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Factory Activity
China's factory activity contracted for the seventh consecutive month in October, the government said Friday, as a newly announced truce in the trade war between the US and China offers some hope for a stronger recovery in exports. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index slipped to 49 in October from 49.8 in September, worse than forecast, the China's National Bureau of Statistics reported, based on a survey of factory managers. Measured on a scale between 0 and 100, a PMI reading below 50 indicates contraction. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said the US will cut its fentanyl-related tariffs on China from 20 per cent to 10 per cent after his meeting in South Korea with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, bringing down US tariffs on Chinese goods from 57 per cent to 47 per cent. China has been diversifying exports from the US, with shipments to regions including Southeast Asia and Africa growing. Exports to the US, however, have dropped by double-digits for six straight
Oji India Packaging Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Oji Group, inaugurated its fifth facility in the country at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh, a top official said on Saturday. The factory will produce corrugated boxes and packaging accessories and employ approximately 300 people in the region. This expansion reinforces the company's commitment to meeting the growing demand for sustainable and high-quality corrugated packaging solutions in South India. The state-of-the-art automated plant, spread across 43,000 square meters, will cater to the increasing demand for corrugated boxes in the region. With an initial workforce of 130, the company plans to expand to 300. Oji Holdings Corporation President and Group CEO Hiroyuki Isono, Consul General of Japan Muneo Takahashi, and Sri City Founder and Managing Director Ravindra Sannareddy attended the inauguration, according to a company statement. Sannareddy congratulated the Oji India team for establishing the factory in Sri City, noting that Oji is
A fire ripped through a garment factory here and spread to an adjoining pharmaceutical factory, prompting a major relief operation that lasted for more than eight hours and utilised services of over two dozen water tenders, officials said on Saturday. Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Pradeep Kumar said no one was injured in the incident that took place in B-Block of Sector 67. The fire service unit's control room received an alert call about the fire at 12 noon, he said. "We immediately sent eight vehicles to the spot but found that it was a major fire, which had spread from the garment factory to the adjoining pharmaceutical factory. This pharma factory was shut for the past two years but the items which were stocked inside caught the fire and intensified the blaze," Kumar said. "We had to deploy 28 vehicles and by 8.30 pm we were able to completely extinguish the fire. Fortunately, there was no injury to any person and no loss of life in the incident," the CFO said. Kumar said additiona
Police have arrested another director of a chemical company in connection with a reactor blast at its unit in Dombivli in Maharashtra last week which claimed 10 lives and left more than 60 injured, an official said on Wednesday. With this two directors of the company have so far been arrested in connection with the incident. The impact of the blast on May 23 at Amudan Chemicals unit, located in Dombivli area of Thane district, was so severe that it shattered window panes of houses and damaged cars, roads and electric poles in the vicinity. After the incident, the police had arrested Amudan Chemicals director Malay Mehta (38). On Tuesday, the police summoned the company's another director, Sneha Mehta (35), the wife of Malay Mehta, and placed her under arrest after detailed questioning as prima facie her involvement was established in the case, the crime branch official said. She will be produced in a court on Wednesday for remand, he said. She was not named in the FIR registered