In a meeting held recently with the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the textile industry had urged for a uniform GST rate for the entire sector. The textile industry is seeking a cut on goods and services tax (GST) from the GST Council meeting on Friday. At a recent meeting with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, it had urged a uniform GST rate for the entire industry. Currently, the cotton textile value chain — yarn, fabric, apparel, and others — attracts a uniform GST rate of five per cent. Purified terephthalic acid (PTA), the key input in making polyester yarn and fabric attracts 18 per cent. And, polyester yarn and fabric are taxed at 12 per cent and five per cent, respectively. “Because of the current inverted tax structure, the requirement of working capital for synthetic yarn goes up to the extent of six per cent due to higher GST incidence on raw material than finished products. Therefore, there is a need to rationalise GST across the value chain from PTA, yarn and fabric to five per cent. The cut in rate would enhance cash flow and reduce prices of synthetic yarn and fabric,” says Madhu Sudhan Bhageria, chairman, Filatex India. In cotton fabric, there is no such inverted duty structure. At the said meeting, the finance minister had assured a re-look on the matter. Polyester yarn is 78 per cent of the total volume of man-made fibres produced in India. Ujjwal Lahoti, chairman of The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, calls for a uniform five per cent of GST across the entire textile value chain. “While the cotton textile industry is enjoying five per cent GST, the same should be applicable for synthetic textile players as well. A uniform duty structure would help with long-term decision making on investment and competitiveness,” he said. An investment of Rs 1,000 crore in the polyester yarn sector can generate employment for 2,500 people, say companies. Global production of natural fibres was nearly 30.6 million tonnes in 2008 and is now 32 mn a year, a compounded annual growth rate of 0.5 per cent. Synthetic fibres have grown from 45 mn in 2008 to 79 mn currently, a compounded annula rise of 5.9 per cent in the past decade.
Source: Business Standard
State-owned lenders will hold meetings with Non-Banking Financing Companies--or shadow banks--and new retail customers in 200 districts till September 29 to explore giving credit. State-owned banks will not declare stressed small businesses as non-performing assets (NPAs) till March 31, 2020, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday, listing more measures to lift up the economy by ensuring credit. State-owned lenders will hold meetings with Non-Banking Financial Companies--or shadow banks--and new retail customers in 200 districts till September 29 to explore giving credit, she said at a press conference in Delhi.Sitharaman was speaking after holding a review meeting with public sector banks (PSBs) to discuss various issues, including follow up on transmission of monetary policy rates. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had earlier this month made it mandatory for banks to link all their fresh retail loans to an external benchmark effective October 1 and the central bank's repo rate being one such benchmark. Following the move, banks such as Punjab National Bank and Allahabad Bank announced linking their retail loans with the RBI's repo rate. Sitharaman said the RBI had also issued a circular that provides for stressed loan accounts of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) not being declared non-performing assets (NPAs). She said banks have been asked to follow that circular.
Source: Business Standard
Ahead of the festival season, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday opened the liquidity tap, directing banks and NBFCs to jointly hold public forums for distribution of loans to the credit-needy segments of the society. The effort is to push liquidity to those who are struggling to access funds while at the same time ensuring that the current regulations are complied with. Under the new mechanism, which will cover 400 districts in two phases, banks and NBFCs operating in the districts concerned will meet credit seekers at a common forum (shamiana-like meetings) for addressing their liquidity needs. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur will oversee this project. In the first phase, 200 districts will be covered between now and September 29. In the next phase, another 200 districts will be covered from October 10 to 15. Briefing reporters after a three-hour-long meeting with the top brass of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Sitharaman also advised the banks to ensure that none of the MSME stressed loan is declared an NPA and the MSMEs are made to avail the already available RBI dispensation for restructuring stressed assets. This arrangement will be available till March 31, 2020. Although the RBI has provided a scheme for restructuring of MSME advances, most of the entities are unaware of it. Sitharaman said that she has advised banks to ensure that MSMEs are educated about this facility. “No stressed asset in the MSME sector will be declared an NPA till March 31, 2020,”she said.
New target: Five-for-one
Sitharaman also said that she has advised the banks to get five ‘new to credit’ customers for every one old customer that the bank is currently servicing. When asked whether the five new customers should be from the retail or MSME segment, Sitharaman said they could be from both. Sitharaman also reviewed PSBs’ performance on the various initiatives announced earlier on credit growth, rate cut transmission, and amalgamation. Discussions on the performance of the banks were held with the focus on supporting credit needs of the economy, in particular, the needs of NBFCs, HFCs, and MSMEs, and enabling better access to cheaper credit. Later, a statement issued by the Finance Ministry said that to enable automatic transmission of externally benchmarked rates, 15 PSBs have already introduced repo rate-linked loan products for housing and vehicles, consumer credit, cash credit limits, and mortgage-based loans.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
A mutually acceptable “trade package” is expected to be signed between India and the United States (US) during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming trip to the US later this week. Modi will be visiting Houston, Texas, and New York as part of a six-day trip from September 21 to 27. Apart from a planned address to the United Nations, a resolution to pending trade issues is expected to be the high point in foreign policy goals, senior officials said. The package has been in the works for more than a year and trade officials have met as many as six times to try and hammer out a deal that provides an amicable solution to grouses from both sides. India is considering the dismantling of its current price cap regime for coronary stents with a trade margin policy. It may also allow lower duties on import of certain information and communication technologies products such as high-end mobile phone and smart watches from the US that may make iPhone products cheaper in the country, commerce department officials said. In return, the US would step back from its aggressive posturing on “reciprocal taxes” on Indian goods. Trump has repeatedly accused India of being a “high tariff nation”, referring to duties placed on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. “While the US would fall foul of the World Trade Organization norms if it imposes a ‘reciprocal tax’ against India, it would undo all the discussions so far. We would have to protect our exporters,” a senior official added. Also, since some of the proposals have met with significant opposition from the domestic industry, any possibility of reciprocal taxes on India would stop trade talks, another official added. Talks had run the risk of coming apart earlier this year, after the US had cut off India’s duty-free access to the American market under its largest preferential trade scheme, the Generalised System of Preferences. Subsequently, India had raised import duties on key high value products from the US, mostly apples and almonds. A promise to ramp up the purchase of crude oil from Texas, a key US demand, will be made by India. In 2017, India got its first consignment of crude oil from the US, 42 years after Washington DC stopped oil exports in 1975. Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum had placed orders for over 2 million barrels from the US, which was pegged to boost bilateral trade by $2 billion. Sources say the US had also asked India to confirm the current economic slowdown and the turmoil in the domestic aviation sector will not affect civilian aircraft purchases by India. Low-cost carrier SpiceJet itself has ordered 205 aircraft from US manufacturer Boeing. However, the government will not be focusing on the reinstatement of GSP benefits, which have lapsed and the government will not actively petition the US to change its position, a senior official said.
Source: Business Standard
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) cannot and ought not to be viewed in isolation. We are on the verge of experiencing tectonic shifts in global trade with the global tariff war already in its second year. The US has imposed tariffs on more than $350 billion of Chinese goods and China in turn has retaliated with levies on more than $100 billion of US products. News reports have emphasised on how the economic slowdown clubbed with the trade war are forcing Chinese authorities to offer huge subsidies to avoid a manufacturing exodus. Evidently, China desperately needs every possible inch of the RCEP market. This is good enough reason for Indian manufacturers to fret over Chinese “dumping”. Beyond jargons and legalese, the commerce ministry appears to have no answer about probable RCEP benefits to our exporters. The experts who are making intellectual choices about RCEP being the biggest game-changing trade reforms post 1991 are quietly glossing over the theorem that India will have an opportunity to be part of the global value chain only in theory. A major part of the reason appears to reside in the complex journey of Indian negotiations through the RCEP channels since 2013. The negotiators primarily gave in to China and the ASEAN viewing the RCEP as a bloc that fundamentally promotes duty-free Chinese imports to India. The global value chain makes no sense in the Indian context as we offer varied tariff concessions to different RCEP countries, because of which India will neither be a destination for intermediate manufacturing nor a consequent exporter of those products at a time when end to end manufacturing is not possible in any single nation. The dialogue on services got quietly buried in the RCEP backyard even before it could take off. The rules of origin negotiations, as detailed in the previous piece, having reached a point of no return, are against our national interest. To add to the ongoing plight, every piece of trade data is awfully discouraging and disappointing, in equal measure. In 2018-19, India has registered trade deficit with 11 RCEP countries, including China, South Korea and Australia. Certain think-tanks and consultants have been engaged by the government, according to news reports, to analyse and evaluate the long-term RCEP gains and losses. Strangely, these reports have not been made public even as the final rounds of RCEP dialogue are expected to commence shortly. V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, published a report which vehemently argues that “…opening our market to China can prove to be disastrous, given that proper standards and processes are not in place in India”. Intriguingly, this negative pronouncement on the RCEP, as close to being called official, carries a disclaimer that it does not represent the opinion of the institution, albeit being available on the website of the government’s premier policy think-tank. It is an undeniable fact that the RCEP will directly affect the indirect tax collections. At a time when GST, more than two years after introduction, is still “settling in”, this will not be good news, especially against the backdrop of a precarious economic slowdown. Furthermore, the government does not seem to have factored in compliance costs, resource diversion, administrative delays, dumping anxieties and the absence of existing standard procedures in India to deal with circumvention, post implementation of the RCEP. The US President recently threatened to pull out of the WTO agreement, something that does not appear to be political posturing against the backdrop of Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and renegotiating many other trade pacts. This is not surprising for a President who predicated his election campaign on defining American global interests almost purely in economic terms. India has a serious lesson to learn here. The Make in India initiative, launched by Prime Minister in 2014, states to be part of a wider set of nation-building initiatives devised to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub. Ironically, the comprehensive RCEP, which will be signed by PM Narendra Modi, without an iota of exaggeration, will aim to strike at the very heart of the Make in India. India’s foreign minister during a recent interaction with the media in Singapore was quoted as saying “The RCEP, at the end of the day, is an economic negotiation. It has a strategic implication but the merits have to be economic”. Unfortunately, the facts do not seem to suggest any economic advantage. Diplomacy around the world is being shaped by economic considerations and it would not be wrong to drive our foreign policy epicentred on ‘India first’ approach to trade. Is India ready for the RCEP now? The answer seems to be a resounding No.
Source: Money Control
He was not willing to comment about the potential real interest rate of India that the central bank should fixate upon as the MPC cannot pursue multiple targets. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said there was space for rate cuts even as the government had little room for any fiscal expansion and the inflation is well below the mandated level. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is due to announce its policy decision on October 4. Analysts expect 25-40 basis points cut in the policy. The governor, however, was not willing to comment about the potential real interest rate of India that the central bank should fixate upon as the MPC cannot pursue multiple targets. The governor’s statements, on the sidelines of the Bloomberg India Economic Forum on Thursday evening, are important as the government tries to shore up the economy through various measures, but falls short of the market expectations, which clamour for more substantial packages. Economic growth has fallen sharply, surprising observers. The six-year low growth rate of 5 per cent was a surprise even for Das. The RBI had predicted growth at 5.8 per cent. “Nobody predicted less than 5.5 per cent. The number came as a surprise, worse than all predictions,” said the governor in an interview to CNBC TV 18 earlier this week. “The policy objective of the MPC is to maintain price stability, keeping in mind the objective of growth. Today, when we see that price stability is maintained, and our inflation is well below 4 per cent and expected to be slow in the next 12-month horizon, there is room for a rate cut, especially when growth has slowed down,” said Das on Thursday. But the government might not be in a situation to give a fiscal push, the governor indicated. However, he said the decision on this would be taken by the monetary policy committee when they meet in October. “Within the policy framework the MPC will consider these aspects as well as several other factors including the assessment of growth and inflation projections. The final decision will be taken in the ensuing MPC meetings in October 2019,” Das said. “Government’s fiscal space itself is quite limited. The fiscal deficit is at 3.3 per cent (of the GDP). There is a lot of talk about public sector borrowings by the government so both put together there is very little fiscal space for the government,” Das said. Whatever measures announced by the government don’t upset the fiscal math, according to the RBI governor. “The government has remained prudent as they have not announced any counter-cyclical measures in terms of fiscal expansion. They have taken some administrative measure with regards to automobile, export, and banking sectors. And most of these don’t have a fiscal pressure,” Das said. In his speech, Das said rupee was fairly valued, even by standards laid out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which sees zero gap between the rupee’s exchange rate and the real effective exchange rate (REER, which measures the rupee’s relative strength against a basket of currencies). “India’s exchange rate regime is flexible and market-driven, with the exchange rate being determined by the forces of demand and supply. The RBI has no target or band for the level of the exchange rate. Interventions are intended to manage undue volatility,” Das said in his speech, even as he concluded that heightened volatility in the exchange rate in the past two years has been because of global spillovers. Bond yields have been going up too because of external factors, and the universe of negative yielding bonds is growing disconcertingly large, posing a potential threat to financial stability,” he said in his speech. The US Federal Reserve’s rate cut by 25 basis points would attract more capital in emerging markets such as India, even as the Saudi Arabia crisis would unlikely fan inflation in India, the governor said. But the volatile international crude prices continue to pose potential risks to the viability of the current account balance through trade and remittances channels. India’s macroeconomic fundamentals are strong, current account deficit is low, and the country is one of the least externally indebted countries in the world. The US-China trade war could be to the advantage of India. India’s demography would continue to favour the nation till 2055. “In this milieu, prudent external sector management with a close and continuous vigil on areas of external vulnerability assumes critical importance and will continue to receive RBI’s close attention,” he said. The outlook for India’s external sector is one of cautious optimism, albeit with some downside risks accentuated at this juncture. “Among them, deepening of the global slowdown and escalation of trade and geopolitical tensions appear to be the most significant,” Das said. “The search for new export markets and new niches must go on so as to reap the benefits of changing dynamics of global value chains. Indian IT companies need to accelerate market diversification and invest in new skills and technologies to hone their comparative advantage.” Remittances and non-resident deposits are likely to remain shock-absorbers over the medium term and need to be assiduously cultivated, including by ease of remitting and reducing transaction costs, Das said. “Ultimately, the strength of theexternal sector derives from domestic macro-fundamentals. Investors and markets need to be credibly assured of our ability to maintain macroeconomic and financial stability through continued focus on these areas,” Das said.
Source: Business Standard
Manufacturing sector investments declined 10.3% in 2017-18, sharper than the 2.7% fall registered in FY17, provisional data that the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) released on Wednesday showed. ASI, principal source of industrial statistics in India, is the most comprehensive data on organised manufacturing. Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), as measured by the survey was Rs 3.31 lakh crore in 2017-18, compared with Rs 3.69 crore in 2016-17. “This is no surprise. The investment rate has been falling as is shown in the national accounts,” said Pronab Sen, former chief statistician. While there was a 1.2% rise in the number of factories in 2017-18, the number of workers rose 4.8% to 12.2 million from 11.6 million in 2016-17. The survey was conducted during November 2018 to June 2019 through ASI Web Portal. The government was set a target of raising manufacturing share in GDP to 25% by FY22 from around 17% now through the ambitious ‘Make in India’ programme. The government was set a target of raising manufacturing share in GDP to 25% by FY22 from around 17% now through the ambitious ‘Make in India’ programme. According to the national accounts, GFCF for the same period for the entire economy rose to Rs 49 lakh crore in FY18 from Rs 43.3 lakh crore the year ago in terms of current prices. “It may be noted that this provisional data is subject to change in the process of finalization,” the ministry of statistics and programme implementation said in a statement. Workers include all persons employed directly or through any agency whether for wages or not and engaged in any manufacturing process or in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for manufacturing process or in any other kind of work incidental to or connected with the manufacturing process or the subject of the manufacturing process. The same data also showed that interest paid in 2017-18 declined 0.9% but rent payout rose 9.3%, a dampener on fresh investments. Total wages provided to factory workers rose to Rs 1.92 lakh crore from Rs 1.73 lakh crore in the previous fiscal. These factories’ profits saw an 8.5% on year increase to Rs 5.84 lakh crore from Rs 5.39 lakh crore. India’s economy grew 7.2% in 2017-18.
Source: Economic Times
|
Item |
Price |
Unit |
Fluctuation |
Date |
|
PSF |
1086.16 |
USD/Ton |
0.65% |
9/19/2019 |
|
VSF |
1502.29 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
ASF |
2164.57 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
Polyester POY |
1121.43 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
Nylon FDY |
2362.76 |
USD/Ton |
0.30% |
9/19/2019 |
|
40D Spandex |
4090.74 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
Nylon POY |
5332.07 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
Acrylic Top 3D |
1325.96 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
Polyester FDY |
2242.85 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
Nylon DTY |
2299.28 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
Viscose Long Filament |
1255.43 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
Polyester DTY |
2595.50 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
30S Spun Rayon Yarn |
2158.22 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
32S Polyester Yarn |
1671.56 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
45S T/C Yarn |
2419.18 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
40S Rayon Yarn |
2398.02 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
T/R Yarn 65/35 32S |
2045.37 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
45S Polyester Yarn |
1847.89 |
USD/Ton |
0.77% |
9/19/2019 |
|
T/C Yarn 65/35 32S |
2271.07 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
10S Denim Fabric |
1.25 |
USD/Meter |
-0.11% |
9/19/2019 |
|
32S Twill Fabric |
0.70 |
USD/Meter |
-0.40% |
9/19/2019 |
|
40S Combed Poplin |
0.97 |
USD/Meter |
-0.14% |
9/19/2019 |
|
30S Rayon Fabric |
0.57 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
|
45S T/C Fabric |
0.66 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
9/19/2019 |
Source: Global Textiles
Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.14106 USD dtd. 19/09/2019). The prices given above are as quoted from Global Textiles.com. SRTEPC is not responsible for the correctness of the same.
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia on Friday raised next year’s legal minimum wage for workers in its crucial textiles and footwear industry to $190 per month, an increase of 4.4%, amid pressure from the European Union over its human rights and political record, officials said. The garment industry is Cambodia’s largest employer, generating $7 billion for the economy each year. It faces uncertainty after the European Union (EU) in February began a process that could suspend the country’s special trade preferences. “The minimum wage for textile, garment and shoe workers for 2020 is set at $190 per month,” Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng said in a directive on Friday, adding that the new wage takes effect in January. Cambodia benefits from the EU’s “Everything But Arms” (EBA) trade program, which allows the world’s least-developed countries to export most goods to the EU free of duties. Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union Movement of Workers, said unions would accept the new hike, although it fell short of their $195 demand, after a representative vote. “Even though this figure is not what we wanted as our position, it is positive, as Cambodia is in the midst of uncertainties of the trade preferences,” Sina said. “If our wage goes higher than countries in the region, we will also suffer,” Sina said. The EU, which accounts for more than one-third of Cambodia’s exports, including garments, footwear and bicycles, in February began an 18-month consideration that could lead to the EBA suspension. The re-examination of the European preferences began after the arrest of opposition leader Kem Sokha and the dissolution of his party, leading to longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party’s holding all seats in parliament. Ken Loo, Secretary General at the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC), said employers accepted the new minimum wage but were concerned about rising pay. “We are always worried … we are always concerned about rising wages, but we also understand that we just have to go up in line with inflation and other factors,” Loo told Reuters on Friday. (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul. Editing by Kay Johnson and Gerry Doyle)
Source: Financial Post
Textile and garment enterprises consume a large amount of chemicals for their production activities. However, most have paid little attention to chemical management, leading to passive reactions when any incident occurs, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has said. The Việt Nam Textile and Garment Association estimates that as of 2017, the number of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises was about 7,000, with 2.7 million employees. Of which, 177 enterprises are specialised in dyeing and printing. The volume of chemicals consumed in the textile and garment industry reaches nine million tons per year. The chemicals include inorganic and organic substances such as acids, alkalis, solvents and various salts. However, the management of chemicals of enterprises has remained weak. Phan Quỳnh Chi, deputy general secretary of the Việt Nam Textile and Garment Association, said the majority of textile and garment enterprises were small and medium-sized, so they only focused on production activities and remained lacklustre in chemical management. Most were only interested in this critical task when a chemical-related incident happened, she said. Deputy director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences Nguyễn Thị Phương Mai said textile and garment are considered the second largest polluting industry, especially dyeing. The legal documents stipulated that textile and dyeing enterprises must be equipped with functional wastewater treatment systems, so wastewater must meet all the technical criteria set in legal regulations before being discharged into the environment. However, Mai said, very few companies have achieved that as most are small- and-medium-sized ones while the wastewater treatment systems must be modern and of large capacity to treat wastewater properly. Consequently, dyeing enterprises have been found to violate environmental regulations. Many have even violated regulations repeatedly and in the same manner. PangRim Neotex Company, in northern Phú Thọ Province, has been found discharging untreated wastewater into the Hồng (Red) River six times since 2010. Discharged wastewater contained excessive levels of pollutants such as ammonium nitrate, coliform and biochemical oxygen, which were between 6.9 and 24.7 times higher than permitted levels. The company was fined more than VNĐ456 million (US$19,608) and was demanded to install automatic wastewater monitoring systems and cameras to send data to the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment. However, the story did not end there. In early 2018, local people of Bến Gót Ward complained about the discharge of wastewater by the company and asked it to relocate. Mei Sheng Textiles Việt Nam Co, Ltd in the southern coastal province of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu has been forced to halt operations seven times for illegally discharging untreated wastewater into the Đá Đen River. The river was the main water supply for 90 per cent of local residents. The company was found to illegally use about 2,760cu.m of underground water and illegally build a dyeing factory with a capacity of 1,100 tonnes per year. Pacific Crystal Textiles Company in northern Hải Dương Province has been asked to suspend operations for three months and fined VNĐ672 million ($28,896) after being found to have continued discharging wastewater into the environment. The company was previously fined VNĐ340 million ($14,620) for the same act.
Production model changed
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said the textile and garment industry needed to change its growth model in a sustainable way. The use of recycled materials and safer chemicals for the production and the building of a response plan to chemical incidents must be a priority, it said.The ministry has worked with localities to build policies on preventing and controlling pollution such as making zones for the construction and operation of dyeing factories, monitoring wastewater discharged from these factories, inspecting the transport and storage of chemicals, and updating the wastewater criteria. The ministry has recently released a document on guidelines for chemical management for textile and garment enterprises in Việt Nam. It will help building and evaluating the prevention and response plan of chemical incidents, developing safer products, and enhancing the use of renewable materials, it said
Source: Vietnam News
Erez-USA has joined hands with Erez’s local North American partners Engineered Polymer Technologies. The two have together set up a joint venture - E²: A World of Possibilities. The new joint venture E², an EPT and Erez Company, will market and sell products manufactured in both the US and Israel under one marketing and logistics umbrella. “We believe that by combining the manufacturing capabilities and ingenuity of EPT and Erez, E² will allow us to go further and cover a wider spectrum of possibilities in coated textiles in the USA,” Erez said. Erez-USA was founded in 1989 as a subsidiary of Erez Israel, which includes a local sales team. In addition, Erez-USA has had its own US logistics facility and warehouse which is designed to shorten delivery times to customers. Engineered Polymer Technologies (EPT), founded in 1974, is a leading US manufacturer of supported and unsupported Polymer Film/Sheet and Coated Fabrics. EPT utilises the latest in polymer chemistry and textiles to provide customers with superior products and services. “Over the past two years, we have worked hard to develop our shared vision and strategic plan, which is built on trust, open communication, company synergy, and our common business interests and aspirations. This joint venture is meant to allow our two companies to focus on innovation in order to better serve our partners,” the company said.
Source: Fibre2Fashion
