TenCate Receives Additional US Military Orders

The US Army has placed an order with the Union City, Ga.-based TenCate Protective Fabrics —
through Washington-based army uniform manufacturer Sitnasuak Native Corp. (SNC) — for 80,000
uniforms made with the company’s Gen2 fabric. The flame-resistant, universal camouflage-printed
fabrics are made with Nomex® fibers treated to provide a softer, more comfortable hand than
competitive fabrics made with Nomex.

“Flame-resistant fabrics have become an important part of the war fighter’s equipment in
response to the increased flame threat posed by IEDs [improvised explosive devices],” said Guido
Vliegen, vice president, global marketing, strategy and integration, TenCate. “The universal
camouflage print is the ‘digital style’ print that the US Army switched to about a year and a half
ago.”

This latest order comes on the heels of orders placed earlier this year by the US Marine
Corps for uniforms made with TenCate’s Defender™ M and camouflage-printed fabrics. The combined
orders total $17 million.

October 23, 2007

Cone Denim To Lay Off 150 Employees

The Cone Denim division of Greensboro, N.C.-based International Textile Group Inc. (ITG) has
announced it will reduce capacity at its White Oak plant in Greensboro, a move that is expected to
result in the termination of approximately 150 employees. The layoffs, which would take place by
the first week in December, would leave the 102-year-old plant with a workforce of approximately
550 people.

“The reduction in volume is a direct result of the increasing sourcing trends of US retailers
for imported denim fabrics and garments,” said Delores Sides, director, corporate communications
and human resources, ITG. “The plant’s focus has been and will continue to be on product
development and higher-end premium denim fabrics. Going forward, the White Oak facility will
increasingly focus on these higher-end styles where we can be competitive and transition away from
commodity styles. From a product development, quality and efficiency standpoint, the White Oak
plant is positioned to be competitive.”

Impacted employees will be eligible for retraining assistance under the Trade Assistance Act,
which aids workers who have lost their jobs as a result of foreign competition, as well as for
company severance benefits. Sides said Cone Denim also will help employees find other job
opportunities in the Greensboro area.

October 23, 2007

The Rupp Report: Global Textiles Billing On The Move

While the US dollar is not bad for exports out of the United States, other currencies are
suffering more than ever from the weak dollar. As some local Indian journals report, this also is a
problem for the emerging Indian textile industry. Indian textile exporters are faced with an
increasing value of the Indian rupee. This has forced Indian export manufacturers to undergo steps
to bill their exports in rupees for the first time, not in US dollars. Their aim is protecting
their margins by passing on the fluctuation of the currency risk to their customers.

Hopeful Of Converting Some Contracts

It is reported that India’s largest garment exporter, Gokaldas Exports Ltd., has already
started billing two of its European buyers in rupees. On the other hand, the JVS Group — which has
the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, as its customer — has begun negotiations with buyers and is
hopeful of converting some contracts by the end of the year. According to top people from the
Indian textile industry, rupee billing will be established in a short time.

The Indian rupee rose 11 percent this year, and this has severely affected the profit margins
of textile exporters, who work on single digit margins in a very hard and competitive global
market. According to the Apparel Export Promotion Council of India, the net margins in apparel
exports differ between 5 and 8 percent. During a 12-month period ending in March, textile exports
from India reached US$17 billion. Out of which apparel exports totaled US$8.4 billion.

Shift Of The Risk

Exporting through rupee billing shifts the currency risk to overseas buyers, allowing Indian
exporters to earn profit from manufacturing only. With this, international customers will pay more
if the rupee goes up and less when it’s the other way round.

JVC Group says the shift to rupee billing is inevitable and hopes to start with this billing
method by the end of the year. The company said it has started converting US dollar billing of
European customers to their local currencies. Compared with the US dollar, the pound sterling and
the euro have gained 7.5 percent so far this year.

Gokaldas Exports said it is talking with three buyers to move from the euro to the rupee, and
expects to account for 20 to 30 percent of its total exports in the Indian currency, which has
appreciated against the dollar — the currency it bills most of its customers with.

Not An Easy Task

However, this move is not so easy. A. Sakthivel, president of the Tirupur Exporters’
Association, said today’s is a buyers market and it’s very difficult to convince customers to
accept rupee invoices. However, members have started making efforts in this direction. In response
to rupee appreciation, an exporter of garments in Coimbatore said a few European customers have
raised prices between 3 and 4 percent without affecting their profit. Time will tell if the markets
will accept this move, and if this is just the beginning of a global billing shift.

October 23, 2007

PGI To Install Spunmelt Line At Mexico Plant

Charlotte-based Polymer Group Inc. will invest $50 million in the installation of a multibeam
Reifenhäuser Reicofil 4 spunmelt line for hygiene applications at its facility in San Luis Potosi,
Mexico. The new line, which is expected to begin full commercial production in late 2008, will
manufacture high-quality, lightweight, strong fabrics used in fine-denier back sheet, leg cuffs and
other materials used in diapers. The new installation will increase PGI’s annual capacity by 15,000
metric tons.

“PGI is committed to serving the growing hygiene market with the highest quality products
available in the industry,” said Veronica M. “Ronee” Hagen, CEO, PGI. “This state-of-the-art line
will allow us to broaden our product offerings and meet the needs of customers in the US and Mexico
with the most advanced engineered products for hygiene applications.”

October 23, 2007

Industry And Labor Oppose Poor Nations Trade Bill

Textile industry and labor leaders have sharply attacked legislation introduced in Congress last
week that would extend liberalized trade benefits to some of the world’s poorest nations, saying it
would undermine existing preferential agreements with African and Central American nations and cost
thousands of US jobs. The New Partnership and Development Act, introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott,
D-Wash., and seven co-sponsors, would grant duty-free and tariff-free access to the United States
for products from as many as 50 under-developed nations.

Sponsors of the legislation and importers say it will help reduce global poverty and result
in more stability for trade from African nations. In endorsing the legislation, Kevin Burke,
president and CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association, criticized what he said is a
current “patchwork of agreements” with African nations that have conflicting rules of origin,
uneven product and country coverage and expiration dates. He said the new bill would result in “
long needed consistency and certainty” for suppliers of textiles and clothing and stimulate
stronger trading partnerships and opportunities in the developing world. One of the co-sponsors of
the bill, Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., said: “This initiative benefits extremely under-developed
communities by promoting trade with the United States in the context of internationally recognized
labor rights. It is a potential milestone in making trade with the developing world mutually
beneficial and a vehicle for reducing global poverty and creating growth and opportunities for
nations that have been left out of the benefits of global trading.”

US textile manufacturers and labor groups see the legislation in an entirely different light.
Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, said that while the goals
of the legislation are laudable, it gives “enormous new benefits to countries that are already
export superstars while handing Wal-Mart and other big importers a $1 billion annual tax credit.”
He added that this price tag is too high.

US textile interests are particularly concerned about additional benefits that would be
granted to Bangladesh and Cambodia, which already are the second- and eighth-largest sources by
volume for US apparel imports. They also are concerned about transshipments from China, because
China shipped $2 billion in textile and apparel components to Bangladesh and Cambodia last year.
Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Coalition, said: “
Bangladesh and Cambodia may be less developed countries by per capita income, but they are global
super powers in terms of apparel exports. With exports so large in those products, tariff
eliminations are unwarranted and will serve as just another giveaway of US market share to China.”

Bruce Raynor, general president of the textile union UNITE HERE, said it is “disheartening
and frankly confusing” that the first major trade bill introduced by the Democrats would end up
costing tens of thousands of US manufacturing jobs. He said the bill is a disappointment to those
who had hoped a Democratic Congress would reverse what he says is a “ disastrous trend of exploding
trade deficits and the off shoring of critical middle class jobs.”

In addition to granting duty-free and quota-free treatment to imports from the participating
countries, the bill authorizes the US government to provide $5 billion for capacity building and
infrastructure development.

The bill takes into consideration possible problems with imports from Bangladesh and Cambodia
by setting a cap at the 2007 levels if their products compete with products made in the African
countries that are covered by the African Growth and Opportunity Act. It also requires countries
that would be eligible for the preferential treatment to maintain their laws and regulations and
core labor rights as defined by the International Labor Organization.

October 23, 2007

Rohm And Haas Announces Price Increases

Effective November 1, Philadelphia-based Rohm and Haas Co. will increase the price of most of
its chemical products by 5 to 15 percent, depending on business segment and geographic region. The
company attributes the increase to continued high raw material costs.

October 23, 2007

Dow Ups Oxygenated Solvents Prices

Effective November 1 or as contracts allow, The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., will raise the
off-list prices of certain oxygenated solvents products in North America.

Certain alcohols will increase by 3 to 6 cents per pound. Certain esters will increase by 6
cents per pound. Certain acetone derivatives and E-series P-series glycol ethers will increase by 3
cents per pound.

October 23, 2007

Designtex Announces Environmental Initiatives, Unveils New Products

New York City-based Designtex has partnered with American Fibers and Yarns Co. (AF&Y),
Chapel Hill, N.C., to offer customers a means of recycling its Eclipse collection of indoor/outdoor
textiles. Eclipse textiles sent to AF&Y’s facility in Bainbridge, Ga., are processed into black
plastic resin pellets, which are then converted into a range of end-products including weed block
fabrics, filtration fabrics and wastewater liners, among other products, offsetting the need to use
virgin plastic pellets derived from oil.

Designtex also currently partners with Honeywell Nylon Inc., Morristown, N.J., for
reclamation of its Zeftron® Contex Solution-Dyed Nylon with Nano-Tex™ Resists Spills™ collection of
contract textiles. In addition, the company can provide customers with information on how to
participate in a reclamation program for its Fusion collection of architectural panels.

In addition to its product reclamation programs, Designtex has joined the Boulder,
Colo.-based Renewable Choice Energy program, which enables Designtex to purchase renewable energy
credits to offset all of the electricity used at its Varick Street facility with clean, renewable
energy produced at biomass facilities and wind farms. According to Designtex, the offsets will
reduce carbon dioxide pollution by more than 900,000 pounds over the next three years.

In other company news, Designtex has introduced several new products, including a line of
drapery made from Ingeo™ polylactic acid fiber, the Regeneration collection of 100-percent
post-consumer recycled polyester upholstery textiles, and the Renewal collection of 100-percent
recycled polyester textiles. Additional new products include180 Walls™, a self-adhesive recycled
polyester wallcovering; and Sonic Fabric, a multipurpose textile created from recycled
audiocassette tape.

October 23, 2007

G3i To Participate In Cornell’s Jumpstart Program

G3 Technology Innovations LLC (G3i) — a Pittsford, N.Y.-based provider of environmentally
friendly, multifunctional nanomaterials products for textile, paints and coatings, agricultural,
orthopedic and dental applications — has been chosen to participate in the Jumpstart program at the
Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) at Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cornell University for the fall
2007 semester. The company will will work with Dr. Margaret Frey, professor of fiber science and
apparel design at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology, to provide water repellency to textiles
through the use of fluorochemical-free nanoparticles.

The CCMR Jumpstart program receives funding from the New York State Foundation for Science
Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) to provide assistance to New York-based small businesses that
wish to partner with the university to develop and improve their products. Providing grants of up
to $5,000 that are matched by up to $10,000 from the participating companies, the program targets
projects that potentially will grow into ongoing, mutually beneficial collaborations.

“We are delighted to have been selected by the Jumpstart Review Board,” said Alex Qiao,
president, G3i. “The joint efforts of CCMR and G3i will move us faster towards our goal of
developing a fluorochemical-free finish for the textile industry.”

October 23, 2007

RadiciSpandex Offers New Business Solutions

In an effort to strengthen its position in the nonwovens market — especially in diaper
manufacturing — Gastonia, N.C.-based spandex fiber manufacturer RadiciSpandex Corp. now offers its
nonwovens customers a number of new business solutions.

The company has introduced an industry-standard 3-kilogram package as well as a choice of
delivery packages with transfer tails in direct over-the-end format or rewound, reducing machine
down-time for diaper manufacturers.

The upgraded spinning systems at the company’s Tuscaloosa, Ala., plant now manufacture S17PC
fiber with increased strength and elongation of 325 percent or more — a performance advantage over
other competitive fibers, which feature elongation of 300 percent or less, according to
RadiciSpandex. This higher elongation provides improved retraction of diaper leg cuffs, the company
reports.

Custom-designed deniers, lusters and colors — such as pink or blue for cosmetic enhancement
of diapers — are available in minimum order quantities.

October 23, 2007

1...2,1732,1742,175...2,504Page 2,174 of 2,504

Sponsors

Breaking News

Load more

Digital Issue

2025 Quarterly Issue Number I

View Latest Digital Issue

FEATURED ARTICLES

© Copyright 2017 Textile Industries Media Group, LLC.