All Trade & Sourcing articles – Page 2

  • News briefs

    Shipping giant sees tight market conditions until Q4

    28 April 2021

    The world’s largest container shipping company Maersk expects tight market conditions in maritime transport to continue until the fourth quarter of 2021. When commenting on its trading performance, the company said that “the continued strong performance is mainly driven by the continuation of the exceptional market situation with surging demand ...

  • News briefs

    Eastman to build world-scale polyester recycling plant

    3 February 2021

    Eastman Chemical Company has announced that it will invest around $250 million over the next two years to build “one of the world’s largest plastic-to-plastic molecular recycling facilities.” The plant will be located at Eastman’s site in Kingsport, Tennessee, where the company is headquartered. Through methanolysis, this facility will convert ...

  • Brexit 2
    Article

    EU, UK extend Brexit trade talks in effort to avoid a “no deal”

    14 December 2020

    The United Kingdom and the European Union had decided to wait until Sunday, Dec. 13 to find a compromise on a trade agreement that would go into effect on Jan. 1. But, the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the negotiators will now continue to work into this ...

  • Article

    The U.K. reaches trade accord with Vietnam, but deal with EU unlikely

    11 December 2020

    The U.K. has finalized a free trade agreement with Vietnam, which is scheduled to become effective from Jan. 1. It is the third trade agreement reached with an Asian country, after those with Singapore and Japan. The U.K. has also reached a preliminary trade agreement with Canada. The U.K. is ...

  • Techvision photo
    Article

    TechVision looks to expand one-stop components shop

    7 December 2020

    TechVision, an Italian holding company owning companies producing metal components and providing surface finishing services for eyewear, aims to roughly triple its size in the next three to four years, as the eyewear sector recovers from the hit it has taken from the Covid-19 pandemic and management keeps an eye ...

  • Taitra
    News briefs

    New digital showcase for Taiwanese eyewear suppliers

    1 December 2020

    The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), a multi-sector national agency in charge of promoting Taiwanese companies internationally, has launched www.optical.taiwantrade.com, an online portal showcasing selected products by the country’s eyewear suppliers. Designed to look like the entrance of an actual trade show, the homepage guides the visitor to virtual ...

  • News briefs

    French suppliers to keep normal services during the new lockdown

    3 November 2020

    Faced with a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the French government decided last week to implement another national lockdown as of Nov. 1 and for at least one month, closing all retail businesses considered as non-essential. As with the first lockdown in the spring, opticians are allowed to remain ...

  • Synsam logo
    Article

    Synsam builds new plant as it moves production to Sweden

    16 October 2020

    Synsam plans to move eyeglass production from Asia to Sweden next year. The project involves the construction from scratch of a new factory that the company claims will focus on sustainable production. The facility is scheduled to be completed in autumn of 2021 in the town of Ockelbo. With an ...

  • Selfridges
    Article

    ​Selfridges launches Project Earth

    24 August 2020

    Selfridges has launched Project Earth, an initiative which explores “more sustainable ways to shop” by setting new sourcing standards and creating repair, resale and rental businesses. Under the scheme, the British department store pledges that by 2025 it will only stock products that respect its new sourcing standards on cotton, ...

  • Brexit (Rocco Dipoppa)
    Article

    German optics industry calls for stripped-down free trade deal between U.K., EU

    24 August 2020

    Spectaris, the German industry association for optics, photonics, analysis and medical technology based in Berlin, called for a “stripped-down” free trade agreement between the U.K. and the European Union to avoid the parties failing to strike a deal, which would lead to a so-called hard Brexit. “Better a stripped-down free ...

  • News briefs

    EU sees trade deal with U.K. as unlikely

    23 July 2020

    Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief negotiator for Brexit, said he views the possibility of reaching an agreement by the end of the year with the U.K. on the parties’ future trade relations as unlikely, following a new round of inconclusive talks in London. Barnier said there had been little ...

  • News briefs

    Optiswiss to upgrade its production site in Switzerland

    2 June 2020

    Optiswiss, the large Swiss-based independent lens laboratory, has set up a fully automated production line for its remote form edging. Orders are currently increasing and its roughly 200 employees have restarted working normally. The company had introduced remote working and shortened working time due to the coronavirus crisis, it said. ...

  • News briefs

    UK to erase import tariffs for spectacle frames

    25 May 2020

    The British government has removed import duties for frames and mountings in its new tariff regime known as the U.K. Global Tariff (UKGT), and that will replace the European Union’s Common External Tariff (CET) from Jan. 1, 2021. Under the current regime they are taxed at 2.2 percent. For sunglasses, ...

  • Article

    Germany remains the biggest importer in Europe

    16 December 2019

    According to the latest report on European trade flows published by Spectaris, the German ophthalmic optics industry association, Germany was once again the European Union’s biggest importer of ophthalmic optics products in 2018, reaching a level of €1.43 billion. France remained in second place with an import value of €1.38 ...

  • Article

    Italy’s eyewear exports rise by 7.4%

    4 November 2019

    Italy’s eyewear exports rose by 7.4 percent in value during the first half of 2019, with sales of prescription frames up by 10.3 percent and sunglasses up by 5.7 percent. They benefited in particular from the weakness of the euro against the dollar and new commercial initiatives by some companies ...

  • Article

    Russia imports more contact lenses

    5 August 2019

    In 2018, Russia imported contact lenses worth $141.2 million, 4 percent more than in the previous year, according to the Russian Federal Customs Service (FCS). The country also exported contact lenses valued at $2.97 million, but it gave no information on the previous year’s export score. The biggest suppliers of ...