Stylesight, the industry-leading global content and technology provider for professionals in the style, fashion and design sectors, announces an exclusive operational partnership with the China Textile Information Center (CTIC). Stylesight is now the official partner for all CTIC online initiatives, while CTIC, part of the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), will assume all sales, marketing and client services for Stylesight in mainland China.

 

Regional Notes

 

China

  • Quality upgrade speeds up: As some of the long established garment buyers have reportedly begun to look away from China because of cost, and manufacturers in low-cost Asian countries have started trying eagerly to lure them, the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) has embarked on a move to create a new buzz in the industry through a strategic partnership with Huntsman Textiles, a division of the global differentiated chemicals giant Huntsman Corporation. An agreement it concluded recently with Huntsman aims to drive up China's textile industry to the highest standard with a two-pronged initiative that will set to improve mill productivity and efficiency and to raise the performance of China's textile exports to world class standards.

Hong Kong

  • Hohenstein opens Asia base: Germany's Hohenstein Institute that has 65 years of experience in textile research and testing has opened a test laboratory in Hong Kong. It is Hohenstein's only laboratory in Asia; and it will offer mainly chemical and physical textile testing besides being responsible locally for all the other textile testing options its parent organisation provides.

    By C.K. Chow .

 

Thailand

From R.H. Leary, Bangkok

  • Nature not too friendly: Floods are no respecters of people or organisations. Indorama Ventures (IVL) has closed its Lopburi plant (mainly wool and polyester) and may not re-open it for six months since at one time the floodwater depth reached 170 cm. As one result of this disaster IVL has turned to its plants in Rayong, China and Indonesia to offset the loss of output.

  • Dyehouse crisis: Floods do more than make things wet. Textile dyehouses in Thailand - inundated or not - cannot use the available water because it is filthy for any use at all. The president of the Thai Garment Manufacturers Association, Sukij Kongpiyacharn, said in mid-November that, if the problem of general water pollution could not be solved within two or three weeks, the apparel industry would find itself without raw materials. At the time of Mr Sukij's remarks, no more than a month's supply was held in inward stock houses.

  • Na no? Yes!: I-Tex (Innotech Textile Co) began making bacteria-free polo shirts which incorporated nano-sized silver particles in 2006. Since then the firm run by the managing director, Ms Nutra Uttamapinant, has created such products as low-carbon waterproof bags and anti-bacterial flu masks. Last year the I-Tex carbon-care process, in which only small amounts of carbon dioxide are released, received the right to use a carbon-footprint label from the Thai Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation.

  • Old cros: Thailand is home to the world's largest crocodile-farming industry, breeding about 700,000 animals in captivity. The floods freed many of them! World-famed fashion houses get their raw materials here, while other-directed specialists buy boneless meat, processed foods such as croc sausages, and ground meat. Cats love it. Croc blood is also in demand in places where it is believed to possess medicinal properties.

  • Going global: The brand-new PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC), the shares of which began trading on SET (the stock exchange of Thailand) in October, sees Indonesia as the strategic location for itself ahead of regional integration by 2015 of the Asian Economic Community. Vietnam and the Philippines are indeed net petrochemical importers, but the Thai firm's information says it would be better to deal with them by exporting from home base rather than by investing in them.

 

Sri Lanka

From A.H.H. Saheed, Colombo

  • China gains most from Sri Lanka's export growth: Textile sector imports in the first half of this year increased by $373 million, or 50.3%, from its year-ago level to feed the rising production and exports of garment, other made-up articles, fabric and yarn. Imports amounted to US$1,114 million compared with $741 million in the first half of 2010. The trade partner that benefited the most from this growth momentum was China. Its shipments increased by $144 million or 91.1%, totalling $302 million compared with $158 million during January-June 2010. Thus, China's share of the Sri Lankan market expanded from 21.3% in the first half of 2010 to 27.1% in the first half of this year .

American Markets

  • Strong 3rd quarter for China in US apparel imports: Garments imported to the United States reduced in quantity by nearly 2% in the first nine months of this year, but value was up almost 12%, both in comparison with the first nine months of 2010. Imports of woven and knit apparel amounted to $60.16 billion - 11.8% above the year-ago level. The quantity of garments imported, however, declined by 1.6% to $19.51 billion pieces of garment. As a result, the average price of an imported garment increased by 13.6% or $0.37 to $3.08. Overall demand, while high, remains sluggish, given US economic conditions and high unemployment.

    By Douglas Smith, Columbia, SC


Fashion Trends

  • Denim for S/S 2013 at Kingpins: One hundred and seventy-six companies from world over sent their buying teams to the Kingpins show in Hong Kong last month where 23 exhibitors presented their new denim innovations.

    Major visiting brands included American Eagle Outfitters, Ann Taylor, Diesel, French Connection, The Gap, Ralph Lauren, Li & Fung, Target, VF Corp. and Walt Disney Company.

    By Alpana Shrestha

Products & Technology

  • Water wicking fabric for sportswear and more: A new type of fabric that can absorb water and perspiration on one side of it and transport it to the other side, thus wick sweat away from the human skin, has been developed by a team of textile scientists from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the Stevens Institute of Technology in the United States.

  • Lace machine for super fine yarns: A lace machine that can process extremely fine yarns in both the ground and pattern constructions has recently been introduced by Karl Mayer.

  • Rugs, made-to-order: The custom carpeting and rug boutique Patterson, Flynn & Martin (PFM), which is a division of F. Schumacher & Co., has collaborated with the well known interior designer, David Kleinberg on a new collection of made-to-order rugs which draws inspiration from elegant Indian kaftan, kirking shawl, English and Scottish inspired overcoat and historic tiles and textiles from the 18th and 19th centuries. A cornerstone of this collection is Alanya Herringbone. It is inspired by a mosaic glass tile frieze by Louis Comfort Tiffany found in a residential home in the late 18th century. Carlston, another exquisite design in this collection, has origins in a marble tile mosaic found on domes, turrets and floors throughout the Taj Mahal. Several architectural motifs were combined to create this pattern.

  • A dyeing process with less energy and water: A new rinsing process that can dramatically reduce the number of rinses from 8-10 to just 2-4, and also allow the treated water to be reused is now available from Thies Textilmaschinen. In business for more than a century, the company constantly strives to introduce new technologies aimed at reducing CO2 emissions and energy demands of discontinuous dyehouses. Its Advanced Aftertreatment Process (AAP) is designed to treat rinsing liquor in a separate ozone reactor vessel using active oxygen to destroy the molecular structure of the dyestuff, removing the colour. It is intended for use with all shades of yarns and fabrics.

  • Karl Mayer moves Malimo to Christian Pinkert: Karl Mayer is transferring to Christian Pinkert Textilmaschinen its Malimo technology for producing stitch-bonded nonwovens effective January 1, 2012, while it will continue to provide key areas of expertise for the machines.

  • Absorber system for laser welded seams: Scientists at the Hohenstein Institute and the German Wool Research Institute in Aachen are working together to develop new infrared absorber systems to improve the quality of laser-welded seams on technical textiles, both mechanically and visually. According to a statement from the Hohenstein Institute, this should enable the laser welding of textiles, which is an alternative and promising but still new technique for making seams, to be introduced more widely. In the production of technical and medical textiles, this is expected to bring about a significant improvement in quality compared with conventional techniques.

  • Cutter for industrial textiles: A Windows-based new generation single-ply cutting system designed to cut textiles, particularly industrial textiles, and a wide range of other materials is now available from Gerber Technology. Called Gerbercutter Z1, this easy to use tool offers significant productivity enhancements including comprehensive reports that help users analyse total cut time, idle time, jobs completed, material utilisation as well as a job queuing function that enables simultaneous loading of all jobs to be cut during an entire shift or day's work and job recovery functionality that initiates cutting at the precise point where the job was interrupted.

  • The newest eco-friendly fibre: Textile and garment producers with special ecological requirements now have a new option. Modal Edelweiss, a new fibre that Lenzing has developed with a chemical process derived from oxygen and is said to be the only Modal fibre which satisfies the highest possible environmental standards. It performs identically to the conventional Lenzing Modal fibre; the fibre properties, softness and colour brilliance remain intact; even the processing in the textile supply chain is the same.

 

Company Reports

  • Oerlikon Textile beefs up its foothold in Asia: More than 40% of Oerlikon Textile's senior management positions will be based in Shanghai, China, by the end of 2012 to be closer to the company's largest customer base. The group is relocating its textile headquarters to Shanghaibeginning 2012 as part of a move to simplify the textile segment and enhance its competitiveness and profitability. Nearly 45% of Oerlikon Textile employees are based in Asia today; but that share will rise to 50% by the end of 2014. In line with the new organisational structure, Clement Woon, a Singaporean and an internationally experienced executive, will succeed Thomas Babacan as theCEO of textile segments on January 1, 2012.

  • Limited Brands marks impressive growth: The operating income of Limited Brands which started in 1963 as an apparel-based specialty retailer and expanded into a distributor of lingerie and a variety of beauty and personal care products has increased by 25% over the third quarter of 2011, ending October 30, from its year-ago level.

  • Bayer moves on course to realise growth forecast: "We can rightly say that this was a good quarter," the chairman of Bayer group's board of management told shareholders about the company's performance in the third quarter of 2011. And the year is expected to close with sales between 36 and 37 billion euros.

  • Cost spiral leads Top Form to shift production: Top Form International, a leading brassiere maker with production facilities in China and Thailand, has continued to scale down some of its high cost production lines in China to hedge against the increase in labour cost and unfavourable demographic changes in the country.

 

Exectuvie Desk

  • Stephan Kothrade to lead BASF-YPC: Stephan Kothrade, the head of plant operations, engineering and infrastructure at BASF in Antwerp, Belgium, will become president of BASF-YPC Company in Nanjing, China effective January 1, 2012, succeeding Bernd Blumenberg, who will retire at the end of 2011.

  • Heitmann honoured with extended term: The supervisory board of the German specialty chemicals company Lanxess has extended the appointment of Axel C. Heitmann, the incumbent chairman of its board of management, for a further five years from July 1, 2012. Dr Heitmann has been holding this position since September 2004.

  • Esquel wins yet another quality certification: Two factories that the Hong Kong-based Esquel Group operates in Gaoming in China's Guangdong province has received the OEKO-TEX Standard 1000 certification for being environmentally-friendly and socially responsible production sites.

  • ICA Bremen established: The ICA Bremen International Quality Testing and Research Centre which the Liverpool-based International Cotton Association (ICA) and the Bremer Baumwollboerse (BBB) of Germany have jointly established is now fully operational. Operating from existing laboratory facilities in Bremen, Germany, it offers the global cotton community quality testing, training and research .



Events Calendar

Major textile and clothing exhibitions, conferences and seminars for January-October 2012.

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