Soft, plush, and infinitely comfortable, cashmere is the most classically luxurious garment a man can wear, whether made into a coat, suit, sport coat, sweater, golf shirt, or even a pair of socks. But here's an update: Cashmere is no longer relegated to the cooler months. Now, this luxurious fiber is being made into light and medium weight shirts, sweaters, and jackets that are virtually seasonless. Credit Loro Piana, the world's largest producer of cashmere fabrics and apparel and perhaps the

HCM CITY ?Vietnamese leather and footwear enterprises said they had sufficient evidence to support their defence against the anti-dumping lawsuit currently being waged by the European Commission (EC). The verdicts, released after a two-month investigation, found eight surveyed enterprises in the country? leather and footwear sector had failed to satisfy EC-set criteria of a market economy. Five criteria to be recognised as a market economy include business operation costs within a market, inte

The Ministry of Commerce briefed recently the implementation of the Sino-US textile agreement which will be effective as of Jan.1, 2006. Quotas for five categories under the US restriction had been used up before the agreement was reached on Nov. 8. Goods were blocked at the US customs as a result. The US Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has asked the US customs to grant clearance to the five types of Chinese textile products between Nov. 28 to Dec. 2. Permission

EU textile export volumes fell by 5 per cent in the first three-quarter period of 2005. There was a decline in sales to all major markets although shipments to China have increased. The US tops the list of buyers, pushing aside Turkey. Prices have also risen slightly since last year. EU textile exports have fallen in both volume and value for the first nine months of the year, according to latest data from Europe. Down 5 % The EU exported a total of 2.36 million tonnes of textile products in

In a bid to make the textile industry more competitive, the confederation of Indian textile industry (Citi) has made a host of recommendations to the national manufacturing competitiveness council (NMCC) regarding credit availability, removal of undue protection given to manmade fibre (MMF) producers, labour issues, data requirements and trade issues. According to Citi officials, these recommendations have been approved by the NMCC and will be soon presented to the Prime Minister. In order to

Imports of textile machinery from Korea in the last two years reveal growing capital goods imports by Indian textile industry to cash on the business opportunity in the quota-free trade environment.Textile machinery imports of 2003-04 stood at $40 million and have risen by 25 percent to $50 million by 2004-05, reported officials from the Korea Trade Centre (Kotra).Korean textile companies want to capitalise on Indian textile boom, which is expected to consolidate its textile machinery purchase w

Economic Research Service (ERS) published cotton & wool yearbook summary. The summary approved by the World Agricultural Outlook Board.World cotton ending stocks for 2005/06 (August/July marketing year) are forecast at nearly 50.2 million bales, 600,000 bales below a year earlier and nearly 2 million bales below 2001/02? record of 52.1 million. The estimated reduction this season is attributable to the continued growth in global consumption and the reduction in world production from 2004/05?

INDIAN textile firms, which are in an expansion mode following the quota phase-out, are aggressively looking at buying out textile manufacturing units in the EU and the US with the aim of relocating machinery to India. While a major shortage of domestic textile machinery has prompted firms to look at this option, the fact that a number of defunct textile mills with usable machinery are up for sale at throwaway prices in the EU and the US makes the option viable for domestic firms. For instan

BEIJING: Chinese textile export is likely to rise by 19 percent this year despite US and EU restrictions.China's National Textile and Apparel Council told that textile export this year was expected to reach $116 billion, which was at $97 billion previous year.The Council said that growth in export as compared to previous year would be a little less, but the barriers put forth by US and EU would not bear out any significant impact.Chinese textile exports witnessed a significant 40 percent rise du

Three European Union member states are joining forces to try to prevent Brussels from slapping anti-dumping tariffs on some Asian shoe exports ?mainly from China ?and avoid a rerun of the recent textiles dispute with Beijing. The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are preparing a joint initiative, which they hope other members of the 25-nation EU will join, demanding an end to the anti-dumping procedure, according to Thomas ?tros, the Swedish trade minister. The European Commission has been inve