CHINA: Textile industry should develop brands(Çin: tekstil endüstrisi markalar geliştirmeli.)

BEIJING: The Sino-EU and Sino-US agreements will mature by the end of this year and next year respectively. The US and EU will most probably impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on China’s textile products and the country is likely to face a more challenging international trade situation in the near future.

Chinese enterprises already suffer from many defects such as lack of self-owned brands, inferior position in the international division of labor, and weak capability in making profit in the industrial chains.

Market shares lost by China's textile products in the US market in 2006 were picked up by other Asian countries and India, Peru and Columbia restricted China’s textile products by implementing anti dumping laws.

Chinese government and textile exporters should be ready to deal with the situation after the agreements become mature.

China's textile and garment exports reached US$ 144 billion in 2006, with a surplus of US$ 125.9 billion, accounting for 70.9 percent of the country’s total surplus of goods trade. China's textile industry maintained a growth of 14.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, with a surplus of US$ 27.36 billion.

The exporters only gain a marginal profit when Chinese products are exported to the European and US markets but importers and retailers are the biggest beneficiaries. China's textile products manufacturers only take 10 percent of profits in the whole benefit chains, while 90 percent of profits belong to the brand owners, wholesalers, distributors and retailers.

Chinese textile enterprises also import a great deal of cotton, cloth and advanced textile equipment from the United States every year in order to meet the export demand.

Lack of brands resulted in gaining the minimum profit in the whole value chain. The urgent need for China’s textile industry is to build brands and adjust industrial structure.

TURKEY: Denim exports increase 7.5%

Turkey's denim jeans exports increased to US$685 during the first half of the year, up 7.5% from the corresponding period last year, with Germany emerging as the top importer of these goods.

Denim exports had increased by 28% in 2005, but decreased around 4.3 % the following year. However, ready-wear exports raised substantially in the first half of this year, prompting denim figures to return to form, according to the Turkish clothing industry report by ITKIB (Istanbul Textiles and Apparel Exporters Assosication).

In the UK, $96.8 worth of denim goods were imported, while the biggest increase was in Greece, where 85% more denim was imported from Turkey. The US, on the other hand, reduced its denim trading with the country by 45% to $9.9m.

Figures sourced from General Secretariat of ITKIB.

TURKEY: Technical textiles production increasing

Technical and functional textile markets are gaining extra momentum in Turkey, and are expected to gain more importance over the coming 15-20 years.

Technical textile production and product diversification is increasing in the country, including non-woven fabrics and products, stiffening materials, special felts, filtration materials, products of automotive and packaging industries, military clothes and equipments.

Turkey's technical textile exports, an increasing trend since 2000, reached US$847m in 2006.

Leading export items were flexible intermediate bulk containers of man-made textile materials, tyre cord fabric of high tenacity yarn of nylon, polyesters or viscose rayon, glass fibers and articles and non-wovens. Germany, France, Spain, Italy and UK were the leading export markets for such products.

TURKEY: Textile workers union gives a call for strike

The Textile, Knitting and Clothing Industry Workers' Union of Turkey (TEKSIF) has called a strike from September 10 in 17 companies. About 11,000 textile workers are expected to participate in the strike.

The TEKSIF was unable to reach an agreement in its negotiations with the Turkish Textile Employers' Association (TÜTSIS).

The two sides were unable to reach an agreement during the revived negotiations of the 21st Term Collective Bargain, which had been going on since April.

Textile employers say that since the economic circumstances of the sector are shaped by external factors, offering any more than their proposed price would be impractical. There offers have been made taking into account all economic factors.

TÜTSIS Chairman Halit Narin said that “The textile and ready-to-wear sectors have no more competitive power. Employers are unable to grasp any chance for compromise”.

The textile and ready wear sector have been able to overcome this crisis and export figures are increasing day by day, said TEKSIF authorities, adding that the attitude TÜTSIS displayed during this critical period had been unacceptable.

Negotiations had been deadlocked over the insistence of TÜTSIS on a zero percent wage increase for the first six months and zero premium for the new workers, said TEKSIF Press Counselor Mete Bayindir, and added that a 3 percent wage increase for the second six months is also unacceptable.

“The circumstances of the sector depend on external factors. Our exportation depends solely on the exchange rate with the dollar,” said Jeff Hakko, board member of Vakko, one of the companies covered by the strike decision. “A positive result would contribute to the Turkish economy. What is important is stability. I hope an agreement can be reached by September 10 for the sake of the economically-stable atmosphere in Turkey,” Hakko added.

The textile will lose approximately $3 billion if the strikes take place.

Digital Textile Printing Will Increase Its Share More Than Tenfold in Five Years

Digital technology is the fastest growing method of printing textiles, according to a report in the latest issue of Textile Outlook International. Between 2000 and 2005 digitally printed textile output rose by 300% to 70 million square metres.

Although digital methods still account for less than 1% of the global market for printed textiles, their share is likely to expand to as much as 10% by the early part of the next decade.

Screen printing still dominates the textile printing market with 80% of global output. However, this share is expected to fall as digital printing gains more of a foothold in the market.

One reason for the expected growth in digital printing is that more textile manufacturers are able to provide "prepared for print"(PFP) fabrics to digital printers. But much of the increase will be due to improvements in digital printing equipment, such as printheads and ink dispersion techniques. Growth will also stem from advances in pigment-based inks.

New inks for inkjet printing:

Ink producers are offering broader ranges of inkjet inks. Furthermore, many of these inks have some of the favourable properties enjoyed by inks used in conventional textile printing.

For example, DuPont offers the same colorants in its Artistri digital inkjet printer as those which are used in screen printing.

Huntsman has recently launched 11 new inkjet inks under its Terasil DI-HL brand. These have sufficiently high light-fastness to meet standards set by automotive manufacturers for direct inkjet printing on to polyester. The inks are also suitable for applications such as home furnishings, outdoor fabrics and apparel.

Even silk can be printed using inkjet systems, and such techniques are being utilised to print silk for the Italian and other European high fashion sectors. DyStar is marketing inkjet inks for silk based on its Procion and Levafix reactive dyes.

Huntsman has extended its Novacron (formerly Cibacron) range of dyes for inkjet inks. The company claims that these achieve much greater colour intensity than inks based on conventional dyes.

By employing dyes of higher colour strength, printers are able to use lower concentrations of dye to achieve the same depth of colour. This, in turn, results in technical advantages during the printing operation.

Pigment-based inks:

Technological improvements are enabling manufacturers to use pigments rather than dyes when making inks for printing textiles using digital technology. Pigments are intrinsically more light-fast and wash-fast than dyes, and are often less expensive.

Unfortunately, pigmented inks tend to flow less well than dye-based inks. This is important when delivering ink through an inkjet printhead. Fortunately, advances in pigment dispersion techniques and printheads have mitigated this problem.

Furthermore, technological advances in digital printing have led to improvements in the way that pigment-based inks adhere to the surface of the fabric. Pigment particles are coated with advanced surfactants in order to improve dispersion stability. And the same technology is used to help the inks adhere properly to the fabric.

Companies with long-established expertise in pigments -- such as Ciba, BASF, DuPont and Clariant -- have become technological leaders in the development of pigment-based inkjet inks for textiles.

Pigments have a number of advantages over dyes in inkjet printing, and these benefits have contributed to the growth in demand for pigment-based inks.

For example, pigment-based inks can be printed on to a broad variety of fibres and fabrics, whereas dye-based inks are restricted to specific types of fibres and fabrics.

Also, pigment-based inks are more robust than dye-based inks.

Furthermore, pigment-based inks do not need to go through a fixation process using steam to ensure that the ink adheres to the fabric. This makes pigment-based printing more economical in terms of running costs.

Moreover, textiles which have been coloured with pigment-based inks have higher levels of weather fastness and light fastness than those coloured with dye-based inks. Consequently, they are particularly suitable for large fabrics which are printed for outdoor use.

Dye-based inks suffer from a number of disadvantages compared with pigment-based inks. For example, they often contain impurities which can disrupt the sensitive mechanisms of printheads. In this regard, dye-based inks sometimes need to be purified, which can increase operating costs.

Unlike dye-based inks, pigmented inks do not require a solvent to dissolve the colorant. Such solvents are often based on volatile organic compounds which means that dye-based inks tend to be less environmentally friendly than pigmented inks.

Pigment-based inks also offer textile printers the opportunity to employ ultra-violet curing technology during the drying stage. Using this technology, the ink dries almost instantaneously and the fabric can be handled and further processed immediately. Conventional printing processes use heat to dry the ink, which is much slower and less convenient. At present, only around 5% of textile printing employs ultra-violet curing. However this share is expected to exceed 10% within the next five years, according to Textiles Intelligence.

BASF is in the process of upgrading its range of pigment-based inkjet inks. These products are sold under the company's Helizarin label, which is also used for pigment-based concentrates for screen printing.

Helizarin inks contain multi-functional polymeric dispersing agents. These are said to produce prints which are comparable with results obtained using screen printing.

Also, separate binders do not need to be used with Helizarin inks because the binders are already built in. The company claims that the elimination of a separate binder gives printed fabrics a soft handle, high levels of fastness, and good colour strength and brilliance.

Helizarin inks contain pigments in the form of a low viscosity aqueous dispersion which is ideal for inkjet printing.

With the aid of a proprietary pre-treatment process, Helizarin inks can be used on a wide variety of fabrics -- including cotton, polyamide and polyester blends.

The valve-jet process:

Another important development is the use of the valve-jet process to apply the ink to the fibres. This helps to prevent problems encountered in inkjet printing when loose strands of fibres interfere with the flow of ink through the nozzles.

Jets in the printhead are controlled by valves which open and shut independently. Streams of ink droplets are ejected at high velocity and the pressure from the valve is sufficient to ensure that inks penetrate deep into the surface of the fabric.

Austria-based printing machinery manufacturer J Zimmer Maschinenbau has recently launched two new versions of its ChromoJet digital valve-jet textile printer, namely the ChromoJet 400 and the ChromoJet 1200.

These machines are able to print spot colours, process colours and half-tones. Process colour technology prints four colours -- cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) -- in the form of small dots or half-tones. The colours may overlap, and are able to give a full range of visual effects. The technique is widely used to produce coloured illustrations in magazines and newspapers.

The ChromoJet 400 has valve-jets which can open and close up to 400 times per second, and can print up to 48 colours with a resolution of 1 million pixels per square metre. The machine can be used to print on carpets, rugs, furs and blankets.

The ChromoJet 1200 has valve-jets which are capable of being opened up to 1,200 times per second. It prints to a resolution of 8 million pixels per square metre and it can be used to print on towelling, upholstery, automotive textiles, corduroy and mats.

Yeşilyurt spor külübünde defile(Ordaydim)

Ünlü modacı Erkan Eken, “Too Hot - Çok Sıcak" adını verdiği 2007- 2008 kreasyonunu, önceki akşam Bakırköy Yeşilyurt Spor Kulübü Sosyal Tesisleri'nde düzenlenen bir defile ile tanıttı. Şehit aileleri yararına düzenlen defilede, 1600 adet inci 722 Swarovski taşı ile süslenmiş gelinliği giyerek podyuma çıkan Yasemin Kozanoğlu, "Bu geceden sonra gelin olmayı daha çok kafama taktım” dedi. Nazlı Tanrıkulu'nun göğüs frikiği verdiği defilenin arasında Mimar Sinan Üniversitesi'nin katkılarıyla Aikido ve modern oryantal dans şov sergilendi.

Davetiyelerin teberru usulü satıldığı defilede, Ece Gürsel, Şebnem Schaffer, Seda Ertan, Senem Balcı, Nazlı Tanrıkulu, Alona, Pınar Çınar, Yeliz Öney, Didem Ahlazoğlu, Lora, birbirinden ilginç kostümleri tanıttılar. 101 kostümün tanıtıldığı defilede, 20 kıyafet ile gecenin geliri Şehit Aileleri Vakfı'na bağışlandı.


Bir çok iş kazalarınında yaşandığı podyumda seksi manken Nazlı Tanrıkulu, kıyafetinin azizliğine uğrayarak gögüs firikiği verdi. Davetlilerin çocuklarıyla birlikte izlediği anlamlı defilenin arasında, Mimar Sinan Üniversitesinin katkılarıyla Aikido ve modern oryantal dans şov sergilendi.

Dokuz kişilik ekip tarafından 53 günde hazırlanan gelinliği tanıtan Yasemin Kozanoğlu, “Çok heyecanlandım, kendimi nikah masasında hissetim” dedi. Her genç kızın en büyük hayalinin böyle görkemli bir gelinliği giymek olduğunu söyleyen Yasemin Kozanoğlu,” Bu gelinlik içerisinde kendimi başka bir dünyada yaşıyor gibi hissettim. Bu geceden sonra gelin olmayı daha çok kafama taktım”dedi.

Kemal Şahin 'Super TURK' /16 temmuz 2007

Alman Der Spiegel dergisi, Berlin’de Başbakanlık’ta düzenlenen 2. Uyum Zirvesi’ne katılan başarılı Türk iş adamı Kemal Şahin’i, "Süper Türk" olarak tanıttı.
"Süper Türk" başlığıyla verilen bir yazıda, Almanya’da mühendislik eğitimi gören Şahin’in, yine de bu ülkede çalışmasına izin verilmediği, Şahin’in de bunun üzerine, çeşitli eşyalar satan küçük bir dükkan açtığı, daha sonra işlerini geliştirerek, günümüzde 16 ülkede şubeleri bulunan toplam 12 bin çalışanlı dev bir holding haline geldiği hatırlatıldı. Şahin’in, İstanbul’dayken aranarak Uyum Zirvesi’ne davet edildiği, gerçekten de hayat tecrübelerinin ve bilgi birikimlerinin çok fazla olduğu, ancak kisa süren zirvede kendisine söz hakkı verilmediği ifade edildi.

KÜÇÜK BİR KÖYDEN GELDİ

Bazı Türk kuruluşlarının Göç Yasası’ndaki yenilikleri protesto etmek amacıyla 2. Uyum Zirvesi’ne katılmama kararı almalarından sonra Şahin’in özellikle toplantıya davet edilerek multikültürel bir hava yaratılmaya çalışıldığı görüşüne yer verilen yazıda, "Şahin Almanya’da büyük bir şirket kurdu ve yüzünde muhteşem bir tebessüm taşıyor. O bir çeşit Süper Türk" denildi. Şahin’in, Taşlıpınar adlı küçük bir köyden geldiği ve çobanlık yaptığı, ancak okumaya hevesli olduğu için kendisini yetiştirerek, günümüzde görüşleri Başbakanlık’ta bile takdir bulan bir insan olduğu kaydedildi. AA