Owens Corning expands technical fabrics capacity to support wind market

Owens Corning announced that the company is supporting its wind blade fabrication customers in Asia by expanding capacity to produce technical fabrics at its manufacturing facilities in Chanzhou and Doudian, China and Taloja, India. The investment adds about one-third more knitting capacity to the three plants' existing fabrics operations, to supply technical fabrics for the region's growing wind energy market, which includes the fast-growing China market. The expansion is already underway and will be completed during the third quarter this year. "During the past 20 years, Owens Corning has been leading the way with roving and fabrics preferred by the world's largest wind blade manufacturers," says Sunil Saxena, general manager and managing director for OCV™ Technical Fabrics, Asia Pacific region. "The expansions of fabric capacity in China and India will enable us to supply more of our customers' growing requirements locally." Composites Group President Chuck Dana said the expansion is another demonstration of the company's commitment to wind energy. "Renewable wind energy is needed to assure a sustainable future," explained Dana. "Composites have many benefits in wind energy applications and Owens Corning has developed a number of products specifically customized and designed for increased productivity and improved laminate performance in a blade. This work is continuing to help make wind energy more competitive with traditional sources of electrical power." Capacity for wind energy in Asia is expected to grow nearly 45 percent this year, from a total installed capacity of about 22,000 megawatts (MW) at the end of 2008 to nearly 32,000 MW at the end of this year, according to BTM Consult ApS, Denmark, an independent consulting company specializing in renewable energy. BTM says growth in Asia will be led by China, which is expected to increase installed capacity by 60 percent in 2009. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, China will be the biggest growth market for wind power generating capacity this year, ahead of the United States.

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MS University to train textile industry workforce

Teachers, engineers and other people associated with the Gujarat’s textile industry will soon be receiving training from the textile engineering department of M S University. The textile engineering department of Faculty of Technology and Engineering (FTE) has recently been declared by the state government as an ‘anchor institute’ in the textile sector.

The principal task of this institute is to groom people associated with the textile sector through a training programme. The state government has granted Rs. 100 million for this, out of which the department has already received Rs. 13.5 million to set up a training centre.

The fund will be utilized to set up an additional laboratory and classroom facilities as well as to install up-to-date machineries. The faculty will plan both, long-term and short-term job-oriented and innovative courses, which are being intended to offer to school dropouts and women also in order to assist them get lucrative employment.

The idea behind this is to upgrade the skills of students graduating from universities, collages and other training programs and also to advance knowledge of textile associates and workers, said FTE Dean, Prof. B S Parekh.




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Textile dyes pose high threat to water pollution

Various processes used in the textile industry for processing fabrics lead to a major portion of environmental pollution. Wet processing techniques contribute the maximum to environmental pollution. Waste water from textile industry is known to be strongly colored with large amount of suspended solids, pH, high temperature and chemical oxygen demand. Textile manufacturing is one of the largest industrial users of process water and substantial quantities of complex chemicals. In the industries, water is contaminated with different chemicals and auxiliaries, which are used at different processing stages in units. About 60-360 liters of water is consumed per kg of fabric depending upon the substrate. The polluted water is harmful for flora and fauna due to high BOD, COD, pH, and temperature, color, odors, turbidity and toxic chemicals. Our planet has been polluted for the past 150 years. Strict laws and regulations must be enacted to save the planet. If changes are not initiated now, and are not followed religiously, earth is doomed to extinction. Click here to read the complete article.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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Pioneer of silk manufacturing winds up garment production

L'Usine Textile du Rwanda or Utexrwa as the name it is known by, has temporarily suspended the production of silk fabrics and garments due to low production of silk cocoons and will resume production and also expand the capacity of the reeling machines once cocoons are available in good quantity.

In an interview with Fibre2fashion, the Managing Director of Utexrwa, Mr Rajendran said that, “We are receiving inquiry from overseas clients especially from US & Canada who are giving bulk orders and hence to fulfill their orders we need silk cocoons in bulk quantity, which is not currently available in sufficient quantity”.

He added by saying, “So, we are not able to meet the orders from the current supply of cocoon production and there is a severe need of raising silk cocoons production to meet the orders. The Government is making efforts to cope up with the situation and fulfill the demand by increasing the silk cocoon cultivation”.

He continued, “The Government is providing scientific training to the farmers for rearing silk worms, due to which only, we are currently undertaking exports of yarn, by accepting small orders from Canada, but have postponed big orders for next six months and to overcome the short supply, we have done plantation on 15 hectares of land provided by the Government”.






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Wool sector calls on govt to avail insurance credit

The wool industry is in a quandary after the withdrawal of QBE from offering credit insurance to some sectors of the textile industry, which includes wool from July 1 and called on the government to support the insurance companies.

QBE, on its part has defended its decision of withdrawing insurance facilities, by saying that it had made huge insurance payouts to the wool industry after overseas buyers did not make the requisite payments.

This has also led to an increase in costs of buying insurance from other big insurance companies, which in the current times is pinching the exporters and making it difficult to trade with European based companies.

The fallout of this crisis could be that business with the biggest importer of wool; China may increase since, importers from China do business, by means of a letter of credit, which is beneficial to the exporters.

Business with the European buyers is done on a 120 days line of credit and experts aver that changing the system may prove to be difficult, since the buyers too are facing acute financial crisis due to the credit crunch.

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Textiles Minister hails Budget Proposals for textiles sector

Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran, the Textiles Minister has hailed the Budget Proposals for the Textiles Sector as a growth spurring initiatives which dovetail with economic revival, infrastructure development, agriculture development, inclusive growth and restoring export growth. He said that he is proud that handlooms have been recognized for their role in providing employment as well as an instrument to preserve the magnificent and ancient textiles traditions of our country and have been supported, as has the carpet and powerloom sector.

Briefing media persons, Thiru Maran said that the Budget proposals should be read with the two stimulus packages announced by the Government in the recent months to boost exports.

Thiru. Maran stated that the Budget enhances the Plan allocation for the Ministry of Textiles to Rs.4,500 crore from Rs.4,090 crore, the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) has been allocated Rs.3,140 crore, which will spur modernization and attract investment in the Textiles Sector and clear the pending backlog till June 2009. For the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP), Rs.397 crore has been allocated, which will impart momentum to the Scheme.

The Union Finance Minister also announced the setting up of 5 Mega clusters: one handloom mega cluster each in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and one powerloom mega cluster in Rajasthan and two mega clusters for carpets at Srinagar (J&K) and Mirzapur (UP). These mega clusters, when operationalised, will generate employment for 50,000 people and attract an investment of approx. Rs.1,400 crore.

Thiru. Maran said that in coming days, we are going to converge with certain other announcements particularly empowerment of weaker sections, welfare of workers in the un-organised sector, facilities for the growth of medium and small scale enterprises to utilize fully the assistance under Schemes outlined in the Budget. Thiru. Maran said “ we have a huge task cut out before us to utilize the provisions of the Budget for making our sector go from strength to strength”.




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$2.6 mn assists textile, clothing & footwear innovation

Sixty-eight small businesses across Australia will receive grants totalling $2.6 million to become more innovative under round four of the Australian Government’s Textile, Clothing and Footwear (TCF) Small Business Program.

Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, said the grants, ranging from $11,000 to $50,000, focus on improving the business enterprise culture of TCF small businesses.

“The future of Australia’s TCF industry lies in becoming more agile, innovative and entrepreneurial,” Senator Carr said.

"It is about the development of new products and processes, especially at the high-tech, high-value end of the market.

“This round has been extremely competitive, with over 250 businesses applying for grants.

“This strong response from our local small businesses shows that the TCF sector is keen to embrace a culture of innovation and enterprise.

"The Rudd Government will continue to work in partnership with the sector to foster vital innovation. The latest budget included a retargeted, $401 million TCF package, with $55 million redirected towards innovation and $10 million in new funding."

The TCF Small Business Program is providing $25 million in grants over 10 years to Australia’s small designers and manufacturers.



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Textile & clothing sector still uncompetitive – Minister

At a ‘Private Sector Development Conference’, the Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr Tusa admitted that exports from key sectors like textiles and clothing was unsatisfactory, but has shown promising prospects for the future.

He said, “The competitiveness of the private sector in Ethiopia requires further improvement and investment, in order to effectively compete domestically and in the export market in a sustainable manner”.

He added by saying that "Lot of efforts are still required both by the Government and the private sector to improve the situation and new challenges were also expected to come as Ethiopia had joined the World Trade Organization (WTO)”.

He concluded by saying that, "To be effectively competitive in such an environment in the wider global economy, which is facing serious crises and uncertainty, definitely requires bold and well thought response”.

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Brazilian company unveils first of its kind vertical textile plotter

A Brazilian company, Audaces Automation, based in Florianopolis has introduced a new unique format, a vertical plotter which eliminates the need for space and has brought in innovation in the way patterns are printed. The plotter which has been aptly called ‘Tower Jet’ has a width of just 0.6 metre, depth of 1 metre and height of 2.3 metres and has many speed options along with providing printing widths of 143, 163, 173 and 183 cm. It also allows the use of paper rolls with up to 250 metres in length and uses HP inkjet technology to print an organised group of patterns and which ensures easy operations and a very low maintenance cost to the user. The ‘Tower Jet’, will prove to be a boon to clothing manufacturing companies, who need an efficient machine, in addition to providing economy, precision and agility and also requires less space on the factory floor.

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Govt to allocate large amount of funds to textile sector

The government has allocated Rs 40 billion as an “Export Investment Support Fund” to prop up exports from across all sectors, especially the value added textile sector. This amount will allocated as a part of the budget for 2009-10.

This fund is expected to be provided as a duty drawback which may be increased and replace the subsidy on R&D provided currently. Cross subsidy on gas may also be withdrawn to help the spinning sector.

Giving out details, the Federal Advisor on Textiles, Mr Baig said that Rs 500 million has been earmarked as interest subsidy to the textile sector, along with Rs 500 million, which will be spent on providing infrastructure support to export oriented companies.

Of the Rs 40 billion allocated for the “Export Investment Support Fund”, nearly 67 percent will spent to boost the value added textile sector and the rest will be assigned to other value added export oriented sectors.

He added by saying that in this budget, excise duty on import and supply of viscose staple fibre has been withdrawn and the government would give priority in supply of gas and electricity to the textile sector to help stabilise their operations.

The budget has also apportioned a huge amount for setting up of textile and garment cities across the country which includes Rs 246 million for Karachi Textile city and Rs 207 million on Faisalabad Garment city.



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