Asian textile manufacturers were out in force at a trade fair in Paris last week, touting their wares for quality and price against competition from their European counterparts.
Fabric makers from China, Taiwan, India and South Korea accounted for nearly half of the 620 companies showing their wares at TexWorld, the international clothing-textiles trade show in the French capital's business district, La Defense, that closed last Wednesday.
"We come for the large quantities and the tiny prices," explained designer Olivier Lapidus, who was purchasing fabric for his Pronuptia Couture-label wedding gowns.
According to Lapidus, the quality of the fabrics on offer at TexWorld has vastly improved since the trade fair began in 1997.
Innovative weaving and dying techniques have pulled Asian textiles out of the bargain basement and onto the top shelf and cheap labor has made them highly competitive.
TexWorld has become such an important industry event it is now poses a threat to Premiere Vision, the show featuring high-end fabrics by European manu-facturers that takes place in Paris at about the same time.
Some exhibitors at Premiere Vision have tried to cut the action both ways, putting their subsidiaries on the floor at TexWorld. French fabric maker Carreman has taken that tack with its Romanian unit Carreman Romania.
According to Aloke Kumar Jaipuria, president of Indian firm Gyan Silk Mills which is showing at TexWorld, "buyers come to see the colors and trends at Premiere Vision, then they buy their fabrics at TexWorld."
Gyan Silk Mills exports 65 percent of its hand-embroidered silks to Europe and the US and lists fashion giants Christian Dior and Liz Claiborne among its clients.
Another TexWorld exhibitor, Ding Cai Ling, vice president of one of China's largest textile producers, Shandong Ruyi, stressed her firm's high-end approach.
"We focus on creativity and quality," she said.
The company's designer wool-fabric exports have climbed 30 percent to 40 percent a year, snapped up by prestigious clients such as European fashion houses Hugo Boss and Armani.
With business booming, Shandong Ruyi plans to open factories in Biella, the cradle of Italian wool making, soon.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last