World Trade Centers Holdings (Cyprus) — a member of the New York City-based World Trade Centers
Association and licensee and owner of 15 World Trade Centers in Cyprus, the Middle East and North
Africa — has entered into an agreement with supply chain solutions provider TradeCard Inc., New
York City, whereby it will offer a customized white-label version of the TradeCard Platform to
corporate buyers in the aforementioned regions. The platform is particularly suitable for customers
in such industries as apparel, home furnishings and footwear, among others.

A new company, TradeCard Holdings Cyprus Ltd., will be formed as part of the agreement, and
will operate under the name TradeCard MENA. The new company will supply customers with access to a
hosted document management and financial settlement platform via the Internet or through
integration with back office systems, enabling users to transact with TradeCard’s 3,000 buyer and
seller members worldwide.

“The value that the TradeCard MENA platform brings to companies in the Middle East and North
Africa as well as Cyprus is massive,” said Barry Lites, CEO, TradeCard MENA. “Globalization demands
a certain level of automation. The platform achieves this in ways that internal ERP systems never
could — by connecting both buyers and their suppliers in a single electronic environment,
eliminating paper and providing both parties with innovative trade finance services.”



January 8, 2008

Wellman Inc., a Fort Mill, S.C.-based producer of plastic packaging, fibers and engineering resins,
has donated machinery valued at more than $3 million to the Textile Technology Center at Gaston
College, Belmont, N.C. The machinery, previously on loan to the center, is used to perform fibers
and resin testing.

The center, chartered by the State of North Carolina in 2005 to be a Center of Excellence,
serves more than 200 textile businesses within the textile product supply chain. Yarn and fabric
formation services are available via the center’s pilot yarn spinning plant. Fiber, yarn and fabric
testing and evaluation services, as well as defect analysis, also are available. The center also
provides consultation on process improvement and product innovation, and tailored training.

“Wellman strongly supports the Center of Excellence concept,” said Steve Ates, vice
president, sales and marketing, Wellman. “We hope that other suppliers to the textile industry
follow our lead and donate to the Textile Technology Center. Shared resources that support
innovation and improved productivity are vital to the long-term success of our industry.”

December 27, 2007

EDANA, the Brussels-based International Association Serving the Nonwovens and Related Industries,
has issued a call for papers for Filtrex 08, a filtration conference and exhibition that will be
held Oct. 7-8, 2008, at the Maritim Hotel in Cologne, Germany.

Abstracts are due March 15, and may be submitted on the following themes: new filter media
technologies including antimicrobial and nanofibers; market trends including regulations and
standards; automotive filtration including engine air, oil, fuel and cabin air; air filtration
including heating, ventilation and air conditioning, industrial, consumer products, and clean
rooms; liquid filtration including food and beverage, pharmaceutical/medical, water and hydraulic;
and emission control such as air pollution and exhaust gases.

For more information, contact Catherine Lennon 32 2 740 18 16; fax 32 2 733 35 18;
catherine.lennon@edana.org; www.edana.org.

December 27, 2007

Effective Jan. 1, 2008, BASF AG, Germany, will raise the global price of acrylic monomers.

Price increases in Europe, Africa and the Middle East include glacial acrylic acid and ethyl
acrylate by 70 euros per metric ton; n-butyl acrylate by 100 euros per ton; and 2-ethyl hexyl
acrylate and methyl acrylate by 120 euros per metric ton.

Price increases in North and South America include glacial acrylic acid and ethyl acrylate by
$66 per metric ton; and n-butyl acrylate, methyl acrylate and 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate by $110 per
metric ton.

Prices also will increase in Asia, depending on product and region.

December 27, 2007

Malwee Malhas Ltd., Brazil, has added four new Thies dyeing machines to its existing line of
pressure drying equipment supplied by Germany-based Thies GmbH & Co. The new machines will
enable the company to expand its ability to keep up with changes in styles and to experiment with
new fabrics and colors.

Malwee — a manufacturer of branded fitnesswear, and children’s and young adult’s casual- and
beachwear — has installed a Thies Luft-roto plus SII fabric-dyeing machine for processing all types
of fabrics, fibers and blends; a soft-TRD DS XL fabric-dyeing for crease-sensitive fabrics, as well
as pile and wool fabrics; a mini-soft TRD for small production runs and sample dyeing; and a
five-kier eco-bloc quattro yarn dye house machine, which handles high levels of batch-to-batch or
machine-to-machine production.

Thies’ Brazilian distributor, Petersen Matex Imp. e Exp. Ltda, provided the new machinery and
will handle its service and maintenance.



December 27, 2007

Effective Jan. 1, 2008, Polymer Group Inc. (PGI), Charlotte, will increase the price of certain
nonwoven roll goods by 5 to 7 percent. Increases will vary by product, and mainly will apply to
products made with petroleum-based raw materials such as polyester and polypropylene.

PGI also announced that the price of certain polypropylene-based products will increase
depending on region.



December 27, 2008

Strateline Industries, a new business that will produce nonwoven substrates from recycled
materials, is recycling an existing manufacturing facility in Rogers, Ark., to be its base of
operations, with plans to put employees from the plant’s former operation back to work and add
additional employees within the next three years.

The company has officially opened for business in a 250,000-square-foot facility that was
shut down July by Charlotte-based nonwovens producer Polymer Group Inc. (PGI), which employed 120
workers at the plant. Strateline will invest $63 million in its new operation, which ultimately
will employ 150 people in the manufacture of continuous roll-good nonwoven substrates from recycled
post-industrial materials — primarily cotton, but also a range of other fiber materials — producing
the first-ever sustainably repurposed cotton nonwoven materials, according to the company. Jeffrey
Post, Strateline’s director of marketing, said the substrates initially will be used in end
products such as wet wipes, but there is also potential for developing nonwovens for the
automotive, medical, and home and contract furniture industries.

“We partner with companies and repurpose fiber waste streams, using those fibers as feedstock
instead of using virgin fiber,” Post said. “Strateline has a patent on technology using a high
percentage of cotton in a nonwoven substrate.”

Post said Strateline has a relationship with Wagoner, Okla.-based Sustainable Solutions Inc.,
which will regenerate used fiber into engineered fiber lengths. The substrates manufactured by
Strateline will be converted by Sheboygan, Wis.-based Rockline Industries, which operates a
facility in Springdale, Ark., not far from Rogers.

In its initial stage of operation, Strateline has put approximately 50 former PGI employees
back on the job to conduct prototype trial runs and check equipment that was shut down by PGI, Post
said. The company will add a fourth manufacturing line to three existing lines left from PGI’s
operation, and ultimately will run two spunlace lines.

The company also will invest in technology to modify existing equipment to address
sustainability issues. “Our business strategy is based not only on sustainable end products, but
also on an internal sustainability protocol,” Post said. “We’ll be concerned with how green our
suppliers are as well as with energy use, upcycling practices and such. With regard to energy use,
we will be assessing our environmental footprint and how we can be smarter about energy use in the
future.”

December 18, 2007

GreenShield™ — an oil- and water-repellent textile finish manufactured by G3 Technology Innovations
(G3i), a Pittsford, N.Y.-based manufacturer of environmentally friendly nanomaterials — has been
certified by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), an Emeryville, Calif.-based third-party
certification services provider and standards developer, as a Low Fluorocarbon treatment.

The finish — the first textile finish to receive the SCS certification — provides most
fabrics with comparable or better repellency using on average eight times less fluorocarbon than
conventional repellent finishes, according to G3i. It is made using proprietary waste-eliminating,
energy-saving technology that utilizes water-based solvents.

“This is a real breakthrough for the textile industry,” said Dr. Joseph Bringley, chief
technology officer, G3i. “The balance between the performance requirements of fabrics and the need
to lessen the impact of those fabrics on the environment and human health are extremely important
to the specifiers and consumers of textiles.”

December 18, 2007

As part
of an upgrading and expansion plan, Brazil-based Buddemeyer S.A. has installed an Atlas Copco ZR
315 VSD FF oil-free compressor to supply air to each of its 70 looms. The family-owned company
manufactures 300 metric tons monthly of cotton products including bedspreads, bathmats, robes and
towels.

The new compressor, which has been installed alongside another compressor supplied by
Sweden-based Atlas Copco, delivers 855 liters of air per second, is powered by a 315-kiloWatt motor
operating at 50 hertz, and works at up to 7.5 bar.

Buddemeyer expects to conduct its expansion — which will include replacing all of its looms
with new machines — over the next three years.

December 18, 2007

A new sail developed by Germany-based sailmaker Dimension-Polyant GmbH has shown its mettle during
a 4,300-mile race across the Atlantic Ocean, with no sign of wear at the end of the trial.

The newest sails in the company’s line of D4® membrane sails are made with Dyneema® SK78
high-modulus polyethylene fiber developed to provide improved dimensional stability. The sails were
used by racers Marc Emig and Bertrand de Broc, sponsored by the AST Groupe Française, in the
40-foot class in the Transat Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre, France, to Salvador de Bahia,
Brazil. Dimension-Polyant plans a market debut of the new D4 sails in the coming year.

“After four years of development using Dyneema fiber, we have found that this material
significantly enhances the value of our D4 membrane technology,” said Uwe Stein, managing director,
Dimension-Polyant. “Dyneema further reduces sailcloth weight and boosts strength for optimal shape
retention, durability and performance. With the tremendous results of our sailcloth test during the
Transat Jacques Vabre race, we are fully confident about launching this new product next year.”

According to DSM Dyneema, the Netherlands-based manufacturer of the fiber, the custom-made D4
sails with Dyneema comprise two surface film layers enveloping layers of Dyneema fiber. Using a
computer-controlled machine, the fiber is laid over one surface layer in precise curved arrays
based on the sail design. The second surface layer is placed over the Dyneema arrays, and the sail
is laminated together using controlled heat and extreme pressure.



December 18, 2007