The July edition of Leather International magazine features the industry's leading guide to the latest leather chemicals introduced onto the market - What's New in Leather Chemicals 2008/09. The supplement is an excellent guide to the latest leather chemical advances and technology in the industry.
If you are a leather chemical producer and you would like to submit your latest leather chemicals for inclusion in this issue then please do the following:

Local co-operation has been helping Pittards' retail venture gather momentum. In something that is rather more glamorous than the 'Factory Shop' that the exterior signage claims, Pittards have remodelled a significant part of their reception and some ground floor office accommodation to create a suitable environment for the sale of finished leather products manufactured from many of the Company's own high quality leathers.

The International Union of Shoe Industry Technicians (UITIC) is organising the XVI International Footwear Congress from October 16-18, 2008, in Elche (Alicante) Spain. The Congress will focus on the advantages of technology in design, production and trading of footwear.

JBS-Swift & Co CEO Wesley Batista has told a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing that his company's proposed acquisitions of National Beef Packing Co and Smithfield Beef Group would not reduce market competition.

A new trade fair initiative in India to be launched by APLF Ltd, Footwear, Materials, Manufacturing & Technology (FMM&T), will take place in Delhi in the spring of 2009. This new trade fair will be organised in association with the Indian Footwear Components Manufacturers Association (IFCOMA), one of the leading trade associations servicing the US$5 billion Indian footwear industry, with the support of other relevant trade associations. 

More than 300 exibitors are expected at the next edition of Le Cuir A Paris to be held from September  23-26, 2008, in hall 4 of the Parc des Expositions de Paris Nord Villepinte. Among the new exhibitors, the Italian participation will be reinforced with 13 newcomers as well as the return, after a period of absence, of Conceria Incas and Italhide. There will also be first-time participation by JSC Vilniaus Kailai (Lithuania), Sri Sinn Fah Tannery (Thailand) and Tanneries Megisseries du Maghreb (Tunisia).

Effective July 1, 2008, the Leather business unit of the speciality chemicals group LANXESS will transfer their regional marketing headquarters in Asia from Hong Kong to Singapore, from where the relevant logistics processes for the Chinese market will also then be handled. This means that in future order handling and distribution of the Leather business unit for the entire Asia region will be controlled for the most part from the ‘hub of Asia'.

JBS SA have completed the acquisition of the Tasman Group, Australia. The $150 million deal makes Sao Paulo-based JBS responsible for 15,000 employees and owner of 15 production units in Australia.

A US Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, has announced a hearing on May 7 on the ‘Concentration in Agriculture and an Examination of the JBS/Swift Acquisitions'.

BASF have posted a further record quarter for the first three months of 2008. First-quarter sales rose by almost 9% to €15.9 billion, while income from operations (EBIT) before special items increased by more than 11% compared with the same period of 2007 to almost €2.4 billion.

April saw the Turkish leather industry converge on Istanbul for two separate fairs for the garments and footwear and leathergoods sectors.

Officials in the region of La Rioja have declared that in the liquidation process of the Yoma tannery, property belonging to the company will be sold off at auction. The auction, to be held on April 25, will involve thirteen lots previously Yoma property ranging in value from 48,000 pesos to 4,120,000 pesos, and located in La Rioja, Córdoba, Catamarca, Buenos Aires y La Pampa.

JBS SA have received approval from the Australian government to purchase multi-species processor Tasman Group. JBS plan to complete the $150 million deal on May 2 and integrate Tasman as a subsidiary of JBS-Swift & Co, Greeley, Colorado, who already own four beef processing plants and four cattle feedlots in Australia.

Stahl’s Colour Forecast for Autumn and Winter 2009/10 says that there is a taste for change. After several seasons of over-abundance, eccentricity and the triumph of artificial over the natural, there is a strong desire to return to a state of equilibrium. Is this a reflection of the current world economic climate? Has this resulted in a wish for fashion to take things steady rather than go overboard? Or is it simply a question of pausing for thought while we mix technical and traditional once more?

Cotance is stepping up actions in the defence of the leather sector's Intellectual Property Rights. A Newsflash has been up-loaded on the Euroleather site (COTANCE links up to the European Commission website) allowing real-time intelligence about counterfeit shipments to customs in the member states.

Japan has suspended beef imports from a National Beef Packing Co plant following the inclusion of one carton which contained a portion of vertebral column, a specified risk material prohibited by Japanese protocols.

Argentina has extended to March 31 its limits on beef exports, which were imposed by President Nestor Kirchner in March 2006 in an effort to safeguard domestic beef supplies at low prices and curb inflation. Buenos Aires will continue to limit exports to 40,000 metric tons of beef on the bone per month.

INESCOP have proven the viability of using DNA markers to protect footwear from piracy. As the image of Spanish footwear and its added value increases, so does the impulse to copy it, and it is increasingly important to ensure that the fakes can be distinguished from the originals. INESCOP, as part of a European project, have successfully completed trials of two innovative techniques in the fight against fakes.

Gerber Technology, a business unit of Gerber Scientific Inc of the USA, officially opened their Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 8, 2008, with a celebration that included over 150 guests, including representatives of media, government and customers, as well as local and overseas partners. Bui Xuan Khu, permanent vice minister of industry and trade, was chief guest at the opening ceremony together with Kenneth Fairfax, US Consul General, and Marc Giles, president and CEO of Gerber Scientific.

Massimo Donda, president of Italian Shoe Trade Federation Federcalzature inaugurated the Chinese Shoe Fair in Dongguan on Wednesday April 16.

Ion-mask, the revolutionary super-hydrophobic treatment from P2i Ltd, has attracted substantial investment from Unilever Ventures. The additional funding will allow P2i to accelerate the introduction of its ground-breaking technology across its chosen market segments.


For exactly 100 years Otto Dille have been dealing with the import and export of vegetable tanning agents and has developed into a trading company known far beyond Germany.

The China Leather Industry Association's (CLIA) Genuine Leather Mark (GLM) office will continue to implement its brand strategy in 2008 in order to boost the sector's image on the international market. Through certification of companies' excellent performance, Genuine Leather Mark and Eco-leather Mark are leading China's leather and leathergoods companies on the road to brand development.

South Korea has agreed to open its market to all US beef products from cattle of all ages, US trade representative Susan Schwab said in a statement. South Korea closed its market to US beef and beef products after a case of BSE was discovered in the US in December 2003. Prior to this time, South Korea was the third-largest export market for US beef and beef products.

Since July 1, 2007, what was formerly Cognis' Process Chemicals SBU has been trading under the name of Pulcra Chemicals, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Cognis group.

Returning to its traditional early date schedule, the forthcoming The WSA Show will be held under one roof at the Las Vegas Convention Centre (LVCC) on July 28-30, 2008, with the luxury/designer exhibition, The Collections at WSA, continuing for an extra day, July  28-31, 2008, within the suites of The Venetian. 

LANXESS are launching new products for leather retanning and finishing at FIMEC, April 8 to 11, in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil. The focus will be on innovative products and technologies for retanning and finishing.

Levotan X-Cel, the latest development in retanning, consists in an optimised polymer dispersion using innovative technology based on expandable microcapsules.

Clariant will be showing their spring and summer colours for 2009 at Guangzhou Shoes & Leather Fair, May 28-31. Their new collection of leathers, based on spring/summer 2009 colour and fashion trends, covers most types of leathers, including shoe upper, handbag, garment, sofa etc.

In order to provide customers with a better service, TFL Quinn India have established new technical service centres in Chennai, Kanpur, Kolkata and Vaniyambadi.

Soraco offer tannery machinery accessories made from a wide range of materials. Accessories are an important as the last link in a long chain which enable tanners to optimise quality, yield, production and costs.

The Asia Pacific Leather Fair appears to be evolving in those areas such as finished goods and substitute materials at the expense of the leather sector. This is still a respectable leather show, however, with 16% of exhibitors at MMT offering hides and skins, 45% semi-finished or finished leather, 3% process dyes and chemicals and 6% machinery.

Advantage Partners, an Asia-based private equity firm, have announced that the funds that it services have entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of GST AutoLeather Inc (GST), a leading global supplier of automotive leather, from SILLC Holdings. GST are a premier global provider of leather upholstery for automotive seating and trim and supplies many of the world's major automotive original equipment manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Volkswagen, SAIC, and Nanjing, among others.



The Best of APLF Awards symbolise excellence in design, quality and innovation, were once more a feature of the Asia Pacific Leather Fair held in Hong Kong. According to Perrine Ardouin, organiser, the winners of the materials and leather awards are put into contact with design schools such as BSLT in the UK and Thomas Bata University in Czech republic, thus helping to connect young design students with the industry.

The second Design-a-bag competition at APLF attracted some 200 entries from professional designers and design students. The competition is carried out entirely by email, meaning that students don’t have to finance and create a prototype of their design.
Prizes for the design-a-bag competition 2008 were presented by Jeffry Guthrie-Strachan of BSLT.

Dr Mark Wilkinson took the new Master of Leathersellers, Anthony Collinson, to Chengdu in April to learn about the developing relationship between the Sichuan University Leather School and the University of Northampton. 

IQTEX and BASF have jointly developed a unique, intelligent system which adapts shoes to suit weather conditions. To make this possible, IQTEX have processed a special superabsorbing fleece from BASF into an innovative ventilation element known as Vayu Verde.

According to Meatingplace.com, , a Justice Department official has said that the JBS purchase of two of their US competitors does not necessarily constitute a violation of the nation's antitrust laws.

Prime Tanning in Maine and Shanghai Richina Leather in China, announced a merger of the large tanning organizations during the APLF in Hong Kong on Monday. The press release issued by both company follows:

On April 2, VSP Corporation, organisers of the 6^th SLS Expo HCM 2008 (Saigon Leather & Shoe Fair and Exhibition) announced that the fair had been cancelled unexpectedly due to some external difficulties beyond their control.

The US Department of Agriculture have taken their National Animal Identification System (NAIS) one step further by announcing a draft business plan that shows how the NAIS will be integrated with other marketing programmes, such as the USDA Process Verified, the Quality Systems Assessment and the Non-Hormone Treated Cattle Programmes.

The next editions of Simac and Tanning Tech will take place from October 28-30, 2008, at the Bologna fairgrounds, Bologna, Italy.

The TFL Group will invest in a new Research and Application Centre on the premises of TFL France SAS.in Huningue.

Satra will be holding three seminars in China: Royal Lagoon Hotel Dongguan on June 23, Holiday Inn Zhuhai on June 25 and Yeohwa Hotel Quanzhou on June 27. The subjects are: Slip resistance - new international standards will be explained and guidance given on design. 

Some 14,557 visitors registered at the 21^st Modacalzado and Iberpiel, March 7-9, with 18% coming from overseas. The international footwear and leather fashion trade fair, which took place within a climate of moderate optimism, brought together the autumn-winter 2008/09 collections of some 540 exhibiting companies at this edition. Some 423 of these companies were Spanish and 117 were foreign.

Stahl are building an important extension of the International Leather Technical Centre at their headquarters in Waalwijk, the Netherlands. This investment in a laboratory extension is worth millions of euros and will enable a higher level of services to be provided to customers, including the possibility of developing new exclusive articles specific to their local needs to be formulated and applied under controlled conditions.