A. Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG, Germany, now offers newly redesigned compressive
shrinkage sanforizors for knitted and woven fabrics.

Monforts now offers a Monfortex sanforizor for woven fabrics.

The machines — Monfortex for wovens and Toptex for knits — feature increased residual
shrinkage and production speeds, as well as new, more efficient automatic grinder and edge cooling
system, both of which extend service life of the belt. Simplified belt removal requires just one
shift rather than the two days associated with competitive sanforizors. New centralized water and
steam connections enable improved maintenance access, while new cooling-water filtration and
recovery techniques enable a 40-percent reduction in water consumption.



January 22, 2008

Pittsburgh-based Calgon Carbon Corp., a supplier of water and air treatment systems, has received a
wastewater treatment contract from Huntsman Textile Effects (Qingdao) Co. Ltd. — a China-based
subsidiary of Huntsman Special Effects, Switzerland — to provide activated carbon adsorption
vessels and reactivation services valued at more than US$1.5 million.

Huntsman (Qingdao) has installed three Calgon Carbon carbon adsorption vessels for wastewater
treatment at the plant, which blends, standardizes and dries textile dyes; and formulates and
distributes textile chemicals. The vessels contain 60,000 pounds of activated carbon, and Calgon
Carbon will remove, transport and reactivate expended carbon; and supply replacement carbon for the
system.

“We are very pleased that Huntsman has chosen Calgon Carbon to provide wastewater treatment
at its facility in Qingdao,” said John Stanik, chairman and CEO, Calgon Carbon. “We are committed
to provide products and services to both Chinese and multinational companies to make air and water
safer and cleaner in China.”

January 22, 2008

US textile industry representatives in Washington are concerned that the federal government’s
spending plans for Fiscal Year 2008 offer little hope for stepped-up enforcement of trade
agreements and battling fraud, while cutting back on funding for research designed to make the
industry more competitive.

The massive $515 billion multi-agency spending bill passed by Congress essentially leaves
funding for textile-related government activities at FY 2007 levels and will unlikely stimulate
greater efforts in areas domestic manufacturers say are important to their survival.


Funding for the Department of Commerce, which monitors import and export trends and enforces
anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws, remains flat. The office of the US Trade Representative
(USTR), which negotiates trade agreements and is the main watchdog for monitoring China’s
compliance with its World Trade Organization agreements, also will be funded at about 2007 levels.
The USTR has been devoting many of its resources to negotiating free trade agreements, and US
textile industry interests are concerned that this is being done at the expense of enforcement of
existing agreements.

Textile lobbyists in Washington see the funding as a major setback in their efforts to get
more government control over surging imports from China. As one lobbyist put it, “With $96.6
billion in Chinese textile and apparel imports in the past 12 months, there are a lot of
opportunities for mischief.”

Cass Johnson, president of the National Council for Textile Organizations, sees the funding
as a major setback for efforts by the US industry to get better enforcement of trade agreements,
particularly with China. He notes that the office of the USTR currently has only one attorney
assigned to monitoring China’s WTO compliance, in spite of the fact that there is a need to
increase resources for enforcement. He is equally concerned that US Customs and Border Protection
is not devoting sufficient staff and efforts to crack down on illegal textile and apparel imports.

As a result of the Christmas-time flap over unsafe imports from China, the Consumer Products
Safety Commission received a substantial boost in its funding. While US textile manufacturers hope
some of the funding for the understaffed agency can go toward creating a national flammability
standard for bedding, the agency is most likely to concentrate on imports of toys and other
children’s products.

Long-standing government support for textile and apparel research at the National Textile
Center (NTC) and the Textile Clothing Technology Corp. ([TC]
²) took a major hit, as funding for the coming year was cut to $4.7 million compared
with last year’s $16 million. Officials at [TC]
² and the NTC have agreed to a split that would give [TC]
² $1.7 million and NTC $3 million, and they are in the process of developing scaled-down
project proposals.



January 15, 2008

World cotton production is forecast at 33.9 million hectares in 2008-09. This is a
less-than-1-percent increase despite the 14-percent increase in international cotton prices
projected for 2007-08. Cotton prices are not increasing as much as prices of most competing crops
in 2007-08, and these price relationships will affect planting decisions in 2008-09. Production is
expected to increase slightly in mainland China and India, remain stable in Pakistan, and decline
further in the United States.



Increase In The World Average Yield

Cotton production in the rest of the world is projected to rise by 5 percent to 11 million
hectares. A projected 4-percent increase in the average yield could lead world cotton production to
increase by 5 percent to 26.9 million tons in 2008-09. Global cotton mill use is projected at 27.5
million tons in 2008-09, only 1-percent higher than in 2007-08 because of the expectation that
cotton prices will remain firm. As a result, a significant gap between world cotton production and
mill use is expected to persist next season, resulting in a possible further decline in world
cotton stocks to 10.7 million tons — a decrease of 5 percent — at the end of July 2009.

World Cotton Trade

World cotton trade is forecast to be quite stable at 8.7 million tons in 2008-09. A small
increase in mainland Chinese imports could offset a decline in imports by the rest of the world.
The Chinese Ministry of Finance announced at the end of December 2007 that the duty applied to
sliding-scale duty import quotas — quotas supplementary to the regular 894,000-ton import quota
associated with the 1-percent duty — would vary from 5 to 40 percent in 2008, versus 6 to 40
percent in 2007. However, no openings of sliding-scale duty quotas for 2008 have been announced
yet.


World Cotton Production In 2007-08

The world production is estimated at 25.7 million tons in 2007-08, down 4 percent from last
season, whereas world cotton mill use is forecast up 2 percent to 27.2 million tons. The projected
gap between production and mill use of 1.5 million tons in 2007-08 implies an 11-percent reduction
in world cotton stocks to 11.2 million tons by the end of July 2008. World cotton imports are
forecast up 9 percent to 8.9 million tons, driven by expected larger Chinese imports than last
season — 3.2 million tons versus 2.3 million tons.

Exports from the United States, India and Brazil are expected to increase, resulting in
gains in market share for these countries. However, exports from Uzbekistan, the CFA zone in
Africa, and Australia are expected to decline.

The Cotlook A Index — produced by Cotlook Ltd., an England-based cotton news group —
averaged 69 US cents per pound in the first five months of 2007-08, 10 cents higher than during the
same period of the previous year. The Bremen Cotton Report Secretariat, using the ICAC Price Model
2007, forecasts a season-average Cotlook A Index of 67 cents per pound in 2007-08 — the 95 percent
confidence interval is between 61 and 72 cents per pound. The main variables in this model are the
stocks-to-mill-use ratio in the world-excluding-China and the stocks-to-mill-use ratio in China.
The projected price increase in 2007-08 is the result of an expected significant decrease in the
stocks-to-mill-use ratio in the world-excluding-China from 58 percent in 2006-07 to 53 percent in
2007-08. This price forecast takes into account the average Cotlook A Index between August and
December 2007.



January 15, 2008

The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) has developed a new online reporting system
for textile and apparel companies to report fraud they encounter in the marketplace to US Customs
and Border Protection. The program is designed to help improve the policing of illegal textile and
apparel imports.

In announcing the program, NCTO Vice President Mike Hubbard said: “Customs fraud has risen to
become the number-one issue we get calls about from our member companies. Our members are extremely
frustrated because they see high levels of fraud without a corresponding increase in Customs
activity.”


NCTO says increasing problems have developed particularly with trade involving NAFTA/CAFTA-DR
countries.

NCTO has been meeting with Customs officials regarding what that organization says is a “
sharp drop-off of seizures and detentions” resulting from the textile division being moved out of
the Operations Division into a policy branch and the failure of Customs to hire new textile
enforcement personnel.

The NCTO reporting form, developed in consultation with Customs officials, is available
at 
www.ncto.org under “Report
Customs Fraud.”



January 15, 2008

Richmond, Va.-based Performance Fibers has signed a multiyear agreement with Zhejiang GuXianDao
Industrial Fibre Co. Ltd.  whereby GuXianDao will exclusively supply Performance Fibers with
high-tenacity and low-shrinkage polyester fiber yarn for resale in North, Central and South
America, as well as India and Australia.

According to Performance Fibers, the agreement will enable it to enlarge its product portfolio and
provide customers with more global sourcing options. 

“Zhejiang GuXianDao Industrial Fibre Co. has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment
to superior quality and safety — both factors we value highly,” said Fred Indermaur, vice
president, general manager — Americas, Performance Fibers. “Through this agreement, our full range
of low-shrinkage and high-tenacity product offerings will be competitive with domestic and offshore
producers.”

January 15, 2008

Florence, Ky.-based Ticona — the engineering polymers business of Celanese Corp., Dallas — will
expand its production complex in Nanjing, China, with the addition of a 15,000-metric-ton
compounding unit that will produce compounds for such Ticona engineering polymers as Fortron®,
Vandar®, Riteflex®, Celanex®, Hostaform® and Vectra®. The expansion is expected to be complete in
the first quarter of 2009.


The Nanjing complex is also home to a 600,000 metric ton acetic acid facility, a
300,000-metric-ton vinyl acetate monomer plant, a 100,000 metric ton acetic anhydride unit, and
specialty acetyl derivatives units. In addition, a new Celstran® long fiber-reinforced
thermoplastic facility is set to begin production at the complex early this year, while a
20,000-metric-ton GUR® ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene plant will begin production in the
last half of 2008.

“Our Nanjing compounding unit will support our recently announced [Customer] Application
Development Center in Shanghai,” said Lindsey Deal, director, Asia business development, Ticona. “
This will enable us to translate applications from other regions of the world, enhancing our
ability to develop and expand regional applications based on advanced engineering polymers in the
Ticona portfolio.”

Set to open sometime this year, the Customer Application Development Center will offer Ticona
customers support for product and mold design using computer-aided engineering, process
optimization based on injection molding trials, material testing, troubleshooting and customer
training.

January 15, 2008

Fairlawn, Ohio-based Omnova Solutions Inc. has completed its acquisition of three joint venture
decorative products manufacturing businesses in Asia from Thailand-based CPPC Public Co. Ltd., its
former partner in the joint ventures.


Omnova Decorative Products Thailand (formerly CPPC-Decorative Products Co. Ltd.), is a
producer of coated vinyl upholstery, commercial wallcoverings, laminates and films for the Asian
and North American furniture, interiors, marine and transportation markets, as well as films for
industrial applications.  Omnova Decorative Products (Shanghai), formerly CG-Omnova Decorative
Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; and Omnova Decorative Products (Taicang), formerly known as Beston
Omnova Plastics (Taicang) Co. Ltd., are both China-based producers of coated polyurethane and vinyl
upholstery for regional upholstery, consumer garment and accessories markets, and Chinese
automotive original equipment manufacturers.  These companies also have expanded their focus
on North American contract and residential furniture markets and the automotive aftermarket.

“Omnova’s investment to acquire full ownership of our Asian [joint venture] businesses is a
key part of our globalization strategy and demonstrates our long-term commitment to the large and
rapidly growing Asian markets,” said Kevin McMullen, chairman and CEO, Omnova Solutions. “It allows
us to more aggressively participate in the tremendous expansion underway in the region with
innovative technology and products. In addition, it puts us in a better position to follow global
customers who have moved manufacturing to Asia and are looking for high quality local sourcing.”

January 15, 2008

Atlanta-based Process Control Corp., a manufacturer of auxiliary equipment and systems for plastic
processing, has opened Guangzhou Atlanta Process Control Equipment Co. Ltd., its first facility in
China.


Located in Guangzhou, the 655-square-meters facility will operate as a wholly owned
subsidiary of Process Control Corp., offering manufacturing capabilities and customer support
including sales, project engineering, and customer and technical service. It will also manage and
support distributors in South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand.

“Our new Guangzhou facility is a strategic move towards globalization necessitated by our
growing customer base in Asia,” said Steve Buckley, vice president, sales and marketing, Process
Control Corp. “By building an integrated operation in Guangzhou, we are well positioned to develop
efficient, long-term relationships with our customers and offer improved supply chain management.”

January 15, 2008

The International Textile Group Inc. (ITG), Greensboro, N.C., has named Thomas E. McKenna to
succeed John L. Bakane as president of its Cone Denim division. Bakane retired from the company in
December 2007.

“We are extremely pleased to have someone of Tom’s experience and knowledge to lead our denim
division,” said Joseph L. Gorga, president and CEO, ITG. “Having grown up in denim, Tom understands
the denim market and the global landscape of the industry. We look forward to his leadership and
many contributions as we move ahead.”

McKenna began his career with ITG Cone Denim in 1981 as a sales representative in New York
City for the company’s predecessor, Cone Mills. After holding sales and management positions in the
United States, he opened the company’s first international sales office in Brussels, and in 1995
moved to Singapore to become director of marketing for the Asia/Pacific region. Later returning to
the United States, he assumed several executive positions including executive vice president, denim
merchandising and marketing, for Cone Mills; and was promoted to president, sales and marketing,
for Cone Denim following the formation of ITG in 2004 through the merger of Cone Mills and
Burlington Industries.

January 8, 2008