From the Sector

Huntsman Textile Effects is bringing its complete end-to-end suite of high-performance solutions for sports apparel to Performance Days Digital Fair from December 1 to 2, 2021 virtually.

Driven by growing consumer interest in active and healthy lifestyles, coupled with the growing number of national sports participation programs that promote healthy living, the global sportwear market shows no signs of slowing. Brands that aim to satisfy this high-growth market need to be able to produce performance apparel that not only delivers sought-after functional capabilities and desirable aesthetics, but also comes with low environmental impact.

Huntsman will introduce the latest addition to the third generation of its revolutionary AVITERA® SE polyreactive dye range at Performance Days. AVITERA® ROSE SE delivers bluish-red shades while reducing the water and energy required for production by up to 50% and increasing mill output by up to 25% or more. It also significantly outperforms available dyeing technologies for cellulosic fibers and blends in terms of value, reducing recipe costs, minimizing processing costs and eliminating reprocessing.

Also in the spotlight are eco-friendly solutions for the challenges of achieving full whites and consistent shades on recycled polyester (rPET) with right-first-time quality. Huntsman’s rPET processing solutions include pre-treatment chemicals, fluorescent whitening agents, state-of-the-art washfast dyes, and finishing solutions for high-performance protection and comfort.

In partnership with Sciessent, Huntsman is also bringing revolutionary antimicrobial and odor-control solutions to Performance Days. These include Sciessent’s Agion Active® X2, a next-generation odor-control solution that combines advanced technologies to both capture and fight odor-causing bacteria for garments that smell fresh for longer and need less frequent washing. The partners are also previewing a new solution: Sciessent’s NOBO™, a cost-effective odor adsorber that provides odor control on virtually any fabric.

Other featured innovations include Teflon Eco Dry with Zelan™ R2 Plus technology. A breakthrough in sustainable water repellency, it contains 30% renewably sourced plant-based raw materials and meets or exceeds performance levels possible with traditional fluorinated technologies. Another exciting Huntsman solution is the new PHOBOL® Extender UXN – a product that optimizes water-repellent finishes for long-lasting fabric protection. It is free from butanone oxime, which has recently been re-classified in Europe and restricted above certain limits in products by bluesign®.

International technology group ANDRITZ will present its innovative nonwovens and textile technologies at the booth of its Indian representative PRN Techtex at Techtextil India 2021 in Mumbai, India, from November 25 to 27, 2021. A special focus will lie on its technologies for air-through bonding, needlepunch, textile recycling, and processes for biodegradable wipes, like spunlace and WetlaceTM.

Air-through Bonding
Air-through-bonding lines are the preferred choice for producing nonwovens with the best quality of softness and bulk for acquisition distribution layers, top sheets, and back-sheet products. With ANDRITZ carding machines and the new flat belt oven, customers benefit from high-performance fabrics from 16 to 80 gsm, produced with bicomponent fibers. Several Chinese customers have already invested in ANDRITZ aXcess carding machines, which provide perfect web uniformity. In addition, the CETI (European Center for Innovative Textiles) in Lille, France, has installed an air-through-bonding oven from ANDRITZ.

Textil-recycling Technologies
Recently, ANDRITZ acquired Laroche SAS, a leading supplier of fiber processing technologies such as opening, blending, dosing, airlay web forming, textile waste recycling, and decortication of bast fibers. The product portfolio further complements and increases the ANDRITZ Nonwoven product range. One focus of this product range lies on complete recycling lines for post-consumer and industrial textile waste to produce fibers for re-spinning and/or nonwoven end uses.

Needlepunch Technologies
Driven by the dynamic market for durable nonwovens, ANDRITZ has developed an elliptical pre-cylinder tacker – the PA3000. With this modern machine, ANDRITZ is responding to customer demands for higher capacities and lighter products. The PA3000 is an optimized cylinder pre-needleloom, which offers greater speeds and widths and has been specially developed for lighter webs. There is no friction between the web and the rolls, and there are no issues with the visual appearance.

ANDRITZ is also focusing on its latest needling technology for producing veloured felts, mainly for applications in the automotive industry.

In addition, ANDRITZ will be presenting the next generation of its batt-forming technology, the ProWin system. ProWin is a further development of ProDynTM and ProWidTM, which have achieved a high level of acceptance on the market with around 200 systems installed. This technology improves the current weight-profiling options and increases the actual production capacity.

Production of Bio-Wipes
For many years now, ANDRITZ has offered different nonwoven processes, such as spunlace and Wetlace, with one goal in mind: reduction and elimination of plastic raw materials while maintaining the high quality of the desired product properties. The latest development in this field is the ANDRITZ neXline wetlace CP line. This is a fully engineered production line, combining the benefits of wetlaid and drylaid technologies to produce a new generation of biodegradable wipes. This process achieves high performance entirely with plastic-free raw materials. The added benefit of using a blend of fibers, like wood pulp, short-cut cellulosic fibers, viscose, cotton, hemp, bamboo, or linen, without chemical additives, results in a 100% sustainable fabric.

C.L.A.S.S. MATERIAL HUB is a careful selection of smart ingredients made by cutting-edge companies and innovators across the globe. The wide range includes transparent and traceable products, which can be natural/organic, up or re-cycled/able, or innovative and always representing a new generation of innovation that is minimizing its impact on people, environment, animals and oceans.

Sensil® BioCare sustainable premium Nylon fiber is enhanced with a technology, that helps lessen the persistence of textile waste in sea water and in landfills. With its embedded technology, if any microfibers of Sensil® BioCare garments are released during washing, they will be broken down at a quicker rate compared to conventional Nylon 6.6 fibers when they end up in the oceans. Tests were conducted in both landfill soil and sea water simulations to understand the potential impact of Sensil® BioCare on both ecosystems. Specifically, initial testing following the ASTM D6691 Standard Test Method For Determining Aerobic Biodegradation Of Plastic Materials In The Marine Environment and the ASTM D5511 Standard Test Method For Determining Anaerobic Biodegradation Of Plastic Materials Under High-Solids Anaerobic-Digestion Conditions indicates that Sensil® BioCare yarns break down more rapidly (with a biodegradation of about 40% in 500 days) than conventional nylon. These promising findings point to reduced waste accumulation in both oceans and landfills.

NILIT, owner of the sustainable brand SENSIL®, has also teamed up with The Ocean Foundation’s Blue Resilience Initiative to reestablish and safeguard essential ocean meadows and other coastal habitats. These marine grasslands, which are being damaged at a rate of two football fields every hour, are vital ecosystems for sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere, thus reducing global warming and ocean acidification. In addition, ocean grasslands sustain sea life, defend coast lines against erosion and storm surge, and support economies around the world.

NILIT’s plant in Israel, who produce Sensil ® Biocare boosts, renowned certifications such as GRS (Global Recycled Standard)*, ISO 9001**, ISO 14001*** and ISO 45001****. Moreover, the company has already announced that all other plants in  the USA, China and Brazil will be ISO 14001 certified within 2021 and ISO 45001 certified within 2025. Worth to mention, 40% of Nilit’s team is made up of women.

Gina Tricot releases its first collection that has been produced with We aRe SpinDye. The collection is part of Gina Tricot's innovation program Gina Lab. and consists of a coat, shirt, trousers and two bags colored with We aRe SpinDye's method.

With the collaboration, Gina Tricot continues to focus on sustainability, now with the coloring process at the center. Of all the resources that arise during the entire lifespan of a garment - from the production of raw materials, to recycling, 80% is used during the production phase itself. To maximize the effects of the sustainability changeover, an increased focus is required on the entire production process and in particular on the most resource-intensive of them all: the dyeing.

One of Gina Tricot's focus is to explore new methods and technologies in sustainability, which makes the collaboration with We aRe Spin Dye feel just right for us. Together we get a product with more durable and circular fibers, in addition with a more sustainable textile production with a focus on minimal water use. We are extremely proud of this collaboration. says Emma Garrote, Global Production & Sustainability Manager at Gina Tricot.

Gina Tricot is a shining example of an agile organization with short decision-making processes. They have managed to enthuse both the design and production department. It has been crucial to reach the launch of this collection that takes place today, says Andreas Andrén, CEO of We aRe SpinDye®.

Gina Tricot
Gina Tricot is a Swedish fashion brand that offers fashion to women in over 30 countries. Today, Gina Tricot has over 160 stores around Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, as well as e-commerce throughout Europe. With around 1,900 employees, 98% of these are girls. For Gina Tricot, it is important to build pride from the inside out, we are a company that chooses to invest in and highlight women.

We aRe Spin Dye
The company is a Swedish cleantech company that provides and offers a process and platform for production and quality control that enables players in the fashion and clothing industry to significantly reduce their environmental impact. The company's business concept is to establish a new, sustainable and transparent standard for dyeing synthetic textiles in the fashion and apparel industry in a simple and user-friendly way.

In the Canopy’s 2021 Hot Button Ranking, Kelheim Fibres once again occupies a leading position: With a increase of 2.5 points in the evaluation, the Bavarian viscose speciality fibre manufacturer tied for third place out of around 40 viscose fibre manufacturers worldwide and a dark green/green shirt for the second year running. The Hot Button Report not only stands for responsible raw material sourcing - it is an overall sustainability indicator for viscose fibre producers.

Especially in the areas of transparency and procurement, the NGO Canopy, which is committed to the preservation of ancient and endangered forests, awarded Kelheim Fibres top points: Kelheim Fibres is the only EMAS-certified viscose fibre manufacturer worldwide and publishes all environmentally relevant data publicly.

Kelheim Fibres also gained points in the area of "Next Generation Solutions" - the use of alternative raw materials in fibre production. Together with the Swedish textile recycling company Renewcell, the fibre experts are planning to realise the large-scale production of high-quality viscose fibres from up to 10,000 tonnes of the 100% textile recyclate Circulose® per year.

• ADNOC and Borealis confirm final investment agreement to build Borouge 4 in Ruwais, United Arab Emirates (UAE), which will produce 1.4 million tons of polyethylene per annum
• Expansion project includes construction of a 1.5 million tonnes ethane cracker, two state-of-the-art Borstar® polyethylene plants and a cross-linked polyethylene plant
• Borouge 4 will meet growing customer demand across the Middle East, Africa and Asia with differentiated polyolefin solutions in energy, infrastructure, and advanced packaging
• New facility will benefit from industry-leading technologies to significantly improve energy efficiency and lower emissions, with carbon capture study underway
• Upon expansion, Borouge will be the world's largest single-site polyolefin complex and will supply feedstock to TA'ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone Body

ADNOC and Borealis AG signed an USD 6.2 billion investment agreement to build the fourth Borouge facility – Borouge 4 – at the polyolefin manufacturing complex in Ruwais, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The world-scale expansion confirms both partners’ commitment to the growth of Borouge and to support chemical production, and advanced manufacturing and industry in Ruwais, a key pillar of Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s technology, innovation and industrial development strategy. Borouge produces crucial industrial raw materials, which are exported to customers globally and used by local companies, boosting local industrial supply chains and enhancing In-Country Value.

Borouge 4 will capitalize on the projected growth in customer demand for polyolefins, driven by their use in manufactured products in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The facility will also enable the next phase of growth at the Ruwais Industrial Complex by supplying feedstock to the TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone.

Borouge 4 will have an industry-leading focus on sustainability leveraging the capabilities of both shareholders. The facility will utilize Borealis’ proprietary Borstar technology, to produce a product portfolio focused on durable applications for energy, infrastructure, advanced packaging, and agriculture sectors. This unique technology, in combination with hexene co-monomer, will enable the production of advanced packaging grades with up to 50% recycled polyethylene content.

Subject to an in-depth study, a Carbon Capture unit that would reduce CO2 emissions by 80% could also be operational in time for Borouge 4’s start-up. The facility is also designed to capitalize on ADNOC’s recent initiatives on clean energy, decarbonizing its power supply through access to Abu Dhabi’s clean power sources. These initiatives are aligned with the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative.

The first Borouge facility, producing 450,000 tons of polyethylene per annum was commissioned in 2001. Borouge 2 and Borouge 3 took capacity to 2 million tons and 4.5 million tons of polyethylene and polypropylene per annum in 2010 and 2014 respectively.  Borouge 4 will boost the company’s annual polyolefin production to 6.4 million tons, making Borouge one of the world’s largest single-site polyolefin facilities.

The new Borouge 4 facility will comprise:

• An ethane cracker, with 1.5 million tons ethylene output per annum, which will be the fourth cracker in Borouge’s integrated petrochemical complex in Ruwais
• Two additional Borstar® polyethylene (PE) plants, each with 700 thousand tons per annum capacity, using state-of-the-art Borealis Borstar third generation (3G) technology
• A cross-linked PE (XLPE) plant of 100 thousand tons per annum capacity.
• A hexene-1 unit, which will produce co-monomers for certain grades of polyethylene.

• COMPOSITES SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021  

JEC Group in collaboration with EuCIA has published the first edition of the Composites Sustainability report 2021. This report seeks to give highlights about the part composite materials are playing in creating the sustainable European economy of the future.   

The contents of the book are comprehensive: starting with discussions around the widely recognised Life  Cycle  Assessment  methodology  for  calculating  the  environmental  impact  of  products,  it then 
moves through a series of analyses and case studies presenting the Circular Economy approach and ranging from raw materials (including bio-based) to industrial components.    

The purpose of the work, rather than results, which quickly become obsolete, is to give examples of approaches contributing to and moving towards sustainability. To do so, JEC Group has arbitrarily split
the value chain into five parts:
• Background, LCA, circular economy ;  
• Concept, design, raw materials ;  
• Production, processes, waste ;  
• Recycling, recovery ;
• Applications. 
 
The book “Composites sustainability Report 2021” is for sale online.

International technology group ANDRITZ has received an order from Welspun Advanced Materials, India, to deliver a complete neXline spunlace line for the production of nonwoven roll goods and wipes for their new plant in Hyderabad, Telangana. The line has a capacity of up to three tons per hour. Start-up of the line is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2021.

The ANDRITZ high-capacity spunlace line will process various types of synthetic or natural fibers, such as polyester, viscose and cotton. The final products will have fabric weights ranging from 25 to 120 gsm, thus covering many applications. This neXline spunlace line also offers the option to integrate a third component from a selection of smart layers, enabling Welspun to also manufacture products for the health care and hygiene sectors.

Welspun is the largest global exporter of home textiles. Innovation and quality lie at the heart of the company’s success, which already has nonwoven production lines in operation, including needlepunch and spunlace equipment. With its new plant in Telangana, Welspun will significantly increase its existing spunlace capacity and also maintain a broad range of applications as the final products are used in hygiene, home care and industrial cleaning. The new, advanced facility is a 100,000 sqm greenfield development that is part of a larger 1,500,000 sqm industrial complex also accommodating the Welspun floorings facility.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) reported a strong 3Q 2021 performance amid record production volumes. The company maintained its positive outlook for the rest of the year and 2022, noting caution as headwinds including higher energy prices and supply chain disruptions weigh against resurgent consumer demand.

IVL reported EBITDA of US$478 million in Q3 versus US$552 million in the previous quarter and US$240 million a year earlier. Production volumes reached 3.73 million metric tons, a record, as the global recovery drove consumer demand for IVL’s products.

As the global economy recovers from the pandemic, consumer appetite and increasing Brent crude oil prices are testing supply chains and driving a commodity boom, with manufacturers running at full capacity. This has driven increases in freight prices and a shortage of materials.

Still, IVL posted a solid YTD performance, ending the first nine months of 2021 with EBITDA of US$ 1,512 million, up 123% YoY. The Integrated Oxides & Derivatives (IOD) segment will start to reap the full benefits of the hot commissioning of the Lake Charles gas cracker (IVOL) in Q4 and beyond, as well as continued advantaged shale gas economics.

In Q3, Project Olympus, the company’s cost saving and business transformation project, achieved US$63 million in efficiency gains, and is on track to achieve a total US$610 million of savings by 2023. IVL also implemented enhanced disclosures in governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets, and launched a comprehensive financial policy and governance structure to accelerate environmentally driven projects.

IVL strengthened its Indorama Management Council (IMC) – the company’s highest operational management committee – by rotating experienced executives and adding the COOs of the Fibers and Integrated Oxides & Derivatives (IOD) segments. The appointments will help build the segments into self-sustaining organizations while also rotating expertise across the IMC.

3Q 2021 Performance Summary

• Consolidated Revenue of US$ 3,867M, an increase of 9% QoQ and 50% YoY
• EBITDA of US$ 478M in Q3 versus US$552 million, a decrease of 13% QoQ and an increase of 99% YoY
• Reported annualized EPS of THB 4.53 and core annualized EPS of THB 4.09

For its 2021 Green Collection, the Italian luxury hosiery brand Sarah Borghi presents a broadened product offer in terms of colors and categories, meeting the needs of a stylish, yet sustainable consumer. By mixing fashion, quality, innovation and research, the tights and stockings powerhouse continues its development in the journey towards a conscious future.

The evolution of the Green Collection, the sustainable hosiery collection first launched in 2020, confirms the efforts of the brand in promoting a new generation of attractive fashion and design which actively encourages and supports a responsible change in culture and smart products offer.

Lately, a decisive step has been added to the brand’s history thanks to the publication of the Integrated Report by Gizeta Calze, Sarah Borghi’s top-notch producer and first Italian company in the hosiery sector to include sustainability throughout its business model. A commitment of responsibility and transparency on a path that has been carried on for years and that, today more than ever, becomes of the utmost importance, as stated by Luca Marzocchi, CEO of Gizeta Calze. The Integrated Report provides a complete view of the business strategy, operating model and governance, which combines financial information with sustainability insights, conceived as complementary to other strategies and, indeed, essential for increasing business value.

The collection
The collection presents a range of versatile, colorful products combined with extra-luxury comfort and designed for every type of woman: from seductive tights to everyday socks, together with knee- highs, up to athleisure with leggings.
 
The responsible collection features two new generation materials. One is Amni Soul Eco®, the world’s first biodegradable in anaerobic conditions polyamide 6.6 yarn that degrades in around 5 years* after disposing of in landfill, developed by SOLVAY and produced and distributed by FULGAR. The other is ROICA™ V550 by leading fiber manufacturer Asahi Kasei, a premium sustainable stretch yarn boasting the Gold Level Material Health Certificate by Cradle-to-Cradle Product Innovation Institute** as it has been evaluated for impact on human and environmental health. Moreover, it smartly breaks down without releasing harmful substances in the environment according to Hohenstein Environment Compatibility Certification. Key elements that makes ROICA™ V550 a precious choice when it comes to Circular Economy material approach.