CHINA BLANKET MANUFACTURER EYES TO INVEST IN TANZANIA

Zhejiang — CHINA'S Zhejiang Truelove Blanket Technology said is studying and familiarising with the country market for the possibility of making Tanzania its hub for East African region.

The company, one of the biggest blanket producers in China, said its business with Tanzania has shown all potential of expanding in the near future thus closely considering the establishment of a direct business link.

Truelove Blanket Technology's Customer Manager, Yu Juxian, said that they started to export various blankets to Dar es Salaam last year but already the market share has jumped to five per cent of Africa total.

"We are considering to open an office in Tanzania and should the business continue to pick up, we might consider opening a factory there," Ms Yu told 'Daily News' when visited the company in south China.

She added: "Despite selling through a third part the business picked up considerably to between 30 and 40 containers a year."

According to the company, a 20 foot container carries 4400 pieces of blankets of average weight of 3kilogrammes to weigh 12 tonnes.

The factory, which is about 250 kilometres from Shanghai, manufactures all size of blankest for various walk of life ranging from infants to adults usage at different temperatures.

The company customer manager said Tanzania mainly procures both baby and adult blankest but less than nine kilogrammes. The heavier the blanket the more comfortable during harsh winter periods.

"In comparisons, the Tanzania share is similar to South Africa and Tunisia which are older markets," she said. The company, whose vision is "to be worldwide blanket king" data show Tanzania, South Africa, Tunisia control 5.0 per cent and Algeria 8.0 per cent. Egypt has the biggest slice of the pie, dominating the market with remaining percentage.

The company data show that Africa market last year grew by 19 per cent to 15 million US dollars. In the same year the world market sell was 78 million US dollars.

"In the first eight months of this year Africa business has surged by 25 per cent to 11million US dollars," Ms Yu said, "with four months to go this year surely will be a record high the world total was 45 million US dollars."

She said the businesses normally surges in the last quarter of the year. Apart from Africa the company exports to Russia, Japan, the Middle East, and South America.

The blanket manufactured under ISO9001 and ISO14001 system certificates uses polyester and yarn. "We believes quality wins market", Ms Yu said, thus "we pay great attention to product quality."

Daily News