Consolidated financial settlement for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2007.

<Komatsu Seiren improves their profits>

Komatsu Seiren, a major dyeing and finishing company in Japan, has turned around the performance of the whole group from the parent company to their overseas subsidiaries consolidated financial settlement for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2007. In spite of cost pressures due to soaring oil and raw material prices, they have improved their profits with development and promotion of new materials, improvement in commercial profit by favorable pricing, employing chemical substitution and innovation for finishing recipe.

The turnaround of the Suzhou factory in China seems to have contributed to their improvement in profits. As it turned out, consolidated net sales amounted to 9510m yen (a rise of 16.3 % on the same period last year), operating income amounted to 443m yen, ordinary profits to 532m yen (a rise of 6,996.4% on the same period last year) and quarterly net profits amounted to 336m yen (a rise of 1,618.6% on the same period last year).

<Soko Seiren marks lower profits on higher sales>

During the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2007, Soko Seiren enhanced the expansion of development for industrial material/general material products and high-value-added products with high functionality, putting efforts into enhancing and expanding the product development and sales force. They focused on each project such as energy savings, cost cutting and reducing production delays, as well as maintaining their quick delivery and high quality to improve competitiveness towards imported products. As a result, consolidated net sales for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2007 amounted to 2485m yen (a rise of 2.1 % on the same period last year), operating income amounted to 66m yen (down 49.4 % on the same period last year), ordinary profit to 101m yen (down 35.7% on the same period last year) and quarterly net profits amounted to 71m yen (down 32.4% on the same period last year).

AATCC will conduct “Textile Technician Certification Program”
in October in U.S.

AATCC will conduct the module of the Textile Technician Certification Program on October 17 and 18 at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina in the U.S. See the 30 August issue of Senshoku Keizai Shimbun for details.

Sperotto of Italy prepares for production in China.

Sperotto of Italy is currently preparing for production of selected textile processing machines in China, placing an emphasis on the Chinese market.

ACIMIT announces two directions for Italy’s textile machinery
by industry marketing research.

The Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT) has researched the future direction of production machinery for textile machinery manufacturers in Italy. Two directions were confirmed in the research. One is expanding machinery for technical textiles and the other for nonwoven fabrics.

Sakai Ovex opens second private brand retail store.

Sakai Ovex, a dyeing processing manufacturer, just opened a second retail store, "Private brand SHOP SAKAI OVEX," in Sabae, Fukui. They opened a formal wear shop "FunLemo" as their first retail shop last March, but they have had more and more items on sale and decided to open "Private brand SHOP SAKAI OVEX" next door with comprehensive displays. This doubles as a pilot shop.

Private brand SHOP SAKAI OVEX

Toyobo raises price of polyester nonwovens.