Textination Newsline

Reset
48 results
Photo by John Zich
14.08.2024

New fabric makes urban heat islands more bearable

With applications in clothing, construction and food storage, the new textile reduces heat from both the sun and thermal radiation from nearby buildings.

This year has already seen massive heatwaves around the globe, with cities in Mexico, India, Pakistan and Oman hitting temperatures near or past 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).  

As global temperatures and urban populations rise, the world’s cities have become “urban heat islands,” with tight-packed conditions and thermal radiation emitting from pavement and skyscraper trapping and magnifying these temperatures. With 68 percent of all people predicted to live in cities by 2050, this is a growing, deadly problem.

With applications in clothing, construction and food storage, the new textile reduces heat from both the sun and thermal radiation from nearby buildings.

This year has already seen massive heatwaves around the globe, with cities in Mexico, India, Pakistan and Oman hitting temperatures near or past 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).  

As global temperatures and urban populations rise, the world’s cities have become “urban heat islands,” with tight-packed conditions and thermal radiation emitting from pavement and skyscraper trapping and magnifying these temperatures. With 68 percent of all people predicted to live in cities by 2050, this is a growing, deadly problem.

In a paper published in Science, researchers from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) detail a new wearable fabric that can help urban residents survive the worst impacts of massive heat caused by global climate change, with applications in clothing, building and car design, and food storage.  

In tests under the Arizona sun, the material kept 2.3 degrees Celsius (4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the broadband emitter fabric used for outdoor endurance sports and 8.9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than the commercialized silk commonly used for shirts, dresses and other summer clothing.

This, the team hopes, will help many avoid the heat-related hospitalizations and deaths seen in global population centers this year alone.

“We need to reduce carbon emission and make our cities carbon negative or carbon neutral,” PME Asst. Prof. Po-Chun Hsu said. “But meanwhile, people are feeling the impact of these high temperatures.”

‘You have to consider the environment’
Existing cooling fabric for outdoor sports works by reflecting the sun’s light in a diffuse pattern so it doesn’t blind onlookers. But in an urban heat island, the sun is only one source of heat. While the sun bakes from above, thermal radiation emitted from buildings and pavement blast city-dwellers with blistering heat from the sides and below.

This means many materials that perform well in lab tests won’t help city-dwellers in Arizona, Nevada, California, Southeast Asia and China when predicted massive heatwaves hit them over the next few weeks.

“People normally focus on the performance or the material design of cooling textiles,” said co-first author Ronghui Wu, a postdoctoral researcher at PME. “To make a textile that has the potential to apply to real life, you have to consider the environment.”

One simple example of considering the environment is that people stand. They are wearing materials designed to reflect direct sunlight, but only their hats, shoulder coverings and the tops of their shoes – about 3 percent of their clothing – face that direct light. The other 97 of their clothes are being heated by the thermal radiation coming at them from the sides and below, which broadband emitter fabric does not fight.

The sun and sidewalk cook with different heats. Creating one material capable of protecting wearers from both provided a major engineering challenge for the team.

“Solar is visible light, thermal radiation is infrared, so they have different wavelengths. That means you need to have a material that has two optical properties at the same time. That's very challenging to do,” said co-first author Chenxi Sui, a PhD candidate at PME. “You need to play with material science to engineer and tune the material to give you different resonances at different wavelengths.”

The costs of comfort
Cooling a home too often means warming the planet, with the carbon impact of air conditioning and refrigeration systems contributing to climate change.  

“Our civilization actually uses about 10 to 15 percent of the energy in total just to make ourselves feel comfortable wherever we go,” Hsu said.

The risk from heat is not distributed evenly, however. In the U.S. and Japan, more than 90 percent of households have an air conditioner, a number that drops to 5 percent in India and parts of Africa.
 
The PME team’s new textile, which has received a provisional patent, can help provide a passive cooling system that can supplement and reduce the need for energy- and cost-intensive systems.

The applications go far beyond clothing.  

A thicker version of the fabric protected by an invisible layer of polyethylene could be used on the sides of buildings or cars, lowering internal temperatures and reducing the cost and carbon impact of air conditioning. Similarly, the material could be used to transport and store milk and other foods that would otherwise spoil in the heat, cutting refrigeration’s impact.

“You can save a lot of cooling, electricity and energy costs because this is a passive process,” Sui said.

Source:

Paul Dailing | University of Chicago

Neste provides renewable Neste RE, a raw material for polymers and chemicals made from bio-based materials. Source: Neste
06.08.2024

First polyester supply chain from sustainable feedstock

A consortium of seven companies across five countries has jointly established a supply chain for more sustainable polyester fiber. Instead of fossil materials, renewable and bio-based materials as well as carbon capture and utilization (CCU*) will be used in the manufacturing of polyester fibers for The North Face brand in Japan. The consortium parties are Goldwin, in the role of project owner, Mitsubishi Corporation, Chiyoda Corporation (all three from Japan), SK geo centric (South Korea), Indorama Ventures (Thailand), India Glycols (India) and Neste.

Neste will provide renewable Neste RE™ as one of the required ingredients for polyester production. The polyester fiber produced in the project is planned to be used by Goldwin for a part of The North Face products, including sports uniforms, in July 2024. After that, the launch of further Goldwin products and brands will be considered.

A consortium of seven companies across five countries has jointly established a supply chain for more sustainable polyester fiber. Instead of fossil materials, renewable and bio-based materials as well as carbon capture and utilization (CCU*) will be used in the manufacturing of polyester fibers for The North Face brand in Japan. The consortium parties are Goldwin, in the role of project owner, Mitsubishi Corporation, Chiyoda Corporation (all three from Japan), SK geo centric (South Korea), Indorama Ventures (Thailand), India Glycols (India) and Neste.

Neste will provide renewable Neste RE™ as one of the required ingredients for polyester production. The polyester fiber produced in the project is planned to be used by Goldwin for a part of The North Face products, including sports uniforms, in July 2024. After that, the launch of further Goldwin products and brands will be considered.

The seven companies apply a mass balancing approach to ensure credible traceability of material streams throughout the supply chain and will jointly continue to proactively promote the defossilization of materials to contribute to a more sustainable society.

Neste (NESTE, Nasdaq Helsinki) uses science and innovative technology to transform waste and other resources into renewable fuels and circular raw materials. The company creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. Being the world’s leading producer of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel and a forerunner in developing renewable and circular feedstock solutions for polymers and chemicals, the company aims to help its customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 million tons annually by 2030.

The company’s ambition is to make the Porvoo oil refinery in Finland the most sustainable refinery in Europe. Neste is committed to reaching carbon-neutral production by 2035, and will reduce the carbon emission intensity of sold products by 50% by 2040. Neste has also set high standards for biodiversity, human rights and the supply chain. The company has consistently been included in the CDP and the Global 100 lists of the world’s most sustainable companies. In 2023, Neste's revenue stood at EUR 22.9 billion

Source:

Neste

Photo: Sibi Suku, unsplash
29.01.2024

Naturalistic silk spun from artificial spider gland

Researchers led by Keiji Numata at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan, along with colleagues from the RIKEN Pioneering Research Cluster, have succeeded in creating a device that spins artificial spider silk that closely matches what spiders naturally produce. The artificial silk gland was able to re-create the complex molecular structure of silk by mimicking the various chemical and physical changes that naturally occur in a spider’s silk gland. This eco-friendly innovation is a big step towards sustainability and could impact several industries. This study was published January 15 in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Researchers led by Keiji Numata at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan, along with colleagues from the RIKEN Pioneering Research Cluster, have succeeded in creating a device that spins artificial spider silk that closely matches what spiders naturally produce. The artificial silk gland was able to re-create the complex molecular structure of silk by mimicking the various chemical and physical changes that naturally occur in a spider’s silk gland. This eco-friendly innovation is a big step towards sustainability and could impact several industries. This study was published January 15 in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Famous for its strength, flexibility, and light weight, spider silk has a tensile strength that is comparable to steel of the same diameter, and a strength to weight ratio that is unparalleled. Added to that, it’s biocompatible, meaning that it can be used in medical applications, as well as biodegradable. So why isn’t everything made from spider silk? Large-scale harvesting of silk from spiders has proven impractical for several reasons, leaving it up to scientists to develop a way to produce it in the laboratory.

Spider silk is a biopolymer fiber made from large proteins with highly repetitive sequences, called spidroins. Within the silk fibers are molecular substructures called beta sheets, which must be aligned properly for the silk fibers to have their unique mechanical properties. Re-creating this complex molecular architecture has confounded scientists for years. Rather than trying to devise the process from scratch, RIKEN scientists took a biomimicry approach. As Numata explains, “in this study, we attempted to mimic natural spider silk production using microfluidics, which involves the flow and manipulation of small amounts of fluids through narrow channels. Indeed, one could say that that the spider’s silk gland functions as a sort of natural microfluidic device.”

The device developed by the researchers looks like a small rectangular box with tiny channels grooved into it. Precursor spidroin solution is placed at one end and then pulled towards the other end by means of negative pressure. As the spidroins flow through the microfluidic channels, they are exposed to precise changes in the chemical and physical environment, which are made possible by the design of the microfluidic system. Under the correct conditions, the proteins self-assembled into silk fibers with their characteristic complex structure.

The researchers experimented to find these correct conditions, and eventually were able to optimize the interactions among the different regions of the microfluidic system. Among other things, they discovered that using force to push the proteins through did not work; only when they used negative pressure to pull the spidroin solution could continuous silk fibers with the correct telltale alignment of beta sheets be assembled.

“It was surprising how robust the microfluidic system was, once the different conditions were established and optimized,” says Senior Scientist Ali Malay, one of the paper’s co-authors. “Fiber assembly was spontaneous, extremely rapid, and highly reproducible. Importantly, the fibers exhibited the distinct hierarchical structure that is found in natural silk fiber.”

The ability to artificially produce silk fibers using this method could provide numerous benefits. Not only could it help reduce the negative impact that current textile manufacturing has on the environment, but the biodegradable and biocompatible nature of spider silk makes it ideal for biomedical applications, such as sutures and artificial ligaments.

“Ideally, we want to have a real-world impact,” says Numata. “For this to occur, we will need to scale-up our fiber-production methodology and make it a continuous process. We will also evaluate the quality of our artificial spider silk using several metrics and make further improvements from there.”

Source:

RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Japan

(c) Oeti
31.05.2022

OEKO-TEX® Association celebrates 30th birthday

The international OEKO-TEX® Association, which consists of a total of 17 independent research and testing institutes in Europe and Japan, turns thirty this year. As one of the founding members, OETI is taking this as an opportunity to talk to OEKO-TEX® expert Helene Melnitzky (Head of the Ecology Department at OETI) about the role of the OEKO-TEX® Association, market trends and current OEKO-TEX® certifications and labels.

The international OEKO-TEX® Association, which consists of a total of 17 independent research and testing institutes in Europe and Japan, turns thirty this year. As one of the founding members, OETI is taking this as an opportunity to talk to OEKO-TEX® expert Helene Melnitzky (Head of the Ecology Department at OETI) about the role of the OEKO-TEX® Association, market trends and current OEKO-TEX® certifications and labels.

The international OEKO-TEX® Association is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year. What role has it played so far with regard to the product safety of textile and leather products?
Helene Melnitzky:
In the area product safety1, OEKO-TEX® has had a great impact over the last three decades by ensuring certain pollutant additives, some of which were found in large quantities in textiles 30 years ago, no longer exist. The OEKO-TEX® Association was also the first to limit certain heavy metals. Based on our actions, legal provisions were ultimately passed. We have been testing banned dyes since before there even was an EU regulation in this regard. Of course, we now test according to the EU regulation, but in this respect OEKO-TEX® was a clear trailblazer.

In addition to product safety, OEKO-TEX® has been working on the topics of ‘environmentally friendly textile products manufactured under fair working conditions for 30 years, which also included leather products for the last five years, and with STeP by OEKO-TEX® on the ‘certification of environmentally friendly production sites’ since 2013. In one way or another, we have been preparing the market for thirty years. In the process, we are always creating new things: currently the Impact Calculator and, in autumn-2022, a new certification for brands and retailers: RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS by OEKO-TEX®.

How does that benefit the customers of OEKO-TEX®?
Helene Melnitzky:
Customers can use these calculations for external communication to demonstrate on their products or webpages that their products have a lower footprint than their competitors. This means that customers sourcing everything regionally will have a smaller footprint than companies that source products from different countries. In the future, it will be necessary to display the water and carbon footprint on the product, so that consumers can decide whether they want to buy product A or B.

How is the aspect of fair working conditions taken into account?
Helene Melnitzky:
This topic has also been gaining significant momentum over the last ten years. There is now enough pressure on brands and retailers to improve local working conditions. We cover this area as part of our STeP by OEKO-TEX® certification2 with our ‘social responsibility’ module. The advantage for our customers is that they can subsequently use the MADE IN GREEN by OEKO-TEX® label to show how they have performed in the social module.

What does Transparency with MADE IN GREEN by OEKO-TEX® mean?
Helene Melnitzky:
Everything that is written on the product is transparent. The MADE IN GREEN by OEKO-TEX® label is a traceable product label for all types of textiles and leather items that have been produced in environmentally friendly factories and at safe and socially responsible workplaces. Furthermore, the MADE IN GREEN by OEKO-TEX® label gives consumers the certainty that the textile or leather product is made from materials tested for harmful substances. In order to ensure that textile or leather products with the MADE IN GREEN by OEKO-TEX® label have been produced using environmentally friendly processes under socially acceptable working conditions, manufacturing and wet production sites must be certified according to STeP by OEKO-TEX®.

For a year now, it has been possible to have recycled materials STANDARD 100 certified and display that certification as a hangtag to communicate that the product consists of a certain proportion3 of recycled materials. Which market demand is this certification addressing?
Helene Melnitzky:
There is an increasing demand that at least part of the product must be made from recycled material. This is partly attributable to market pressure because raw materials are scarce and expensive. However, we are also voluntarily informing consumers about recycling as part of the circular economy.

What is your outlook for the next few years?
Helene Melnitzky:
Producing textile and leather products in a more environmentally friendly and fair manner, while making the value chain more transparent, is a global challenge that sets new environmental standards. In the long term, however, it also involves important economic and social aspects. The goal is to raise awareness of these interdependencies and a common understanding of environmental issues – among producers and, of course, end consumers. It is clear that the demand for certified and traceable products is growing among consumers. This trend is reflected in purchasing behaviour and thus in manufacturing. Nevertheless, there’s still a lot to do.


1 STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® und LEATHER STANDARD by OEKO-TEX®
2 The STeP by OEKO-TEX® certification includes the modules Chemical Management, Environmental Performance, Environmental Management, Quality Management, Occupational Health and Safety, and Social Responsibility
3 To qualify, the product must contain at least 20 per cent recycled material.

(c) Toray
23.11.2021

Toray Industries: A Concept to change Lives

Founded in January 1926, Tokyo-based Japanese chemical company Toray Industries, Inc. is known as the world's largest producer of PAN (polyacrylonitrile)-based carbon fibers. But its overall portfolio includes much more. Textination spoke with Koji Sasaki, General Manager of the Textile Division of Toray Industries, Inc. about innovative product solutions, new responsibilities and the special role of chemical companies in today's world.

Toray Industries is a Japanese company that - originating in 1926 as a producer of viscose yarns - is on the home stretch to its 100th birthday. Today, the Toray Group includes 102 Japanese companies and 180 overseas. They operate in 29 countries. What is the current significance of the fibers and textiles business unit for the success of your company?

Founded in January 1926, Tokyo-based Japanese chemical company Toray Industries, Inc. is known as the world's largest producer of PAN (polyacrylonitrile)-based carbon fibers. But its overall portfolio includes much more. Textination spoke with Koji Sasaki, General Manager of the Textile Division of Toray Industries, Inc. about innovative product solutions, new responsibilities and the special role of chemical companies in today's world.

Toray Industries is a Japanese company that - originating in 1926 as a producer of viscose yarns - is on the home stretch to its 100th birthday. Today, the Toray Group includes 102 Japanese companies and 180 overseas. They operate in 29 countries. What is the current significance of the fibers and textiles business unit for the success of your company?

The fibers’ and textiles’ business is both the starting point and the foundation of Toray's business development today. We started producing viscose yarns in 1926 and conducted our own research and development in nylon fibers as early as 1940. And since new materials usually require new processing methods, Toray also began investing in its own process technology at an early stage. On the one hand, we want to increase our sales, and on the other hand, we want to expand the application possibilities for our materials. For this reason, Toray also began to expand its business from pure fibers to textiles and even clothing. This allows us to better respond to our customers' needs while staying at the forefront of innovation.

Over the decades, Toray has accumulated a great deal of knowledge in polymer chemistry and organic synthesis chemistry - and this know-how is the foundation for almost all of our other business ventures. Today, we produce a wide range of advanced materials and high-value-added products in plastics, chemicals, foils, carbon fiber composites, electronics and information materials, pharmaceuticals, medicine and water treatment. However, fibers and textiles remain our most important business area, accounting for around 40% of the company's sales.

What understanding, what heritage is still important to you today? And how do you live out a corporate philosophy in the textile sector that you formulate as "Contributing to society through the creation of new value with innovative ideas, technologies and products"?

Toray has consistently developed new materials that the world has never seen before. We do this by focusing on our four core technologies: Polymer chemistry, organic synthetic chemistry, biotechnology and nanotechnology. We do this by focusing on our four core technologies: Polymer chemistry, organic synthetic chemistry, biotechnology and nanotechnology. For textiles, this means we use new polymer structures, spinning technologies and processing methods to develop yarns with unprecedented properties. We always focus on the needs and problems of the market and our customers.

This approach enables us to integrate textiles with new functions into our everyday lives that natural fibers and materials cannot accomplish. For example, we offer sportswear and underwear that absorb water excellently and dry very quickly, or rainwear and outdoor clothing with excellent water-repellent properties that feature a less bulky inner lining. Other examples include antibacterial underwear, uniforms, or inner linings that provide a hygienic environment and reduce the growth of odor-causing bacteria. People enjoy the convenience of these innovative textiles every day, and we hope to contribute to their daily comfort and improve their lives in some way.

In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 sustainable development goals – simply known as the 2030 Agenda, which came into force on January 01, 2016. Countries were given 15 years to achieve them by 2030. In your company, there is a TORAY VISION 2030 and a TORAY SUSTAINABILITY VISION. How do you apply these principles and goals to the textile business? What role does sustainability play for this business area?

Sustainability is one of the most important issues facing the world today - not only in the textile sector, but in all industries. We in the Toray Group are convinced that we can contribute to solving various problems in this regard with our advanced materials. At the same time, the trend towards sustainability offers interesting new business approaches. In our sustainability vision, we have set four goals that the world should achieve by 2050. And we have defined which problems need to be addressed to achieve this.

We must:

  1. accelerate measures to combat climate change,
  2. implement sustainable, recycling-oriented solutions in the use of resources and in production,
  3. provide clean water and air, and
  4. contribute to better healthcare and hygiene for people around the world.

We will drive this agenda forward by promoting and expanding the use of materials that respond to environmental issues. In the textile sector, for example, we offer warming and cooling textiles – by eliminating the need for air conditioning or heating in certain situations, they can help reduce energy costs. We also produce environmentally friendly textiles that do not contain certain harmful substances such as fluorine, as well as textiles made from biomass, which use plant-based fibers instead of conventional petrochemical materials. Our product range also includes recycled materials that reduce waste and promote effective use of resources.

The TORAY VISION 2030, on the other hand, is our medium-term strategic plan and looks at the issue of sustainability from a different angle: Toray has defined the path to sustainable and healthy corporate growth in it. In this plan, we are focusing on two major growth areas: Our Green Innovation Business, which aims to solve environmental, resource and energy problems, and the Life Innovation Business, which focuses on improving medical care, public health, personal safety and ultimately a longer expectancy of life.

Innovation by Chemistry is the claim of the Toray Group. In a world where REACH and Fridays for Future severely restrict the scope of the chemical industry, the question arises as to what position chemistry can have in the textile industry. How do chemistry, innovation and sustainability fit together here?

The chemical industry is at a turning point today. The benefits that this industry can bring to civilization are still enormous, but at the same time, disadvantages such as the waste of resources and the negative impact on the environment and ecosystems are becoming increasingly apparent. In the future, the chemical industry will have to work much more towards sustainability - there is no way around it.

As far as textiles are concerned, we believe there are several ways to make synthetic materials more sustainable in the future. One of these, as I said, is materials made from plants instead of petrochemical raw materials. Another is to reduce the amount of raw materials used in production in the first place – this can be achieved, for example, by collecting and recycling waste materials from production or sales. Biodegradable materials that reduce the impact of waste products on the environment are another option worth pursuing, as is the reduction of environmentally harmful substances used in the production process. We are already looking at all of these possibilities in Toray's synthetic textiles business. At the same time, by the way, we make sure to save energy in our own production and minimize the impact on the environment.

Toray's fibers & textiles segment focuses on synthetic fibers such as nylon, polyester and acrylic, as well as other functional fibers. In recent years, there has been a clear trend on the market towards cellulosic fibers, which are also being traded as alternatives to synthetic products. How do you see this development – on the one hand for the Toray company, and on the other hand under the aspect of sustainability, which the cellulosic competitors claim for themselves with the renewable raw material base?

Natural fibers, including cellulose fibers and wool, are environmentally friendly in that they can be easily recycled and are rapidly biodegradable after disposal. However, to truly assess their environmental impact, a number of other factors must also be considered: Primarily, there is the issue of durability: precisely because natural fibers are natural, it is difficult to respond to a rapid increase in demand, and quality is not always stable due to weather and other factors.

Climatic changes such as extreme heat, drought, wind, floods and damages from freezing can affect the quantity and quality of the production of natural fibers, so that the supply is not always secured. In order to increase production, not only does land have to be cleared, but also large amounts of water and pesticides have to be used to cultivate it – all of which is harmful to the environment.

Synthetic fibers, on the other hand, are industrial products manufactured in controlled factory environments. This makes it easier to manage fluctuations in production volume and ensure consistent quality. In addition, certain functional properties such as resilience, water absorption, quick drying and antibacterial properties can be embedded into the material, which can result in textiles lasting longer in use.

So synthetic fibers and natural fibers, including cellulose fibers, have their own advantages and disadvantages – there is no panacea here, at least not at the moment. We believe: It is important to ensure that there are options that match the consumer's awareness and lifestyle. This includes comfort in everyday life and sustainability at the same time.

To what extent has the demand for recycled products increased? Under the brand name &+™, Toray offers a fiber made from recycled PET bottles. Especially with the "raw material base: PET bottles", problems can occur with the whiteness of the fiber. What distinguishes your process from that of other companies and to what extent can you compete with new fibers in terms of quality?

During the production of the "&+" fiber, the collected PET bottles are freed from all foreign substances using special washing and filtering processes. These processes have not only allowed us to solve the problem of fiber whiteness – by using filtered, high-purity recycled polyester chips, we can also produce very fine fibers and fibers with unique cross sections. Our proven process technologies can also be used to incorporate specific textures and functions of Toray into the fiber. In addition, "&+" contains a special substance in the polyester that allows the material to be traced back to the recycled PET bottle fibers used in it.

We believe that this combination of aesthetics, sustainability and functionality makes the recycled polyester fiber "&+" more competitive than those of other companies. And indeed, we have noticed that the number of requests is steadily increasing as companies develop a greater awareness of sustainability as early as the product planning stage.

How is innovation management practiced in Toray's textile division, and which developments that Toray has worked on recently are you particularly proud of?

The textile division consists of three sub-divisions focusing on the development and sale of fashion textiles (WOMEN'S & MEN'S WEAR FABRICS DEPT.), sports and outdoor textiles (SPORTS WEAR & CLOTHING MATERIALS FABRICS DEPT.) and, specifically for Japan, textiles for uniforms used in schools, businesses and the public sector (UNIFORM & ADVANCED TEXTILES DEPT.).

In the past, each division developed its own materials for their respective markets and customers. However, in 2021, we established a collaborative space to increase synergy and share information about textiles developed in different areas with the entire department. In this way, salespeople can also offer their customers materials developed in other departments and get ideas for developing new textiles themselves.

I believe that the new structure will also help us to respond better to changes in the market. We see, for example, that the boundaries between workwear and outdoor are blurring – brands like Engelbert Strauss are a good example of this trend. Another development that we believe will accelerate after the Corona pandemic is the focus on green technologies and materials. This applies to all textile sectors, and we need to work more closely together to be at the forefront of this.

How important are bio-based polyesters in your research projects? How do you assess the future importance of such alternatives?

I believe that these materials will play a major role in the coming years. Polyester is made from purified terephthalic acid (PTA), which again consists of paraxylene (PX) and ethylene glycol (EG). In a first step, we already offer a material called ECODEAR™, which uses sugar cane molasses waste as a raw material for EG production.

About 30% of this at least partially bio polyester fiber is therefore biologically produced, and the material is used on a large scale for sportswear and uniforms. In the next step, we are working on the development of a fully bio-based polyester fiber in which the PTA component is also obtained from biomass raw materials, such as the inedible parts of sugar cane and wood waste.

Already in 2011, we succeeded in producing a prototype of such a polyester fiber made entirely from biomass. However, the expansion of production at the PX manufacturer we are working with has proven to be challenging. Currently, we are only producing small sample quantities, but we hope to start mass production in the 2020s.

Originally starting with yarn, now a leading global producer of synthetic fibers for decades, you also work to the ready-made product. The range extends from protective clothing against dust and infections to smart textiles and functional textiles that record biometric data. What are you planning in these segments?

In the field of protective clothing, our LIVMOA™ brand is our flagship material. It combines high breathability to reduce moisture inside the garment with blocking properties that keep dust and other particles out. The textile is suitable for a wide range of work environments, including those with high dust or grease levels and even cleanrooms. LIVMOA™ 5000, a high quality, also demonstrates antiviral properties and helps to ease the burden on medical personnel. The material forms an effective barrier against bacteria and viruses and is resistant to hygroscopic pressure. Due to its high breathability, it also offers high wearing comfort.

Our smart textile is called hitoe™. This highly conductive fabric embeds a conductive polymer – a polymer compound that allows electricity to pass through - into the nanofiber fabric. hitoe™ is a high-performance material for detecting biosignals, weak electrical signals that we unconsciously emit from our bodies.

In Japan, Toray has developed products for electrocardiographic measurements (ECGs) that meet the safety and effectiveness standards of medical devices. And in 2016, we submitted an application to the Japanese medical administrative authorities to register a hitoe™ device as a general medical device – this registration process is now complete. Overall, we expect the healthcare sector, particularly medical and nursing applications, to grow – not least due to increasing infectious diseases and growing health awareness among the elderly population. We will therefore continue to develop and sell new products for this market.

In 1885, Joseph Wilson Swan introduced the term "artifical silk" for the nitrate cellulose filaments he artificially produced. Later, copper, viscose and acetate filament yarns spun on the basis of cellulose were also referred to as artifical silk. Toray has developed a new innovative spinning technology called NANODESIGN™, which enables nano-level control of the fineness and shape of synthetic fibers. This is expected to create functions, aesthetics and textures that have not existed before. For which applications do you intend to use these products?

In NANODESIGN™ technology, the polymer is split into a number of microscopic streams, which are then recombined in a specific pattern to form a new fiber. By controlling the polymer flow with extreme precision, the fineness and cross-sectional shape of the fiber can be determined much more accurately than was previously possible with conventional microfiber and nanofiber spinning technologies. In addition, this technology enables the combination of three or more polymer types with different properties in one fiber – conventional technologies only manage two polymer types. This technology therefore enables Toray to specify a wide range of textures and functions in the production of synthetic fibers that were not possible with conventional synthetic fibers – and even to outperform the texture and feel of natural fibers. Kinari, our artificial silk developed with NANODESIGN technology, is a prime example here, but the technology holds many more possibilities – especially with regard to our sustainability goals.

What has the past period of the pandemic meant for Toray's textile business so far? To what extent has it been a burden, but in which areas has it also been a driver of innovation? What do you expect of the next 12 months?

The Corona catastrophe had a dramatic impact on the company's results: The Corona catastrophe had a dramatic impact on the company's results: In the financial year 2020, Toray's total sales fell by about 10% to 188.36 billion yen (about 1.44 billion euros) and operating profit by about 28% to 90.3 billion yen (about 690 million euros). The impact on the fiber and textile business was also significant, with sales decreasing by around 13% to 719.2 billion yen (approx. 5.49 billion euros) and operating profit by around 39% to 36.6 billion yen (approx. 280 million euros).

In the financial year 2021, however, the outlook for the fibers and textiles sector is significantly better: So far, the segment has exceeded its goals overall, even if there are fluctuations in the individual areas and applications. In the period from April to June, we even returned to the level of 2019. This is partly due to the recovering sports and outdoor sector. The fashion apparel market, on the other hand, remains challenging due to changing lifestyles that have brought lock-downs and home-office. We believe that a full recovery in business will not occur until the travel and leisure sector returns to pre-Corona levels.

Another side effect of the pandemic that we feel very strongly, is the growing concern about environmental issues and climate change. As a result, the demand for sustainable materials has also increased in the apparel segment. In the future, sustainability will be mandatory for the development and marketing of new textiles in all market segments. Then again, there will always be the question of how sustainable a product really is, and data and traceability will become increasingly important. In the coming years, the textile division will keep a close eye on these developments and develop materials that meet customers' needs.

About the person:
Koji Sasaki joined Toray in 1987. In his more than 30 years with the company, he has held various positions, including a four-year position as Managing Director of Toray International Europe GmbH in Frankfurt from 2016 to 2020. Since 2020, Koji Sasaki has been responsible for Toray's textile division and serves as acting chairman of Toray Textiles Europe Ltd. In these roles, he supervises the company's development, sales and marketing activities in the apparel segment, including fashion, sports and work or school uniforms.

The interview was conducted by Ines Chucholowius, Managing partner Textination GmbH

09.03.2021

Functional Textiles Shanghai by PERFORMANCE DAYS celebrates its Chinese premiere

Design & Development GmbH Textile Consult, founder and trade fair organiser of PERFORMANCE DAYS in Munich, is eyeing the new year with a lot of hope. After the launch of Functional Fabric Fair by PERFORMANCE DAYS in New York City and Portland together with Reed Exhibitions, PERFORMANCE DAYS is further expanding its portfolio. In cooperation with Tengda Exhibition, the foundations have been laid for a new trade fair for functional textiles in Shanghai. On the 28th and 29th of September 2021, the FUNCTIONAL TEXTILES SHANGHAI by PERFORMANCE DAYS will premiere at the renowned Shanghaimart Exhibition Center, offering ample space for future trends displayed by more than 100 exhibitors.

Design & Development GmbH Textile Consult, founder and trade fair organiser of PERFORMANCE DAYS in Munich, is eyeing the new year with a lot of hope. After the launch of Functional Fabric Fair by PERFORMANCE DAYS in New York City and Portland together with Reed Exhibitions, PERFORMANCE DAYS is further expanding its portfolio. In cooperation with Tengda Exhibition, the foundations have been laid for a new trade fair for functional textiles in Shanghai. On the 28th and 29th of September 2021, the FUNCTIONAL TEXTILES SHANGHAI by PERFORMANCE DAYS will premiere at the renowned Shanghaimart Exhibition Center, offering ample space for future trends displayed by more than 100 exhibitors.

As the new year is entered, the PERFORMANCE DAYS team looks forward with great optimism and confidence to the launch of the new fair for functional textiles - the FUNCTIONAL TEXTILES SHANGHAI by PERFORMANCE DAYS - in Shanghai. China counts as one of the fastest growing and more important future markets worldwide, especially when it comes to functional apparel. The oriental gateway is proving to be innovative, trendsetting, and more recently, increasingly sustainable.

This development is also reflected in the activities of yarn and fabric producers, with local sportswear brands enjoying significant growth. One can be particularly proud of the cooperation with Tengda Exhibition, which is renowned for providing professional services for manufacturers and trading companies in the textile, fibre and various apparel segments. Their services range from fairs to sourcing events in China, Japan, Spain, Great Britain and Turkey.

The premiere of FUNCTIONAL TEXTILES SHANGHAI by PERFORMANCE DAYS will be held at Shanghaimart Exhibition Center on the 28th and 29th of September. Here too, a conscious decision was made for specifically choosing it as an influential trade fair and trading centre. At present, almost 1.000 companies from more than 20 countries and regions have set up offices and showrooms on site, most of them renowned industry experts from the textile and fabric branches.

Qualitative, informative & innovative: Shanghai fair borrows from the Look & Feel of PERFORMANCE DAYS
The FUNCTIONAL TEXTILES SHANGHAI by PERFORMANCE DAYS event team will transfer the already established concept of PERFORMANCE DAYS from Munich to Shanghai. This will lend the fair in China not only the Look & Feel of a familiar concept, but above all the same aspirations in terms of quality. And indeed with a total of 5.300 square metres, more than 100 Chinese and international exhibitors will have sufficient exhibition space. In line with this, the fair organisers wish to guarantee industry visitors to the fair a balanced assortment of top brands from the world of functional textiles.

The fair will focus on the latest trends and innovations from the world of textiles, yarns, membrane technologies and accessories for functional sportswear, workwear, performances wear and lifestyle wear. Demand is accordingly high, with top manufacturers such as Romrol, Sanchuan and Winsun confirming their participation along with other well-known brands such as Anta, Bosideng, Decathlon, Descente, Eral, Fila Hotwind, Icicle, Jeep, Kailas, Kappa, Li-Ning, Peace Bird, Peak, Semir, Skechers, Toread, Uniqulo, Zuczug and 361°, to name a few.

As is usual at the trade fair in Munich, there will also be an informative supporting program with exciting expert talks and discussion panels on sustainable and industry-relevant topics. The centrepiece of the fair, the PERFORMANCE FORUM, rounds off the comprehensive package. Materials from exhibitors curated on-site will be displayed on this specially designed platform. Trade fair general manager Marco Weichert had this to say: “We are thrilled to be starting the new year with such inspiring new projects. The launch of FUNCTIONAL TEXTILES SHANGHAI by PERFORMANCE DAYS in September is the result of many years of monitoring of the Asian market and its increasing demand for curated and high quality sustainable offerings. We are especially pleased about the partnership with Tengda Exhibition, who are real professionals in this field. We are absolutely convinced that the PERFORMANCE DAYS concept, which we will adopt in Shanghai, will be very well received by local trade fair visitors and exhibitors.”

Noel Tian, Managing Director, Tengda Exhibition, adds: “The functional apparel market in China is growing so fast, the brands here need one professional, focused and high class platform for functional textiles just like PERFORMANCE DAYS. We are really excited to launch FUNCTIONAL TEXTILES SHANGHAI by PERFORMANCE DAYS while adopting 100% the PERFORMANCE DAYS concept in the special new year 2021. It is a great honour to have this partnership with Design & Development GbmH Textile Consult and their world famous trade fair brand.“

FUNCTIONAL TEXTILES SHANGHAI by PERFORMANCE DAYS
September 28-29th, 2021
Shanghaimart Exhibition Center No.99 Xingyi Road,Chang Ning District,Shanghai China
Contact:
info@functionaltextilesshanghai.com or +86-21-60493344.

Source:

PERFORMANCE DAYS functional fabric fair

(c) Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH
22.12.2020

Decade of Action: Texpertise Network launches further measures to implement the Sustainable Development Goals

Since 2019, the Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network has been working with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office for Partnerships to bring the Sustainable Development Goals to all 58 textile events in the network worldwide. Numerous measures have already been implemented. Others are imminent.

Shortly before the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutérrez hailed the start of the Decade of Action. As of 2020, the international community now has just ten years to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to which the UN Member States committed themselves in the 2030 Agenda. As part of the collaboration with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office for Partnerships, the Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network will put the SDGs on the agenda of additional events in December, thus further supporting their implementation in the fashion and textile industry.

Since 2019, the Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network has been working with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office for Partnerships to bring the Sustainable Development Goals to all 58 textile events in the network worldwide. Numerous measures have already been implemented. Others are imminent.

Shortly before the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutérrez hailed the start of the Decade of Action. As of 2020, the international community now has just ten years to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to which the UN Member States committed themselves in the 2030 Agenda. As part of the collaboration with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office for Partnerships, the Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network will put the SDGs on the agenda of additional events in December, thus further supporting their implementation in the fashion and textile industry.

Virtual event “Discover the SDGs – To Power the Decade of Action”
From 1-30 December 2020, the Texpertise Network is taking part in the virtual learning experience “Discover the SDGs”, which was initiated by the Conscious Fashion Campaign in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships. The aim of the event is to strengthen the knowledge and commitment within the fashion industry that is needed to further support the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. One component of the event is a virtual and interactive exhibition on the 17 goals, as well as on-demand discussions with industry leaders, United Nations representatives and advocates of the United Nations, including Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board, and Thimo Schwenzfeier, Director Marketing Communications Textiles and Textile Technologies at Messe Frankfurt, as well as from Kering, Lenzing, Allbirds, Arch and Hook, Artistic Milliners, Orta, ITL, Vogue Business, CFDA, Collina Strada and the Swarovski Foundation.

“This is a critical time to accelerate partnerships to address the world's biggest challenges – from eliminating poverty, hunger and inequalities to reversing climate change and unsustainable consumption and production practices,” said Annemarie Hou, acting Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Partnerships. “The fashion industry is an important ally for the United Nations in this Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030.”

Conscious Fashion Campaign becomes a presenting partner of Frankfurt Fashion Week
Joining forces to improve the fashion industry: Frankfurt Fashion Week is positioning itself as the host of the future of fashion and actively driving forward the transformation towards a future-oriented, more sustainable fashion and textile industry. All decision-makers looking to instigate this change will be coming together in Frankfurt am Main from 5-9 July 2021. The initiators of Frankfurt Fashion Week – Messe Frankfurt and the Premium Group – have achieved a real coup: Conscious Fashion Campaign, working in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships, will be the presenting partner. Messe Frankfurt will build on its collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be a prerequisite for exhibitors by 2023. And the Frankfurt Fashion SDG Summit by CFC is set to become the leading international conference for sustainability in the fashion world.

Expansion of internal sustainability communication
17 goals, 58 textile events worldwide, around 600,000 visitors and 23,000 exhibitors in 2019: with its global events, the Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network offers unique reach for supporting the SDGs, even during the corona pandemic. The participating subsidiary companies, sales partners and Messe Frankfurt partners abroad who organise the relevant events play an important role in this. To actively expand knowledge about and further commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Texpertise Network is organising several online seminars, including for staff members in Argentina, Ethiopia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa and the USA and thus expanding its internal sustainability communication.

SDG actions up to now
Ever since the expanded collaboration between the Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network, the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations Office for Partnerships was announced at the UN headquarters in New York in December 2019, the international Messe Frankfurt textile events have implemented numerous measures to support the SDGs.

At the Messe Frankfurt textile events in Germany alone, a number of things came to fruition: the most recent physical and digital editions of Heimtextil, the leading trade fair for home and contract textiles and Neonyt, global hub for fashion, sustainability and innovation, offered panel discussions, press conferences and video messages, including with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and United Nations Office for Partnerships. An SDG Lounge in the Green Village at Heimtextil and selfie walls with the SDGs inspired exhibitors, visitors and influencers alike to engage with the 17 goals and share them on their social network channels. Podcasts were produced that can still be listened to on the Neonyt and Heimtextil channels and Neonyt also hosted e.g. the influencer challenge “Let's wear the goals!”.

A great deal has also already been achieved internationally: in March 2019, Neonyt organised a showcase with selected Neonyt brands to mark the foundation of the “UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion” in Nairobi. Techtextil India launched Techtextil NEXT at its 2019 edition, India’s first hackathon for technical textiles and sustainability. Among those who attended were Shrikar Dhole, founder and CEO of the SDG Foundation and Niharika Gautam, who campaigns for the achievement of the SDGs in the fashion industry and co-leads the fashion section of the All Ladies League Delhi. The Heimtextil Russia 2020 Digital Edition was able to attract a prominent figure to give a message of greeting, namely Vladimir Kuznetsov, head of the UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Moscow. The digital edition of Texworld USA (now Texworld New York City) and Apparel Sourcing USA in summer 2020 offered a talk by the Conscious Fashion Campaign and supported the production of a podcast with Claire Kells from the UN Global Compact.

With its SDG actions to date, Messe Frankfurt Texpertise Network is estimated to have reached around 146,000 visitors, 170,000 followers on social media channels and 65,000 subscribers to newsletters about participating events at home and abroad. Added to this is also the approx. 2.5 million followers of the influencers involved in the actions.

Carl Meiser GmbH & Co. KG (c) Carl Meiser GmbH & Co. KG
06.10.2020

Nopma - Experts for antimicrobial finishing: Technical textile coatings from the Swabian Alb

The Carl Meiser GmbH & Co. KG - started in the early 1950s as a day- and nightwear manufacturer. Over the last 20 years the company has become a specialist in the field of technical textiles. With its brand nopma Technical Textiles the company is present as developer and producer of textile solutions via coatings. The main products are nopma anti-slip - textiles with anti-slip effect, nopma adhesion - adhesive pre-coated films, spacer fabrics and substrates for lamination in automotive interiors, nopma ceramics - abrasive more resistant textile surfaces and nopma silicones - silicone coatings on textile surfaces.

Textination talked to the managing director, Jens Meiser, who joined the company in 2005, realigned the division and developed it into a service provider, about his plans and objectives.

The Carl Meiser GmbH & Co. KG - started in the early 1950s as a day- and nightwear manufacturer. Over the last 20 years the company has become a specialist in the field of technical textiles. With its brand nopma Technical Textiles the company is present as developer and producer of textile solutions via coatings. The main products are nopma anti-slip - textiles with anti-slip effect, nopma adhesion - adhesive pre-coated films, spacer fabrics and substrates for lamination in automotive interiors, nopma ceramics - abrasive more resistant textile surfaces and nopma silicones - silicone coatings on textile surfaces.

Textination talked to the managing director, Jens Meiser, who joined the company in 2005, realigned the division and developed it into a service provider, about his plans and objectives.

Founded in 1952, Carl Meiser GmbH & Co.KG has changed from a day- and nightwear manufacturer to an innovator in the field of technical textiles, presenting themselves as a specialist for plastic-based coating processes. If you had to introduce yourself in 100 words to someone who does not know the company: What has influenced you most in this development process and what makes you unique?
Innovation is the new normal - This has been true for the textile industry not just since Sars CoV-2. Our industry was one of the first to be disrupted in the early 1990s and has always been subject to constant change. This urge for further development, which is essential for survival, has left its mark on us intensively and has enabled us to manage huge leaps in innovation in recent years

Today we regard ourselves as an innovative development and production service provider with a focus on textile coating. We develop and produce almost exclusively customized special solutions.

Through the combination of coatings on textiles these hybrid materials receive completely new properties.

You manufacture exclusively at your location in Germany. Why? Have you never been tempted to set up subsidiaries in other countries, for example to benefit from lower wage levels?
Today we supply global supply chains from our headquarter in southern Germany. Although we produce in a high-wage country, much more important for us are know-how and the drive of our team to create something new. Globalization will continue to be the key to success in the future. Therefore, subsidiaries in North America and Asia could be very interesting for us in the medium- and long-term perspective. However, this is still too early for us.

You use CIP and Kaizen techniques intensively in your company. How did a Japanese concept come about in the Swabian Alb?
KAIZEN, the change for the better, are actually German virtues. The urge to improve and optimize things is in all of us. Due to the continuous improvement process we do not stand still but evolve constantly. Besides, there is the personal affinity to Japan. A look at another culture simply opens the horizon. And if you additionally recognize parallels in the working methods, it’s even better. 

10 years ago, you turned your attention to new markets: aviation, automotive, protection, caravan and furniture manufacturing, to name just a few. Some of these segments have collapsed significantly during the Covid 19 pandemic. What market development do you expect in the medium term and what consequences will this have for your company?
Of course, the aviation or automotive industry, for example, have substantial problems during or due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Quite honestly, many of these problems existed before. They were further tightened, as if a fire accelerator has been used. Of course, these cut-backs are also hitting us hard economically. But we are pursuing long-term goals. As a medium-sized company, you have to have the resilience to continue on your path. Thanks to our specialisation and the split of our industrial sectors, which we drive forward every day, we manage to decouple ourselves more and more from economic developments in individual industries. For our customers this is a great advantage of relying on a very stable partner with long-term orientation.

We are positive about the future. Megatrends like sustainability, digitization and ongoing globalization will lead to new business models in the above-mentioned sectors, as in many others, and to renewed growth. Our coatings on textiles and flexible woven materials can contribute a wide range of solutions to this. If, for example, materials become lighter with identical usage properties or suddenly become biodegradable, because of biodegradable plastics, many new opportunities will arise.

Tailor-made instead of solutions for major customers: The topic of individualization down to batch size 1 is making up a large part of the discussion today. In 2015, you opened a large development laboratory where you have a wide range of testing technologies for textiles and plastics available. What do you think about individual product solutions, and in which application areas have you successfully implemented them?
In principle, we do not use any standards. We live individualization with the smallest possible batch sizes. In our field, we do not manage batch size 1, but we start with MOQs of 300 running meters at process-safe series production. We have very few finished products, and above all we have no collections. Our development laboratory is the key for this. Together with our customers we have the possibilities to realize very lean development processes.

Even on a laboratory scale, we can develop and test new products within just a few hours. We then strive to scale up to production at a very early stage in order to obtain production series results. This way, we offer our clients speed and power that represent a special potential for our partners.

You register important input factors in the production process and evaluate them in monthly environmental analyses. What are these factors in concrete terms and to what extent have their analyses already changed production operations? How do you define environmental management for your company?
For us, environmental management means a holistic approach. In principle, we operate production units and manufacture products that consume many resources. Due to the high production volumes, this continues to accumulate. Because of this, it is self-understanding that we record and evaluate our input and output flows and derive measures from them. This makes economic sense, but is also necessary because of our responsibility for our environment. Specifically, these are energy consumption values, consumption data of primary chemicals, electricity load peaks, our Co2 footprint, just to name a few. This consideration has changed us in many areas. Today we operate a power plant with gas condensing technology, our free roof areas are greened or carry photovoltaic modules, we offer our employees and visitors electric filling stations and finally we have converted the entire power supply of our factory to environmentally friendly hydroelectric power.

With nopma, you have been building up a brand for the technical textiles industry since several years and communicate this via an Individual website parallel to Carl Meiser GmbH & Co. KG. How did this brand name come about and what is the product portfolio behind it?
This is the name of a first technical textile product from the 1990s. It was a textile - coated with dots. Dots on a knitted fabric. NOPMA. My father created this brand.

In 2016 you invested in an additional production line for nopma products and were able to start a directly serial delivery in the NAFTA area. How do you currently assess the market opportunities for North America and Mexico?
We continue to see opportunities in globalization and thus on the North American market also. However, these markets are still severely affected by the pandemic and there are major distortions. When these return to normal, we surely will see more success on these markets again.

As an innovation leader, Meiser offers solvent-free PU adhesive systems as pre-coatings for lamination. How do you assess the importance of such innovations in the context of REACH?
These innovations offer our customers the opportunity to decouple themselves from the pressure REACH triggers in some industries. However, we also have some products that have been developed newly in recent months. This keeps us busy, but also creates opportunities to open up new market segments.

How have you felt about the corona era to date - as a company and personally? What would you on no account want to go through again and what might you even consider maintaining on a daily basis?
I think this time has also strengthened us as a society, as people and even as entrepreneurs. Each crisis you go through makes you a little more relaxed for the unforeseen, but also more motivated to achieve your goals. In my opinion, there have been a lot of positive things in the last few months. Suddenly, for example, digitalization tools have become accepted in our everyday lives, and I feel that people are paying more attention to others again. Hopefully this will stay this way.

The futuristic "tube" escalator at the Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall is just as impressive as the building itself and the longest escalator in western Europe. In August, a start-up based in Cologne installed an UV technology that keeps the handrails clean at all times. At the same time, you presented an antiviral functional coating that can be applied to all textiles in the form of yard goods. How does this work and for what purposes will this technology be suitable?
We have already been working with antimicrobial finishing techniques for many years. This already started with the swine flu in 2009/2010, when we made initial contacts with a young start-up and launched a development. Due to a lack of market interest, however, this had to be discontinued after a few months. Today we are experts in the field of "antimicrobial equipment by means of coatings". We were also able to build up an enormous amount of knowledge on the subject of approval and biocide regulation. Today, we can support our customers holistically in these areas. The function by skin-compatible active substances from the cosmetics sector with a vesicle booster can kill viruses and bacteria within a few minutes.
Since the pandemic has shown us the enormous importance of a new level of hygiene, the applications are very diverse and differentiated. We have already realized the use in personal protective equipment, work furniture, vehicles and for example gloves. In principle, every application is predestined where textile carriers are exposed to many touches by different persons in high frequency. Here our nopma products offer a new level of protection and hygiene.

To break new ground means decisiveness, overcoming fears - and thus the courage to fail. Not every project can succeed. In retrospect - about which entrepreneurial decision are you particularly glad to have made it?
We fail again and again. This is part of the game. But it has never happened that we did not learn anything. The pandemic situation is another good example. In spring we accepted our corporate responsibility for our society and were one of two companies in Baden-Württemberg to achieve certification for FFP protective masks. Since we did not want to participate in the revolver market at that time, we offered these products only to the public sector at favourable pre-crisis prices. However, the decision makers could not make up their minds for weeks and did not order. This disappointed our whole team very much at that time. Today we have overcome this and have taken a lot of knowledge with us from this development.


The interview was conducted by Ines Chucholowius, CEO Textination GmbH

INVENTING TECHNOLOGIES NO ONE CAN COPY… I.S.T © I.S.T Corporation
03.03.2020

INVENTING TECHNOLOGIES NO ONE CAN COPY… I.S.T

NEW HIGH-TECH FIBERS AND YARNS FOR THE SPORTS AND LEISURE MARKET 

With its trade fair premiere at this year's ISPO Munich at the end of January, a newcomer in the sportswear and outdoor market has achieved a well-received appearance: For the first time in Europe, the Japanese company I.S.T Corporation presented its new high-tech fiber and a spinning technology with amazing possibilities at their booth with extensive augmented reality technology. In the sports industry, I.S.T is only known to a few, although there have been first cooperations with well-known manufacturers such as Patagonia in the last seasons.

NEW HIGH-TECH FIBERS AND YARNS FOR THE SPORTS AND LEISURE MARKET 

With its trade fair premiere at this year's ISPO Munich at the end of January, a newcomer in the sportswear and outdoor market has achieved a well-received appearance: For the first time in Europe, the Japanese company I.S.T Corporation presented its new high-tech fiber and a spinning technology with amazing possibilities at their booth with extensive augmented reality technology. In the sports industry, I.S.T is only known to a few, although there have been first cooperations with well-known manufacturers such as Patagonia in the last seasons.

The CEO and president, Ms. Toshiko “Toko” Sakane, answered Textination's questions. She has been running the company - founded by her father - since November 2016. After completing her bachelor's degree in sociology / human sciences, she worked in the office of the House of Representatives of the Japanese Parliament and the former Japanese Minister of Health and Social Affairs. Later she was managing director of the I.S.T Corporation in Parlin, New Jersey, USA, founded in 2000 - a manufacturer of unique, high-temperature resistant resin materials.

I.S.T is a Japanese company with a comparatively young history. Originally founded in 1983 as an R&D company, you are now also based in the United States and in China. If you had to introduce yourself in 100 words to someone who doesn't know the company: What makes you unique?
I.S.T Corporation is an R&D-oriented Japanese material company with the claim to "invent technologies that no one can imitate". What makes us uniquely competent is our integrated process of material development, innovating our own in-house production methodologies and advancing production technologies. Through this end-to-end cycle, we can achieve various advantages including developing complete original products, securing best quality assurance, and, most importantly, letting us discover new innovations. I.S.T is committed to keep innovating new technologies so they can contribute to enriching people’s lives more.   

Your slogan is: make the impossible possible. In which markets and from which industries do you feel particularly challenged? And with which product innovations for the textile industry do you think you can move the most?
I.S.T’s focus is sporting goods and apparel industry because materials used in this industry demand a wide variety of functionalities and are likely used in extreme conditions. We find it challenging and exciting to offer our advanced innovations. As for the textile industry, we believe our KARL KARL™ spinning technology offers a new great solution for winter active inner wears because it offers all the functions they want, such as warmness, being light-weighted, and easy-care.

A central guideline of the company is the motto "Inventing technologies no-one can copy". Patent protection and a consistent brand policy characterize your activities in the market. But patents can expire and brands can be copied, what makes you uncopiable?
A patent or brand can be copied. However, what makes it impossible to copy us is that our core technologies are embedded throughout our integrated process of material development, in-house production methodologies and advancing production technologies. For example, our KARL KARL™ technology is spinning technology that offers multiple functionalities in one yarn and also can be applied to all different types of and hybrid yarns.
There are some other companies that claim their yarns having a similar function with ours, but those are single function and in a particular type of yarn. This is the most fundamental and significant difference between technologies and competitors. Other companies may be able to copy a single function from us, but it will never be the same as our products that are the results of layers and layers of our integrated innovations.
          
Initially focused on selling technology, you are now a major fiber producer yourself. In addition, you have expanded your portfolio in the past 15 years - for example in the wool market - through acquisitions in Japan and China. Where do you see I.S.T as a player in the textile sector in 2030?
Just as you see a GORE-TEX tag on any outerwear, I would like to see brand names produced by I.S.T on every sports and fashion apparel and people instantly recognize it as the sign of most advanced functional materials.

For the first time you attended ISPO Munich 2020 in January as an exhibitor to present the high-tech fiber IMIDETEX® and new KARL KARL™ yarns to the sporting goods and outdoor industry. What is so special about these two products and what makes them so suitable for use in these markets?  
IMIDETEX®, made of 100% polyimide resin and commonly used in outer space, has possess various advantageous characteristics that other existing super fibers couldn’t overcome, including it being high UV resistant, heat resistant, low water absorption, and has a high tensile strength.
Examples of possible applications for the outdoor market as in composites, would include highly resistive but also durable golf shafts or tennis rackets that can minimize the impact sent to players, and a bicycle that can absorb the shock from the ground throughout a long and competitive race. As for textile, it makes an incredibly durable sail that endures an unforgiving sun. Finally, as yarns IMIDETEX® makes a light-weighted but super strong ropes that people can trust their lives with. IMIDETEX® can provide great performances in extreme natural conditions.
KARL KARL™ is the patented spinning technology that multiplies one core thread with another thread. By expanding the yarn structure itself, it achieves lightness and warmness, which are two seemingly opposite characters to coexist. This technology can be applied to wool, cotton, silk, polyester, nylon … plus there are endless possibilities of developing new yarns by combining different characteristic yarns.
These materials by I.S.T are unrivaled and present infinite possibilities for richer designs in sports fashion scenes.

In a world in which great value is placed on nature and natural materials, man-made fibers are not always welcome. On your website you postulate, I.S.T contributes to the people around the world through chemistry for a better life style. Which aspects make a good case for that?
Our brand-new product, faux-fur, made with KARL KARL™ technology is a good example of our contribution to keep the good balance of natural and synthetic.
The real fur is fashionable but it’s a symbol of animal abuse nowadays. To conserve the nature, our KARL KARL™ faux-fur offers an alternative to fashion, while preventing polluting the ocean from using micro fibers.    

In which socially relevant subject areas do you see a particularly great need for innovation and action during the next 5 years? What is your assessment that your company will be able to offer solutions for this with its products?
We believe that light-weight is a major key factor for better lives and the planet because it allows to save energies and expand the performances.
As the first step, we are bringing in our light-weight technologies, such as IMIDETEX® composites and KARL KARL™ technology, to sporting gears and apparels to support our active lifestyle before extending those technologies to all other markets that can benefit from them.

There are various definitions for sustainability. Customers expect everything under this term - from climate protection to ecology, from local on-site production to the exclusion of child labor etc. What do you do to bring this term to life for your company and what activities or certifications do you rely on?
I.S.T's taking this subject seriously in any aspects. We aggressively approach to research and develop technologies and materials that can support human lives and planet, as well as bringing in sustainable methods and materials to our operations. For instance, we are developing a yarn making from cellulose taken out of used papers without using any harmful chemicals to humans. Also, we invested in a state-of-the-art low emission production facility to make Polyimide materials.
We are RWS (Responsible Wool Standard) certified yarn spinner as far as wool is concerned and we are using RWS certified wool fiber. As for polyester, we are using GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified recycled polyester and as for cotton, we are using organic cotton fiber. Moreover, our company values producing materials that last forever and not to produce any wastes and/or one-time use materials.
          
Where do you get your inspiration from to research certain technologies or products? Which orders or inquiries from the textile supply chain play a decisive role?
You may think that our life is already filled with things and there isn’t a thing that we cannot get in this world. And yes, we have everything. Yet there are some functions you wish you had in addition to full of those things.
The original idea of developing KARL KARL™ technology was that we wanted to adapt functions like lightness, warmness, quick-drying and easy-care that synthetic fibers have, into natural fibers such as wool and cotton because, obviously natural fibers are much friendlier to human and the earth than petroleum-based fibers.
We believe in and keep our corporate missions: “Develop and manufacture products no others have tried before” and “Handle high-value added products”. Our inspirations for R&D come from our belief, “bringing a wish into a reality”. We do not get an inspiration from others. Our innovations inspire customers and the market.

Breaking new ground means willingness to make decisions, overcoming fears - and thus courage to fail. Not every project can succeed. In retrospect, which entrepreneurial decision are you particularly happy to have made?
Actually, for us, there is no such thing as failed projects because we never give up until each and every project becomes successful.
By carrying on our original corporate missions of “Develop and manufacture products no others have tried before” and “Confront difficulties” that my father, the founder of I.S.T, established almost forty years ago, I.S.T members including myself have learned the joy of overcoming problems and of feeling the victory.
When I took over the business, I have set my goal to “move forward to the global market to inspire the world with our technologies”.
Most recently, by making the decision to enter the sporting gears and apparel market and receiving very positive responses at the ISPO Munich 2020, I’m very pleased that we have made one step forward toward my goal.

The interview was conducted by Ines Chucholowius, CEO Textination GmbH

TECHNICAL TEXTILES CONTINUE STEDAY RISE IN SHARE OF TOTAL EU TEXTILE PRODUCTION Foto: Gerd Altmann, Pixabay
26.11.2019

TECHNICAL TEXTILES CONTINUE STEDAY RISE IN SHARE OF TOTAL EU TEXTILE PRODUCTION

  • European Textile and Clothing Sector consolidates satisfactory evolution in 2018

The EU textile and Clothing industry finished the year 2018 with a consolidation of the positive key figures achieved over the last 5 years. First data published by Eurostat enhanced by EURATEX’s own calculations and estimates show a total industry turnover of € 178 billion, a minimal increase to last year’s € 177.6 billion, but significantly above the 2013 figure of € 163.8 billion. Investments of € 5.0 billion again increased slightly, as they did every year since 2013.

Employment of 1.66 million registered a small dip compared to 2017 but remained essentially unchanged over the last 5 years – a remarkable achievement for a sector that keeps realizing labour efficiencies. As a result, the average turnover per employee has increased from 97,000 € in 2013 to 107,000 € in 2018. Over the last 10 years, turnover and value-added per employee have increased by over 30%.

  • European Textile and Clothing Sector consolidates satisfactory evolution in 2018

The EU textile and Clothing industry finished the year 2018 with a consolidation of the positive key figures achieved over the last 5 years. First data published by Eurostat enhanced by EURATEX’s own calculations and estimates show a total industry turnover of € 178 billion, a minimal increase to last year’s € 177.6 billion, but significantly above the 2013 figure of € 163.8 billion. Investments of € 5.0 billion again increased slightly, as they did every year since 2013.

Employment of 1.66 million registered a small dip compared to 2017 but remained essentially unchanged over the last 5 years – a remarkable achievement for a sector that keeps realizing labour efficiencies. As a result, the average turnover per employee has increased from 97,000 € in 2013 to 107,000 € in 2018. Over the last 10 years, turnover and value-added per employee have increased by over 30%.

The brightest spot again is the export figure, which grew by 7% compared to last year and for the first time reached € 50 billion. The industry’s extra-EU exports which now stand at 28% of annual turnover, up from less than 20% 10 years ago, is the clearest proof of the increasing global competitiveness of Europe’s textile and clothing companies.

European high quality textiles and premium fashion products are in growing demand, both in high income countries such as the United States (our biggest export destination in non-European countries with € 6 billion), Switzerland, Japan or Canada, but also emerging countries such as China and Hong Kong (over € 6.7 billion in combined exports), Russia, Turkey and the Middle-East.

European exports benefit from faster economic growth in many non-European markets, but also from better market access as a result of successful EU trade negotiations with countries such as South Korea, Canada or Japan.

Since 2015, export growth has slightly outpaced import growth, which means that our trade deficit of approximately € 65 billion has stopped widening. Rather than an absolute import growth, recent  years have brought important shifts in the main import countries. While China remains by far the number one import source, lower cost countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam have gained in relative importance, especially for clothing.

Technical textiles are an undisputed success story of the European industry. Exact figures for this part of the industry are difficult to compute due to the dual use of many yarns and fabrics for both technical and conventional applications. National statistics become available only with a significant time lag or remain unpublished for smaller EU countries. For 2016, EURATEX estimates that EU industry turnover of technical textiles, (including yarn-type, fabric-type and non-woven materials but excluding any made-up articles) reached about € 24 billion or 27% of total textile industry turnover. Over the years this percentage has steadily grown and is expected to continue to do so in the future.

Italy and Germany are Europe’s biggest producers of technical textiles, each producing over € 4.5 billion worth of technical textiles per year. The highest share for technical textiles in national textile turnover is registered in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Finland and central European countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic or Slovenia. The fastest growth of technical textiles over the last 10 years has been achieved by Poland, followed by Belgium, Austria and Portugal. This clearly demonstrates that technical textiles are gaining in importance all over Europe.

Labour productivity is much higher in the technical textiles part of the industry. Turnover per employee stands at € 215,000, more than twice the average textile and clothing industry rate. In this regard, EURATEX Innovation & Skills Director Lutz Walter indicates how “innovation and employee expertise are fundamental to reach and defend the strong technical textile position of the EU industry”.

In terms of international trade, both exports and imports of technical textiles have grown continuously over the years, with an almost zero trade balance in Euro terms. However, when looking into the product category types, it is clear that Europe’s trade balance is massively positive in higher added value products such as medical textiles, highly technical finished fabrics and non-wovens, but negative in such categories as bags, sacks, tarpaulins or cleaning cloths.

Again the United States is Europe’s largest technical textiles customer, followed by China, which has registered very fast growth in recent years.

 

More information:
Euratex Technical Textiles
Source:

EURATEX

Composites Europe 2019 (c) Photos: Reed Exhibitions/ Oliver Wachenfeld
30.07.2019

COMPOSITES EUROPE 2019: Digital Process Chain makes Fibre Composites Competitive

  • Strong Triple: COMPOSITES EUROPE, International Composites Conference and Lightweight Technologies Forum
  • “Process live” special areas showcase technological progress
  • Co-located event: Foam Expo Europe

The composites industry provides important impetus – for lightweight construction and material innovations in automotive, aviation, mechanical engineering, construction, wind power as well as in the sports and leisure sectors. So in international competition it is solutions with a high degree of automation that are in demand. COMPOSITES EUROPE from 10 to 12 September will present the trends and advances in the production and processing of fibre-reinforced plastics in Stuttgart. The trade fair will be accompanied by the International Composites Conference and the Lightweight Technologies Forum. Also held in parallel at the Messe Stuttgart premises will be Foam Expo Europe.

  • Strong Triple: COMPOSITES EUROPE, International Composites Conference and Lightweight Technologies Forum
  • “Process live” special areas showcase technological progress
  • Co-located event: Foam Expo Europe

The composites industry provides important impetus – for lightweight construction and material innovations in automotive, aviation, mechanical engineering, construction, wind power as well as in the sports and leisure sectors. So in international competition it is solutions with a high degree of automation that are in demand. COMPOSITES EUROPE from 10 to 12 September will present the trends and advances in the production and processing of fibre-reinforced plastics in Stuttgart. The trade fair will be accompanied by the International Composites Conference and the Lightweight Technologies Forum. Also held in parallel at the Messe Stuttgart premises will be Foam Expo Europe.

Trade fair visitors will meet with over 300 exhibitors from 30 nations who will be displaying materials, technical solutions and innovative application examples in Stuttgart. Apart from novel products the trade fair will place special emphasis on innovative process engineering. Visitors will learn about the state of play in serial production and new applications in the composites industry in the exhibition area as well as on numerous special areas, on themed guided tours, at the accompanying International Composites Conference and at the Lightweight Technologies Forum, which is dedicated to the trends in multi-material lightweight construction.

“Process live”: Technologies in Synergy
Perfectly coordinated processing and manufacturing processes will be centre stage at the “Process live” event. On shared exhibition space machinery and equipment manufacturers will exhibit their technologies in concert and – what’s more – in operation so as to show the different individual processes in a real context.  

On display, to name but one exhibit, is VAP®, the Vacuum Assisted Process patented by Airbus, which will be in the limelight in the Trans-Textil and Composyst special area. This process permits the one-step production of large-surface and geometrically complex components without an autoclave, which is why it is particularly suitable for structural components in aviation, wind power, shipbuilding, in rail and road transport, in machinery and device manufacturing as well as in architecture and in the leisure industry.

The “Process live” special area care of cutting specialists GUNNAR from Switzerland specifically targets the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) with its small and medium-sized companies. Jointly with laser projection expert LAP and composites engineering expert SCHEURER Swiss, GUNNAR introduces a connected overall process that fuses modern machinery and software with specialists’ manual jobs. The point of departure here is an automated manufacturing process for sorted layer placement in small and medium quantities involving a certain degree of skilled labour.

Fibre composite specialist Hacotech will present CNC-controlled cutting processes and various finishing possibilities in cooperation with Aristo Graphic Systeme and Lavesan. Alongside cutting, production preparation and customised sizing, the production of dimensionally correct templates and the cutting and custom-sizing of composite materials and prepregs will be on show.

Cutting technology is also centre stage in the special area of Rebstock Consulting, Broetje-Automation and Zünd Systemtechnik, which will be taking part in “Process live” with “Automated Sorting and Kitting”.

Composite producer Saertex and chemical company Scott Bader will demonstrate the RTM process for producing and curing a laminate that complies with the highest fire protection requirements in as little as 1 hour.   

5th International Composites Conference (ICC)
Serial production, stable processes, new markets – the International Composites Conference (ICC) is set to inject a fresh breeze for innovations into the market and to this end brings together processors and users of fibre-reinforced plastics from all over Europe. For the first time, this renowned Conference will be held in parallel with COMPOSITES EUROPE. The lecture programme put together by the trade association Composites Germany and the trade fair will also move closer in terms of content.  

One of tomorrow’s cross-cutting themes keeping the entire industry on its toes are multi-material solutions in nearly all industrial applications. In the construction sector the Conference also deals with the rising use of carbon concrete. Process engineering will focus on processing thermoplastic materials for serial production and stable processes for thermoset plastic processing.  

The partner country of the Conference is the United Kingdom. Especially against the backdrop of the current Brexit debate the ICC aims to foster exchange among all European countries. After all, the UK is among the biggest producers of composites components in Europe.

Themed Tours on Digitalisation, Fibre Glass, Thermoplastics, Automotive and Wind Power
Guided tours and hands-on demonstrations in the exhibition halls complement the conference programme. Themed guided tours revolving around composites application, materials and markets guide trade fair visitors and congress delegates right to the stands of selected exhibitors, who will share with visitors their innovations in the fields of digitalisation of composites production, automotive manufacturing, building and construction, fibreglass, new mobility, thermoplastic materials and wind power.  

New ideas on special areas and joint stands
“Material and Production Technology” is the name of the new special area set up under the guidance of the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) of the RWTH Aachen University. In cooperation with other institutes such as the Aachen Center for Integrative Lightweight Production (AZL) the IKV will place manufacturing technology centre stage at the trade fair. In particular, the special area will trace the path from scientific development to practical, industrial implementation.

Tomorrow’s automotive experts will also be given a separate forum: under the heading “Formula Student” students and trainees will present to visitors racing cars and bikes they have engineered.

Lightweight Technologies Forum: platform for multi-material lightweight construction
Lightweight construction remains a driver across the board for many developments in the composites sector. The Lightweight Technologies Forum (LTF) held as part of COMPOSITES EUROPE makes it clear how lightweight construction can be achieved in an economical and resource-efficient manner. This Forum views itself as a cross-industry and multi-material think tank where all parties involved can reflect on these new concepts.

To this end, the Forum in Stuttgart pools lightweight construction projects from automotive manufacturing, aviation and aerospace and mechanical engineering, to name but a few industries that serve as a driving force for many sectors with high demands made on materials, security and reliability.  

This year’s keynote speakers include Airbus Innovation Manager Peter Pirklbauer, lightweight construction expert Prof. Jörg Wellnitz (TU Ingolstadt), Dutch racing driver Jeroen Bleekemolen and lightweight construction, aviation and aerospace specialist Claus Georg Bayreuther (AMC). In their talks they will provide an overview of reference projects and novel manufacturing and joining technologies.  

Combining its own exhibition space with a lecture forum, the LTF demonstrates how glass-fibre reinforced plastics (GRP) and carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) leverage their strengths mixed with other materials in hybrid structural components. Exhibitors at the Forum and in the neighbouring Lightweight Area include “Leichtbau-Zentrum Sachsen” (Lightweight Construction Center Saxony), Chem-Trend, Gößl + Pfaff, Krempel, Mitsui Chemicals Europe, Leichtbau BW, the VDMA, Gustav Gerster, Potters Ballotini (UK), Yuho (Japan), Riba Composites (Italy) and Stamixco (Switzerland) as well as the journals Lightweight Design (Springer Fachmedien) and Automobil Industrie (Vogel Communications Group), to name but a few.

“Ultralight in Space”: market study on lightweight construction trends in the aerospace industry
The aerospace industry has always served as a pioneer for ultra-lightweight construction pushing many disciplines to their limits as a driver of innovation. The latest technical trends are currently under scrutiny via a market study carried out by consultancy Automotive Management Consulting (AMC) in cooperation with the Luxembourg-based aerospace OEM GRADEL. The results will be presented for the first time at the LTF in Stuttgart on 10 September.  

Presentation of the AVK Innovation Prize
Innovative products and applications in fibre-reinforced plastics, manufacturing processes and the latest insights from research and science, will again be recognised by the German trade association AVK – Industrievereinigung Verstärkte Kunststoffe e. V. with its renowned Innovation Prize. The winners will be announced as part of the trade fair on 10 September and the award-winning products and projects will be on display in a special area.

Presentation of the SMB-BMC Design Award
The European Alliance for SMC BMC will announce the winners of the SMC BMC Design Award 2019 – also on 10 September. The contest already held for the second time now, honours and promotes the design excellence of students or young design professionals who use SMC and BMC components (sheet and bulk moulding compounds) in their designs. This year saw sustainable mobility take centre stage as a theme.

COMPOSITES Night
The event to celebrate the midway point of the trade fair: the COMPOSITES Night at the end of the second trade fair day offers visitors and exhibitors additional opportunities for networking. Participants are in for buffets and live music at the Stage Palladium Theater in Stuttgart.

Matchmaking programme makes trade fair visit more efficient
Thanks to the complimentary networking & meeting platform “matchmaking” visitors and exhibitors can already reach out to contacts in the run-up to COMPOSITES EUROPE. Who is at the trade fair? Who has answers to your specific questions? Who can you team up with to turn new ideas into practice? The matchmaking platform allows you to “filter” and make direct appointments with potential cooperation partners by product category, industry, country, or company.

Career & Composites
With its career&composites stand COMPOSITES EUROPE targets students and graduates who can come here to establish contact with potential employers. On the special area the exhibitors present their companies to interested junior employees and attract attention to vacancies and career opportunities via a Job Wall.

Co-located with Foam Expo Europe
COMPOSITES EUROPE will be co-located with Foam Expo Europe for the first time. This trade fair covers the supply chain of technical foam production and presents moulded, rigid and soft foam solutions – from raw materials to equipment and machinery. The parallel exhibition dates generate special synergies for gaining an overview of lightweight construction materials for such shared applications as the automotive, aviation, construction and sports & leisure industries.

© Koelnmesse GmbH, Kind + Jugend
23.07.2019

KIND + JUGEND 2019: ONCE AGAIN AROUND 1,200 PROVIDERS FROM MORE THAN 50 COUNTRIES

  • For the first time with a Start-up Area
  • More than 200 applications for the Innovation Award
  • New concept for The Connected Kidsroom
  • Kids Design Award
  • Design Parc
  • Trend Forum with concentrated lectures

 
Kind + Jugend in Cologne: it is not only the most important and most international business and communication platform of the baby and toddler outfitting industry. It is surely also the world's most inspiring and cheerful event for this theme. For the coming trade fair from 19 to 22 September 2019, around 1,200 providers from more than 50 countries will present an almost complete overview of the latest trends and products for the first baby and toddler years.

  • For the first time with a Start-up Area
  • More than 200 applications for the Innovation Award
  • New concept for The Connected Kidsroom
  • Kids Design Award
  • Design Parc
  • Trend Forum with concentrated lectures

 
Kind + Jugend in Cologne: it is not only the most important and most international business and communication platform of the baby and toddler outfitting industry. It is surely also the world's most inspiring and cheerful event for this theme. For the coming trade fair from 19 to 22 September 2019, around 1,200 providers from more than 50 countries will present an almost complete overview of the latest trends and products for the first baby and toddler years.

As usual, top, smaller and medium-sized companies will explore the extensive bandwidth of the theme worlds. These include the baby carriage, children's car seat, children's furniture, textile and care outfitting, hygiene item, safety and networked electronics, as well as educational toys and toys sections. The trademarks of the exhibitors and thus also of the trade fair are the high quality requirements for the products and concepts shown, as well as the wealth of innovations presented.

The theme of sustainability is also proving to be a growing trend. Kind + Jugend is also offering the manufacturers of textiles a special listing service for the first time this year. The event programme at Kind + Jugend, with award ceremonies, special events and impulse lectures on the most important themes also plays a central role for the representation and mediating of trends.

Among the key players exhibiting at Kind + Jugend 2019 are ABC Design, Angelcare, Artsana/Chicco, Babybjörn, Babymoov, bibi/Lamprecht, Bébécar, Brevi, Britax Römer, Cam il mondo, Cybex, Delta Children, Diono, Dorel, Doudou et Compagnie, Ergobaby, Easywalker, Foppapedretti, Geuther, Haba, Hartan, Hauck, HTS Besafe, iCandy, Infantino, Jané/Concord, Joie/Nuna, Joolz, Julius Zöllner, Kaloo/Juratoys, Lässig, Leander, Mayborn/tommee-tippee, Melissa&Doug, Micuna, Munchkin, Mutsy, Nattou, Newell, Nuby, Odenwälder, Paidi, Peg Perego, Pinolino, reer, Roba Baumann, rotho, Schardt, Sauthon, Sterntaler, Thule, Tobi, Uppababy and Vulli.. New exhibitors or returnees in 2019 once again include Bugaboo, Mattel and Silver Cross. Among the new companies at Kind + Jugend 2019 are APOLO Baby from Japan, Felice from Italy or Warmbebe from France.

The share of foreign exhibitors is once again impressive. Around 85 percent of exhibitors come from abroad, with strong participation of German manufacturers on the whole. Especially well-represented are exhibitors from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the USA, France, Spain and Poland. Belgium and Denmark are also in place with large-scale participation. Asian providers also have their fixed place at the trade fair, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea especially worthy of mention. In addition to this, around 20 companies from Australia exhibit regularly.

The foreign share of visitors is also very high at 75% and spans the globe. In 2018, the trade visitors came to Kind + Jugend in Cologne from 125 countries. Besides Germany, the European nations also take the lead here. Asian, Eastern European and North American buyers were also strongly represented at the trade fair. Visitors come from all segments of the trade: from the specialised and wholesale trade to department stores and chemist's shops, as well as the various online commerce channels.

Kind + Jugend once again covers all levels of halls 10 and 11, as well as hall 4.1, and thus spans a gross exhibition surface of 110,000 m². The clear hall structure with two entrances makes it easier for visitors to orient themselves and clusters the trade fair offerings in clearly defined theme areas. Vistors can prepare for the trade fair especially well with the help of the exhibitor database. On the grounds, the practical trade fair app assists in the search for exhibitors, products and brands. Familiar and new special events, as well as the much appreciated award ceremonies and the trend forum with expert lectures bring out the main points of the trade fair happenings.
 
For the first time: Start-up Area at Kind + Jugend

For the first time, Kind + Jugend is offering young, international companies the opportunity to present themselves in the context of a Start-up Area at favourable conditions. Sixteen providers from six countries will take advantage of the opportunity to exhibit at the world's leading trade fair for the baby and toddler outfitting industry at favourable conditions. The 16 start-ups come from Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands. Their products suit the theme worlds of Kind + Jugend extremely well and extend from a sustainable diaper system through digital measuring devices for child care to exclusive accessories for mothers and children, as well as children's furniture for learning and playing. (Hall 11.1, B50 – C59)

Sustainability and environmental awareness are the trend. Joint action together with BTE for the first time.
Together with the German Textile Trade Association (BTE), which is also a member of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, we will separately list those exhibitors who can attest to the sustainable production of their exhibited textiles by means of recognised seals of approval and/or other certificates. The recognised seals include, for example, GOTS, Oekotex, bluesign or Made in Green. The BTE assumes responsibility for the formal examination of the submissions. The list of manufacturers showing sustainable textiles at the trade fair will be available at the Kind + Jugend website, so that trade fair visitors can plan their tour with a focus on this area of interest.

The Connected Kidsroom
Since 2017, the The Connected Kidsroom special event has drawn attention to digital and smart products or concepts for the outfitting of nurseries and children's rooms. The theme will also receive special attention this year with a new concept. Attractively integrated into a complete children's room with furniture, doors and windows, the special event shows the various products that control technical functions, measure values like the temperature or pulse of the child, regulate climatic room conditions, register movement and much more. All products are already available in retail outlets. In order to be able to represent the functions even more informatively for trade fair visitors, an expert will be on location to demonstrate the applications, provide explanations and answer questions. (Hall 11.2, E21)

Innovation Award
More than 200 applications for the Kind + Jugend Innovation Award have been submitted this year for evaluation by a jury of trade journalists and health experts, a new record. Following intensive consultation, the jury nominates a selection of products for a special event that is regularly one of the crowd pullers at Kind + Jugend. The Innovation Awards are then presented to the eight winners in eight categories on the first day of the trade fair. The award is the most important recognition of innovations in the baby and toddler sector, and is also highly respected outside of the industry.

Kids Design Award
The Kids Design Award promotes products and concepts that distinguish themselves through special design, but are not yet commercially available. The ten best designs of the competition, which Kind + Jugend tenders in advance of the trade fair with a particular view to young designers, are shown in an attractive special area. The winner of the Kids Design Award will also be honoured on the first day of the trade fair (Hall 11.1, D40/E49)

Design Parc
Design has a high standing at Kind + Jugend. International design products that are ready for the market therefore appear in the special event of the Design Parc, which shows select products and furniture – from children's beds to play kitchens and dishes suitable for children. (Hall 11.1, C40 - D59)

Trendforum
The stage of the Trend Forum can once again be found in hall 11.1 this year. Not only are the Innovation Award and the Kids Design Award presented on the first day. All those interested can look forward to a high quality expert lecture program on the first three days of the trade fair. The trend researchers from GfK, Trendbible and The Insights People will once again present market data, as well as trends and tendencies from a global perspective. The German association of children's outfitting manufacturers (BDKH) is also participating once again, this time with a focus on the theme of the children's car seat. (Hall 11.1, E50/F59).

Photo: pasja1000 Pixabay
19.03.2019

SRI LANKA'S APPAREL AND TEXTILE EXPORTS RECEIVE A BOOST

  • Modernization of production facilities required

Thanks to the reactivated GSP import status of the European Union, Sri Lanka's textile and clothing industry is looking to the future with confidence and expects better sales opportunities abroad.

The textile and clothing industry is of macroeconomic importance for Sri Lanka. The sector accounted for almost 43 per cent of the country's total exports in 2018 and provides employment for nearly 350,000 workers in the formal sector and about twice as many in the informal sector. In total, this is about 33 percent of all jobs in the manufacturing industry. The majority of employees are women.

  • Modernization of production facilities required

Thanks to the reactivated GSP import status of the European Union, Sri Lanka's textile and clothing industry is looking to the future with confidence and expects better sales opportunities abroad.

The textile and clothing industry is of macroeconomic importance for Sri Lanka. The sector accounted for almost 43 per cent of the country's total exports in 2018 and provides employment for nearly 350,000 workers in the formal sector and about twice as many in the informal sector. In total, this is about 33 percent of all jobs in the manufacturing industry. The majority of employees are women.

The textile and clothing industry contribute around 6 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP). "In view of the development of other sectors, it is very unlikely that another industry will reach this level of performance in the short to medium term," Jeevani Siriwardena, head of the Export Development Board (EDB), said in an interview with Germany Trade and Invest. The textile and clothing industry will continue to be an important sector for the Sri Lankan economy.

Short to medium-term prospects are good
On May 18th 2017, the European Union (EU) reactivated the Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) status for Sri Lanka after a seven-year time-out. This means that when goods are exported to the EU, the island state is exempted from customs duties on more than 66 percent of customs tariff lines. "Without GSP status, Sri Lanka's export losses are said to have cost around 32 billion between 2010 and 2017," stressed Ravindi Ranaraja, Deputy Head of the Export Service Division of EDB, in a GTAI interview. In particular, the strongly export-oriented clothing and textile industry will benefit from the regained GSP status. Sri Lanka's textile and clothing industry is looking to the future with confidence and also expects better sales opportunities abroad.

Sri Lanka's textile and clothing exports to the EU and Germany in 2018
(in USD million; change year-on-year in %)  
HS-Code Definition
 
EU
 
Change
 
Germany *) Change
 
61 Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted 1,177 0.7 232.55 9.6
62 Garments and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted 874 7.6 151.59 18.1
63 Other made-up textile articles; sets worn clothing and used textile articles 52 18.2 7.8 13.5
Total   2,103 3.9 391.92 12.8

*) Estimation
Sources: Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association; press releases; calculations by Germany Trade & Invest; Destatis, February 2019

Positive impulses are already visible. According to the latest foreign trade figures available, Sri Lanka was able to increase its total exports of textiles and clothing (HS codes 61, 62 and 63) by almost 4.8 percent to approximately USD 5 billion in 2018. Exports to the EU increased by 3.9 percent to USD 2.1 billion. Exports to Germany were able to recover a plus of 12.8 percent.

It is not yet certain that Sri Lanka will be able to make up for the losses of the past. In the meantime, countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, which have already enjoyed tariff concessions in foreign trade with the EU for the entire current decade, have passed by the island state. Bangladesh in particular, recorded a strong increase in its clothing and textile exports compared with Sri Lanka..

Sri Lanka textile and clothing exports 2018 (HS codes 61, 62, 63)
Country In USD million 1)
China 172.4
Vietnam 36.0
Bangladesh 32.9
India 20.9
Indonesia 2) 14.0

1) Estimation; 2) Forecast
Sources: Press Releases; Calculations Germany Trade & Invest, February 2019

Sri Lanka focuses on higher quality products
Numerous domestic textile producers are switching to the production of higher-quality garments in order to maintain their competitiveness. "In Sri Lanka, the focus is not on mass but rather on higher quality products," confirmed M. Raghuram, Chief Executive Officer of Brandix, one of the country's largest clothing companies, in an interview with GTAI. The island state concentrates on the production of just a few product categories such as underwear, sportswear or lounge wear..

Sri Lanka has become a location for the manufacture of high-quality garments. This is also confirmed by the World Bank. In its 2016 study "Stitches to Riches" (website), it found that Sri Lanka outperformed its competitors India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in terms of quality, delivery times, reliability and sustainable social responsibility.

Sri Lanka serves fastidious international companies such as Victoria Secrets, GAP, Nike or Marks and Spencer. According to expert estimates, the production of the top 10 Sri Lankan textile and clothing companies accounts for around 85 percent of the industry's total exports.

The ambitious goal is to increase the garment industry's export revenues to USD 8 billion by 2025, which will require an annual growth of 6 percent. For this Sri Lanka must improve capacity, technology and resource problems. "It is becoming more and more difficult to find suitable personnel. For many young people working in the garment and textile industry in Sri Lanka is simply unattractive”, Nilanthi Sivapragasam, Chief Financial Officer of the conglomerate Aitkence Spence, told GTAI. The training of the workforce is also a major challenge. "Training new employees is very time-consuming and labor-intensive," confirms Sivapragasam.

Imports of German machinery decline
In addition, Sri Lanka's textile companies must modernize their machinery and expand their capacities in order to further increase productivity and added value. Accordingly, there is a great demand for technically sophisticated textile machines in the country. This offers good opportunities and chances for machine suppliers. According to experts, the demand for textile printing and dyeing machines, stenter frames and finishing technology will develop particularly dynamically in the future.
 
In Sri Lanka itself only relatively simple machines are being produced. High-end technology is mainly imported. China is the most important supplier of textile machinery, accounting for about one third of all imports. India has also been able to significantly increase its machine exports to Sri Lanka in recent years. In 2017, India achieved exports of USD 6.3 million, an increase of 46.7 percent, compared with exports of USD 2.6 million in 2010.

German machine exports suffered enormous losses. Sri Lanka's imports of textile machinery from Germany amounted to USD 16.5 million in 2017, a decrease of 54.2 percent. Over the past years, Germany has lost share of its deliveries. According to industry experts, this trend will continue: Made in Germany stands for quality and continues to be very popular in Sri Lanka; however, German machine manufacturers are often unable to keep up with the low-cost products from China or India.

Sri Lanka's imports of textile and clothing machinery
(SITC 724; USD million) 
Country 2016 2017 Change
China 56.3 51.8 -8.0
Japan 26.6 18.3 -31.1
Germany 36.0 16.5 -54.2
Singapore 13.6 14.5 -6.8
India 4.3 6.3 46.7
Total 192.8 155.3 -19.5

Source: UN Comtrade, March 2019

Contact addresses
Title Internet address Remark
Germany Trade & Invest http://www.gtai.de/srilanka Foreign trade information for the German export industry
AHK Sri Lanka http://www.srilanka.ahk.de Contact point for German companies
Sri Lanka Export Development Board http://www.srilankabusiness.com/edb State organization responsible for the development and promotion of exports in Sri Lanka. 

 

More information:
Sri Lanka
Source:

Heena Nazir, Germany Trade & Invest www.gtai.de

CHINA'S TEXTILE AND APPAREL INDUSTRY FEELS US PUNITIVE TARIFFS Photo: Pixabay
05.03.2019

CHINA'S TEXTILE AND APPAREL INDUSTRY FEELS US PUNITIVE TARIFFS

  • Nevertheless - automation, environmental compatibility and energy efficiency increase machine imports

China's textile and clothing industry is modernizing. High-quality textile machines are in demand. But because of the trade dispute with the USA, investments are also postponed.

How the trade dispute between the USA and China affects its business is currently being discussed by China's textile and apparel manufacturers - and in particular by the companies located in the high-quality sector: Of the approximately USD 119 billion, that they sold abroad in 2018, about two thirds went to the United States.

  • Nevertheless - automation, environmental compatibility and energy efficiency increase machine imports

China's textile and clothing industry is modernizing. High-quality textile machines are in demand. But because of the trade dispute with the USA, investments are also postponed.

How the trade dispute between the USA and China affects its business is currently being discussed by China's textile and apparel manufacturers - and in particular by the companies located in the high-quality sector: Of the approximately USD 119 billion, that they sold abroad in 2018, about two thirds went to the United States.

According to the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), 41 percent of the clothing sold in the USA, 72 percent of the shoes and 84 percent of the accessories come from China. On the other hand, the producers of intermediate products or textiles are less or hardly affected by the punitive tariffs, because here the dependence on the USA is not quite as great. Apparel manufacturers in Vietnam and Bangladesh, for example, generally are also buying in China.

Following previous punitive tariffs on Chinese imported goods, in September 2018 the USA imposed a 10 percent punitive tariff on a wide range of other Chinese imported goods, including goods from the textile and clothing industry. On January 1. 2019, the tariffs should originally be raised to 25 percent, but at the beginning of December 2018 US President Trump and China's President Xi agreed not to increase the tariffs until March 1st 2019.

Companies are reluctant to invest
It is hardly possible to make predictions about the outcome of the conflict. In view of the uncertainty, many of the companies affected are therefore waiting for the time being. German textile machine manufacturers are also feeling the effects of this, whether due to lower demand for machines from Germany or locally. According to a representative of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) in Beijing, many investments have been stopped.

But apart from the upheavals, the modernization process of the Chinese textile and clothing industry is far from complete. Gone are the days when the numerous street markets in China were flooded with cheap clothes. They're hard to find these days. Their manufacturers either had to modernize or have since disappeared from the market.

Number of Chinese textile and clothing companies down sharply
China's textile and clothing industry has been through tough years of consolidation and modernization. In fact, between 2013 and 2017 alone, the number of predominantly private-sector companies in the sector fell by almost 11 percent to around 33,500.

Chinese customers don't want any more junk - and can usually afford better. According to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), they spent about RMB 1,371 billion; equivalent to about USD 207 billion; (1 USD = about 6.6114 RMB, annual mean rate 2018) on clothing and shoes in 2018. This is 8 percent more than in the previous year.

Rising personnel costs force automation
On the one hand, consumer demand has grown and led companies to invest in better machines, on the other hand, the constant pressure on personnel costs has forced them to automate their processes. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of employees in the sector fell from 10.9 million to 7.8 million.

Many have tried (and are trying) to escape the pressure by relocating their companies - for example to the interior of the country, where the wages are lower, or to cheaper foreign countries. However, the great migration movement did not take place, as most of them see themselves too strongly interwoven with their suppliers. Some are also skeptical about the move to the West, arguing that it would only be a temporary solution - and that sooner or later the wages there would follow.

Traditionally, the industry has concentrated on the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Shandong. There, the average gross monthly wages of urban workers rose between 2013 and 2017 (latest available figures) by between 38.9 per cent (Fujian) and 48.5 per cent (Guangdong) - with significantly lower inflation rates.

Development of the Chinese textile and clothing industry 2013 to 2017
(% change over previous year) *)
  2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Cjamge
Number of companies 37,376 36,642 36,488 35,197 33,326 -5.3
.Textile industry 21,666 20,821 20,545 19,752 18,726 -5.2
.Clothing industry 15,710 15,821 15,943 15,445 14,600 -5.5
Number of employees in 1,000 persons n.a. n.a. 9,140 8,667 7,784 -10.2
.Textile industry n.a. n.a. 4,645 4,362 3,912 -10.3
.Clothing industry n.a. n.a. 4,495 4,305 3,872 -10.1
Turnover in RMB bn. 5,553 5,934 6,222 6,458 5,700 -11.7
.Textile industry 3,608 3,829 3,999 4,084 3,611 -11.6
.Clothing industry 1,945 2,105 2,223 2,374 2,089 -12.0

*) only companies with an annual turnover of more than RMB 20 million are included.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)

Environmental legislation and energy efficiency as additional investment drivers
The industry also has to deal with a generally stricter environmental legislation, which increasingly is being implemented. Added to this is the growing importance of the energy efficiency aspect.

Both are good news for German textile machinery manufacturers, according to VDMA estimates. As a result, the market for high-tech machines is expanding and the resulting demand is still far from being met by local production. China imported USD 4.2 billion worth of textile machinery in 2018, an increase of 6.7 percent over the previous year. A further customer potential arises from the growing importance of technical textiles.

According to Chinese customs statistics, German suppliers supplied textile machinery worth USD 1.1 billion to China in 2017 (latest available data) - a whopping 28.3 percent more than in the previous year. Despite this success, however, they had to cede their previous leading position as the main supplier country to Japan. However, this statistic shows only one side of the medal. Almost all well-known manufacturers are now represented in China with their own production facilities - and no figures are available about their activities.

Imports of textile machinery to China by selected countries
(SITC item 724; in US$ million, change from previous year and percentage share)
  2015 2016 2017 Change Share 2017
Total, thereof from 3,354 2,907 3,897 34.1 100.0
.Japan 728 765 1.169 52.8 30.0
.Germany 1,219 851 1.101 29.4 28.3
.Italy 415 347 448 29.1 11.5
.Taiwan 206 187 203 8.6 5.2
.Belgium 134 124 173 4.0 4.4
.Switzerland 104 111 126 13.5 3.2

Sources: UN-Comtrade; Calculations by Germany Trade & Invest

Environmental model companies point the way ahead

Already today there are manufacturers with ambitious plans in environmental protection. One of them is the Dongrong Group. Based in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, the Cashmere company has been selected by the government of the Autonomous Region, together with a dairy company, as a model company for environmental protection. This included President and owner Cheng Xudong having his company - by the way inspired by the German Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai 2008 - sealed energetically (albeit not with materials "Made in Germany").

The next big step will be the purification of the company's own waste water. "Cheng describes his goal as follows: "Fish, suitable for consumption in our canteen, should be able to swim in it. The company is already now growing vegetables for the canteen itself. In his efforts it is financially supported by the state. But certainly not all entrepreneurs are so ambitious.

And there is still an old Chinese saying for many companies: "The sky is high - and the emperor is far away". In other words, what the central government decides in Beijing does not necessarily have to be implemented in the huge hinterland. But all these efforts show in which direction the journey goes.

 

More information:
China USA Tariffs
Source:

Stefanie Schmitt, Germany Trade & Invest www.gtai.de

Foto: PIXABAY
19.02.2019

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REMAINS DIFFICULT MARKET FOR GERMAN TEXTILE MACHINERY

  • Deliveries have risen sharply recently

Cheap and used technology dominates at the Dominican market for textile machinery. It is some of the country's problems that give German suppliers some hope.

The good news is that in the first eleven months of 2018 German exports of textile and clothing machinery to the Dominican Republic rose by 580 percent year-on-year, and, according to Eurostat, by 2017 German deliveries had tripled. The bad news: German sector exports reached only EUR 1.7 million in absolute terms. This is considerably less than, for example, in Guatemala with its not much larger technology market.

  • Deliveries have risen sharply recently

Cheap and used technology dominates at the Dominican market for textile machinery. It is some of the country's problems that give German suppliers some hope.

The good news is that in the first eleven months of 2018 German exports of textile and clothing machinery to the Dominican Republic rose by 580 percent year-on-year, and, according to Eurostat, by 2017 German deliveries had tripled. The bad news: German sector exports reached only EUR 1.7 million in absolute terms. This is considerably less than, for example, in Guatemala with its not much larger technology market.

Representatives of German providers are not surprised about the figures. Cheap equipment from China and other Asian countries are in demand, but above all mainly used machines. Hugo Clavijo of Texquim, who represents the German suppliers Mayer & Cie. (circular knitting machines) and Groz-Beckert (needles), among others in the Dominican Republic, estimates, that just five out of every hundred machines sold are new. Around the turn of the millennium, the market thus became the residual ramp for the declining US textile industry. According to UN Comtrade, around 60 percent of the value of technology deliveries in recent years came from the USA.

The International Textile Manufacturers Federation also registered hardly any shipments of new machines: for 2010 to 2017, the ITMF shows just ten flat knitting machines and eleven (all in 2017) circular knitting machines. Also, for this period 720 Double Heaters for texturing synthetic filaments for yarn production were listed. The ITMF counts the deliveries of 200 textile machinery manufacturers worldwide and thus a large part of the market, albeit not the entire one.

Electricity and water bottlenecks as arguments for expensive machines
Hugo Clavijo currently sees no great chance of a rapid improvement in the sale of expensive German technology. But ironically, it is some of the country's problems that may transform the potential customer interest into concrete procurements: The energy supply for the textile companies is expensive and unreliable, and the companies have to treat their process water themselves. Economical and less repair-prone machines would come into a closer consideration even if the purchase prices were significantly higher. It would also be helpful to enforce environmental standards, which today are largely on paper only.

There is also a need for technology if the Dominican textile and clothing manufacturers expand their capacities due to possible changes in international trade policy, i.e. if clothing customers in the USA would place orders in the Caribbean country instead of Asia. At the moment, however, the Dominican export industry is not using its factories to capacity.

Installed capacity of the Dominican textile industry in comparison (2016, in units) 1)

Machinery / technology Dominican Republic Guatemala Ethiopia Turkey
Rotor Spinning 2) 1,400 21,000 19,000 800,000
Short Staple Spinning 2) 20,000 150,000 293,852 7,900,000
Shuttle Looms 3) 500 3,000 167 20,000
Shuttleless Looms 3) 150 890 2,200 49,500

1) no data on other machines; 2) spinning machines; 3) weaving machines

Source: International Textile Manufacturers Federation

The Dominican textile and clothing industry, which, according to the central bank, generated 11 percent of the country's total export revenues with clothing from free zones in 2017, is not fully vertically integrated: it mainly imports yarns, which then is mainly being knitted but also woven or otherwise processed and then assembled into finished clothing. It often produces T-shirts and other knitwear with a high cotton content. And this is "the cheap stuff," as Clavijo says.

There is a limited production of synthetic yarn in the Dominican Republic which, according to Hugo Clavijo, is limited to two companies: The Korean company Youm Kwang textures filaments in the country, while the US company A&E (American & Efird) produces sewing thread from imported filaments.

Four export producers as important technology customers
The Dominican textile sector is said to consist of about two equal segments. A dozen medium-sized companies and a large number of garage companies supply the domestic market. In addition, four companies produce for export in the country's free zones: Gildan (Canada), Hanes (USA), Willbes (Korea) and the local Grupo M, which has been working in a 50/50 joint venture with Brandix from Sri Lanka since the beginning of 2017. The procurement of machines in foreign companies is not decided by the local management, but by the corporate headquarters, according to representatives.

The four export producers are said to be vertically integrated from yarn processing onwards. Grupo M supplies about one fifth of its fabrics, knitwear, etc. to processors, while the other three industry giants manufacture these preliminary products completely by themselves. According to Comtrade (SITC chapter 84), three quarters of the clothing exports go to the USA, the remainder predominantly to the neighboring Haiti.

For US clothing customers, the nearby Dominican Republic offers fast and cheap transport routes as well as the advantageous customs regime of the DR-CAFTA trade agreement. According to Hugo Clavijo, however, Dominican clothing exporters must obtain their intermediate products from the USA in order to benefit from all customs relief. Producers for the Dominican domestic market, on the other hand, are using yarns and fabrics from China, Pakistan or other third countries that offer lower production costs.

USA dominate machine deliveries
The Dominican market for textile and clothing machinery has stagnated in recent years: For 2017, UN Comtrade estimated imports - there is no significant domestic production - at USD 36 million. That was as much as 2014 and around USD 10 million more than around 2010.

According to Comtrade, Germany was ranked sixth in the import ranking with an average share of 2.0 percent between 2015 and 2017. Eurostat, whose (export) data deviate considerably in some cases, noted stagnating industry deliveries from the European Union to the Dominican Republic for the first eleven months of 2018 in addition to the high growth for Made in Germany.

Dominican imports of textile machinery (USD thousand *)
ITC-Pos. Supplying country/ Goods Group 2015 2016 2017
  total 33,398 30,817 36,257
724.35, .39 Sewing machines (excluding domestic sewing machines) 12,131 10,350 12,784
7244 Spinn- and texturing machines 2,852 2,102 4,585
7245 Knitting and weaving machines 3,362 2,683 1,543
7246 Auxiliary machines 6,068 5,215 5,384
724.73, .74 Washing machines, stenter frames, etc. (except for housholds and landries), large-dryers 5,135 5,615 7,652
724.92 Parts for items 724.73 and .74 and for dry-cleaning machines (724.72) and domestic tumble dryers 3,850 4,852 4,309
  Supplying countries      
  USA 22,000 17,320 20,743
  China 3,424 3,058 2,380
  Spain 2,176 2,567 2,614
  Japan 973 1,894 2,688
  Italy 923 1,194 496
  Germany 397 724 873

*) SITC 724 without household sewing machines (724,33), household washing machines (724,.71), machines for dry cleaning (724.72), leather processing (7248), parts of household washing machines (724.91).
Source: UN Comtrade.

 

More information:
GTAI
Source:

Ulrich Binkert, Germany Trade & Invest www.gtai.de

PIXABAY
27.11.2018

EGYPT'S TEXTILE AND CLOTHING SECTOR FACING MODERNIZATION

  • State enterprises get better equipment

Cairo (GTAI) - The Egyptian government plans to modernize the textile sector and private companies are investing in new locations. Increasing machine imports and clothing exports are expected.

In the Egyptian textile and clothing industry, the signs are pointing to expansion and modernization. Local media reported on a number of private and public investment projects. According to the newspaper Al Gomhouria, a Chinese producer in the Suez Canal economic zone is planning the world's largest textile factory for USD 6 billion. The Chinese companies TIDA and Shoon Dong Roy want to build a clothing factory for 800 million USD. Sino-Egypt Minkai is planning to build a textile industry complex for around USD 750 million.

  • State enterprises get better equipment

Cairo (GTAI) - The Egyptian government plans to modernize the textile sector and private companies are investing in new locations. Increasing machine imports and clothing exports are expected.

In the Egyptian textile and clothing industry, the signs are pointing to expansion and modernization. Local media reported on a number of private and public investment projects. According to the newspaper Al Gomhouria, a Chinese producer in the Suez Canal economic zone is planning the world's largest textile factory for USD 6 billion. The Chinese companies TIDA and Shoon Dong Roy want to build a clothing factory for 800 million USD. Sino-Egypt Minkai is planning to build a textile industry complex for around USD 750 million.

The Egyptian state also wants to strengthen the textile and clothing production. In November 2018, the Minister of State Enterprise Hisham Tawfiq negotiated an extensive restructuring of the Cotton & Textile Holding Company with Werner International of the USA. According to press reports, the properties of 14 of the 25 cotton ginning plants should be sold. The ministry estimates the value at USD 1.5 billion. This appropriation is intended to cover the repair of machinery and the import of new equipment for the eleven remaining companies.

A free zone for textile production will also be created in Minya on the initiative of the state. This industrial zone is to be built on an area of 2.2 million square metres: The General Authority for Free Zones and Investment intends to launch the project before the end of 2018.

In autumn 2018, the Cotton & Textiles Industries Holding Company and Marubeni of Japan signed a letter of intent. This relates to the construction of a new textile factory in Kafr El Sheikh. A reduced loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation secures the financing of the project.

Import demand for textile and clothing machinery expected to increase
The planned projects are expected to lead to a further increase of a demand of imports. Like other types of equipment, the vast majority of textile and clothing machinery is imported into Egypt. In 2017 the German share of deliveries fell by 8.4 percentage points to an year-on-year comparison to 12 percent. However, this reduction is put into a perspective by the fact that the reference year 2016 was a positive outlier. In 2015, the German share was still 15.8 percent.

Imports of textile and clothing machinery to Egypt (in USD 1,000)
HS-Category 2016 Therof from Germany 2017 Therof from Germany
8444 4,481 2,025 5,554 n.v.
8445 26,105 5,429 32,660 4,807
8446 23,591 13,346 26,170 4,493
8447 15,713 3,052 22,032 4,493
8448 20.574 3,365 18,013 2,698
8449 299 0 1,725 0.4
8451 36,512 2,334 37,887 3,511
8452 23,186 1,698 29,633 1,309
8453 3,678 137 9,892 155
Total 154,139 31,386 183,566 22,028.4

n.a. = not available
Source: Comtrade

Egyptian textile and clothing companies often produce with a lot of manual work and partly with very outdated machines. The government's aim is to create as many jobs as possible due to the continued population growth. On the other hand, a more automated and modern production would allow more complex products. These could be sold at a higher profit, but would also require less human labor.

Important role of the sector companies for the Egyptian economy
The textile and clothing companies in Egypt represent a significant and labor-intensive industry. Local and imported fibers are being processed in the country and there is a broad base of spinning mills, weaving mills, dyeing houses and manufacturers of clothing and home textiles. It is estimated that the companies employ between 1 million and 1.2 million people. A regional focus is Mahala El Kubra. State enterprises are strongly represented in the textile sector, while the private sector plays a greater role in the clothing sector. About 90 percent of the spinning and weaving mills are state-owned.

According to the Readymade Garments Export Council (RMGEC), the garment industry accounts for 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, 15 percent of exports (excluding oil), and one of three industrial jobs in the country. From January to the end of August 2018, clothing exports to the RMGEC totaled USD 1,040 million. In the same period of 2017, exports amounted to only US$ 980 million.

Egyptian exports of textiles and clothing (selection; in USD million;
change in %)
HS-Category 2016 2017 Change 2017 / 2016
57 303.5 313.9 3.4
60 35.7 44.3 24.1
61 388.0 466.0 20.1
62 756.6 910.7 20.4
63 227.2 231.1 1.7
Total 1,711.0 1,966.0 14.9

Source: UN Comtrade

The Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) play a special role. These are special zones with Israeli added value, which are fixed during production, and the products enjoy customs advantages when exported to the USA. Since 2005, the QIZ system has provided more private investments in the garment sector. Jeans and other clothing for well-known brands are delivered to the USA from the 25 zones.
Egyptian manufacturers are also generally not always recognizable as such, as they often manufacture for major international brands. Middle East Eye names Calvin Klein, Decathlon, Tommy Hilfiger and Zara as examples. In November 2017 Dice Sport and Casual Wear agreed to supply Levi Strauss & Co. with children's clothing.

The US company Disney even purchases 33 types of products from Egypt. Since 2017, Egypt has been cooperating with the International Labor Organization ILO as part of the Better Work Program. Working conditions are to be improved in 30 clothing factories. According to media reports, for Disney these measures were a reason to extend the licenses of the Egyptian suppliers until December 2019.

Currency effect improves competitiveness
The labor-intensive production benefited from the currency devaluation in 2016. According to a report by the news portal Middle East Eye, Egypt has at least 100 USD monthly salary for workers and is about at the same level as India or Bangladesh and at about 50 of percent Chinese salaries. In addition, prompt and fast deliveries to Europe and the USA are possible.

On the other hand, the companies are dependent on foreign supplies, which became more expensive. In Egypt especially soft and high-quality long staple cotton is cultivated and exported. Domestic producers, on the other hand, mainly use short-staple cotton and other foreign fibers as raw materials. The RMGEC complained about rising production costs in October 2018. Wages, electricity, water, natural gas, transports and more expensive imports of raw materials contributed to this development.


Further information on Egypt can be found at http://www.gtai.de

 

More information:
GTAI Ägypten
Source:

Oliver Idem, Germany Trade & Invest www.gtai.de

20.11.2018

CHINA'S CLOTHING COMPANIESS REPOSITION THEMSELVES

  • AUTOMATION AND STRONGER FOCUS ON THE DOMESTIC MARKET

Beijing (GTAI) - The Chinese apparel industry is repositioning itself. Increased wage costs force more automation, more customers demanding more quality.
Nowhere else in the world so much clothing is being produced as in China. According to the sector portal http://www.ask.com, alone 22.9 billion pairs of socks were being produced in 2017. This was 4.8 percent more than in the previous year, and the production of jeans amounted to more than 0.6 billion pieces according to information from http://www.chyxx.com, an increase of 5.0 percent.

  • AUTOMATION AND STRONGER FOCUS ON THE DOMESTIC MARKET

Beijing (GTAI) - The Chinese apparel industry is repositioning itself. Increased wage costs force more automation, more customers demanding more quality.
Nowhere else in the world so much clothing is being produced as in China. According to the sector portal http://www.ask.com, alone 22.9 billion pairs of socks were being produced in 2017. This was 4.8 percent more than in the previous year, and the production of jeans amounted to more than 0.6 billion pieces according to information from http://www.chyxx.com, an increase of 5.0 percent.
China is not only the world's largest production nation, but also by far the world's largest export nation in the sector. However, countries such as India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Cambodia are catching up enormously due to lower wages. As a result, China - measured by its share of world clothing exports - has lost around 5.5 percentage points since 2013, down to only 32.4% in 2017.

China's share of world clothing exports 1) (in USD billion; shares in %)
  2008 2013 2015 2017
World Export 380 468 471 486
China Export 120 177 175 157
China's share 31.6 37.9 37.1 32.4

1) SITC Pos.84; 2) Partially estimated on the basis of information provided by the ITC
Source: UN Comtrade, GTAI calculation.

By contrast, Bangladesh (+3.7 points), Vietnam (+2.0 points) and Cambodia (+1.3 points) in particular recorded gains in the period from 2013 to 2017. In absolute terms, Chinese apparel exports fell by 15.6% to USD 157 billion since the record year of 2014 (USD187 billion). No improvement is in sight as exports are stagnating in 2018.

Export of clothing 1) by country (in USD million; shares in %)
  2008 Share 2013 Share 2017 Share
World Export 380,000 100.0 468,000 100.0 486,000 100.0
China 120,405 31.6 177,435 37.9 157,464 32.4
ASEAN3) 29,793 7.8 42,123 9.0 61,441 12.6
Vietnam 8,724 2.3 17,230 3.7 27,930 5.7
Kambodscha 3,014 0.8 4,832 1.0 11,250 2.3
Bangladesch 12,035 3.2 19,679 4.2 38,460 7.9
India 10,968 2.9 16,843 3.6 18,313 4.0
Germany 18,183 4.8 19,178 4.1 22,034 4.6

1) SITC Pos. 84; 2) partly estimated on the basis of ITC data; 3) excluding Laos and Brunei
Sources: UN-Comtrade; ITC; GTAI calculation

Rising wage costs as investment driver
Due to rising personnel costs throughout the country, manufacturers were and are under considerable cost pressure. With an average hourly wage for a Chinese worker of the equivalent of around USD 5.2 (2017), China has not only left classic emerging markets such as Thailand (USD 2.3) or Mexico (USD 3.9) behind - not to mention India with USD 0.8 - but is already approaching individual European countries (e.g. Greece 2016: USD 6.0).


Companies have met and continue to meet this challenge through increased automation. Between 2015 (9.1 million) and 2017 (7.8 million) alone, the workforce of the textile and clothing industry shrank by 14.3 percent - according to the Chinese statistical office. More and better machines make it possible to say goodbye to the previous labor-intensive production - and thus lower cost pressure with more precise and faster execution. Imports of textile machinery are also benefiting from this. These rose in 2017 by a whopping 34.1 percent year-on-year to nearly USD 3.9 billion.


Germany no longer number one textile machinery supplier
Although Germany lost its position as most important supplier country for textile machinery to Japan, it was still able to increase its deliveries by 28.3 percent to USD 1.1 billion. This corresponded to a supply share of 28.3 percent. Japanese manufacturers achieved a ratio of 30.0 percent with just under USD 1.2 billion (+52.8 percent). Competition from Italy came to only 11.5 percent. The good performance is remarkable due to the fact that a number of German textile machine manufacturers have invested heavily in recent years in the region in order to be able to meet the wishes of Chinese customers more effectively.

China's textile machinery imports *) by selected countries (in USD million; year-on-year change and 2017 shares in %)
  2015 2016 2017 Change Shares
Total 3,354 2,907 3,897 34.1 100.0
including          
Japan 728 765 1,169 52.8 30.0
Germany 1,219 851 1,101 29.4 28.3
Italy 415 347 448 29.1 11.5
Taiwan 206 187 203 8.6 5.2
Belgium 134 124 173 4.0 4.4
Switzerland 104 111 126 13.5 3.2

*) SITC-Pos. 724
Source: UN-Comtrade; GTAI calculation

Due to the high pressure to modernization Chinese textile machinery imports in the first seven months of 2018 increased by almost 15 percent compared to the previous period. German machine manufacturers in particular benefited from this development, with deliveries increasing by 30 percent in the same period. As Japanese exports of textile machinery to China stagnated at the same time, German manufacturers are likely to take the lead again in 2018.
As the garment exports come under such severe pressure, the industry is now increasingly geared towards the local market. Whereas ten years ago about half of the value of production was exported, today it is only about a third. In fact, the Chinese spent an average of around 4.8 percent of their disposable income or 1,238 Renminbi (RMB; around 183 US dollars; 1 USD = 6.7531 RMB, annual mean rate of 2017) on clothing in 2017, according to the Chinese Statistical Office. With an average disposable annual income of 25,974 RMB and a population of 1.39 billion, this translates into a market volume of approximately USD 255 billion.

China's consumers demand quality and design
This makes the Chinese clothing market one of the largest in the world - and one that is becoming increasingly diversified. Local offerings range from the cheapest mass-produced goods, qualitatively and visually appealing products in the mid-price segment up to luxury and haute couture. Much has changed in the upper price segment in particular. "In the past, the Chinese exported the best qualities, but today they keep them for themselves," says a British sourcing expert who has been working in the Kashmir business for decades, describing the development.

In general, Chinese consumer demand is becoming increasingly sophisticated and differentiated. In addition to the tendency towards recognized brands, an increasing individualization of consumption can also be observed. The question is what fits well, pleases and is also somehow "special". "People in the North used to buy cashmere clothes because they warmed well," explains Cheng Xudong, president of the private Dongrong Group. The design was of secondary importance - and accordingly most of the pieces were "old-fashioned".

"Today, cashmere clothes also look very good," Cheng adds. "That's why it's bought not only in the north, but also in the more southern parts of the country." In general, the middle class in particular is looking for a high-quality lifestyle - and clothing is a part of it. The entrepreneur is convinced that if the textile and clothing industry succeeds in adapting to the higher quality demands of local customers through a technical upgrade and improved design, then the industry will continue to do well in the future.

Additional information
Further information on the economic situation, the sectors, business practice, law, customs, tenders and development projects in China can be found at http://www.gtai.de/china The website http://www.gtai.de/asien-pazifik provides an overview of various topics in the region.

 

More information:
China Sampe China GTAI
Source:

Stefanie Schmitt, Germany Trade & Invest www.gtai.de

European press conference on 6 September 2018 in Madrid for imm cologne/LivingKitchen 2019 © Koelnmesse GmbH
02.10.2018

FURNITURE INDUSTRY GREW ONLY MARGINALLY BY 1% IN THE FIRST HALF-YEAR

  • Almost 1 in 3 pieces of furniture is exported
  • 14% of furniture sales now online

At the European press conference in September 2018 in Madrid for imm co-logne/LivingKitchen 2019, Jan Kurth, Chief Executive of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM), reported on the state of business in the sector:

  • Almost 1 in 3 pieces of furniture is exported
  • 14% of furniture sales now online

At the European press conference in September 2018 in Madrid for imm co-logne/LivingKitchen 2019, Jan Kurth, Chief Executive of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM), reported on the state of business in the sector:

At the end of an exceptionally hot summer, which has driven consumers to outdoor pools and beer gardens rather than furniture showrooms, the German furniture industry looks back on correspondingly subdued growth in the sector. Following a decline in sales in the second half of 2017, the business climate for manufacturers did improve slightly in the first half of 2018, but the bottom line is that furniture sales have stalled, especially within Germany. While the year began distinctly positively on the back of imm cologne, a significant slowdown in business subsequently set in.
From January to June, sales in the sector reached approximately Euro 9.1 billion, just 1 per cent higher than in the same period of the previous year. Following a 0.7 per cent fall in sales for 2017 as a whole, marked in particular by a negative trend in the second half-year (–1.6%), German furniture manufacturers were thus able to generate slight sales growth, but the situation remains disappointing.

Growth stimulus comes from abroad
This marginal increase in sales was exclusively attributable to international business, since sales outside Germany grew in the first six months by 2.7 per cent in comparison with the same period of the previous year. Domestic sales, on the other hand, stagnated with a minimal rise of 0.3 per cent. Export business benefitted from revived demand in key European sales markets and, increasingly, from the positive economic development in the major growth regions outside the EU. Almost one third of German furniture exports are now sold to non-EU countries.

Results of the latest VDM survey
In summer 2018, the VDM conducted a survey of the economic situation faced by companies in the sector. Participants rated the current business climate as satisfactory (34%) to poor (40%), with only 26 per cent judging it to be good. Compared with summer 2017, the situation for business had worsened in the view of 51 per cent of those surveyed.

State of export business better than domestic market
The disparity between the domestic market and export business is also reflected in the business survey. While most respondents (57%) judged the situation for domestic business as poor, an overwhelming number of manufacturers considered the situation for export business to be good (29%) to satisfactory (56%).

The current difficulties in domestic demand are largely confirmed by the furniture retail sector. Naturally, the long period of high temperatures moved many activities outdoors, but still this explanation falls short. To discover a little more about this, the VDM commissioned a representative study from the prestigious market research institute Kantar TNS, which put the furniture buying behaviour of Germans under the microscope. We were particularly interested to learn where people seek information about furniture and where they buy it. Do they look at advertising supplements in daily newspapers or rather retailers’ websites? Are people increasingly buying furniture online, or is the official sales channel statistic correct, which has been citing an almost stable figure of between 7 and 8 per cent for several years?

Customers increasingly seek information online
First, a look at the information sources. Overall, the furniture store itself – that is to say, looking at furniture in person – remains the most important source of information (68%), followed by brochures from furniture showrooms (54%). But 48 per cent of all those surveyed now use the Internet as a source of information and inspiration. In the younger target groups (<40 years old), the significance of the information source sees a clear shift, with the Internet dominating (77%) but furniture stores still being used by 63 per cent.

When it comes to formal educational attainment, there is a clear correlation with the information sources used. Those with a lower level of education favour brochures and advertising from furniture stores. The higher the level of education, the more buyers actively seek information online.

80% have bought large furniture items in the past 5 years
Online shopping or a trip to the shops? Generally speaking, over 80 per cent of Germans have bought relatively large items of furniture in the past five years. As can be expected, this proportion tails off with increasing age. Of those who bought furniture, 75 per cent carried out this latest transaction in a furniture store. Just under 10 per cent of shoppers bought from a purely online retailer and only 4 per cent purchased via the website of a furniture retailer. This gives a 14 per cent share of sales now taking place online and thus double the figure given out by the official sales channel statistics. In terms of online shoppers, people living alone and the under-30s lead by a clear margin. As young people get older, they are unlikely to move away from online shopping for furniture, and new “Internet savvy” consumers enter the market, the “normality threshold” for the remaining age groups is also expected to fall. There is therefore clearly still a great deal of potential for online furniture sales, and the industry and trade would be well advised to exploit this potential through engaging concepts and information suited to the target groups, moving away from discount and clearance promotions.

Additional online potential
We also see the growth of online business as offering opportunities for the furniture sector as a whole. Firstly, the fixation on prices and discounts is not as pronounced online as in highly concentrated bricks-and-mortar retail. Secondly, the short delivery times and short-notice availability typical of online trading tend to be served more flexibly from internal German sources than from Asia.

Official assessment: sales in the individual segments
According to official statistics, the individual segments in the German furniture industry developed unevenly between January and June 2018. Kitchen furniture manufacturers recorded sales growth of 4 per cent to around Euro 2.5 billion. The office furniture industry reported a distinctly positive result with sales of around Euro 1.1 billion (+7.9%). Manufacturers of shop and contract furniture saw a year-on-year increase of 7.2 per cent and generated sales of around Euro 920 million.

Manufacturers of upholstered furniture registered a noticeable decline, with sales falling by 5.3 per cent to around Euro 480 million from January to June 2018. With a drop of 1.6 per cent to Euro 3.7 billion, the sales performance in household furniture, other furniture and furniture parts was also more negative than the industry average. The smallest segment in the industry – mattresses – recorded the most significant decline in sales of 12.8 per cent to Euro 400 million. This must, however, be put in the context of the above-average growth in sales in this segment in recent years.

Furniture industry generates new jobs
We now take a look at the employment figures for the industry. The 482 businesses currently operating with more than 50 staff (–2.2%) employ 84,300 men and women, which is slightly above (+0.7%) the previous year’s level. Approximately 600 new jobs have been created in the industry in the last year, despite the difficult market conditions.

Compared with the same period of the previous year, German furniture exports in the first half of 2018 grew by 2.2 per cent to Euro 5.5 billion. With an increase of 1.2 per cent, sales to EU countries only crept slightly above the previous year’s level, thus developing much more sluggishly than exports as a whole. Having said this, exports to the German furniture industry’s largest external market, France, achieved growth of 3.5 per cent, and the Dutch (+6.2%), Polish (+10%) and Spanish (+6.1%) markets also saw positive developments from the perspective of the German furniture industry. However, furniture exports to the important sales markets of Austria (–1.3%) and Switzerland (–3.8%) declined.

Negative trend in Great Britain
The furniture industry also clearly felt the negative effects of the Brexit negotiations and the fall in the pound over the course of the previous year, with furniture exports to Great Britain contracting by 8.9 per cent in the first half of 2018. No other major export market performed as badly as the United Kingdom from the perspective of German furniture manufacturers.

Boom in exports to the USA, China and Russia
The key growth markets for German furniture now lie outside the EU. The outstanding performance of German furniture manufacturers in the largest growth markets of the USA (+9.5%), China (+25.9%) and Russia (+14%) is particularly noteworthy. Given the size of each of these markets and the strong demand for high-quality furniture, these figures are sure to see further growth. Other markets outside Europe, such as Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, are currently developing well, although exports to these countries are still at a relatively low level. Overall, the non-EU market is expected to become an important driver for growth for the German furniture industry in the years ahead.

Export ratio up by 32.6%
The industry’s export ratio – that is to say, the proportion of goods shipped directly abroad by domestic furniture manufacturers against total sales by the industry – climbed to 32.6 per cent in the first half of 2018, thereby achieving a new record. The corresponding figure for the first half of 2017 reached 32.1 per cent. This means that the furniture industry’s export ratio has doubled since the turn of the millennium.

Furniture “made in Germany” highly regarded
The success of German furniture manufacturers abroad can be put down to the quality, reliability of supply, design and individuality of our products. German manufacturers often have a better grip on processes and logistics than their international competitors. These are important selling points for consumers – whether they be in Shanghai, St Petersburg or San Francisco.

Greater support for exporters
In view of the increasing importance of exports for the industry, the VDM will be expanding the support it offers exporting companies. A new VDM Export working group aims to encourage dialogue between individual manufacturers, identify the main markets and coordinate export and trade fair activities for the industry as a whole. Information days and workshops for furniture manufacturers will be organised to share industry-specific expertise relating to the individual export markets. Practical tools will also be made available to support the successful involvement of German furniture manufacturers abroad. These additional export activities are intended to help German furniture manufacturers to grow their market share on the world market.

Slight increase in imports
Import competition remains strong: after German furniture imports achieved growth of 0.8 per cent to Euro 12.7 billion for 2017 as a whole, in the first half of 2018 they rose by a further 0.6 per cent to Euro 6.6 billion. However, the trade deficit reduced by 8.1 per cent to around Euro 1.2 billion in the same period as a result of substantially increased exports. Overall, furniture imports to Germany from eastern Europe are increasingly gaining ground from their Asian competitors. Poland enjoyed growth of 7.4 per cent and, as has been the case for a number of years, remained by far the largest source country in terms of furniture volume. Nowadays, more than one in four pieces of furniture (26.3%) imported into Germany originates from our neighbour to the east. The Czech Republic remains the third-largest source of imports with a slight rise of 0.7 per cent. Altogether, imports from EU countries achieved a significant increase of 1.8 per cent. By contrast, imports from Asia fell disproportionately (–5.9%), especially from Vietnam (–12.3%), Taiwan (–13.9%) and Indonesia (–9.8%). Imports from the second-largest originating country, China, declined significantly with a drop of 5.2 per cent. The structure of German furniture imports is highly concentrated, with around 56 per cent of all German furniture imports now attributable solely to the three largest supplier countries: Poland, China and the Czech Republic.

56% of all imports from Poland, China and the Czech Republic
Almost two thirds of participants in the VDM survey expect the business outlook to remain the same in the six months ahead. 24 per cent anticipate an improvement in the situation and just 12 per cent a worsening. According to the assessment of the respondents, the major factors affecting the trading climate in the next six months will be increasing prices of raw materials (33% of respondents), a shortage of skilled personnel (27%), growing pressure from imports (18%) and increasingly protectionist trade policies (9%).

Rising material costs hit the industry hard
The rising cost of materials as regards solid wood are seen as a particular obstacle for development in the sector. Companies in the German furniture industry taking part in the survey report an average increase of 9 per cent in the cost of solid wood when compared with summer 2017. Prices of wood-based materials increased by 5 per cent in the same period, with logistics costs also up by 5 per cent and staffing costs by 3 per cent. Given the market power of purchasing associations, it is not possible to pass on this rise in costs in full to the German furniture retail trade.

Forecast for the current year: +1%
While the contribution of foreign markets to German furniture industry sales is expected to remain positive in the second half-year, in view of the very significant growth in recent times, there are clouds on the horizon as far as domestic trade is concerned. Consumer confidence in Germany is also on the wane. Economic forecasts for this year have recently been revised downwards by leading economists. On this basis, we continue to anticipate sales growth at the end of the year by around 1 per cent in 2018.

 

More information:
imm cologne Furniture market
Source:

Jan Kurth, Chief Executive of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM), at the European press conference on 6 September 2018 in Madrid for imm cologne/LivingKitchen 2019

Taiwan's Textile Industry sustains its Position with Innovations Photo: Pixabay
25.09.2018

TAIWAN'S TEXTILE INDUSTRY SUSTAINS ITS POSITION WITH INNOVATIONS

  • Manufacturers rely, among others, on German Machines

Tokyo (GTAI) - When it comes to functional textiles, Taiwan belongs to the international top league. To ensure that this remains the case, industry manufacturers invest in modern equipment and innovations.

Taiwan is an important global supplier of functional textiles. The sector wants to maintain this position and expand it as much as possible. They are therefore investing in new capacities, research and development. There are good sales opportunities for suppliers of pre-products and equipment.

The demand for functional textiles is increasing in the sports, leisure and footwear industries. In other sectors, such as the automotive and medical industries, building materials and agricultural aids, these are also increasingly being used. Functional textiles are usually not recognizable as Taiwan products. Nevertheless, some of them are very visible.

  • Manufacturers rely, among others, on German Machines

Tokyo (GTAI) - When it comes to functional textiles, Taiwan belongs to the international top league. To ensure that this remains the case, industry manufacturers invest in modern equipment and innovations.

Taiwan is an important global supplier of functional textiles. The sector wants to maintain this position and expand it as much as possible. They are therefore investing in new capacities, research and development. There are good sales opportunities for suppliers of pre-products and equipment.

The demand for functional textiles is increasing in the sports, leisure and footwear industries. In other sectors, such as the automotive and medical industries, building materials and agricultural aids, these are also increasingly being used. Functional textiles are usually not recognizable as Taiwan products. Nevertheless, some of them are very visible.

For example, at least 15 out of 32 teams at the 2018 FIFA World Cup wore clothing made with textiles of Taiwanese origin for internationally renowned brand names, according to the Taiwan Industrial Development Bureau (IDB). According to the Taiwan Footwear Manufacturers Association, Taiwanese manufacturers are responsible for approximately 80 percent of all sports shoes produced worldwide.

Textile manufacturers invest
Far Eastern New Century (FENC) is one of the largest textile manufacturers on the island. Its production capacity is nowadays mainly located abroad with productions in China, Japan, the USA and Vietnam. FENC is also expanding its capacity in Taiwan. Polyester spunbonded nonwovens have been produced for the Asian market in a joint venture with Freudenberg in Germany since 1987.

Freudenberg Far Eastern Spunweb has announced that it will set up a third production line for nonwovens at the Tayuan plant, thereby increasing the existing production of 20,000 tons by 11,000 tons per year. Construction of the new production facility, which is scheduled to start operations in 2020, has now begun. The latest automated production technology is to be used. According to the company, the investments amount will approximately be at USD 43 million.

Biggest companies in the textile industry in Taiwan by sales
(in USD million; change compared to previous year in %)

Company 2016 2017 Change
Far Eastern New Century Corp. 6,679 7,157 0.,9
Formosa Taffeta Co., Ltd. 1,233 1,337 2.2
Shinkong Synthetic Fiber Corporation 1,066 1,200 6.1
Eclat Textile Co., Ltd. 759 796 -1.2
Makalot Industrial Co., Ltd. 685 735 1.2
Tainan Spinning Co., Ltd. 602 692 8.3

Source: CommonWealth Magazine, Taiwan Stock Exchange

Germany remains an important equipment supplier
Taiwan's textile manufacturers import their equipment mainly from China, Japan and Germany, with some of the machines produced in China coming from companies with Japanese, German, Italian or Taiwanese parent companies. German deliveries declined by 13.7 percent to USD 71.1 compared to 2016 million in 2017. However, Taiwan's imports from Germany increased by 24.3 percent in the first six months of 2018, exceeding deliveries from Japan at USD 42.5 million.

The fact that the import of equipment remains at a high level has to do with the fact that companies in the textile industry in Taiwan are modernizing existing plants and converting them to Industry 4.0. In addition, the number of textile manufacturers in Taiwan has increased in recent years. According to statistics from the Taiwan Federation of Textiles, the number of companies rose from 3,143 to 3,214 between 2014 and 2017.

Main suppliers of textile machinery *)
to Taiwan (USD million; change in % compared to previous year)

Supplying country 2016 2017 Change
China 108.7 111.0 2.1
Japan 97.2 97.2 0
Germany 82.5 71.1 -13.7
Italy 32.8 23.8 -27.3
Switzerland 13.6 14.1 3.6
USA 19.2 12.1 -37.2
Total 405.4 364.7 -10.0

*) HS-Codes 8444-8453; without 8450
Source: Customs Statistics, Ministry of Finance

Core functions remain in Taiwan
By contrast, the production value of the textile sector fell slightly. In local currency terms, it fell in 2017 compared with 2016 by 1.7 percent. Converted to US dollars, the production value of textiles was USD 9 billion, according to the statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The production of synthetic fibers stagnated at just under USD 3 billion in 2017.

Taiwan is home to the headquarters of the often family-run textile companies. Purchasing and marketing decisions are mainly made here, and, last but not least, research and development are carried out here too. For example, several manufacturers are currently developing smart textiles with integrated temperature control, heart and location functions.

Foreign activities are diversified
The textile manufacturers are investing predominantly in new capacities outside Taiwan. For example, FENC 2018 is expanding its capacity for PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and terephthalic acid (PTA), which among others are required for the production of synthetic fibers. Together with an Indonesian and a Mexican partner, FENC acquires two new plants of a bankrupt US company in West Virginia and Texas. Among other things, this reduces the risk of possible trade restrictions and, conversely, increases the opportunity to benefit from free trade agreements.

Vietnam is also a focus of investment. Here, most Taiwanese textile companies are in the process of establishing or expanding new capacities. FENC, Formosa Taffeta, Eclat, Makalot and several others invested in the southeast Asian tigerland several years ago. By contrast, new investments in China have become rare, primarily due to rising wage costs.

 

More information:
Taiwan
Source:

Jürgen Maurer, Germany Trade & Invest www.gtai.de

INDIA'S GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS TEXTILE INDUSTRY Photo: Pixabay
11.09.2018

INDIA'S GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS TEXTILE INDUSTRY

  • Clothing exports are declining 

New Delhi (GTAI) - Structural weaknesses and fiscal reforms are affecting the Indian textile industry. Modernization and diversification are necessary. For this where support measures will come into force.

  • Clothing exports are declining 

New Delhi (GTAI) - Structural weaknesses and fiscal reforms are affecting the Indian textile industry. Modernization and diversification are necessary. For this where support measures will come into force.

In the 2016/17 fiscal year (April 1st to March 31st), India's government initiated a number of fundamental reforms such as the introduction of the nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) and a partial currency devaluation. These measures are intended to advance the economy as a whole in the medium to long term, but have led to uncertainty and difficulties in individual sectors, including the textile industry. Added to this are high cotton prices. The government is now trying to help the industry with individual measures. It remains to be seen whether these will be sufficient and lead to a sustained improvement. Finally, there are structural weaknesses which are also slowing down the growth of the Industry.

"The by the introduction of GST caused dent and monetary depreciation has now been overcome. However, the structural problems remain, so that no fundamental changes in the textile industry are to be expected", according to the assessment of a German supplier with many years of experience in India in talks with Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI).

Government launches aid measures
However, some government measures should provide relief. At the beginning of August 2018, import duties on 328 textile products, especially fabrics and nonwovens, were increased from around 5 to 10 percent to up to 20 percent. Also, at the beginning of the month, the Executive Board introduced four bills to amend the general VAT Act introduced on July 1st 2017. This should make refunds, for example of taxes on intermediate products, easier and faster. The introduction of GST and the delays in reimbursement have put particular pressure on the liquidity of small and medium-sized companies, which make up the bulk of textile companies. For example, the denim industry temporarily had to take 25 to 30 percent of its capacity out of production after the tax introduction.

 Also, the Ministry of Textiles wants to strengthen the to it entrusted weakening industry. At the beginning of August 2018, for example, it added changes to the Technology Upgradation Funds Scheme (TUFS), which has been in existence since 1999. This now expanded technology promotion program allows cooperative banks to provide financing to textile companies for technological improvements. They also become accessible for liability partnerships. Of the approximately USD 1.1 billion, that the central government budget is holding for the textile industry in the fiscal year 2018/19, one third, 14 percent more than in the previous year, are intended for the TUFS. Manufacturers of synthetic fibers and the clothing industry in particular are likely to benefit from this, according to industry sources.

The existence of an own Ministry of Textiles shows how important this industry is for India, not only as a source of foreign exchange, but also as an employer. The entire sector, from spinning mills, weaving mills to clothing and other finished goods, contributed around 14 percent to value creation in the manufacturing industry and 13 percent to foreign exchange revenues in 2017, and employs directly 40 million and indirectly 60 million workers.

As one of the world's leading producers of cotton, jute and silk, India has comparative advantages in the textile sector and can look back on a long tradition in processing. Accordingly, cotton is the main raw material in yarn and fabric production. After all, 5.7 billion tons of yarn were spun in 2016/17, achieving an annual average increase of 3.1 percent between 2011 and 2017. The weaving mills processed 63.5 billion square meters of fabric in 2016/17, after 61.7 billion in 2011. The proportion of cotton fabrics rose from 51 to 61 percent in 2011 to 2017. The remaining part is accounted for approximately equally by synthetic and blended fabrics.

 
Production and export growth come to a halt Based on the previously strong growth the government is optimistic. According to forecasts by the Ministry of Textile, India's textile and clothing industry is expected to more than double its sales between 2015 and 2021. Exports are expected to increase from USD 35 billion to USD 82 billion, after doubling in the period from 2006 to 2014 from USD 17.6 billion to USD 37.6 billion. After that, however, they stagnated and, at USD 35 billion in 2017/18 and missed the by the government set target by USD 10 billion. The production of textiles and clothing declined from 2015 to 2017. It is unlikely to improve in 2018.

Textile and clothing industry in India 1)
  2015/16
 
2016/17 2)  2017/18 2)
Export of textiles and textiles products USD in USD billion 18.1 18.2 18.7
Export of clothing 17.0 17.4 16.7
Import of yarn, fabrics, made-ups in USD billion 1.7 1.5 n.a.
Change of production of textiles in % -0.2 -3.2 n.a.
Change of production of non-knitted clothing in % -3.6 -3.3 n.a.


1) Financial years from 1 April to 31 March; 2) Provisional data for 2016/17 and 2017/18
Source: Statistical Office India
     

Clothing industry needs to modernize 
India's textile industry has cost advantages over industrialized countries and advanced emerging countries such as China. Smaller developing countries, however, have become well-known competitors in the meantime and have partly surpassed India in terms of clothing. So Bangladesh and Vietnam exported more clothing than India. In addition there is growing competition from other low-wage countries such as Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Some of these countries have free trade agreements with the EU, while India has difficulties in negotiating them. The smaller competitors have also geared their clothing industry to exports and modernized it accordingly. After all, they do not have significant local markets. The Indian textile manufacturers are different: If there is not enough quality for export, the domestic market, which has a population of 1.3 billion inhabitants and is growing strongly, is still there, industry representatives explain to GTAI.

India's apparel industry therefore still has a considerable potential for modernization and requires new production technologies, particularly to improve operating efficiency. Other structural weaknesses include strong wage increases with insufficient productivity growth and a shortage of well-trained skilled workers. Other disadvantages are the fragmentation of the clothing industry - many companies lack size - and the lack of adaptation to global fashion trends. While the fashion world is more prone to fiber mixed fabrics, the Indian clothing is not yet following this trend. There is a lack of product diversification.

The spinning and weaving sector looks more modern. Industry experts attest to it a leading international position in terms of size, technology, productivity, quality and price. This is also evident when importing machines. India was the most important export market for German spinning machines to China in 2017 and the fifth largest market for weaving machines, according to the Textile Machinery Association of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA). In textile finishing machinery, India does not rank among the top six export markets, but its competitor Bangladesh does.

Double-digit growth in foreign direct Investment 
Foreign investments in the Indian textile industry are welcome and 100 percent foundations by foreign companies are welcome. On promotional trips to countries such as Japan, Germany, Italy and France, India is actively attracting investors and has not been unsuccessful. The inflow of foreign direct investment into the textile sector, including dyed and printed textiles, amounted to USD 2.7 billion between April 2000 and September 2017. Cumulative investments increased by an annual average of 17.3 percent between 2010 and 2017. However, the bulk of the investment is being stemmed by national Indians. Total investments in India's textile sector from June 2017 to May 2018 amounted to USD 4.2 Billion.

Contact Details
Name Internet Remark
Germany Trade & Invest http://www.gtai.de/indien Foreign information for the German Export Business
AHK Indien http://www.indien.ahk.de Contact for German companies
Ministry of Textiles http://www.texmin.nic.in Ministry
Office of Textile Commissioner http://www.txcindia.gov.in Government 
Confederation of Indian Textile Industry http://www.citiindia.com Textile Association
Textile Association India http://www.textileassociationindia.org Textile Association India
The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India http://www.cmai.in Clothing Association


    

More information:
India Bangladesh(7621)
Source:

Rainer Jaensch, Germany Trade & Invest www.gtai.de