The owner of Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo announced Thursday it has signed up to a safety pact covering Bangladesh's disaster-hit garment factories, following criticism of its delay in doing so, AFP reported. Fast Retailing said in a statement it has signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Last month 70 top retailers promised to open their Bangladesh factories to safety inspections within nine months as part of the accord. The mainly European brands will underwrite r

The production of paraxylene, a key raw material needed for production of polyester fabrics, is getting stagnated in China, as new projects are getting derailed, which may affect the textile companies that use PX as a raw material. There is huge demand for PX in China, as the country is a large manufacturer and exporter of textiles. In addition, PX is used by other industries like plastic bottle making, and in the medical and biochemical industries. But in recent years, questions regarding

Chinese and foreign sportwear companies were wrong-footed after the 2008 Beijing Olympics failed to bring a surge in demand for their products. Photo: Reuters China’s home-grown sportswear industry is finally showing signs of recovery after nearly two years of massive oversupply, and industry watchers are betting that ANTA Sports Products will be first out of the blocks. ANTA, the country’s largest sportswear company by market capitalisation, cheered investors on Tuesday when it said the v

Lenzing AG and China’s Nox-bellcow (ZhongShan) Nowoven Chemical Ltd. (NBC) announced their joint cooperation on the development of facial masks based on Lenzing’s Tencel Skin regenerated cellulose fibre at a press conference held at Four Seasons Guangzhou Hotel yesterday. The Chinese spunlace manufacturer and converter Nox-bellcow (NBC) is placing its trust in the Lenzing Tencel brand for sensitive direct skin contact applications and the launch of co-branded facial masks made from 100% Tencel

In this June 22, 2008, file photo, Iraqi police officers protecting oil installations secure an oil pipeline from the Rumailah refinery, north of Basra, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) An official source from the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Kurdish Regional Government denied reports that the Kurdish government is exporting Iraqi crude oil to Asian territories via Iranian territory. The source confirmed that “the quantities that are exported by truck to Iran every day are not cru

As investment in Cambodia’s textile industry surges, so is labor unrest, putting pressure on suppliers to the world’s big garment brands to raise wages and improve sometimes grim conditions in one of the last bastions of low-cost factories. Hundreds of angry workers rampaged last May through a textile plant in Cambodia that supplies US sportswear company Nike, Inc., clashing with police over their demands for a pay hike. The violence came just weeks after over 1,100 workers were killed in the

It was only 9 in the morning, but workers at the factory of Best Industrial Company Limited, a garment manufacturer, were already busy cutting and sewing fabric to be made into clothes. This time, the factory had received an order for 340,000 football shirts from a Europe-based company, the largest it had ever had since the United States and European Union lifted sanctions on Myanmar two years ago. "We have seen hard times. We laugh and we cry about it. But in the end we survive," said Khine

On a preliminary basis, American Apparel total net sales for July 2013 showed a 5 percent rise over June 2012. Comparable sales for June 2013 increased 8 percent including a 6 percent increase in comparable store sales in the retail store channel and a 23 percent increase in net sales in the online channel. Wholesale net sales increased 2 percent for the month. "July represents our 26th consecutive month of positive comparable store sales growth," said Dov Charney, Chairman and Chief Executive.

The United States will cease paying a $147 million annual settlement to Brazil that is part of a long-running trade dispute over cotton subsidies, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday. The United States agreed to pay the money to Brazil in 2010, just before the South American country was set to raise tariffs on hundreds of millions of dollars in American goods, including autos, pharmaceuticals and electronics. Stopping the payments could prompt Brazil to threaten retaliation again.

The government has raised the annual export target for textiles from $36 billion to $43 billion in July 2013, following discussions with textiles export promotion councils in the backdrop of rupee depreciation and strong industry performance. The ministry of textiles has mooted a proposal for amendments in Factories Act 1948, seeking amendments in Section 59 — extra wages for overtime and section 64 — power to make exempting rules to provide for overtime wages at the rate of one-one quarter tim