from the 10 ASEAN member countries.

Under this agreement, services and services suppliers/providers in the region will enjoy improved market access and national treatment in sectors/sub-sectors where commitments have been made. A statement issued to the media said that the Agreement will provide for liberalisation on substantial coverage of sectors/sub-sectors, "especially in more than 60 additional sub-sectors committed by ASEAN member countries which are parties to the GATT/WTO." It also said that successive rounds of market access negotiations to substantially improve the level of commitments and broaden the sub-sector coverage of the agreement will be undertaken over the next one year.

Aside from increased trade, the trade in services pact is also expected to bring about higher levels of investment in the region, particularly in sectors where commitments have been made, namely: business service, construction and engineering related services, tourism and travel related services, transport and educational services, telecommunication services, recreational, cultural and sporting services, environmental services and energy services.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hailed the signing of this agreement as another achievement in China-ASEAN economic cooperation. In a speech delivered at the summit in Cebu, the Chinese premier said the signing "will mark a key step forward in the building of the China-ASEAN free trade area and lay the foundation for full and scheduled completion of the China-ASEAN FTA."

The move towards creating the free trade area had begun over six years ago. On Nov. 4, 2002, then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and leaders of the 10 ASEAN nations had signed at the sixth China-ASEAN summit a landmark framework agreement on ASEAN-China comprehensive economic cooperation, thus setting in motion the process of creating the China-ASEAN free trade zone.

Under that agreement, the free trade zone is to be established by 2010, while the four new ASEAN members - Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam - are allowed an additional transitional period of five years to integrate with the free trade area by 2015. As continuation of that process both China and ASEAN members began in July 2005 a tariff reduction program. Tariffs on more than 7,000 ASEAN and Chinese products were lowered, and China-ASEAN trade has maintained steady growth, Premier Wen said. Two-way trade in 2006 reached US$160.8 billion, up 23.4% over the previous year.

Premier Wen has proposed that while the two sides implement the agreement on trade in goods and the agreement on trade in services they should also speed up talks on investment agreement and complete the building of China-ASEAN FTA as planned. China welcomes more ASEAN businesses to China and encourages Chinese companies to invest in ASEAN countries. China will favourably consider setting up in ASEAN countries, on the basis of mutual benefit, a number of economic and trade zones which have sound infrastructure and complete industrial chains, and are well connected with other sectors and will spur local economic development, said the Chinese premier. "I hope this will bring the China-ASEAN win-win cooperation and common development to a higher level," he added.

To support the building of China-ASEAN FTA, China proposes to strengthen cooperation between the customs and inspection and quarantine authorities of the two sides. China offers to host the first meeting of China-ASEAN ministerial consultation on quality supervision, inspection and quarantine this year, said the Chinese premier. He added that China is ready to speed up discussions with ASEAN and sign a memorandum of understanding on establishing a China-ASEAN centre for promoting trade, investment and tourism.

The Chinese premier also proposed that a strategic plan for China-ASEAN transport cooperation be formulated to facilitate coordinated development of regional transportation, improve integrated transport networks, and facilitate communication and transportation.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which was established on Aug. 8, 1967 in Bangkok with five members - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - has since expanded to a 10-nation group taking Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia as members. The free trade area comprising this 10-nation group and China is one of the biggest free trade areas in the world.

The ASEAN-China dialogue relations were launched in 1991. China became ASEAN's full dialogue partner in 1996. The "10+1" meeting is a mechanism designed to strengthen dialogue and communication, discuss cooperation, and promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region. The two sides established the strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in 2003. Recent years have witnessed the rapid and comprehensive growth in ASEAN-China relations, yielding fruitful results through extensive and in-depth exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in political, economic, trade, social, cultural and other fields. In that spirit of partnership the 5th China-ASEAN Expo was held in Nanning, China, this October and became a propeller to the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) construction, said Gao Hucheng, vice co-chair of the China-ASEAN Expo organising committee and Chinese vice minister of commerce, at a press conference held at the State Council's information office. The previous four rounds of Expo, he said, have effectively transformed the FTA construction from paperwork consensus reached by state leaders to pragmatic moves of business circles, which has injected a powerful drive for the FTA's construction.

After writing the above the author recalled his interview with the Malayan Premier Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1960. In that interview, he threw much light on foreign policy and economic problems, especially on Malaya's attitude towards the Taiwan question and on a proposed Southeast Asia Friendship and Economic Treaty (SEAFET).

About SEAFET, the Malayan premier said Malaya, the Philippines and Thailand would each set up their own secretariat to handle the preparatory work in connection with the proposed establishment of an association of Southeast Asian States. Officials of these three countries would form a working group whose initial task would be to draw up a list of all possible projects in furtherance of the purposes and objectives of the proposed association and decide on the order of their priority.

When this had been agreed upon working papers would be produced in the respective countries and exchanged. Working papers could then be sent to all governments in the region (potential members of the association) for their consideration. In other words, there would have to be a considerable amount of official preparation before ministerial meetings could be held.

This was the way, Premier Rahman said, the idea was looked at, and the Philippines and Thailand appeared to agree to this method of approach. However, this was a matter which would have to be decided upon at the meeting of officials of the three countries, which was then expected to take place before long. The idea was that members of the three-nation working party, at the conclusion of the working group's meeting, would make recommendations to their respective governments for the implementation of whatever proposals that might emerge from such meeting.

It has been generally agreed that the proposed co-operation between the countries of the Southeast Asian region should be established on a practical and informal basis. It was also envisaged that instead of a formal treaty being entered into by the associated states right from the start, it might be more practical to have multilateral treaties only on specific projects after agreement had been reached as a result of the free and informal exchange of views in the forum provided by the proposed association of Southeast Asian states.

Premier Rahman added that Malaya, the Philippines and Thailand had actively pursued this proposal for some months, but none of these countries are interested in getting the credit as the founders. The idea was to get as many interested countries in the region as possible to be founder members of the proposed association. It was then hoped that the specific projects which the proposed Malaya-Philippines-Thailand working group would produce and circulate among interested parties would help in dispelling any doubts and suspicions and thus result in the countries of the region having no more misgivings in joining their efforts with those of Malaya, the Philippines and Thailand as founders of the proposed association.

Kayser Sung

Special Reports

• Export without help of quotas: The almost global restriction system in practice since 1960 until now has given possibilities for shaping some trading fast lanes in the economic bloc that has developed as the European Union. A few countries understood the sort of secure export market the fast lanes offered and were able to take advantage of it. Among them: east and central European countries, in different times, stages and scenarios; Morocco and Tunisia; as well as Mauritius and Bangladesh. To a lesser extent Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and a few others also benefited. However, the fast lanes did not help the majority of nations as they were unable to take advantage of the restrictions prevailing against others.

  As everyone will recall, the abolition of quotas later on led to near crises in the countries that benefited from fast lanes; others with their trade inclined more towards the US market might not have felt the chill yet, but they would if and when the US would lift its quotas for China.

  One of the countries that has been hard hit by the abolition of quota in the EU - due mainly to its lack of preparation during the very long time allowed for preparations for a world without quotas; i.e. between the signing of ATC (Agreement of Textiles and Clothing) in GATT in 1994 to December 31, 2004 when most of the quotas were lifted - was Mauritius. The country suffered the loss of a third of the 90,000 jobs previously existed in its textile and garment industry. However, as almost every crisis would strengthen the resolve to overcome it, the losses Mauritius suffered eventually led to a decision to give Export Mauritius, the Mauritian government export organisation, the task to launch an export promotion project especially for the clothing sector. Export Mauritius contacted the International Trade Centre (ITC), an organisation owned by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the United Nations' Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

  ITC with its advisory function for trade in textiles and clothing is running the Mauritian export promotion project for regaining markets in France, Britain and Scandinavia. (See also Textile Asia, June 2008 page 74). ITC in turn has found and engaged fashion and marketing consultants for the three targeted markets

  By Åke Weyler, Stockholm

• Dangers of resource nationalism: Addressing representatives of European industry and European Union member states in Brussels recently, the EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said European trade policy would take a tougher line in tackling an explosion of export duties and other restrictions for raw materials among the EU's trading partners. Excerpts:

  He spoke of how he sees the question of raw materials fitting into the wider political and economic approach. When he set out the EU's Global Europe strategy in 2006 he based it on a simple argument about globalisation and the structure of the modern European supply chain economy. The materials that power our manufacturing industries, Mr Mandelson pointed out, are sourced from every part of the world. Between 70-80% of the primary resources are imported. Last year, about 70% of all imports to the EU were not finished consumer products but intermediate goods headed for the transformation industries here. The fundamental reason why Europe's foreign economic policy has to be based on openness is because Europe depends on it. In a very real sense, Europe needs to import in order to export.

  Industrial self-sufficiency, Mr Mandelson said, was simply not possible for a modern economy. This is especially true of the booming growth of China and India. This change is resource-intensive, and it is on an enormous scale. It is why the next phase of globalisation will be defined by pressure for access to basic resources. According to Mr Mandelson, we are in a race and one of the biggest challenges we face at the global level is managing that race to mutual benefit.

• Lamy hopeful about early Doha deal: The director-general of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, told an informal meeting of the trade negotiations committee in early October that he has called major providers of trade finance to a meeting on November 12 to ensure developing-country access to financing of imports and exports. He believes that it is still possible to reach agreement on modalities in agriculture and non-agricultural market access this year.

• Textile output down globally: Global textile production in the first quarter of this year slowed down significantly compared with the last quarter of 2007, according to the International Textile Manufacturers Federation. Yarn output, fell in all regions except in North America, ITMF pointed out in its state of the trade report for the first quarter of 2008, while fabric production fell in Asia and Europe and increased in North and South America. Yarn and fabric stocks continued their downward trend also in the first quarter of 2008, reaching the lowest level since more than three years in the case of yarn and since two years in the case of fabric inventories. Yarn and fabric orders were lower in Europe but higher in Brazil.

  On a global scale yarn production dropped in the first quarter by 11.4% as a result of lower yarn production in all world regions: Asia (-13.0%), South America (-2.9%) and Europe (-1.8%) - with the exception of North America where it jumped 8.2%. On an annual basis world yarn production was still up by 5.3%: production in Asia and North America being up by 7.1% and 3.9%, respectively, and in Europe and South America being down by 10.6% and 5.7%, respectively.

• Cotton output, mill use on the decline: Cotton production and mill use globally are expected to decline in 2008-09, according to projections made by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the International Cotton Advisory Committee. At the same time, New York futures prices have also fallen for December and March contracts. December contracts fell below 70 US cents per pound to its 11-month low while March contracts sank below 75 cents per pound, all due to, according to Cotton Incorporated, "flight of speculative monies" prompted by "credit crunch and the threat of additional regulation from expanded Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) authority through the Commodity Markets Transparency and Accountability Act of 2008.

  USDA in its August report reduced world production estimate by 2.8 million bales (609,616 metric tons) to 112.2 million bales (24.43 million tons) and consumption by 1.4 million bales (304,780 tons) to 124.6 million bales (27.13 million tons). ICAC, on the other hand, estimates that mill use in 2008-09 will sink to 26.2 million tons due to slower global economic growth and higher prices of cotton relative to polyester.

• World textile-garment trade: Asian exports doubled since 2000: Clothing exports from Asia's textile and garment producers doubled in the past seven years, according to the latest trade statistics released by the World trade Organization. Top Asian exporters led by China had shipped a total of US$89 billion worth of clothing in the year 2000. These exports continued to expand steadily through the following years to hit $131.2 billion in 2005, $157.6 billion in 2006 and $177.9 billion in 2007.

ITMA Asia + CITME 08 Reviews

• Survey 4: Flat knitting machines: There have been changes over the past decade in the flat knitting machine sector - significant changes. Many machines have been eliminated from the market by the natural process of competition. That is the picture international machinery exhibitions have revealed. The number of exhibitors in the category of flat knitting has been shrinking. At this ITMA Asia + CITME, the entire lot of flat knitting machines was not enough to fill even one of the 10 halls. Clear leaders in the market emerged while others subsided, probably because the leading companies keep rolling out better machines that could keep a good distance ahead of competitors. Thus as old brand names faded away new brands entered, especially from China. For less demanding flat knitting, the supply of machines is shifting gradually to China from other parts of the world.

  By Clement T.Y. Lo, Associate professor, Institute of Textiles & Clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

• Survey 5: Weaving machines: Weaving machinery on display took around 11,000 square meters exhibition space at the ITMA Asia + CITME 2008. All kinds of weaving equipment form the popular rapier and jet machines to special purposes machines for label and carpet making were shown at this exhibition. Jet machines exhibitors dominated the scene with 40 companies displaying them, followed by exhibitors of rapier weaving machines, 36 companies. Exhibitors from China presented all types of machines, but more prominently rapier weaving machines, air jet weaving machines and water jet weaving machines because these are the type of machines China manufactures mostly In contrast, not many companies from China manufactured special purpose machines, like narrow fabrics weaving machine and weaving machines for plush, velvet, terry fabrics, and leno fabrics. This exhibition was also a window to see the technological gap between Chinese textile machine manufacturing sector and international manufacturers, although the product quality and diversification of China's textile machinery have made remarkable progress in the past two decades. For the Chinese textile machinery industry, global science and technology develops with each passing day, it is a long-term goal to transform textile industry with modern technologies to keep pace with the international trend of informatics technologies and keep on enhancing the continuous innovation capability.

  By Hu Jinlian, Institute of Textiles and Clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• Survey 6: MMF spinning, yarn twisting and winding: This survey, a continuation of an earlier report on staple yarn spinning (Textile Asia, Aug 2008), reports on the equipment for MMF spinning, texturing, yarn twisting and winding that were presented in the ITMA Asia + CITME 2008. "Increasing efficiency" was the motto of Oerlikon Barmag's presentation. The POY, FDY and DTY solutions enable productivity increases and cuts in production cost. WINGS, the new POY machine, uniquely integrated godets and tangling unit into the winder for the high productivity and efficiency. Further technological highlights include the proven eFK texturing machine for DTY and i-QOON double winder for 24-ends spinning of FDY.

• By Bin-gang Xu, Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

ITMA 2007 Surveys

• Survey 18: Jacquard and other weaving accessories: The weaving industry is undergoing remarkable changes. The quality of the woven product is not the only important consideration in the production process these days; many other factors like profit, high productivity, flexibility, power consumption, effectiveness, and creativity are also important factors. It is fair to say that without the advance of shedding motions and other weaving accessories, weaving machines would not have been able to offer their present astonishing speeds. The ever increasing weaving speeds continuously impose severe demands on shedding motions. All the developments and innovations in shedding, especially in jacquard shedding, and weaving accessories showed at ITMA'07 reflected the changing requirements of weaving machines - ever increasing speed, high precision, wide width, high quality, high flexibility and efficiency, low noise and so on. Electronics have played a key role in the fulfilment of various tasks. Exhibits at previous two ITMAs have confirmed that electronic jacquards and dobbies have become standard for shedding, thus rendering mechanical shedding less popular. Market trend today shows more demand repeats for both warp and weft.

  By Jinlian Hu and K. Murugesh Babu, both of the Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. .

• Survey 19: CAD, CAM, CIM and digital textiles: Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) have revolutionised the textile industry in the past few decades by giving it immense power in creating previously unimaginable designs and colour combinations. And in the last decade the industry has advanced to a new realm. Embracing computer science and information technology on a massive scale and using advanced new concepts and methods like computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) the industry is striving for greater excellence in manufacturing.

  At ITMA 07 there were several evidences of this wind of change rearranging the design and production process. A number of companies exhibited the latest version of their improved CAD/CAM software for weave designs and dobby and jacquard patterns. In addition, there were also online measuring systems and computer integrated manufacturing systems - all of them proving the utmost importance of CAD/CAM/CIM technology for assuring quality of the products, enhancing weave design possibilities on power looms as well as most modern shuttleless looms.

• By Jinlian Hu and K. Murugesh Babu, both of the Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

India ITME

• An 8-day machinery show: Some 700 textile machine manufacturers - 250 of them foreign - will converge on the Indian city of Bangalore to present their latest inventions, both equipment and technology, at the 8th India International Textile Machinery Exhibition (India ITME 2008) starting on November 15 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC). The event organised by the India International Textile Machinery Exhibitions Society (India ITME Society) will last for eight days. India ITME has been taking place at four-year intervals since 1980.

  This latest show, according to the organisers, will occupy some 42,500 sq. m. space in three air-conditioned halls of the BIEC, attracting an estimated 125,000 textile visitors.

Exhibitions and Conferences

• BIFF & BIL 2008: By the time I had reached the third aisle at BIFF&BIL 2008 (BITEC, August 27 - 31) I was aware that many of the exhibitors' names I was seeing were new to me. A subsequent check showed that 43% of the companies I had discussed in my report on the 2007 show had not returned for the 2008 event. Perhaps the organisers (Department of Export Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce) had to go out into the hiways and byways to flush out potential exhibitors to keep the numbers up. Designer enclosures took up most of the slack, while a selection of shopkeepers from skyscraper Baiyoke Tower filled the rest of the hall.

  Nothing wrong with new participants, of course, but this new lot seemed rather ignorant of the value of communicating. Many of them had no printed information to hand out to visitors. Of those who did, quite a few offered brochures entirely in Thai. Conversation at quite a few of the new stands occurred in Thai or not at all. Tell me, please, how could an overseas buyer meet his targets in such an environment?

  Some small businesses seemed to desire that communication should not take place. I took a card from "Nomad" (just the one word) but could not find it in the Fair Catalogue until, by pure chance, I came upon "Brand Nomad". The website on the card was www.nomads-beach.com, rather curious but perhaps not all that bad. The E-mail was ten76@hotmail.com. A good way to keep the international crowd out.

  Nomad was not alone. I spoke with a tannery operator (BIL) whose stand was labelled "Johnny". Yes, it wasn't in the catalogue as such, but, again by pure luck, I stumbled over "Polymer Manufacture". (E-mail: ynet@asianet.co.th, website www.johnny-puleather.com)

  You want customers? Then make it super-easy for them to find you -www.myfirm.com and myfirm@ hotmail.com (or Gmail or whatever). Most exhibitors do use sensible URLs, but some may still be wondering why nobody has mailed them.

  By R.H. Leary, Bangkok

• Apparel machinery show in Vietnam: An apparel machinery and accessories exhibition has been scheduled to take place in Vietnam on October 29-31 this year. Called AAMA-TEX Vietnam 2008 it will be held at the Ho Chi Minh Exhibition and Convention Centre.

  This event is aimed specifically at the garment industry in the Indochina region, particularly Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. According to the organiser, Pico Event Management, the show will draw regional interest as Vietnam and Cambodia remain major garment exporters to the United States and the European Union.

• Textile machinery show in Mumbai: An exhibition of textile technology and machinery called Asia+Tex will take place in Mumbai, India, on September 24-27 next year.

  Designed mainly for the textile and garment industry in South Asian countries it is labelled as a unique opportunity for manufacturers of textile and apparel machinery to present their latest innovations and technology to a major textile and garment producing region of the world.

• Uzbek cotton fair: The government of Uzbekistan is organising a two-day cotton fair in Tashkent from October 14 to 15 this year. This fair will provide opportunities to negotiate contracts with Uzbek companies as well as to learn about the latest innovations in cotton production, trade and logistics in Uzbekistan.

• Textile conference: A conference on clothing and technical textiles is to take place in Lahore, Pakistan, on 4-5 November this year. Organised by the University of Management and Technology and supported by the Textile Institute of Pakistan this event will provide a forum for academics and industrial researchers to discuss major changes taking place in the industry.

• Lingerie and beachwear show: The fourth session of Shanghai Mode Lingerie will be held on October 17-18 this year at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China. The organiser Eurovet says this event is the "market referent offering a lingerie and beachwear meeting place for the whole industry in Asia."

• ShanghaiTex : The international exhibition of textiles known as ShanghaiTex enters its 14th edition next year with a four-day fair to be held on June 12-15 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in Shanghai, China. This event is particularly significant because after many years of rapid growth China's textile and garment industry is entering a new challenging phase with producers realising that they cannot go on relying on low price as their competitive edge. New labour regulations and socio-economic shifts taking place in the country is compelling producers to move upmarket.

  It is sponsored by the Shanghai Textile Holding (Group) Corporation, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Shanghai Sub-council, China Chamber of International Commerce and Shanghai Chamber of Commerce.

• Heimtextil: Heimtextil, the international textile fair for home and contract textiles, will be held in Frankfurt am Main, from 14 to 17 next January. Earlier, in July this year, the organiser Messe Frankfurt presented the Heimtextil trends for 2009-10 to some 300 designers, product developers, manufacturers and journalists under the motto "expect the unexpected".

• For cleaning product experts: The cleaning products division of the Consumer Specialty Products Association in the United States is organising a two-and-a-half day New Horizons conference on October 19-22 at the Inverness Resort in Englewood, Colorado, USA. It is regarded as an opportunity for experienced cleaning products industry professionals to gather in an academic environment to learn about the latest technologies and discuss the challenges of emerging issues.

• Conference on natural fibres: The New Zealand and Australia branches of The Textile Institute is organising a three-day conference on natural fibres in the Australasia region, marking the International Year of Natural Fibres. It will take place at the University of Otago's main campus in Dunedin, New Zealand, from April 15 to 17 next year. The theme and sub-topics of the conference are relevant to challenges facing those with diverse interests in natural fibres.

• Pitti Uomo dates for next year: The winter edition of Pitti Immagine Uomo and Pitti W will take place from January 13 to 16 next year while the summer edition will follow in June from 16th to 19th. "Every time the calendar has brought Pitti Uomo too close to the tail end of the Christmas holidays; we moved it up a week," says the managing director of Pitti Immagine, Raffaello Napoleone. The times of the fashion market, he noted, have shifted forward.

• ICAC 67^th plenary: The International Cotton Advisory Committee will hold its 67th plenary meeting in Ouagadougou, the capital of the West African nation Burkina Faso, on November 17-21 this year. The theme of the meeting is technologies for cotton development which, it is said, will provide opportunities to showcase the role of technologies in raising yields, reducing input costs and improving the competitiveness of the cotton industry.

• AATCC symposium: AATCC, the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colourists, has scheduled a two-day event on October 6-7 this year at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham, North Carolina, USA, to present medical nonwovens and technical textiles. At the conclusion of the program, participants will be able to tour the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Centre.

• Green-minded IDEA: The Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA) says that as exhibitor confirmations for IDEA10 continue at a record pace, INDA is putting special emphasis on identifying and recruiting "green" companies that make sustainability and energy efficiency part of their corporate philosophy and product development. So the IDEA10 International Engineered Fabrics Conference and Expo, scheduled for April 27-29, 2010 in the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Florida, will once again bring together all links of the global supply chain for products and services, including raw materials, machinery, engineered fabrics, converted products and services.

• Textile and sewn products show : The organisers of the three key industry trade shows in the Americas - ATME-I/MEGATEX, SPESA Expo, and Techtextil North America - have agreed to align their trade shows as Textile and Sewn Products Industry Week to be held at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on May 18-20, 2010.

  The three shows will take place simultaneously in adjacent halls as a "must attend" industry event for the Americas in 2010, says the press release. Holding the three show simultaneously on one location means that attendees will be able to move freely between the individual shows and benefit from the industry-leading educational and networking seminars and special events all in the same venue.

Technical Features

• Effect of accelerated ageing on composite based on jute: The National Institute of Research on Jute and Allied Fibre Technology (NIRJAFT), a Kolkata-based unit of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, has developed jute based composites of different reinforcing agents with unsaturated polyester resin. The durability of the composites under natural conditions of atmosphere is essential so that the agro-processing implements namely, solar dryers, storage bin for grains etc., can withstand the harsh atmospheric conditions of rural India. The accelerated ageing tests as adopted in case of paper samples have been adopted here. The similarity of the nature of degradation products formed under natural ageing as well as accelerated ageing was most striking as demonstrated in the method developed by the Preservation Research and Testing Division, Library of Congress, USA, for paper samples. As jute is a ligno-cellulosic raw material it is presumed that the accelerated testing method as adopted in the case of paper samples can also be adopted for jute based composites.

  In this study six different composites were prepared using unsaturated polyester resin as matrix and jute Hessian, jute sacking, jute non-woven, jute-glass hybrid fabric (coarse), jute-glass hybrid fabric (fine) and glass mat as reinforcement. The composites were exposed to 100°C in an oven in a sealed container for periods of 1-5 days. The samples were evaluated for their strength properties in the Instron material testing machine before and after exposure. Similarly, the water absorption properties and the optical properties e.g., whiteness index, 457nm brightness and yellowness indices were evaluated before and after accelerated ageing for different periods.

  By D. Nag, P. K. Ganguly, S. Debnath and A. K. Roy, National Institute of Research on Jute & Allied Fibre Technology Kolkata, India, a unit of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

• Bulking characteristics of jute-acrylic blends: Indian jute as a raw material is not particularly an economically attractive product. To make it more valuable for wider application than its traditional areas of use, this natural fiber is often brought to embrace the rival, synthetics, especially to make such products as decorative fabrics, handloom textiles and knitwear. Keeping in view the need of the hour, acrylic has been chosen to blend with jute. Acrylic, now the third most significant synthetic fiber in the world, has soft feel, light weight, good retention and resilience apart from tensile properties.

  Jute-acrylics blended fibers (0:100 to 60:40 J/A proportions) were spun to yarns on open-end and ring mechanisms. Samples of jute/acrylics blended yarns were measured by using Standards of Testing. Tensile strength was measured on Instron Tensile Strength Tester, using 600mm test specimen and 300mm /min extension rate. The yarn strength and breaking extension were calculated from 25 lots of each yarn samples. The diameter of the yarn was measured in Projection Microscope. Evenness was measured on Uster-3, Hairiness on Shirley yarn hairiness tester and twist on Eureka Twist Tester.

  By K. Khambraand N.Yadav of College of Home Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India; and Chanchal of the Institute of Home Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.

• Experience with Rieter C60 card: Carding is the most important process that helps both to open the tufts into single fibres and to remove impurities and neps. The carding process also orients the fibres for the subsequent spinning processes. No wonder textile experts say that "the card is the heart of a spinning mill" and "well carded is well spun".

  High card output, which should contribute to the economy of the process, often results in losses in yarn quality. The higher the production rate, the more sensitive the carding process becomes and the greater the risk of a negative impact on quality. The latest technological developments in the carding process are striking. Modern machines achieve production rates of 60-220 kg/h, compared with output of 5-15 kg/h in 1970.

  This study is concerned with the quality standards of a spinning mill and possible explanations for the results achieved.

  By T. Vijayakumar, spinning mill manager, PT Indahjaya Textile Industry, Tangarang, Indonesia

Management Features

• Energy monitoring: a must for textile companies: For decades, the textile industry has applied the principles of process monitoring to production machines. As such textile machines are networked to MES (manufacturing execution system) to monitor in real time production, quality, speed, stop levels, downtimes and production efficiency. Today it is no longer sufficient to optimise output, quality and production planning, and energy consumption is becoming a very important factor in the operating cost of textile plants. A sudden increase in energy usage in a production run can push an order easily into red. With ever rising energy price and increasing environmental legislation, efficient energy management has become a critical factor to business success in today's global economy.

  To help textile companies face up to such challenges, BMS-BarcoVision has extended its existing MES applications with an EnergyMaster module. Following the principle of Monitoring and Targeting (M&T), it maps different energy consumptions (electricity, gas, pressured air, water, steam, effluent, CO2 emission) for further analysis and optimisation. The integration of these energy parameters with other MES applications such as monitoring of spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing machines provides a perfect insight into the relation between energy usage and production.

  By Bernard Cruycke, President, BMS bvba - BarcoVision

Asia Spotlight

• A textile research center for Asia: The world's largest nylon and spandex producer, Invista, is establishing a state-of-the-art commercial textile research centre in China. The centre to be built in Qingpu district of Shanghai is Invista's third textile research centre in the world, the other two being in the United States and Taiwan. It will be operational next May and serve customers not only in China but also in the entire Asia region.

  The Asia technology director of Invista Apparel, Eric Chang, says this new initiative demonstrates "our commitment to the China and Asia markets." The new facility, he points out, "is expected to not only help accelerate the advancement of the textile industry but also seek to align with the Chinese government's goals to nurture high-value and innovative technologies and industries." To be operated by Invista Fiber (Shanghai) Company on the same site as the company's spandex plant in the Qingpu district, the centre is expected to offer comprehensive and innovative solutions to customers for every major aspect of the production process ranging from yarn processing, knitting and dyeing to finishing. The proximity of the centre to customer's operations is anticipated to boost their confidence in the development and application of new fabrics. Customers should also benefit by enjoying cost savings in research and development.

• Asian players take to the web: The significance of the World Wide Web in today's business activities is making an impact in the textile industry too with a rising number of Asian players moving in that direction. Two Asian operations have entered the web recently.

  In India, Texanlab Laboratories, a member of the DyStar Group, launched a new website, www.texanlab.com this month. The motto of DyStar's India venture's website is "Texanlab - Excellence in Textile and Eco Testing." It presents Texanlab, an independent testing institute with many years of experience throughout Asia, as an expert all-round partner for retailers, brands and textile processors. The website is divided into four sections, which highlight various aspects of Texanlab's broad offering.

  Earlier, in August, CMP Asia, a major trade fair organiser, launched www.FashionNetAsia.com as a marketing and sourcing platform for global material and component suppliers, designers, manufacturers and buyers of the leather and fashion accessories sector. CMP Asia says it is determined to offer its customers a 24-hour platform to search for information and business opportunities as well as to keep customers up-to-date with ideas and market news.

• Asia's trade fair city: Leading supply chain experts from around the world will converge in Shanghai next February for a two-day conference, thus underlining the growing importance of this premier city of China as Asia's popular meeting place for industrialists and other business people to exhibit products, exchange ideas and expand global business.

  As China opened its doors to foreign investment and took its rightful place in the global community by joining the World Trade Organization, Shanghai also began to flourish as the nerve centre of economic activities in the world's most populous nation. It soon started building the infrastructure essential to world trade fairs and conferences, like the new international expo centre with 126,500 sq.m of exhibition space spread over 11 floors. Over these years the city has welcomed an increasing number of trade shows and conferences to the envy of other major Asian cities.

  The recently concluded ITMA Asia + CITME, the first combined show of two well established trade fairs, was an outstanding example. It brought nearly 1,400 exhibitors from 30 countries to display textile machinery and production technology in a five-day fair.