BRUSSELS — Mergers, bankruptcies and closures have been the recent history of the Belgian Textile Industry, which has been buried by high labor costs and Government bureaucracy. Belgium forces its textile producers to pay something like $250 in social benefits and support costs for every $100 in salary. How can that possibly work? That’s what has also become of the European Textile industry. In one country after another, mills have folded their tents due to high costs and impossible competition from India, Turkey and China. It isn’t so different a story from what has happened in North America; a continuous consolidation of brands and factories in what continues to be an overproduced business with too few customers. Expect the consolidation to continue, even in China where some mills have found it almost impossible to make a profit, even with a five percent devaluation of the RMB a few months back. Effectively, the Chinese Government gave their mills a boost of five percent in profits by doing that since the price is sold in fixed dollar terms. Still, there are strongmen in the business like Luc Vandewiele and Frans Hellyn who see a future in this business and they are finding ways to be more efficient and improve their products. Related Story.