From the Sector

From 6 – 8 March 2024, over 330 exhibitors from seven countries and regions will convene at of Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Spring Edition to highlight a variety of home textile products. Buyers will be able to source the latest bedding, duvets, pillows, towels, carpets, rugs and many more.

Highlighted exhibitors

• Bedding – GSI Creos Corporation, Jjiangyin Hongliu Bedsheet Co Ltd, Zhejiang Eider Warmth New Material Co Ltd
• Down – Anhui Million Feather Co Ltd, Hangzhou Gaga Home Textiles Co Ltd, Shanghai Donglong Home Textile Products Co Ltd
• Functional pillow & mattress – Changshu Dafa Warp Knitting Co Ltd, Chuzhou Bray Smart Home Appliances Co Ltd, Zhangjiagang Coolest Life Technology
• Floor – Amore Textile (Suzhou) Co Ltd, Jingyi Fur Products Co Ltd, Shaoxing Jiaohui Home Textile Co Ltd
• Quilt fillings – Pujiang Boyue Home Textile Co Ltd, Pujiang Huayu Hometextile Co Ltd
• Textile design – Tela’s Design Lda
• Towelling – Nantong Dadong Co Ltd, Sunvim Group Co Ltd
• Loungewear & bath – Suzhou Huazhong Knitting Co Ltd, Zhejiang Demu Textile Technology Co Ltd
• Upholstery fabrics – Changshu Xinghan Hometextiles Co Ltd, Jiangsu First Home Textile Co Ltd, Shaoxing Chengchong Imp & Exp Co Ltd
• Home textile technologies – Nantong Mingxing Science & Technology Development Co Ltd, Sichuan Chnki Sewing Machine Co Ltd

Fringe programme
Complementing the exhibitor lineup, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles will feature events to keep attendees up-to-date with emerging developments, trends, and important intuition.
For example, one of the most essential yet often overlooked foundations for sustaining wellness is quality sleep. Throughout day one and two at the Bedding Seminar Area, sleep technology will again be a key topic of discussion, guaranteeing comprehensive insights on sleep quality while tapping into associated business prospects.
Traditional Chinese medicine will also take the spotlight, with talks linking various health issues to remedies. Crossover subjects include topical therapy’s role in a better night’s sleep as well as innovations blending medicinal properties with textile design.
An increasing number of people are choosing to use natural materials and green textiles for their bedrooms and throughout their homes. For this reason, the seminars falling under the "Textiles & Technology" theme will shed light on sustainability and what’s next in the industry.

Under the motto “People Matter” numerous exhibitors will be presenting innovative solutions and concepts revolving around safe and healthy work at A+A 2023. This year, the overarching theme of the leading international trade fair will be the two megatrends digitalisation and sustainability.    

Furthermore, A+A organisers have changed the hall concept and optimised routing at the exhibition centre: the halls have been clearly segmented according to theme, thereby placing similar products and services in close proximity with each other. This makes it easier for visitors to locate the companies exhibiting ranges of particular interest to them and to find their bearings at the fairgrounds.  

Also new: Halls 16 and 17 will present Corporate Wear and Hall 15 the complete spectrum of components and accessories for manufacturing up-to-date protective wear.      

In addition to a Corporate Fashion Show visitors are in for further exciting forums as well as an extensive congress programme with international appeal: including the 38th International Congress for Occupational Safety and Occupational Medicine as well as the WearRAcon Europe, to be held in Germany for the first time as part of A+A. Likewise, such topics as ergonomics and New Work will be given significantly more visibility owing to new cooperations and expert lectures.  

• Target markets: automotive, furnishings, sports and technical apparel
• New product entry: radipeople® line of personal protective equipment

RadiciGroup is at Techtextil 2022, the leading European trade fair for technical textiles, taking place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from 21 to 24 June. On display in the RadiciGroup exhibition area are the Group’s latest products for the automotive, furnishings and apparel markets: from nylon and polyester yarn, including biosource and recycled lines, to nonwovens and the new radipeople® line of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Indeed, at Techtextil, RadiciGroup is showcasing RENYCLE®, a yarn obtained from recycled nylon; REPETABLE®, a polyester yarn from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles; RESPUNSIBLE®, a nonwoven fabric from recycled polypropylene; and BIOFEEL®, a brand identifying a yarn line obtained from renewable sources of both nylon and polyester.

Moreover, RadiciGroup is participating in a forum organized by the Technical Textiles Section of Sistema Moda Italia in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ICE) (Hall 12.1 – Stand C58), with the goal of introducing product innovations not only coming from a single manufacturer, but also from an innovative synergistic approach all along the supply chain, from raw materials to finished products. An example of this synergistic collaboration is the “Mars Spacesuit”, recently tested in the USA by analogue astronauts as part of a space medicine project designed to measure the vital signs of future astronauts and develop technologies to support the simulation of life in space and planetary environments. RadiciGroup teamed up with major Italian textile companies and supplied the materials to make the suits for the six analogue astronauts participating in the mission and coordinated the development of the technologies needed to create the technicalwear for use in extreme environmental conditions.

Against the background of the worsening pandemic situation in Germany over the past two weeks and the associated restrictions, Heimtextil, scheduled to take place in the second week of January, is cancelled. Messe Frankfurt is working with the industry to determine whether and in what form a new offering in the summer of 2022 can be organised to run parallel to the Techtextil/Texprocess trade fair duo. Later events such as Ambiente, Christmasworld, Creativeworld, Paperworld and Frankfurt Fashion Week are still planning to take place at the present time.

Due to the unforeseeable dynamics in the development of the pandemic, the reciprocal and cumulative effects of the relevant factors, as well as the extreme escalation and deterioration of the pandemic situation in Germany within a very short period of time, including the decisions taken at the Conference of Minister Presidents on 02.12.2021, the date of Heimtextil right at the beginning of the year, in the second week of January, cannot be kept. Heimtextil, the leading international trade fair for home and contract textiles, will be cancelled. Messe Frankfurt is working closely with all industry partners to find out whether and within what framework Heimtextil can be held parallel to Techtextil and Texprocess from 21 to 24 June 2022.

Heimtextil as an international trade fair has always kicked off the spring trade fair season and is the first major international trade fair in Germany directly after Christmas and New Year with exhibitors and visitors from over 135 countries. The exponential increase in the number of infections in a very short period of time and the accompanying multitude of developments and resolutions that are clearly outside the realm of influence of the organizer have led to a significant deterioration in the general conditions and necessary requirements for holding Heimtextil as a major trade fair of international relevance at this early stage. These developments include in particular the classification of Germany as a high-risk area and the associated travel warnings, international and intercontinental travel restrictions in India, Japan, the United States and Great Britain, as well as the quarantine obligation and “2G” (only with vaccinated and recovered status) requirements without recognition of the WHO vaccine list in Germany. Equally important are the steadily rising infection figures and the accompanying urgent appeal, including by the Robert Koch Institute, to reduce contacts to a minimum and to cancel all major events.

A large number of the exhibiting and visiting companies at Heimtextil are currently reacting to this with travel and trade fair attendance bans out of an obligation of concern towards their employees to protect them from health risks. The global willingness to travel is continuing to fall rapidly.

The planning and staging of the other spring trade fairs Ambiente, Christmasworld, Creativeworld and Paperworld is not affected. Due to their later dates in the year, at the end of January and mid-February respectively, these fairs are still planning to take place at the present time. Compared to Heimtextil, which is the most international trade fair at the Frankfurt location, Frankfurt Fashion Week currently has a much lower international profile and from this perspective can therefore still take place. The extremely volatile situation is continuously reviewed and evaluated in close exchange with the relevant authorities and industry partners.

Avgol®, an Indorama Ventures company and manufacturer of high performance nonwoven fabric solutions, will be showcasing its latest work in biotransformation technology for polyolefin fibers and nonwoven fabrics at this year’s IndexTM 20 exhibition.
Avgol will be discussing the global challenge of eliminating incineration, landfill, dumping and, in particular, fugitive material pollution from non-woven products.

natureFIT™ is the newest innovation in the Avgol technology platform designed to imbue nonwoven fabrics with additional qualities and benefits that anticipate the shifting demands of the consumer-led retail space. The suite of fabric solutions is focused on replacing elements of spun melt fabric design, where possible, with natural alternatives. The advanced technology affords product designers a significant reduction in polymer consumption to reduce environmental impact while simultaneously enhancing softness and conformability.

The Index 20 expo will be held on 19 – 22nd October 2021 at Palexpo Geneva.

China is the world’s undisputed front-runner in the global car market, leading the way in both production and sales. 2018 saw 27.8 million vehicles produced and domestic sales of 28.1 million, and while these numbers were down slightly year-on-year, the opportunities for global textile producers are still unrivalled given the overall size of the market. These opportunities can best be explored at this year’s biennial China International Nonwovens Expo & Forum (CINE – supported by Techtextil), which runs from 3 – 5 June in Shanghai.
While CINE features nonwovens & nonwoven products, machinery for nonwovens and raw materials & chemicals for nonwovens for a wide range of applications, it is the potential in the automotive sector that is generating a lot of talk before this June’s event. And considering only around 50% of demand for automotive textiles is met by domestic output, the opportunities for imports from overseas suppliers is high.

While new car sales in China dropped for the first time last year since 1992, production still reached 27.8 million vehicles, including 23.5 million passenger cars and 4.3 million commercial vehicles. Furthermore, strong growth is still evident in new energy vehicle (NEV) sales, as well as exports of all vehicle types. NEV production totalled 1.27 million units last year, a staggering 60% increase, while sales grew by nearly 62%. More e-vehicles are sold in China than rest of the world combined, while the government recently set a target of selling 7 million e-vehicles by 2025, ensuring growth in this sector will remain robust for some time. Exports of all vehicle types in 2018 did not grow as fast as NEVs, but the 1.04 million vehicles produced for overseas markets last year still represented growth of 16.8%.

Premium automotive industry buyers attend CINE
Given CINE’s strong reputation in the Chinese nonwovens sector, a number of leading automobile brands, and textile suppliers to these companies, source at the fair. Previous buyers have included Autoliv, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Lear Corporation, Lydall, Toyota Boshoku, Volkswagen, Wangbo Co Ltd and more.

This edition, buyers such as these can source from a range of automotive nonwovens suppliers. This includes Shanghai Shenda, one of the country’s largest producer of automotive textiles, who will group together a number of automotive interior suppliers.

This year the fair will take place in a new venue, the Shanghai Convention & Exhibition Center of International Sourcing, located conveniently between Hongqiao airport and downtown Shanghai. Visitor registration for the fair is now open and can be accessed here: http://vis.eastfair.com/CINEPCEN/reg.aspx.

Exhibitors from eight countries have already confirmed to participate in the fair’s European Zone. They join an expected 500-plus total exhibitors from around the world. The 2018 edition of this biennial fair takes place from 4 – 6 September in halls N1 – N3 of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.

While China retains its edge in terms of technical textiles and nonwovens production capabilities, in the eyes of Chinese buyers, European suppliers are still the leaders when it comes to technology and innovation. This was widely reported by European exhibitors at the previous edition in 2016 of Asia’s leading biennial trade event for the industry: Cinte Techtextil China.

“In the Chinese market, buyers want good quality products, so overseas companies, and products with recognised quality certifications, have a lot of potential,” Ms Ping Chen, General Manager of IBENA Shanghai Technical Textiles commented. “As a leading German company in the industry, our products are welcomed by many buyers at this fair. It is also important to be in the German Pavilion as this signals to buyers that we have quality products, and it attracts more attention.” Swiss firm Sanitized AG had the same experience. “As a Swiss company in the European Zone I believe it’s an advantage, as some local buyers have more confidence towards imported products,” Mr Steven Liu, Sales Manager said.

Other exhibitors commented on the long-term trends in the Chinese market. “There’s a definite shift to more high-quality machinery in China that isn’t affected by what’s happening in the overall economy. Moreover, there are opportunities for overseas suppliers as there is still a gap between us and what Chinese companies produce,” Dr Joachim Binnig, Vice President, Head of Development & Technology, Autefa Solutions Germany GmbH explained.

Mr Roger Zhang, Sales Manager for German firm J.H. Ziegler Nonwovens and New Materials commented: “Our products are mainly for high-end Chinese customers, such as BMW and Audi. The Chinese market has gradually matured, but the production capability for high-performance products which are energy efficient and eco-friendly is still developing, so there is a lot of space for overseas brands to develop here.”

European Zone highlights
This year’s European Zone will feature around 30 exhibitors from eight countries, including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, while further exhibitors can be found in national pavilions from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy. Some of the exhibitor highlights in the European Zone include:

• Arkema (France): with brands including PMMA Altuglas, Rilsan, Pebax, Kynar PVDF and Bostik, they will present polymer resin for fibres and yarns, which apply to a wide range of applications, at the fair.
• Dakota Coating (Belgium): specialists in thermoplastic and thermosetting adhesives, their polymer products, based on polyethylene, polyolefin or mixtures, ethylene vinyl acetates, co-polyamides, polyurethanes and co-polyesters, are suitable for automotive, building, heat transfer and sound insulation uses.
• Lenzing Plastics (Austria): a new exhibitor at the fair, they are a leading manufacturer of polyolefin and fluoropolymer products, such as Thermoplast and PTFE products. One of their core competencies lies in the monoaxial stretching of films and filaments, and they offer special solutions in the fields of construction & insulation, medicine & hygiene, packaging and cables, as well as automotive and technical textiles. They will highlight their PROFILEN® PTFE product at the fair, and with its extreme durability and very smooth surface, it is highly valued in many niche applications in the technical and medical sectors.
• Protechnic (France): leading manufacturers of hot-melt adhesives and plastic printed films, they will showcase hot melt thermo-adhesive nets, webs and films at the fair.
• Trelleborg Coated Systems (Italy): another new exhibitor this edition, they produce high-performance, engineered coated fabrics. They offer a wide variety of substrates – from Kevlar® to silk – with a choice of weaving methods.