A fire at a factory in central Italy early Sunday killed at least seven Chinese workers and seriously injured two others, local media reported. The fire occurred at a garment plant in the suburbs of the city of Prato, just north of Florence in central Italy, where there is a large concentration of Chinese businesses which employ at least 30,000 workers, according to Rai state television. Seven people lost their lives while two others sustained serious burn injuries, ANSA news agency said.

Smoke rises from a building that houses apparel factories of Standard Group in Konabari, Gazipur, yesterday. Photo: Rashed Shumon Enraged by a rumour that police killed two factory staff, garment workers torched six units of an apparel maker of repute in Konabari of Gazipur early yesterday causing a massive damage worth hundreds of crore taka. Witnesses said in the wee hours of yesterday, some people announced through the horn speakers of a nearby mosque that police had killed two workers

Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) is set to halt gas supply to textile mills under its winter load management plan. PHOTO: FILE All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Punjab Chairman S M Tanveer has asked the government to bring an innovative solution than stopping gas supply to textile mills from next month. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Tanveer said the industry would refrain from holding strikes and rather prefer to negotiate with the government to come u

Textile mills in China have bought a total of 7.09 million tons of cotton from January to October this year, according to the latest report released by the China Cotton Association. Of the 7.09 million tons, 3.72 million tons of raw material came from the cotton sold from the reserves from the beginning of the year to the end of July, while another 3.37 million tons of cotton was imported from January to October, according to the report. At present, as former inventory and import quotas ha

The exports of readymade garments from Bangladesh rose by nearly 19 percent year-on-year in the July-October 2013 period, according to the data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). From July to October 2013, Bangladesh’s exported knitwear worth US$ 4.022 billion, showing an increase of 17.85 percent over exports of US$ 3.412 billion made during the corresponding period of last year. Similarly, the country exported woven garments worth US$ 3.864 billion during the four-month perio

Chinese Henan Sine in 2014-2016 will invest $80 million in the textile industry of Andijan region, the company acquired part of the assets of bankrupt Bobur JSC, representative of the State Joint Stock Company Uzbeklegprom said. In the first phase (2014) the investor will create capacity for production of cotton yarn in the amount of 10,000 tons per year, the second phase (2015-2016) - production of 36 million meters of cotton fabric annually. About 80% of production will be exported, the compan

Bangladesh is missing out on the opportunity to earn foreign currency from the export of diversified jute products, industry players said.India, on the other hand, is taking advantage of this opportunity by investing in new mills and research and development in line with global demand, they added. “A ban on the use of plastic bags in different countries — from the US to Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia — has opened new opportunities to export diversified jute products,” said Rashedul Karim

Despite a sizeable leather shoe exporting country, domestic producers still heavily depend on material imports as they fail to find out quality supplies in the nation. Lien Anh Co. Ltd. in Binh Duong Province has suffered a damage of US$100,000 for importing a batch of substandard leather. However, it still has to import another leather batch for production as domestic material supplies have poor quality. Depending on material imports is not a wise solution, so the enterprise has plans to

The European Union (EU) is hoping to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam as early as by late 2014, European Commission (EC) Vice President Antonio Tajani has said, according to a statement from the Vietnam’s Embassy in Belgium. Mr. Tajani said this during his meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Ha Noi earlier this month, the statement said. Mr. Dung said he was delighted at the developments in the bilateral ties between the EU and Vietnam, as the two-way tr

H&M, the world's second-largest retailer, said Monday it plans to pay 850,000 textile workers a living wage by 2018. Above, an H&M store in Germany. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg / October 1, 2013) Swedish clothing retailer H&M on Monday said it is developing a plan to ensure about 850,000 textile workers earn a "living wage" by 2018. Hennes & Mauritz, the world's second-largest clothing retailer, said it will begin its pay strategy with three factories -- two in Bangladesh an