Marking the 15th anniversary of Global Love Day, a new apparel brand Love Equals has unveiled its first e-commerce site at http://www.LoveEquals.net and said that partial proceeds will benefit two national sports charities. Love Equals is inspired from the concept of “seva” in the Sikh religion, which refers to selfless service for altruistic purposes. “At Love Equals, our mission is to promote positivity and passion in life,” said company founder Sarbjit “Sab” Singh. “We strive to do that through the shirts we sell, the people we hire, and the companies and associations we partner with. Now more than ever, we need to celebrate what we love and extend that love to each other in a spirit of community and inclusion.” Love Equals produces high quality apparel that allows consumers to combine their sense of style with the things that they love the most. During its initial launch, Love Equals has showcased sports that people love to play and watch, including basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, and running. Countries that fans love to root for are also highlighted, including the US, France, Germany, South Korea, Senegal, and Brazil. Love Equals also announced that it will be donating 10 per cent of its sales to two nationwide non-profit leaders in youth development: Up2Us Sports and Good Sports. “While we are not a sports-exclusive brand, it does infuse much of what we are doing at the outset,” said Singh. “We have established strong relationships with Up2Us Sports and Good Sports, and love that we can celebrate their good works and contribute to their inspiring causes.”

FESPA’s Print Make Wear microfactory feature, to be held at FESPA Global Print Expo 2019 from May 14 to 17, will have products by 19 exhibitors. The products will be showcased within two separate tours, one focused on roll-to-roll technologies and the other on garment decoration. The technology demonstrations will be supported by talks and catwalks. The roll-to-roll tour will be split into two separate workflows, one on pigment printing and the other on dye-sublimation printing. The pigment printing workflow route will include design software from Adobe Creative Suite and EFI Fiery DesignPro with Adobe CS, fabrics provided by Premier Textiles, EFI Optitex pattern design and marker making, Pre-press production files from EFI Fiery, RIP and pigment printing inks from Mimaki, a Klieverik dryer, and cutting solution from Gemini The dye-sublimation printing workflow will include Adobe Creative Suite design software, fabrics provided by Premier Textiles, a selection of transfer paper from CANAPA, RIP and dye-sublimation inks from HP and Klieverik heat transfer machine. Gemini will supply its product design and decoration software, Gemini CAD pre-press production files and a cutting solution. Running alongside the roll-to-roll tour will be the garment decoration tour, which includes digital printing technologies as well as automatic and manual screen printing solutions. The exhibitors on the garment decoration tour will include Grafco colour separation technology and inks for the Vastex manual screen printing press, FairTrade fabric garments provided by Neutral, a Chiossi e Cavazzuti dryer, folding and packaging system by Thermotron, Easiway screen reclamation, an MHM automatic screen printing press, Magna Colours’ inks for the automatic screen printing press, a manual screen printing carousel from Vastex and a Vastex Little Red dryer. A Tesoma tunner dryer will be used for the automatic screen printing, and a Stahls heat press will be used for hot foil decoration. Print Make Wear will also feature daily ‘fireside chats’ where visitors can hear from experts on key industry topics including the Micro Factory and Customisation, moderated by Jenny Holloway from Fashion Capital and including speakers from EFI, Mimaki, HP and Gemini; Sustainability and Efficient Manufacturing, hosted by Elissa Decker of Moss, and Lars Bech, CEO of Neutral, featuring speakers from Premier Textiles and Magna Colours; Automating the production workflow, comprising speakers from Gemini, EFI and HP; and Designing for digital print and colour management, to include speakers from Adobe, AVA and EFI. Sustainability will be a key theme at FESPA 2019 this year and FESPA will champion a number of initiatives within the Print Make Wear feature to be more environmentally responsible. The garments used for the direct-to-garment textiles will be provided by Neutral, a market-leading producer of sustainable apparel and accessories to the B2B market, which use FairTrade cotton and have been awarded the EU Ecolabel for meeting high environmental standards. Water-based inks from Magna Colour will also be used on the automatic screen printing press. Graeme Richardson-Locke, technical support manager at FESPA, comments: “Over the years FESPA’s commitment to textile printing and garment decoration has developed and we’ve considerably expanded our visitor proposition in this area in line with growing industry demand. For Print Make Wear 2019 we have put together a programme that represents the different facets of the garment manufacturing community and are confident that this will help garment manufacturers understand the range of technologies at their disposal.”

Leather chemicals manufacturer Lanxess has claimed the distinction of becoming the first to achieve the Chem-MAP Multisite Award. Chem-MAP is a manufacturers’ restricted substance list verification system that secured approval from the ZDHC programme at the end of 2017. The system was developed Eurofins BLC Leather Technology Centre in partnership with UK-based consultancy Vert-Tex. The award is for companies aiming for ZDHC Level 3 conformance across multiple production sites. Manufacturers that complete two or more audits are entitled to receive award. Each production facility is awarded a grade using a credit based-system, ranging from ‘Grade A’ to ‘Grade D’ After the successful completion of on-site audits at its Leverkusen site in Germany (pictured) and its Changzhou in China, coupled with an MRSL testing programme, Lanxess has achieved ‘Advanced Status’ in the Chem-MAP Multisite Award and ZDHC Level 3 conformance of the chemicals manufactured at these production sites. Further audits at additional Lanxess manufacturing plants are planned for later in 2019.

Italian banks remain exposed to risks including slower economic growth and higher government bond yields, the nation’s central bank said. “Weaker growth and greater uncertainty are adversely affecting earnings’ expectations and are making it more difficult to access the capital market” for the lenders, the Bank of Italy said in its semi-annual Financial Stability Report on Friday. “Banks remain vulnerable to negative developments on the Italian government bond market.” The euro region’s third-biggest economy emerged in early 2019 from a two-quarter recession it slipped into in the second half of last year. Still, output is set to rise the least among all the currency bloc’s nations. An index for Italian bank stocks bounced 20% this year, after a 30% plunge in 2018 when bond yields soared to multi-year highs. “The slowdown in production halts the growth in high-quality loans and, if protracted, the reduction of non-performing loans,” after the disposals made in the last few years, the Rome-based Bank of Italy said. The economic slowdown limits the possibility of increasing interest income and, should it persist, may cause credit-risk costs to rise again, the central bank said. New increases in market volatility may lower subscriptions to asset management products and reduce fees, according to the report. The Italian banking system keeps strengthening. In the second half, capital ratios returned to growth, NPLs continue to decline and bond sales have resumed At the end of 2018, the stock of gross NPLs stood at €189bn ($211bn), or 27% less than at the end of 2017. The central bank expects that the ratio of net NPLs to total loans will fall to 3.9% by end of 2019 and to 3.1% in 2021 from 4.3% at end of 2018 Projections are based on the banks’ plan to cut their NPLs, but the ability to reach these goals may be hindered if the deterioration in the economic outlook. At the end of March, Italian government securities held by Italian banks amounted to €332bn, or 9.9% of total assets. Current account deposits are one of the most stable sources of funding for the banking system as a whole. Italian banks should encourage the growth in other forms of longer-term deposits as current accounts may be subject to short-term, sometimes broad, fluctuations at individual bank level. The European Central Bank’s new series of TLTRO-III announced in March will help banks to keep favourable lending conditions and manage the outstanding TLTRO-II operations that are set to mature starting in June 2020. The central bank’s financial-condition index, a measure of the “macroeconomic stress affecting the Italian economy,” rose last year in the run-up to the government formation and then during the months of its negotiation with EU on the 2019 budget. The “increase mostly reflected developments in the bond market and in the share prices of financial Corps.” Still, the index “remained below the levels reached during the global financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis.”

By sinking Donald Trump’s two latest Federal Reserve picks, Senate Republicans showed there are limits to their tolerance for the president’s unorthodox approach to filling top posts ahead of a critical stretch for the administration. While Republican senators aren’t in open rebellion against the leader of their party, they are urging him to modify his approach on nominations to avoid more messy embarrassments. They’re also engaging in a fresh challenge to his trade tariffs, imposed on allies and adversaries alike. In addition to the two still-open Fed seats, Trump has yet to announce nominees for other major open positions, including secretaries of Defence and Homeland Security. The White House has been sternly reminded that the president can’t count on Republicans to automatically usher his choices through Senate confirmation. “I think it’s pretty obvious that a little collaboration up front goes a long way,” said Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican. Trump dropped his choice of Stephen Moore for the Fed on Thursday as it became apparent the Heritage Foundation fellow and 2016 Trump campaign adviser lacked the votes to get confirmed. Less than two weeks earlier, the president shelved his plan to put former pizza company executive Herman Cainon the Fed amid cratering support. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a member of the GOP leadership, has been a rare senator up for re-election next year taking a lead role in pushing back against the president. She has urged him to swiftly end trade conflicts that have roiled the American farm country, and she publicly opposed the choice of Moore for the Fed following reports of his derogatory comments about women in past writings. Many other Republicans are also sending Trump the message that more vetting and consultation on nominations — and fewer tariffs — are better. “I’m sure that the White House had heard from a lot of us,” said Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, who earlier spoke of a “drip by drip” of negative revelations about Moore. Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, who said she privately conveyed her concerns about Moore to the White House, added that the lesson for the administration is “vetting” — and said there are plenty of qualified people out there for the job. It’s not clear that Trump has gotten the message. He hasn’t budged on tariffs even after Senate Finance chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa warned that the president’s free-trade agreement with Mexico and Canada won’t get through Congress unless he drops levies on those countries. To be sure, the rebukes from Republican senators have been mild, and the president’s grip on his party remains robust. GOP members have been unified in crediting Trump for the humming economy and are mostly in sync in praising Attorney General William Barr and his handling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Republicans tend to avoid taking on Trump directly, wary of the kind of retaliation that torpedoed former Senator Jeff Flake’s standing in the Arizona Republican Party before he retired. No one wants a Trump-backed primary challenger. The most vulnerable Republican senators in 2020 — such as Cory Gardner of Colorado, Martha McSally of Arizona and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — kept their distance from the Moore controversy before Trump announced that he was pulling out. “There’s no mileage in Republican senators picking public fights with President Trump, but they will continue to exert their own will privately and behind the scenes, just as they have done with the Federal Reserve nominees,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican consultant who has worked with a number of Republican senators. Still, a stream of recent curve balls from the president has Senate Republicans wincing, occasionally in public. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellpointedly chided Trump in April over a threat to close the southern US border, and for calling on GOP lawmakers to again try to overhaul Obamacare.

Trump backed off.

GOP senators, in trying to nudge the unpredictable chief executive, are publicly mentioning their one-on-one phone calls to jawbone him on his more controversial decisions. Top Republican senators have repeatedly urged the White House to vet candidates internally and with senators before floating them publicly. Moore’s columns, which he characterised as “spoofs” and assorted baggage had GOP senators scurrying from reporters to avoid having to defend or criticise the potential nominee. Most ducked having to comment on Moore and Cain by noting they hadn’t been formally nominated. Of the two Federal Reserve candidates, Cain got a more open drubbing, as old allegations of sexual harassment and infidelity resurfaced. He again denied the accusations, but four GOP senators said they would vote against him if he were nominated: Gardner, Murkowski, Mitt Romney of Utah and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. With Democrats warning Cain would get no backing from their side, the GOP defections were enough to doom his chances in a Senate controlled 53-47 by Republicans. Moore’s preemptive defeat came after just one GOP senator — Ernst — came out against him publicly. Yet many others withheld their support and some directly warned the White House of their views. Others sent strong signals. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, a top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, repeatedly told reporters on Tuesday that Moore was losing momentum and faced long odds in being confirmed. Tensions on nominations and trade have been part of the relationship between Trump and Senate Republicans from the beginning. Earlier picks by Trump imploded, including Andrew Puzder to head the Labour Department, Scott Garrettfor the Export-Import Bank and even some judicial nominations. And most Republican senators have been uncomfortable with the series of tariffs Trump has imposed on trading partners, though they’ve held off on direct action in hopes the president will be able to wrap up deals — and end the trade wars.

South Korea needs another economic overhaul like the one following the International Monetary Fund bailout in the late-1990s to stay competitive globally, according to a major global restructuring consulting firm. It’s as if Asia’s fourth-largest economy is being squeezed with a nutcracker, with China catching up to Korea and overtaking it in some sectors, while Japan is regaining its competitiveness as the economy recovers and it comes up with innovative technologies, said Yung Chung, Seoul-based managing director of AlixPartners LLP. Low productivity, high wages and overcapacity are hurting Korea’s corporate sector, he said “Korea needs to go through restructuring 2.0 – 1.0 was IMF,” Chung said in an interview. South Korea’s economic woes were highlighted in data last week that showed gross domestic product shrank the most in a decade due to declining investment, weakness in the technology sector and falling exports. Korea Inc’s troubles are also seen in a big increase in companies whose operating income doesn’t cover interest expenses, to the most since 2014, in spite of low interest rates, according to Korea Economic Research Institute data. “Korea must quickly eliminate the overcapacity and zombie companies that are critically burdening the economy,” Chung said. See also: auditors getting tougher in Korea may be a blessing for investors Aggressive restructuring that results in big job losses, though, might not be welcomed by President Moon Jae-in’s administration, which has pledged to deal with the nation’s high unemployment and dwindling household income. Moon has ramped up fiscal support for Korea’s economy, announcing an extra budget last month that added to a record budget already in place for 2019. The IMF’s bailout of Korea in 1997 forced the nation to open up more to foreign investment, cut government spending and make it easier to hire and fire workers. While the reforms helped make the country more competitive internationally, they sparked massive protests and a jump in unemployment. President Moon said in a 2017 speech that the aftereffects of the IMF rescue “have changed the lives of the people,” and that their “sense of pride in being a middle-class citizen has disappeared.” For Chung at AlixPartners, there’s still too much stigma attached to company restructuring in Korea, and more effective measures would help rejuvenate the corporate sector. Korea needs to push for increased private-sector participation in dealing with distressed assets and insolvencies, and should speed up bankruptcy proceedings, he said. In the US, companies emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcies in 6 months on average, whereas in South Korea they take 17 to 18 months, with less chance of success, he said. “In the US, restructuring is renewal,” said Chung. “In Korea, restructuring basically means you’re in final-stage cancer.” Automotive supply companies are faced with low margins that may leave them strapped for cash in an economic downturn, while the shipyard and consumer electronic sectors are challenged by rising overseas competition, according to Chung. Those and other sectors such as semiconductors, shipping and steel need to reduce overcapacity and invest for the future, he said.

Uganda is formulating a strategy to revamp its cotton, textiles and apparel (CTA) sector to tap into the global market and has identified the sector as a development priority, given its potential for foreign investment and jobs. The plans follow similar efforts to exploit the US African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), where Uganda’s earnings have been modest. The CTA sector ranks high among priorities under the third edition of the National Development Plan that is scheduled for launch later this year. Over the coming months, a comprehensive sector development strategy for the cotton value chain will be developed. Although AGOA offers a big opportunity, Uganda’s prospects have been hampered by a number of policy and market issues. Exports have been dominated by low volume products like handicrafts and interior décor, according to an Ugandan daily. According to figures shared by Msingi East Africa, a not-for-profit organisation that supports economic sectors with high potential to drive large-scale growth, during a recent Uganda CTA strategy development meeting organised by the National Planning Authority, the global apparel manufacturing market was worth $785.9 billion in 2018. But Uganda’s CTA earnings totalled just $22 million, with the European Union being the main destination. Lint dominated exports and only 12 per cent of the 37,000 tonnes of cotton lint that Uganda produced during the 2017-18 season was consumed in the domestic market. Msingi East Africa is optimistic that Uganda’s CTA goals are achievable because with a quarter a million growers and surplus ginning capacity, Uganda is capable of producing 185,000 tons of lint annually.