Kansai Fashion Association supports member companies' promotion of own brands and expansion into Asia

Mr. Takashi Onishi, chairman of KanFA

Three cooperative organizations in the Kansai apparel industry were merged to form the Cooperative Kansai Fashion Association (KanFA) and Mr. Takashi Onishi, CEO of clothing wholesale Onishi Group, was installed as the board chairman. The three organizations merged this time were Osaka Knit Wholesalers Cooperative (Osaka Knit Oroshi Kyodo Kumiai), Osaka Fabric Wholesalers Cooperative (Osaka Orimono Oroshi Kyodo Kumiai) and Osaka Apparel Cooperative (Osaka Apparel Kyodo Kumiai) whose members have decreased to 20%-40% of their peak because of a flood of cheap imports, and it is aiming to support enhancing product development capabilities through member companies cooperating regardless of whether items produced knits, Kimono fabric or ladies' wear.

At the press conference on April 5, the direction of the new organization was announced by Mr. Onishi, the board chairman of KanFA, saying, "90% of member companies are medium and small companies which cannot survive without changes. We would like to support them to promote their own brands. Support for members' overseas development is incorporated in our project." Currently, KanFA has 720 member companies whose total (not including the 7 major trading companies )sales amount to 3.10 trillion yen with 36,000 employees, and 90% being medium and small companies.

Increases in exports of Japanese black deepening agents for cotton to Egypt

A business firm in Osaka has concluded a large sales agreement for Japanese deepening agents for cotton (black dyeing) with firms in Egypt. This sales contract shows that there is a trend in Egypt to black deepening of cotton fabric rather than polyester.

Daikin Industries' air-dried and antifouling fluorine resin coating agent

Daikin Industries has developed an air-dried fluorine resin coating agent "Ftone AT-100" for surface functional material which has excellent antifouling properties as well as water/oil repellency characteristic of fluorine, and started full-scale promotion from the beginning of April.

"Ftone AT-100" can be used for various base materials such as plastic, metal and leather, with water mark, grease and stain resistant properties (Stay Clean) and a characteristic that dirt can be easily removed from the coated surface (Easy Clean).

Toyobo develops new cross-linked PGA with less degradation of water-absorbing property

Toyobo has successfully developed production technology for polyglutamic acid (L-PGA) consisting of only L-glutamine through microbial fermentation. Moreover, through joint research with assistant Prof. Ashiuchi from the Faculty of Agriculture of Kochi University, it has succeeded in establishing production technology to re-create cross-linked PGA (CL-PGA) efficiently which has the property to absorb water about four-thousand-times its own weight.

According to Toyobo, there has been a problem for conventional PGA that the moisturizing property is degraded by bodily fluids like perspiration as it is salt-susceptible, but this product has a tolerance for salt. While salt reduces the water-absorbing property of conventional PGA to nearly half, this product has the characteristic that its water-absorbing property is hardly degraded.

Komatsubara Iron Works obtains ISO14001

Komatsubara Iron Works (3-25, Chikko, Wakayama) has obtained ISO14001 certification, an international standard for environment management systems. The company is expanding its business to liquid crystal and rubber areas in parallel with its dyeing machinery business.

Seiren establishes mass-production plant for next-generation electromagnetic shielding material

Seiren will establish a mass-production plant "FM center" for film-based next-generation electromagnetic shielding material, and "LN center" as a mother plant with medium-mass-production facilities for development of new materials using as artificial, synthetic and real leather which have possibilities of new applications developed through fusion with VISCOTECS, in its Station For Life Science (48-113-2, Yonoudzu, Mikunicho, Sakai-shi, Fukui).

LANXESS increases prices for ion exchange resins

LANXESS of Germany announced that it had increased prices for its ion exchange resin products "Lewatit" and "Ionac" by 4 to 6% from April 1, 2007. The reason for the price rises is the continued very high cost of the raw materials and the increase in energy prices including transport costs because of the high-price of crude oil.