Business News

Fifth Edition to be Held from 2 – 3 September 2015 in Hong Kong Singapore – The fifth edition of Vitafoods Asia, the only event dedicated to the nutraceutical, functional food and beverages, and dietary supplement industries in Asia, returns to Hong Kong from 2 – 3 September 2015 at the AsiaWorld-Expo. Pre-registration is now open at www.vitafoodsasia.com/register, and entrance is free for industry professionals. The global nutraceutical market has to-date enjoyed steady growth for more than a decade, and factors widely recognised as drivers include an increasing consumer interest and awareness in diet-disease relationships, rising healthcare costs, and a growing ageing population. According to Euromonitor International, the retail value of fortified (or functional) food and beverages across Asia Pacific is expected to grow by 50.0% from 2014 – 2019, amounting to US$153.7 billion by the end of that period. Within the region, the top five performing markets are China, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Hong Kong respectively, with China accounting for nearly 60% of the territory’s total sales. Catering to the varied needs of manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, scientists, R&D personnel, and marketing professionals, Vitafoods Asia features over 170 international exhibiting companies, who will present their latest ingredients and raw materials to upwards of 3,000 visitors from across Asia. Mr Chris Lee, Portfolio Director, Vitafoods Events, said, “Building upon the success of our last event, the team is working to enhance some of the best-loved visitor attractions of the show, as well as introduce fresh elements that will improve the experience for exhibitors and visitors alike. Ultimately, we aim to create a platform that promotes knowledge-sharing and networking, both of which facilitate business deals for the industry.” A Showcase of the Finest & Hottest Innovations Since its inception, Vitafoods Asia has been lauded by industry experts as a professional and […]

The grand opening of the Konecranes Philippines office in May has brought Konecranes’ comprehensive range of overhead cranes, gantry cranes, jib cranes and electric and manual hoists to the country as well as its leading maintenance and inspection services. Konecranes will share the new premises in Carmona (approx. 45kms south of Manila) with its newly appointed dealer for port equipment, AsiaGlobal Technologies Inc. Konecranes port equipment includes stackers, container lift trucks and RTG cranes. “We are pleased to be able to offer an even better level of service and local support to the Philippines,” says Mr Raymond Dayleg, Country Manager, Konecranes Philippines. “AsiaGlobal Technologies is a reliable dealer and sharing the premises with them will foster good communication and greater service for our valued customers,” he said. “We’re also happy to provide our latest range of diagnostic and maintenance services, including our Crane Reliability Study and well as RopeQ and RailQ diagnostic services,” said Mr Dayleg, whose company is the leading crane maintenance organisation in the world, with approximately 450,000 makes and models of crane under service worldwide. Konecranes is the world’s largest supplier of lifting equipment for industrial purposes. Their products include the most significant innovations developed for overhead crane applications. This industry leading technology is based on their innovation power in mechanical and electrical design, and the application of the most modern industrial manufacturing technology. The reliability of Konecranes industrial cranes and other lifting equipment is both the result of experience and commitment to engineering excellence. Konecranes has gained an extensive and diverse global customer base in lifting businesses. General manufacturing represents the largest single customer segment. Konecranes is also dedicated to improving performance in all kinds of industries. They provide lifting solutions in ports, oil & gas, mining, automotive, warehousing, entertainment, energy, steel, petrochemicals, shipyards pulp & […]

TOKYO, May 14, 2015 – Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO) are setting up a new plant in India at MELCO subsidiary Mitsubishi Elevator India Private Limited (IMEC) to start manufacturing of elevators for the Indian market. The move is expected to enhance competitiveness in what is now considered to be the world’s second largest new elevator and escalator market and contribute to their target of achieving 5,000 units per year in sales in India by FY2020. The escalator and elevator market in India is growing rapidly in keeping with the country’s rapid economic growth. With demand reaching 47,000 units for newly constructed buildings in 2014, India is now the world’s second largest market for new escalators and elevators, following China, and demand is expected to see continued growth. MC’s elevator business in India dates back to 1995, when it started to support a local sales agent. In 2012, MC and MELCO established an elevator distribution joint venture company in Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu in order to strengthen its business base for sales, installation and maintenance. The joint venture has been expanding its business with the introduction the “NEXIEZ-LITE”, a new product developed for low- and mid-rise buildings. The establishment of this new production plant in Bengaluru, in Southern of India, which is home to a number of IT companies, will not only enable IMEC to localize the manufacture of elevator products, particularly the NEXIEZ-LITE, but will also serve to strengthen the competitiveness of MELCO products in terms of price and lead time. It will also contribute to business expansion, based on a streamlined structure for production, sales, installment and maintenance. IMEC is also planning to construct 41-meter high elevator test tower and a field training center for installment and maintenance in an effort to […]

Cannex & Fillex Asia-Pacific, the biggest-ever international canmaking and filling technology show held in Asia opens in China next month. From 1-4 June 2015, will be a showcase for transformational metal packaging. Already one of the most intensive of manufacturing processes, canmaking lines are capable of outputs of up to four million cans a day. The industry is also becoming more flexible, allowing it to respond to brand owners’ requests for wider ranges of shapes and sizes. British canmaking equipment manufacturer CMB Engineering will be using Cannex & Fillex to launch a new range of machines that are programmable at the touch of a screen to work with different configurations, thereby increasing productivity, and allowing users to more readily meet changing demands.Cannex PIC Organised by SPG Events and backed by The Canmaker magazine, Cannex & Fillex is specifically targeted at can manufacturers and fillers. Visitors will be able to see the latest technologies and services that support a global business which produces almost 500 billion cans a year for customers in the beverage, food, personal care and industrial sectors. The success of Cannex & Fillex reflects a developing market in China for metal packaging of all kinds. One of the fastest-growing domestic canmakers is ORG Packaging founded just 20 years ago. Now active in all sectors, its latest venture embraces cans with film-laminated coatings. ORG’s world-class technology, which one of its subsidiaries will be showing at Cannex & Fillex, promises manufacturing with a lower environmental impact. In an address to The Canmaker Summit last year, ORG director Chris Zhou provided a detailed analysis of how the various sectors of the Chinese canmaking market compare with others around the world. He explained how metal packaging has a smaller share of China’s food packaging markets, showing that there is considerable room for […]

Kemira has completed the acquisition of AkzoNobel paper chemicals business announced on July 8, 2014.  The value of the transaction is EUR 153 million and it will become cash-effective in the second quarter of 2015. The acquired business is expected to increase revenue by more than EUR 200 million on an annualised basis as of the completion date. As communicated earlier, six of the AkzoNobel paper chemicals manufacturing sites and approximately 350 employees will be transferred to Kemira. Kemira will also increase the production capacity of its own paper chemical manufacturing sites in order to realise expected production synergies. The integration period of the transaction is expected to last approximately two years and result in EUR 15 million net synergies on an annualized basis. The production sites to be transferred to Kemira are located in South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Spain and Italy. “This acquisition strengthens our market position, especially in the growing APAC region. It also enables substantial efficiency improvements in our global paper chemicals manufacturing network. Most importantly, we gain new competencies and technological capabilities through 350 paper chemical experts and six manufacturing facilities — extending our ability to deliver best in business expertise and services to our customers. I want to warmly welcome all the new employees to Kemira, now the only pulp and paper chemistry provider with a truly global reach,” says Jari Rosendal, Kemira’s President and CEO.

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt is a non-fiction book by the American writer Michael Lewis published by W. W. Norton & Company on March 31, 2014. The book focuses on the rise of high-frequency trading (HFT) in the US equity market. Lewis states that “The market is rigged” by HFT traders who front run orders placed by investors. The book remained on the first place of The New York Times Best Seller list for four consecutive weeks. The book centers on several people, including Sergey Aleynikov, a one-time programmer for Goldman Sachs, and Bradley Katsuyama, the founder of IEX, the Investors’ Exchange. Flash Boys starts out describing the new construction of Spread Networks’ secretive 827-mile cable running through mountains and under rivers from Chicago to New Jersey that would reduce the journey of data from 17 to 13 milliseconds. The speed of data becomes a major theme in the book; the faster the data travels, the better the price of the trade. Lewis claims access to this fiber optic cable, as well as other technologies, presents an opportunity for the market to be controlled even more by the big Wall Street banks. To counter this disadvantage to investors, Katsuyama bands together a team that sets out to develop a new exchange, called IEX, to make the playing field for trading fairer. The book takes a look at how electronic trading replaced the trading floor of screaming brokers, slamming telephones and hysteria-inducing ticker tape, and how that change impacted the market. The book concludes by observing that there is now a conventional (microwave) link between Chicago and New Jersey, which follows an even straighter route than the Spread Networks’ 827-mile cable (as microwaves always follow a direct path, whereas cables, by their very nature, must, at least occasionally, detour around […]

10th Anniversary, A Decade of the Highest Quality  On March 17-19, 2015, LASER World of PHOTONICS CHINA celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. This year, the trade show again attracted leading exhibitors from around the globe to show their latest technologies and innovations. LASER World of PHOTONICS CHINA continued its successful growth in all aspects: A total of 715 companies from 20 countries exhibited on an exhibition area of 36,960 square meters. In the three days, 40,291 industry professionals visited the trade fair. Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, Deputy CEO of Messe München International, responsible for the LASER World of PHOTONICS international network, praised the achievements of the Chinese platform: “LASER World of PHOTONICS CHINA has successfully developed into one of the most important trade fairs in Asia for both international and Chinese companies.” This year, many domestic enterprises were present: in addition to traditional giants such as Han’s and HG, they included Focuslight, Huaray, Raycus, Max, Delphi, Golden Laser and Huineng. According to Pfeiffer, another key factor is the strong presence of foreign companies: “The 22 percent increase in international exhibitors in the anniversary year 2015 demonstrates the high interest of international laser and photonics manufacturers in the Chinese market.”  PHOTONICS CONGRESS and supporting program well received by attendees and speakers The PHOTONICS CONGRESS CHINA held concurrently with the trade show was highly accredited by the participants for its quality and international environment. It covered a wide range of hot topics, for example laser processing, advanced lasers, optics, IR imaging, laser safety and light beam analysis, as well as the latest findings in these areas. Under the umbrella of the PHOTONICS CONGRESS CHINA, the 10th International Laser Processing and Systems Conference (LPC 2015) highlighted the topic of Industry 4.0. LASER World of PHOTONICS CHINA 2015 played […]