Govt invests in Jute parks in WB
   Kolkata July 04, 2008: Altogether 48 small units were set up in four industrial estates in West Bengal at an investment of Rs 12.85 crore between 2003 and January  2008, and 25 industrial estates are at various stages of construction in the state. 
   A big industrial estate is coming up at Ambari-Falakata in Jalpaiguri district, a jute park at Cooch Behar and and another planned at Raigunj in North Dinajpur. The government has also planned two more omnibus industrial estates at Salbani and Jhargram in West Midnapore districts, he said, adding that another would be built in the land of a closed factory at Barrackpur in North 24 Parganas. The state government has increased the plan outlay for the cottage and small scale industry to Rs 116 crore from Rs 52 crore. -PTI

  Craft from Jute rope
  Kuala Lumpur, July 2, 2008: Claiming to be the first in the country to make craft from jute rope, Azhar 
Tajudin of Ferro Vase Enterprise had developed an interest in jute rope craft after noticing swings made from the fibre during a business assignment in Brisbane, Australia.
  Azhar, a computer science graduate, had been working in the banking industry for seven years before he decided to quit his job to venture into making jute-based craft from home. In 2000, he opened a shop when business flourished. The small shop in Kuala Selangor belies the rich variety of craft, such as 
baskets, mirror frames, clocks and small trinkets, that are found within. All are made from jute rope imported from the Philippines.
   Raw jute crop for 2008/09 is expected to be lower
   Kolkata, June 30, 2008: The size of the raw jute crop for 2008/09 is expected to be substantially lower at 7.5 million bales compared to the 12.6 million in 2007/08, due to floods in several jute growing areas and a lower acreage under jute cultivation.
  All-India jute workers’ body to be formed in Kolkata 
  Vizianagaram, June 23, 2008: The Indian Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) is forming an All-India Federation of Jute Workers’ Unions in Kolkata on July 6, said Paltu Sen, national president of the union. He was addressing the first State-level convention of jute workers organised by the State committee of the IFTU here on Sunday, as a prelude to the formation of the federation in Kolkata. 
  Sen said a multi-tier wage system is in vogue in the labour-intensive jute industry, with hardly 30-35 per cent of the workers in the permanent category and the rest being contract or casual labourers under different names such as badili workers, voucher workers and others. The managements are resorting to unfair practices and wage-cuts have become the order of the day in the past decade, he alleged. Sen also found fault with the major national trade unions – INTUC, CITU, AITUC and BMS – for "betraying the cause of jute workers” and said the IFTU was striving to protect the interests of workers. However, he said, in spite of these differences, IFTU would try to bring different unions under one umbrella at the Kolkata convention for achieving common goals. 
  B Pradeep, General Secretary of IFTU, said there was no wage board for jute workers in Andhra Pradesh and IFTU had been seeking the formation of one for a long time. “There is a wage board in West Bengal and of course there are wage anomalies, but at least there is some order. The AP Government should also constitute a wage board,” he demanded. 
  He said that of the 94 jute mills in the country 84 were located in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh and “in both these States, the wages of jute workers are under relentless assault. As the inflation soars to 11 per cent, the jute workers are not even getting a subsistence wage. Ironically, they are asked by the managements to agree voluntarily for wage-cuts.” 
Source: Sify 
  Jute parks on their way!
  Hyderabad, Jun 11, 2008: National Centre for Jute Diversification (NCJD), the implementing agency for the scheme for jute park for the diversified sector (JPDS) introduced by the ministry of textiles, government of India, has set the stage for setting up of jute parks across the country. The agency is in the process of appointing a project consultant who would help in faster implementation of the scheme. 
  JPDS, was introduced under the mini mission IV of the ongoing jute technology mission (JTM). The aim of the scheme is to attract entrepreneurs and units investing in new small jute mills with a view to generate employment and upgrade technology, to optimise exports based on value addition. Through the scheme, the ministry wanted to create jute parks on public-private partnerships (PPP) model at potential growth centres by 2010-11. The government has also earmarked Rs 60 crore under the JTM for the development of jute parks. According to available information, the mandate of the project consultant would primarily be identifying suitable locations for setting up of the parks in the country. 
Source: FinancialExpress

   Aekta is now Ludlow Jute & Specialities 
  Kolkata, June 03, 2008:Aekta, a manufacturer of jute fabrics and yarns, announced the change in the name of the company from `Aekta ` to `Ludlow Jute & Specialities ` with effect from the May 22, 2008.
The company has received certificate of incorporation consequent upon change of name dated May 22, 2008 from the Office of the Registrar of Companies, West Bengal. 
  Shares of the company gained Rs 0.55, or 2.86%, to settle at Rs 19.75. The total volume of shares traded was 2,276 at the BSE. 
Source: IRIS  
  Futures contracts in Jute, metals,menthol 
  Ahmedabad, May 31, 2008: The National Multi-Commodity Exchange (NMCE) has launched new series for futures contract in non-ferrous metals, menthol crystal and raw jute. All the new contracts will be 
available for trading on NMCE e-platforms from Monday 2 June , 2008
  Ban on futures trading in raw jute urged
  Kolkata, May 26, 2008: In view of the rising prices of raw jute, the Indian Jute Mills Association has urged the Textiles Ministry to exempt raw jute from speculative futures trading. In a letter to the Textiles Ministry, Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA) Chairman Sanjay Kajaria said that futures trading in raw jute till 2004-05 had not created any impediment since the volume of trade was negligible. 
  However, with several commodity exchanges like National Multi-Commodity Exchange and Multi Commodity Exchange entering into futures trading in raw jute, its prices has risen to high levels and availability has decreased in the market. During 2008-09, there was sudden escalation in the prices of raw jute by around Rs 210 per quintal during the months of March and April, the reasons of which were unknown. IJMA said that the price rise had arisen due to "illegal hoarding by traders involved in futures trade". Kajaria said in the letter that futures trade in raw jute had done more harm than good to the jute industry, which was still a big employer. IJMA feared that if the price of raw jute escalated further, then it would have an adverse effect on sale of jute goods.
Source: The Economic Times, Kolkata
  Spinneys offers jute bags to reduce use of plastic
  Dubai, May 25, 2008: One of the UAE's most popular supermarkets has started selling reusable jute bags. Spinneys, which has around 30 branches across the country, has reached an agreement with 
Dubai-based supplier Enthusiasm as part of its commitment to reduce plastic bag usage. 
  Enthusiasm has been operating in Dubai for 11 years and supplies several of the city's major retailers including Carrefour, Hyperpanda and Geant. This comes as Gulf News's campaign Say No to Plastic Bags has gained momentum, prompting a broader Go Green campaign. Jute is a soft vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads and is 100 per cent biodegradable. 
Source: Gulfnews 
  Bajoria Jute mills put up for sale 
   Kolkata, May 21, 2008: Jute baron Arun Kumar Bajoria’s daughters have put five of their 10 jute mills on the block, according to brokers familiar with the proposed sale. The five mills put together account for about 10% of the total jute production in the country, according to Sanjay Kajaria, president of Indian Jute Mills Association, an industry lobby. Three of the mills being sold are in Andhra Pradesh. The other two—Waverly and Gondalpara— are in West Bengal. 
   Bajoria, who built his jute business through a raft of acquisitions, died on 28 March leaving behind an estate valued at thousands of crores of rupees. It includes real estate across the country, investment in shares of listed firms and 10 jute mills. These are now being managed by his four daughters.
  IJMA urges strategic grain reserve under JPMA
  Kolkata, May 19, 2008: Concerned over the Union government’s strategic foodgrain reserve under FCI and its decision to exempt such reserve from the purview of mandatory Jute Packaging Materials Act, 1987 (JPMA), Indian jute industry has strongly urged Union textile secretary AK Singh to take necessary steps so that the government may reconsider its decision in the interest of domestic jute sector.
  In a recent letter to the Union textile secretary, the chairman of Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA) has pleaded for reconsideration of the official decision as utility and hygienic character of jute bags are traditionally proved and this passed the test of time for long storage. Even the IJMA chairman has suggested to him that if the situation so warrants, the authorities may select jute mills based on their past performances for supply of jute bags to be used for packing foodgrain for strategic reserve. 
 Source: The Economic Times, Kolkata
 Union lynches jute manager 
  Kolkata, May 15: Suspected members of a Naxalite-affiliated union barged into the office of the personnel manager of a jute mill and battered him to death after a meeting they were holding was disrupted. A bleeding Apurba Roychowdhury, 55, of Titagarh Jute Mill on the city’s northern fringes, was declared dead on arrival in hospital. His wife and daughter live in Behala.
  Around 6.30pm, about 100 members of the Naxalite-affiliated Sangrami Mazdoor Union had been holding a gate meeting at the factory to press for better wages and work conditions. The mill has nearly 2,000 workers on its rolls. According to members of the union, about a dozen men, their faces covered with black cloth, suddenly turned up, broke the mike and tore the wires before fleeing. The union saw this as a “plot” by the management to disrupt their meeting with the help of Citu, the main union. Furious, they marched to the personnel manager’s office, armed with sticks and iron rods, and stormed in, taking Roychowdhury by surprise. 
  “Union members accused Roychowdhury of disrupting their meeting. An argument followed and some of the workers started beating him up with the sticks and iron rods. As Roychowdhury slumped on the floor bleeding, others smashed the furniture and snapped telephone wires. The mayhem continued for about 
half an hour,” an official of Khardah police station said. “We resorted to a lathi charge to disperse the union members. Then some of us took Roychowdhury, who lay unconscious in a pool of blood, to the nearby B.N. Bose Hospital.”
 Source:THE TELEGRAPH 
  Jute mills seek funds for modernisation
  KOLKATA, May 8, 2008: Although modernisation is essential for both survival and revival of the jute industry, mills find it an uphill job because of the high capital investments required. A 50,000 tons a year production unit requires an investment of around Rs 10 crore and modernisation, being a continuous process based on latest R&D outcomes, demands allocation of Rs 2 crore per year. 
  The Jute Technology Mission provides 20 per cent capital subsidy for investment in modernisation. However, if the objective of modernisation is going to be achieved, the present cap on subsidy of Rs 75 lakh needs to be raised to Rs 2 crore, says Mr Sanjay Kajaria, chairman of the Indian Jute Mills Association. 
  Mr DC Baheti, executive director of Gloster Jute Mills Ltd supports this view. "The subsidy provided is peanuts compared to what is actually required for the modernisation", he said. "Besides, it takes months to get the release of the funds", he adds. He points out that the technicalities involved in the scheme were also not conducive to modernisation. Under the machine modernisation scheme, the jute mills were to be supplied equipment only by specific machine manufacturers. 
  However, the machines were not always readily available. Mr BC Jain, managing director of Kanknarrah Jute Company Ltd, says: "Sometimes it happens that when we want the machines, the supplier does not 
have them or is too busy. Then there are times when the supplier has the machines, but we do not have the funds." The manufacturing costs had to decrease for the jute mills to survive, and modernisation of 
the production lines was an essential cost cutting measure. However, the quality of the machines for modernisation were not up to the mark, he added. 
  Mr Kajaria felt new technology and not just new machinery had to be introduced to make the industry more competitive. "Other yarns, both synthetic and natural, are processed in a modern way that is cheaper, faster, more efficient and more uniform in terms of quality," he said. The new machinery presently available is an improvement over the existing machinery used in the industry but it does not allow jute as a fibre to be competitive against other materials, he added. He pointed out that indigenous development of technology had virtually come to a standstill since Independence. 
  Mr Manish Poddar, chairman of Budge Budge Company Ltd feels the scheme should be modified keeping in mind the inherent characteristics of the jute industry. "Look at the process from the industry’s point of view. There should not be any such cap," he said.
Source: The Statesman 
  Exempt jute from futures trading, says IJMA 
  Kolkata, May 5, 2008: The Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA) has urged the Centre to exempt raw jute from futures trading. The IJMA has contended that futures trading in raw jute has done “more harm than good” as “unbridled speculation” has resulted in rigging the price of the commodity in the market. The IJMA has urged the Union Ministry of Textiles to take up the matter with the Department of Consumer Affairs under the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and urge the latter to 
instruct the Forward Markets Commission (under which trading in futures is conducted by various exchanges) to ban futures trading in raw jute.
  In a letter addressed to the Secretary in the Union Ministry of Textiles, the Chairman of IJMA, Mr Sanjay Kajaria, stated the Centre had imposed a ban on futures trading in raw jute in 2005-06. However, with the 
commencement of futures trading in raw jute by MCX from July 31, 2007, prices of raw jute rose to unprecedented levels “mainly due to speculative activities, unrelated to the demand-supply scenario”.
 Jute product output drops by 5,000 tonne 
 Bhubaneswar, March 15: Production and stock of jute products across the country have fallen in January 2008 by 5,000 tonnes compared with those in December 2007, according to the latest figures furnished by the Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA). This has raised the fears of an increase in imports and rise in prices during the coming months. 
 While production has come down from 141,000 tonnes in December 2007 to 136,000 tonnes in January 2008, stocks have fallen by about 17,600 tonnes to 64,900 tonnes, ushering in problems for the domestic jute industry. Exports have also dwindled to a large extent coming down from 17,000 tonnes in December 2007 to 14,500 tonnes in January 2008. The biggest loss is on the hessian and sacking front, where exports have come down from 5,900 tonnes in December 2007 to 5,000 tonnes in January 2008. Sacking went down from 2,600 tonne to 1,300 tonne during the period. 
 According to IJMA chairman Sanjay Kajaria, “Demand for domestic jute products in the country is increasingly falling because of imports. Duty-free cheaper jute materials from Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia and China are flooding the Indian market, eating into the domestic industry. We apprehend a 100 per cent increase in imports during the coming year.” The country imported around 55,000 tonnes of jute products in 2007. The raw jute position, however, remained stable despite imports from Bangladesh. The opening stock in January 2008 was 1.3 million bales (1 bale = 180 kgs) and the closing stock was 1.2 million bales. Consumption during January was 780,000 bales and deliveries were around 705,000 bales during the month. 
 Source: Business Standard, 
 New textile policy framed
 KOLKATA, March 14, 2008: The state micro, small-scale enterprise and textiles minister, Mr Manab Mukherjee today told the Assembly that a new textile policy had been drafted in the state to give a boost to the textile sector and generate employment opportunities. The minister said 43 companies opened offices here and four industrial hub had been established so far. The minister also said the a target had been set to generate 10 lakh employment opportunities in the new policy. 
  This apart, the new policy looks at setting up 50 textile clusters and five textile parks in the state by 2012. Also, about 10,000 handloom-based self-help groups would also be formed over the period. The department would try to promote Bengal’s own Tangail and Shantipur brands in the national as well as international markets. Not only handloom, the state would lay stress on the powerloom sector as well. The minister said a target had been set to establish 20,000 powerlooms in the state by 2012. The total powerloom produce in the state is six crore metres. 
  Replying to another question, the minister said that his department had plans to promote jute based industries. He said three jute parks will be set up in Cooch Behar and Murshidabad where diversified jute 
product industries would be set up. 
Source: Statesman

 Eco-friendly footwear components  
 KOLKATA, March 11, 2008:  APL Polyfab, a Kolkata-based footwear component producer has developed specially fabricated jute boards for making those components. The new raw material for footwear components is to be marketed by the company under the brand name Renotex. 
  With the demand for eco-friendly footwear going up world-wide, APL Polyfab has decided to stay focused on the world market while selling the novelty product. In sync with the marketing strategy, it has recently signed an agreement with UK-based Texon International to access markets of US and Europe for the Renotex branded jute board. Texon International, with a turnover of Rs 600 crore, is one of the world’s leading global footwear component producers. 
Source: Economic Times