SOLE MALAYSIAN EXHIBITOR AT HOME-TEXTILE FAIR

FRANKFURT, Jan 16 (Bernama) -- A sole Malaysian exhibitor is holding the
fort at the world's biggest home-textile fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

The exhibitor, Recron (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur,
produces a wide range of products, including polyester, nylon chips, fibres,
yarns and fabrics.

Recron is making its second appearance at Frankfurt's Heimtextil trade fair
from Jan 14-17.

Recron is the successor company to the now defunct Hualon Corp. which was
taken over from its former Taiwan owners by India's Reliance Group, a Fortune
Global 500 corporation.

Recron's manufacturing operations in Malaysia are located in southern Nilai
and Melaka.

"The transition from Hualon to Recron has been challenging in terms of
managing people in the company," S.P. Goswami, Recron's business head
(textile operation), explained in an interview with Bernama at the Frankfurt
exhibition ground.

Reliance, which took over the company in December 2007, has maintained the
workforce of 7,400 workers.

"Recron is the world's largest integrated polyester and textile company. We
had projected a turnover of US$ 1 billion for 2008 but because of the current
economic downturn, could only achieve about 85% of that target," Goswami said.

"Recron markets its products worldwide from our Kuala Lumpur office," he
added.

Recron's main customers are the apparel, home-furnishing and technical
textile industries. The company's export markets are ASEAN, the Middle East and
South American regions.

Goswami also pointed to some distorted perceptions in Malaysia, where
the textile industry is perceived as a "sunset industry", because of its
high cost of manufacturing and labour.

But Goswami says, there are other supplying countries such as Singapore.

"Despite the cost disadvantage, Singapore's textile industry is quite
successful because it has strong value-added features," Goswami argued.

While there is only one Malaysian exhibitor at the Frankfurt show, there are
15 from Singapore, 18 from Vietnam and six each from Indonesia and Thailand.

There are also large contingents of exhibitors from other Asian countries.
India is represented by the largest single foreign contingent of 387 exhibitors,
followed by China (330), Pakistan (180), Taiwan (63), Korea (30) and Bangladesh
(25).

But many Asian exhibitors complained about the low buyer attendance at the
fair beause of the economic downturn. Some felt that the inclement weather --
Frankfurt lay under a thick blanket of snow -- also contributed to the low buyer
turnout.

"I am confident that we will have more contacts as the show progresses,"
said Goswami who was absolutely convinced that the textile industry would
fare better as the year progresses.

"After all, textiles are essential in our day-to-day living," he stated.

"Inspite of the current economic problems, you have to be at this show
because it attracts buyers from around the world," he explained.
-- BERNAMA