From the Sector

adidas revealed the Official Match Balls for the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

Set on a metallic silver background, the men’s iteration of the Official Match Ball integrates a single letter from the instantly recognisable chorus lyric – ‘THE CHAMPIONS’ - onto each of the 12 stars, in an opulent calligraphy style. Visual representations of the musical tones of the song interject the stars, in striking royal purple, red and blue - colours specifically chosen to represent the footballing royalty competing for the coveted UEFA Champions League trophy.

The introduction of a bespoke anthem for the UEFA Women’s Champions League in the 2021/22 season, marked the start of a new dawn for the tournament. In honour of that moment, the new design incorporates the lyrics of the song in two of the ball’s eye-catching star panels – creating a unique circular text pattern in bright orange. The remaining ten stars feature a wavy purple and pink print, curated using the same words from the anthem, but significantly enlarged to create an abstract and attention-grabbing look.

The balls are optimised to cope with the demands of the modern game, incorporating a range of adidas performance technology – including a PRISMA surface texture which offers Europe’s finest players precision on the ball. The outer texture coating, found on all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Women’s Champions League Official Match Balls, offers secure grip and control on the ball while the thermally bonded seamless construction ensures the balls retain optimum shape to deliver ultimate performance on the pitch.

MAS Holdings, a global apparel & textile manufacturing and tech conglomerate, headquartered in Sri Lanka, secures a stake in HeiQ AeoniQ™ as part of its Plan for Change initiative to support the development of next-generation cellulosic filament fibers to replace polyester and nylon.

HeiQ from Switzerland and MAS Holdings entered a partnership for MAS to secure a stake in HeiQ AeoniQ GmbH, a subsidiary of HeiQ Group that will produce HeiQ AeoniQ™, a climate-positive cellulosic yarn.

With this investment, MAS Holdings becomes the first manufacturer to partner with HeiQ AeoniQ™ in their efforts to provide a sustainable alternative to polyester and nylon. The investment to be made by MAS Holdings is part of the group’s strategy to drive a positive environmental impact. The MAS Plan for Change aims to generate 50% of the company’s revenue through sustainable products by 2025, revolutionizing the textile industry with a focus on innovation, sustainable sourcing, and pioneering circularity at scale.

With the closing of this deal, HeiQ and MAS agreed to a 5-year Offtake Agreement for 3,000 tons of HeiQ AeoniQ™ yarn in 2025 and 5,000 tons per year from 2026 to 2029, valued by HeiQ in the aggregate to US$ 100 million. MAS will finalize this commitment within a stipulated time period after achieving milestone 1, and a mutual plan for commercialization. HeiQ and MAS firmly believe that rapid scaling is key to facilitating the fast adoption of sustainable, circular technologies such as HeiQ AeoniQ™.

The HeiQ AeoniQ™ pilot plant in Austria is manufacturing this revolutionary continuous cellulosic filament yarn since Q3 2022, with up to a 100 tons capacity to be upscaled up to 300 tons by the end of 2023.

The HeiQ AeoniQ™ production scale-up is planned to have its definitive boost by early 2026 with the construction of an entirely new gigafactory capable of a 30,000-ton output per year, in a 250M USD estimated investment.

Polyester and nylon, two oil-based fibers, virtually non-recyclable, account for about 70% of all the global textile production, they take between 350 to 1000 years to degrade in nature, are currently close loop recycled at less than 1%, and are at the origin of 35% of the microplastics that can be found in today's oceans. HeiQ AeoniQ™ was innovated and is being hyper-scaled up to change this course of action.

Silence and resource efficiency are the order of the day in the development and optimization of electric vehicles. On the one hand, ever stricter emissions regulations worldwide are increasing demand for components that reduce noise pollution while helping vehicle manufacturers meet their sustainability targets. On the other hand, the absence of noise from the combustion engine in e-cars amplifies the disruptive effects of other noise sources in the passenger compartment. With Ultra-
Silent Tune, Autoneum now presents a new lightweight and environmentally friendly technology for underbody shields that reduces tire rolling noise both outside and inside the vehicle, thus improving not only acoustic performance but also driver comfort in electric cars.

Autoneum's Ultra-Silent Tune technology owes its sound-absorbing performance to acoustic chambers of different shapes and sizes. The chambers are created by applying an embossed polyester foil to the side of the Ultra-Silent underbody shield facing away from the noise source: they capture the sound waves emitted by the car tires, modulate them according to their respective geometry and reflect them back onto the porous carrier material. Compared to conventional single-layer underbody shields, whose acoustic performance is mainly determined by the noise-reducing properties of the product side facing the tires, Ultra-Silent Tune exploits both sides of the component, which significantly improves its acoustic absorption. Autoneum thus makes innovative use of the proven concept of traditional chamber absorbers, reducing exterior tire rolling noise.

Moreover, Ultra-Silent Tune combines optimized acoustic performance with the sustainability benefits of Autoneum's Pure technology Ultra-Silent. In addition to the high proportion of recycled PET fibers, underbody shields made from Ultra-Silent Tune can be manufactured from 100% polyester and thus be fully recycled at the end of vehicle life. Furthermore, the thickness of the multilayer construction can be flexibly adapted to the packaging spaces of different vehicle models. Underbody shields made from Autoneum's new Ultra-Silent Tune technology are already in pre-development at various vehicle manufacturers in Europe.

KARL MAYER GROUP will be presenting a WEFTTRONIC® II G at the ITMA with new features and upgrades for greater efficiency. This warp knitting machine with weft insertion produces lattice structures from high-strength polyester, which are firmly established in the construction industry in particular. With a working width of 213", it offers productivity and further advantages through design innovations. New features include weft thread tension monitoring, management and the new VARIO WEFT laying system. The component for the weft insertion aims at maximum flexibility. It allows the patterning of the weft yarn to be changed quickly and easily electronically, without mechanical intervention during yarn insertion and without limits on repeat lengths. In addition, there is less waste.

The KARL MAYER GROUP also supports its customers with well thought-out Care Solutions. The new support offers include retrofit packages for retrofitting control and drive technology for weft insertion and composite machines, and service packages that bundle various services. These include machine inspections and the replacement of all drive belts. The customer benefits from fixed prices that cover the costs of technician assignments, various discount options and transparent services.

A new solution for the vertical greening of cities is presented from the field of application for technical textiles. The core of the innovation is a grid textile produced on warp knitting machines with weft insertion by KARL MAYER Technische Textilien GmbH. The knitted lattice fabric is made of flax. It is used as a climbing aid for fast-growing plants, and after the greening phase, in autumn, it can be recycled together with these plants as biomass in pyrolysis plants to produce electricity and activated carbon. In summer, the planted sails lower the ambient temperature through evaporation effects. In addition, photosynthesis creates fresh air and binds CO2. Other important advantages are low soil requirements and flexible placement in public spaces. The greening system was developed by the company Micro Climate Cultivation, OMC°C, with the support of KARL MAYER Technische Textilien.

The KARL MAYER GROUP will also be exhibiting a sustainable composite solution made from natural fibres. The reinforcing textile of the innovative lightweight material is a multiaxial non-crimp fabric, which was also produced from the bio-based raw material flax on a COP MAX 4 from KARL MAYER Technische Textilien. The boatbuilding specialist GREENBOATS uses natural fibre composites to achieve sustainable products. The fact that it succeeds in this is shown, for example, by the Global Warming Potential (GWP): 0.48 kg of CO2 per kilogram of flax reinforcement compares with 2.9 kg of CO2 per kilogram of glass textile.

• Sales increase by 4.7% to €283.7 million in Q1 2023
• Adjusted EBITDA improves by 9.0% to €40.1 million
• Growth based in particular on strong demand from the semiconductor industry

SGL Carbon generated Group sales of €283.7 million in Q1 2023 (Q1 2022: €270.9 million). This corresponds to an increase of €12.8 million or 4.7% compared to the same period of the previous year. Increased demand for specialty graphite components for the semiconductor industry from the Graphite Solutions business unit contributed in particular to the pleasing increase in sales. But also the Process Technology and Composite Solutions business units continued their positive business development.

Accordingly, adjusted EBITDA (EBITDApre) improved by 9.0% to €40.1 million in the reporting period (Q1 2022: €36.8 million).

Sales development
In the first three months of fiscal year 2023, the business unit Graphite Solutions was the main driver of SGL Carbon's growth with an increase in sales of €21.3 million or 17.8%. This is due in particular to the reallocation of production capacities from the solar industry market segment to the semiconductor industry. The Process Technology (+€6.6 million) and Composite Solutions (+€4.0 million) business units also contributed to the increase in sales.

The Carbon Fibers (CF) business unit recorded a decline in sales of €24.0 million in the reporting period. The decline is mainly due to the scheduled expiry of the attractive supply contract for the BMW i3 in the middle of last year. Freed-up production capacities were compensated by orders from the wind industry in the 2nd half of 2022. But the necessary construction of wind turbines in Europe is currently stalling. Low building permits and high manufacturing costs are temporarily hampering the construction and expansion of wind parks and therefore the necessary increase in renewable energy.

Earnings development
In line with the sales development combined with higher capacity utilization and positive product mix effects, adjusted EBITDA (EBITDApre) improved from €36.8 million to €40.1 million in Q1 2023, representing a quarter-on-quarter increase of 9.0%.

Taking into account depreciation and amortization of €14.3 million (Q1 2022: €14.1 million) as well as one-off effects and non-recurring items of minus €0.1 million, EBIT in the reporting period amounted to €25.7 million (Q1 2022: €31.2 million). It should be noted that Q1 of the previous year was positively impacted by one-off effects and and non-recurring items amounting to €8.5 million. Accordingly, net profit for the period of €15.3 million was lower than in the same quarter of the previous year (€21.5 million).

Debt, equity and capitel expenditure
Net financial debt increased slightly to €174.2 million as of March 31, 2023 (Dec. 31, 2022: €170.8 million). The leverage ratio remains unchanged at 1.0. Due to the positive consolidated net income, the equity ratio increased again slightly compared to the end of fiscal 2022 to 39.5% (Dec. 31, 2022: 38.5%).

Looking at the capital expenditure in Q1 2023, it amounted to €19.0 million, which is higher than the average values of the previous quarters. "At the beginning of 2023, we had already announced the expansion of our investment activities to expand production capacities in the Graphite Solutions business unit. In previous years, our capital expenditure was in line with depreciation and amortization. In addition to these approximately €60 million, we will invest further €20 to €30 million in 2023, which will be financed by advance payments in the context of long-term supply contracts from our customers in the semiconductor industry. Our semiconductor customers secure future production capacities for graphite components, which are needed for their own growth. In return, SGL Carbon's long-term supply contracts will enable future profitable growth," said Dr. Torsten Derr, CEO of SGL Carbon.

Outlook
In line with the business performance in the first three months of 2023, the company confirms the sales and earnings guidance issued on March 23, 2023.

For the financial year 2023, Group sales are expected to be at the prior-year level and  EBITDApre between €160 - 180 million. Taking into account depreciation and amortization, EBITpre is forecast to be between €100 - 120 million. Furthermore, free cash flow at the end of fiscal 2023 is expected to be at the prior-year level and return on capital employed (ROCE) between 10% and 12%.

After the recent acquisition of Texo S.R.L. which has strengthened the company's presence in the luxury segment, C&S takes a further step forward in the creation of a widespread garment manufacturing hub in the heart of Italy. C&S takes ownership of the Seville brand together with the Bianchetti family, who remain co-owners covering mainly style research and development functions. The Italian style, which amounts to an aesthetic identity and a guarantee of artisan quality, a cultural orientation toward manufacturing excellence and product design, finally to an approach to the market characterized by availability, openness and interaction with the customer.

This acquisition strengthens C&S direct contact with retail, going alongside HAIKURE, PDF and other brands still being finalized, and will be able to generate a profitable exchange with the Style Services Luxe and Style Services Denim divisions, through which C&S stands out as an exceptional partner for all the brands that choose to rely on its experience in the world of jeans, luxury and formalwear.

High quality and Made in Italy trousers, but there is more, the brand Siviglia from the Marche region brings to C&S a wealth of tailoring skills and product construction. Born in Marotta (PU) in 2006 from the Bianchetti family, Siviglia is a reality that has experienced rapid commercial success since its entry into the market thanks to the intuition of the iconic trousers with fabric inserts at mid-thigh inspired by the Spanish horsemen, hence the name that recalls the Andalusian capital.

The success of Siviglia is built on coats, trousers and jeans characterized by fit and linear style, thanks to the continuous research on the product, on the fabrics and on the emerging trends, in a personal reinterpretation of the codes of elegance. The corporate style permeates not only the choice of materials and accessories, but is distinguished by the packaging components and the use of visual and communicative languages in line with the brand identity. By interpreting the contemporary and foreseeing the future needs of a constantly evolving market, Siviglia aims to provide its customers with the best in the broadest sense, including among its qualitative goals the reduction of the environmental impact of productions and materials used.

• Precious water for villages that are running on dry land

The GoodTextiles Foundation has worked to improve drinking water supplies in sub-Saharan Africa in another joint project with Cotton made in Africa (CmiA). In three villages in Togo particularly affected by climate change, the partners built wells and trained people in the use of water. The curriculum included the topics of disease prevention, hygiene and health care.

In 2016, the textile company Dibella (Bocholt) established the GoodTextiles Foundation with the aim of making textile value chains more sustainable. It raises funds and implements its own support projects to benefit people at all stages of the textile industry. Now the foundation has once again supported a project in sub-Saharan Africa initiated by Cotton made in Africa (Hamburg). Funding is being provided for three villages in Togo that, according to a needs assessment by CmiA's local partner, the cotton company Nouvelle Société Cotonnière du Togo (NSCT), have no direct access to drinking water.

Difficult water procurement
The areas where CmiA's drought-resistant cotton is grown include the north and interior of Togo, where cotton farmers are particularly affected by the effects of climate change due to prolonged periods of drought. Many village communities lack access to clean drinking water, and people draw contaminated water from more distant rivers or waterholes and carry the heavy load back with difficulty.

Guide to clean water
As part of a joint project between the GoodTextiles Foundation, Aid by Trade Foundation (holder of the CmiA standard) and NSCT, three drought-affected villages - Namare/Puob-n-kpaad, Tchokoroko and Aloba - will now receive their own water supply.

The funds - 11,756 euros will be provided by the GoodTextiles Foundation, and 4,419 euros will come from the Cotton Society - will be used to construct a well operated by hand pumps in each village. The construction work is to be completed by March 2023 and the 2,300 inhabitants will be taught the basics of water handling, disease prevention and hygiene measures in so-called WASH training courses.

Driving force: UN SDGs
For years, we have aligned our company with the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals for Sustainable Development). Through the sponsorship project, we are not only contributing to SDG 6 "Clean water and sanitation", but also to gender equality (SDG 5). In the African countries from which we source CmiA cotton, the physically strenuous task of procuring water is still the responsibility of women. The construction of the wells now leads to a significant improvement of their living situation," reports Ralf Hellmann, managing director of Dibella and chairman of the foundation.

Continued under their own responsibility
Once the wells have been handed over to the village communities, "water committees" will take over their management and maintenance, as well as responsibility for further hygiene training for the residents. The operation of the wells will be financed on the basis of a fund made up of small contributions from the beneficiary communities.

• Iconic 200 Series fleece to be the first fabric made from this new process.

Polartec®, a Milliken & Company brand, announces Polartec® Shed Less Fleece, a new milestone in its industry-leading efforts to reduce textile fiber fragment shedding. Shed Less is a process that combines yarn construction, knitting, chemistry, and manufacturing to reduce home laundry fiber fragment shedding by an average of 85%. The first fabric to receive this new technology is the brand’s iconic Polartec® 200 Series Fleece, the modern version of the original PolarFleece® launched in 1981, and in 1993, the first performance fleece knit from yarn made from recycled plastic bottles.

The Shed Less process works by engineering the lofted fibers that give fleece its soft hand the ability to resist breaking and rubbing off during home laundering, cited as one contributing factor to the spread of fibers fragments (commonly referred to as microfibers). Polartec® Shed Less Fleece achieves this while maintaining all of the attributes that continue to make Polartec fleece a staple of midlayer collections - lightweight, breathable and warm.

The brand used the AATCC (American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists) TM212-2021 test method for fiber fragment release during home laundering. This test was conducted with large sample sizes to account for variability. The testing concluded that Shed Less Fleece reduced fiber fragment shedding by an average of 85% compared to the baseline fabric.

“In 2016 we began looking into how we might test for fiber loss because there wasn’t a lot of research on the issue.” said Aimee LaValley, Polartec Textile Development, Dye and Chemistry Manager. “This led to new products like Polartec Power Air™, new manufacturing processes, as well as our participation in the TextileMission workgroup to study the issue on an interdisciplinary basis.”

TextileMission was a three year collaborative initiative of academia and industry to reduce the impact of textile microplastics funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Founding partners include The Association of the German Sporting Goods Industry, Hochschule Niederrhein - University of Applied Science; TU Dresden - Institute of Water Chemistry; Vaude Sport; WWF Germany; Adidas AG; Henkel AG; Miele & CIE; and Polartec, LLC.

Polartec® Shed Less Fleece will be initially launched in the United States and will be available to customers beginning March 1, 2023. The brand plans to apply the Shed Less process to many other industry-leading fabric platforms and manufacturing facilities around the world.

Carbios and Novozymes announced an exclusive long-term global strategic partnership. This major agreement ensures the long-term production and supply of Carbios’ proprietary PET-degrading enzymes at an industrial scale for the world’s first biological PET-recycling plant due to start production in 2025 in Longlaville (France), as well as Carbios’ future licensee customers.
 
Carbios and Novozymes have had a partnership since 2019 to develop enzyme-based solutions and address  the sustainability challenge of plastic pollution, both within PET-recycling[1] and PLA-biodegradation[2].  Building on the current Joint Development Agreement (JDA), under the new agreement, Carbios and Novozymes will extend their collaboration to develop, optimize and produce enzymes that will subsequently be supplied by Novozymes to all licensees of Carbios’ technology.  The new agreement grants both parties exclusivity in the field of the partnership.
 
The strategic partnership supports the large-scale industrial deployment of Carbios’ patented PET-recycling technology starting with Carbios’ future industrial reference unit in Longlaville (France), which will be the world’s first biological PET-recycling plant. Construction will begin later this year, and both building and operating permits having been filed with local authorities.  Production at the plant is set to start in 2025 and the processing capacity will be 50,000 tonnes of waste per year.

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