Among the member associations of the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers
(CEMATEX), the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) Textile Machinery Association is by far the
biggest.

Around 120 of the most important manufacturers of textile machinery and accessories from all
sectors of the trade are affiliated within VDMA. The largest portion of the companies comprises
medium-sized companies, which represent approximately 90 percent of the entire sector volume. In
2012, the branch exported textile machinery worth about 3.1 billion euros. It seems that 2013 will
be an even better year for the German manufacturers.

Different Success Rates For Different Sectors

Exports, as everywhere in Europe, are playing a major role for the success of a textile
machinery association. VDMA is running representative offices in Brazil, China and India, to be
close to the customers in major South American and Asian markets. The offices serve as hubs between
German and Brazilian, Chinese and Indian companies and associations as well as authorities.

During a recent visit to Frankfurt, the Rupp Report had the opportunity to talk to Nicolai
Strauch, public relations officer for VDMA’s Textile Machinery Association, about facts and figures
pertaining to its members. He gave detailed information for the period of January through July
2013:

For spinning machines, compared to an export volume of 781.359 million euros in the same
period of 2012, the current period in 2013 netted 821.575 million euros. A slightly negative
development is shown with weaving machines: here, last year’s volume was 123.500 million euros, and
for 2013, it dropped to 116.721 million euros from January through July.

However, for knitting machines, VDMA reports a slight increase: compared to 452.610 million
euros in 2012, the first seven months in 2013 record a volume of 471.371 million euros. The
finishing machinery sector recorded the sharpest drop in volume: from 473.174 million euros in 2012
to 406.735 million euros in the same period in 2013.

Sharp Slowdown In China

The somewhat negative picture — which, in fact, is a positive — is mainly caused by the
declining business in China. The following interesting table shows the development of German
textile machinery exports to the most important countries over a period from January to July for
2012 and 2013:

Turkey, India, the United States and Saudi Arabia show higher export volumes, with an overall
big jump in 2013. From January through July 2013, German textile machinery and accessories worth
1.8 billion euros have been exported.

Taking a closer look at the major destinations shows that China weakened in the first half of
this year. Shipping of German textile machinery and accessories to China decreased by 11 percent
year-on-year and reached approximately 552 million Euros. The exports to Turkey, a market that
already performed very well in 2012, increased again — by 14 percent to approximately 231 million
euros.

India Is Back

But also the Indian textile industry strikes back: After two weak years, the sector invested
much more during the first half of 2013, which resulted in German deliveries worth 136 million
euros — an increase of nearly 23 percent. And a former established textile nation is celebrating a
kind of comeback: the United States. The Rupp Report has already informed its readers about the
comeback of the U.S. textile industry some months ago
(See ”
The
Rupp Report: Astonishing Investment Climate In The U.S.,”
TextileWorld.com, May 14, 2013). While the overall German textile machinery
exports to the U.S. — worth more than 111 million euros in the 2013 period — is just a small
increase, the shipping of spinning machinery nearly doubled year-on-year.

Positive Outlook

Strauch added that the latest incoming orders figures for the German textile machinery
industry increased by an encouraging 18 percent between January and August 2013 compared to the
respective period in 2012. “The high expectations of the VDMA member companies towards the export
performance indicate good business for the next months,” he said. And to end an interesting meeting
positively, he commented, “Regarding the good performance in this year, the VDMA sales forecast of
an increase of some 5 percent for 2013 proved to be realistic.” That is a promise for the future.

October 15, 2013

Goulston Technologies Inc., Monroe, N.C. — a formulator and manufacturer of spin finishes and other
specialty chemicals for man-made fiber, nonwovens and downstream production; and a wholly owned
subsidiary of Japan-based Takemoto Oil & Fat Co. Ltd. — broke ground this week on an expansion
of its manufacturing facility in Monroe. The company is investing $8 million to expand the building
and install additional state-of-the-art highly automated processing equipment that will enable the
company to extend both its capacity and its capabilities, and create seven to ten additional
manufacturing jobs.

“This investment will ensure our competitiveness, and create future opportunity and jobs as
well as expand our overall manufacturing capacity and capability,” said Fred Edwards, Goulston’s
president and COO, in remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony to guests that included
representatives of the City of Monroe, Union County and local economic development interests.

According to Edwards, the expansion represents the first significant investment the company
has made at the Monroe site in more than 20 years. He noted parallels in the wider U.S. textile and
textile-related industries, as companies invest in bringing manufacturing back to the United States
in a reversal of the offshoring trends of a few years back. “It’s by no small chance that we’re
having our groundbreaking in October, which is also Manufacturing Appreciation Month,” he said.
“We’re completely committed to manufacturing in the United States.”

Goulston was established in 1937 in Monroe and was acquired by Takemoto in 1988. The Monroe
site, which currently comprises 250,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space, is
Goulston’s only manufacturing location. The company exports some 50 percent of its product to
customers in 40 countries worldwide.

The expansion is expected to be completed in the third or fourth quarter of 2014, and
production in the expanded area is projected to begin no later than November 2014.

Members of the Goulston management team and local government officials break ground on
Goulston’s $8 million expansion project (left to right): Goulston Maintenance & Engineering
Manager Bruce Robinson; Union County Commissioner Frank Aikmus; Goulston CEO Takahiko Yamashita;
Goulston President and CEO Fred Edwards; City of Monroe Mayor Bobby Kilgore; and Goulston Director
of Operations Dale Stoller.

October 15, 2013

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based X-Rite Inc. has introduced the Ci6x line of handheld spectrophotometers
for color measurement of materials including textiles, automotive, packaging, plastics and paints.

The Ci6x spectrophotometers supply benchmark measurements that may be used at each step of a
production or assembly process. According to X-Rite, the tools provide improved color control for
materials, in-process parts and finished goods, along with an audit trail for facilities that
operate multiple sites.

The spectrophotometers are NetProfiler 3.0-enabled, ensuring that the instruments are
calibrated to a single centerline standard and that color measurements taken across the supply
chain are accurate and reliable. NetProfiler also allows users to share, validate and audit data
across multiple devices.

X-Rite reports other features of the Ci6x line include: a Spectralon sphere to provide
reliable color measurement over the long term; simultaneous specular included/excluded
measurements; USB and Bluetooth capability; Ci64 Graphical Jobs™, which provides visuals on a large
color screen; 4-, 8- and 14-millimeter-diameter aperture sizes for customized measurement;
compatibility with X-Rite SP6x handheld historical data for simple data transfer and sharing; and
the ability to be integrated with other X-Rite industrial software including Color iQC.

In addition, the Ci64UV model offers ultraviolet (UV) illumination and is suitable for
measuring textiles and other materials containing optical brightening agents.

October 15, 2013

Israel-based Elbit Vision Systems Ltd. (EVS) — a provider of vision solutions for surface
inspection and real-time quality monitoring — has introduced C-BELT, an inspection system for
narrow safety belts such as automotive seatbelts, safety harnessing for fire and rescue, and safety
tie-downs for transportation.

C-BELT detects, identifies and labels common manufacturing defects on both sides of a safety
belt. According to EVS, its multi-angle viewing lines are able to detect all visible defects
including ends out, broken picks, misspicks, loopy selvage, loose filament, spots, stains, holes,
mono-tails slubs, bulges, dip-ins and knots. The full color, automated inspection system works in
conjunction with EVS’s online Optimization & Cut control system.

“We have already installed the first system in some of the world’s largest manufacturers of
safety belts, and we are currently in negotiation with many other manufacturers who would like to
adopt our solution to install in their production processes,” said Sam Cohen, CEO, EVS. “We believe
that in the future, the C-BELT’s solution will revolutionize the way safety belts are produced and
inspected around the world.”

October 15, 2013

Zeist, The Netherlands — October 10, 2013 — During the 2nd day of the World Fashion Convention,
jeans took center stage. More precisely, the global corporation to make jeans a more sustainable
product was explained. Mariette Hoitink of Amsterdam-based House of Denim; Andrew Olah, founder of
the renowned Kingpins tradeshow and Vincent Qin of the Chinese denim fabric supplier Prosperity
showed among them a large array of innovations that are aimed at reducing the environmental impact
of denim products. ‘Recycled’ water for jeans wet processing; laser and ozone in laundry; numerous
alternative raw materials and alternative sources of energy — which are more sustainable — are all
already available to reduce the impact on the environment of a pair of jeans.

And this is highly necessary because, especially in jeans, measures to improve sustainability
are crucial. Andrew Olah showed that denim is very taxing on the environment. If indigo was
invented today it would probably have been discarded because it consumes relatively so much water.
Added to this, cotton is a very water intensive fiber and 35% of the world’s cotton is used in the
manufacture of jeans.

The jeans case showed how buyer — supplier alliances have emerged to create the necessary
change. Innovations are often bought from upstream but they commonly require collaborative
development. Prosperity has collaborations with Tencel, Clariant, Olah Inc and with Jeanologia and
it has set up an innovation forum. House of Denim is an Amsterdam initiative bringing together
brands such as G-Star, Tommy Hilfiger, Levi’s, Denham and Scotch and Soda. Its ‘brighter blue’
initiative will center around a research lab in Amsterdam aimed at sustainability. Its Jeans School
is the first dedicated jeans school which also has sustainability featuring big in its curriculum.

But Andrew Olah made quite clear that the effect of all of this innovation and cooperation is
still too little. The sustainable innovations are simply put used in too small a percentage of
jeans. Connecting the efforts taking place in the centers of the jeans industry in the US, Europe
and China would certainly help. But for the jeans industry as a whole to make big steps towards
more sustainability the best way is setting common goals and an ambitious time path to get there.

Posted October 15, 2013

Source: World Fashion Convention

WASHINGTON — September 10, 2013 — During the 2013/14 season, world cotton production is projected
at 25.5 million tons, the lowest in four seasons, but world cotton mill use is expected to remain
around 23.5 million tons with consumption shifting from China to other countries, notably India,
Pakistan and Turkey. Production in both the United States and China are significantly less than
last season due to unfavorable weather conditions and a decrease in planted area. Cotton plantings
in the southern hemisphere start in large scale this month with approximately 2.7 million hectares
projected to be planted with cotton this season, similar to 2012/13. However, higher yields are
expected to result in an increase in South American

World cotton trade is projected at 8.5 million tons during 2013/14, approximately 1 million
tons less than last season, largely accounted for by a decrease in imports by China.

World cotton ending stocks for 2013/14 are forecast at 20.4 million tons, an increase of two
million tons from the previous season. In September, the Chinese government started buying cotton
for its national reserve, amounting to just over 100,000 tons at the end of September. In 2013/14,
China’s reserves are expected to increase to 11.4 million tons, up by almost 2 million tons from
last season. However, world ending stocks outside China will increase by less than 200,000 tons, so
that at the end of the current season, China will hold nearly 60 percent of world stocks.

*The price projection for 2013-14 is based on the ratio of ending stocks to mill use in the
world-less-China in 2011-12 (estimate), 2012-13 (estimate) and 2013-14 (projection), and on the
ratio of Chinese net imports to world imports in 2012-13 (estimate) and 2013-14 (projection). The
price projection is the mid-point o the 95% confidence interval: 76 cts/lb to 106
cts/lb.

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here
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Posted October 15, 2013

Source: ICAC