From the Sector

and textile technology company Infinited Fiber Company’s work to build the world’s first commercial-scale Infinna™ textile fiber factory in Kemi, Finland, has progressed largely according to plan since the announcement of the factory site in June 2022. The company is increasing its focus on scaling Infinna™ production volume further as quickly as possible. This is in response to the continued and growing customer demand for the company’s high-quality regenerated textile fiber Infinna™. The market impacts of the ongoing war in Ukraine – including the increased uncertainty on the global utility, commodity and financial markets – have highlighted the need to proceed rapidly with technology scaling on multiple fronts.
 
“We are not immune to the global market context in which we operate. The supply chain issues stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic are still wreaking havoc, and the ongoing war in Ukraine has dealt a heavy blow to the global utility, commodity, and financial markets – and to us. We are satisfied with the progress at the site of our planned commercial-scale factory and the opening of the factory remains our key priority. The current, unstable market environment has highlighted the need for us to also accelerate efforts to simultaneously pursue other avenues for scaling production, with the ultimate aim of serving our customers in the best possible way in the long run,” said Infinited Fiber Company CEO and cofounder Petri Alava.
 
Infinited Fiber Company said in June that it planned to build a factory to produce Infinna™, a textile fiber that can be created 100% from cotton-rich textile waste, at the site of a discontinued paper mill in Kemi, Finland. The factory is expected to create around 270 jobs in the area and to have an annual production capacity of 30,000 metric tons, equivalent to the fiber needed for about 100 million T-shirts. The future factory’s customer-base includes several of the world’s leading apparel companies, with most of the future production capacity already sold out for several years.
 
Since June, Infinited Fiber Company has advanced the site-specific basic engineering, recruitment planning, vendor selection, and permit processes according to plan. The limited component availability caused by the continuing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have, however, prolonged significantly the delivery times for some of the key equipment and machinery needed for the factory. As a result of these developments, Infinited Fiber Company has re-evaluated its overall factory project timeline. The first commercial fiber deliveries from Kemi are now expected to begin in January 2026. The scope of the project remains unchanged and construction work at the site is expected begin during 2023 as previously communicated.
 
In addition, the European energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine has caused the electricity prices in Finland to roughly triple, and the prices of some of the key chemicals needed in the fiber regeneration process have risen by some 200-300% since the start of the war.
 
“We of course don’t have a crystal ball. But according to our advisors and other experts, utility and commodity prices are forecast to normalize before 2026, when we now expect the first commercial fiber deliveries from Kemi to be shipped. In addition to the likely normalization of the market, the extended timeline enables us to undertake the necessary measures to develop the profitability of the future factory. The growing demand for Infinna™, despite the general turbulence, is an encouraging and clear indication of the fashion industry’s commitment to circularity,” said Petri Alava.

• Monforts customer Kipaş has been selected as the sole denim manufacturing partner in the €6.7 million European Union-funded New Cotton Project, involving the brands adidas and H&M, working in a consortium with suppliers, innovators and research institutes.

Kipaş, based in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, is currently installing its third Monforts Montex stenter along with a third Monfortex compressive shrinkage system in a combined configuration dedicated to denim production.

This follows the successful installation and commissioning of the second Montex and Monfortex lines at the Kahramanmaraş plant in 2018, which Kipaş Vice Chairman of the Board Ahmet Öksüz said had immediately exceeded expectations.

“We performed a very thorough technical investigation based on the latest Industry 4.0 analysis before the purchase, to determine what we needed, and the Monforts technology met all our requirements,” he said, in an interview with Textilegence magazine. “The Monfortex is equipped with a variety of features not found on classical shrinkage machines and the production can be monitored from beginning to end. It also exceeded our expectations in energy cost savings.”

Kipaş subsequently received a special certificate from Monforts in recognition of its exceptional utilisation of the technology to its full potential.

The latest Montex stenter now being installed at Kipaş is a 12-chamber unit with a working width of 2 metres featuring all of the latest automation features. The Monfortex unit, also with a working width of 2 metres, is in a ‘double rubber’ configuration, comprising two compressive shrinkage units and two felt calenders in line. This allows the heat setting of elastane fibres and the residual shrinkage of the denim to be carried out simultaneously, for a significant increase in production speeds.

“Around 90-95% of denim fabric production now contains elastane fibres and the Monforts system has allowed us to simultaneously increase our production and quality in this respect,” Mr Öksüz said.

Regenerated cotton
For the next three years within the New Cotton Project, Kipaş will manufacture denim fabrics based on the cellulose-based fibres of Infinited Fiber Company of Finland, made from post-consumer textile waste that has been collected, sorted and regenerated.

The patented technology of Infinited, which is leading the consortium of 12 companies, turns cellulose-rich textile waste into fibres that look and feel like cotton.

“We are very excited and proud to lead this project which is breaking new ground when it comes to making circularity in the textile industry a reality,” said Infinited co-founder and CEO Petri Alava. “The enthusiasm and commitment with which the entire consortium has come together to work towards a cleaner, more sustainable future for fashion is truly inspiring.”

Take-back programmes
Adidas and H&M will establish take-back programmes to collect the clothing that is produced, to determine the next phase in their lifecycle. Clothing that can no longer be worn will be returned to Infinited, for regeneration into new fibres, further contributing to a circular economy in which textiles never go to waste, but instead are reused, recycled or turned into new garments.

The aim is to prove that circular, sustainable fashion can be achieved today, and to act as an inspiration and stepping stone to further, even bigger circular initiatives by the industry going forward.

The EU has identified the high potential for circularity within the textile industry, while simultaneously highlighting the urgent need for the development of technologies to produce and design sustainable and circular bio-based materials. Making sustainable products commonplace, reducing waste and leading global efforts on circularity are outlined in the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan.

Fashion brands produce nearly twice as many clothes today as they did 20 years ago and demand is expected to continue growing. At the same time, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second. Most of the textile industry’s environmental problems relate to the raw materials used by the industry – cotton, fossil-based fibres such as polyester, and viscose as the most common man-made cellulosic fibre, are all associated with serious environmental concerns.