Production and export of finished products, particularly shoes, in Vietnam is going well enough for the government there to have given the leather industry an export target of US $20 billion for 2018. This is a 10% increase on last year’s target.

Automated cutting technology still has tremendous potential for growth in the automotive leather market, according to Holger Max-Lang, managing director for the central and eastern Europe region for Lectra. Mr Max-Lang took up this role at the cutting technology provider at the start of 2018.

Netherlands based chemical manufacturer Smit & zoon will present a brand new collection of leather articles, which has been strengthened after its recent acquisition of Codyeco, at the All China Leather Exhibition (ACLE) taking place in Shanghai August 29-31.

Specialist tannery technology provider Feltre has been working with partner DV Leather to introduce an automated hide defect detection and classification system.