From the Sector

The Indorama Mobility Group, a manufacturer of industrial fibers, cords and fabrics, - like other companies - is confronted with significant inflation since the beginning of the year. The global economy has gradually recovered in 2021 from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but is still experiencing very volatile market conditions: The global freight remains unreliable and expensive, cost for energy and global commodities is increasing, and the increasing focus on sustainability and environmental impact is driving compliance cost upward in most part of the world.

In detail:

• Utilities: gas price has tripled in the past few months in Europe (from a level of 15 EUR/MWh in Q4’20 to 45 EUR/MWh recently), while increasing by 50% in USA
• CO₂ emissions and compliance cost: prices for CO₂ certificates in Europe have almost doubled, approaching 60 EUR/ton from 30 EUR/ton at the end of last year, while regulations continue to expand the need for CO2 compensation
• Chemicals and additives (spinfinish, dip chemicals, coating & laminating chemicals): cost have increased by 5%
• Packaging: prices for standard packaging materials have increased by more than 30%
• Logistic: despite our local manufacturing footprint which is not fully affected by global freight issues, the regional logistic costs are also increasing up to 20% (road transport)

Despite constant efforts to optimise the cost structure through comprehensive initiatives to improve operations, cost increases have now reached a level, the group said, that can no longer be offset and must be passed on to the market. This is a necessary step to be able to continue supplying high-quality products and services of the broad product portfolio, it said.

Kelheim Fibres GmbH is announcing that with effect from 01. October 2021, or as contracts and agreements allow, prices for its range of viscose fibres will be increased by €0,20/kg. In addition, freight cost adjustments will be applied on an individual customer basis. In cases where energy cost adjustments are not included in contracts and agreements, a temporary energy surcharge will be applied.

“The measures we are taking are absolutely necessary to ensure that Kelheim Fibres remains in a position to supply fibres with the levels of quality and service expected by our customers,” says Matthew North, Commercial Director of Kelheim Fibres.

The year 2021 has brought extraordinary challenges for society and for industry. Alongside the Covid-19 pandemic, recovering demand, disruption in the global freight systems and dramatically increased energy costs are driving significant cost increases for raw materials and negatively influencing supply chains. Prices for energy and freight currently lie well outside their historical ranges.

Es sei der Kelheim Fibres GmbH gelungen, die Auswirkungen der Pandemie auf die Faserproduktion zu begrenzen. Aber als Unternehmen mit eigener Kraft-Wärme-Kopplungsanlage und einem hohen Exportanteil in Staaten außerhalb Europas hätten sich diese Kostenfaktoren im zweiten und dritten Quartal 2021 stark negativ auf die Margen ausgewirkt. Da die Energiekosten auf einem beispiellos hohen Niveau verharrten und im vierten Quartal möglicherweise weiter ansteigen werden, keine Entlastung bei den hohen Frachtkosten absehbar sei und auch die Rohstoffkosten auf hohem Niveau blieben, müsse das Unternehmen Maßnahmen ergreifen, um eine weitere Margenerosion zu verhindern.

Kelheim Fibres GmbH had succeeded in limiting the impact of the pandemic on fibre production. However, as a company operating its own cogeneration energy plant and with a high level of export business outside Europe, these cost factors have had a severe negative impact on margins during the second and third quarters of 2021. With energy costs set to remain at unprecedentedly high levels and potentially increase further in the fourth quarter, no relief to the high level of freight costs foreseeable, and raw material costs also remaining at a high level, the company needs to take steps to prevent further margin erosion.

Kelheim Fibres’ Business Managers will be in contact with individual customers during September with further information.

• Ramping Up Production of American-Made Polyester Tipped Swabs

The Biden Administration has awarded a contract for $6.5 million to U.S. Cotton LLC, the largest manufacturer of cotton swabs in the United States, to increase domestic production capability for polyester tipped swabs for home testing kits and mass testing applications to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.  Since the beginning of the pandemic, U.S. Cotton has retooled operations to produce over 400 million COVID testing kit swabs.

The Department of Defense (DOD), in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced the award today as part of the administration’s broader effort to increase domestic production capability for essential medical supplies.

U.S. Cotton, based in Cleveland, Ohio, said the company will increase its production capacity from 92 million polyester swab tips per month to approximately 371 million polyester swab tips per month by May 2022 to support domestic COVID-19 testing. The DOD contract award was funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to support the domestic industry base expansion for critical medical resources.

John Nims, President of U.S. Cotton said, “We are proud to be involved in a national effort to help deploy these testing kit swabs for the American people. These swabs are designed to make it easier for people at home to self-administer coronavirus tests and will also be used for mass testing applications, which is critically important. We greatly appreciate the collaboration with DOD and HHS to ramp up essential capacity of polyester-based synthetic swabs that will help in the fight against the pandemic.

“We continue to step up to meet our nation’s critical need for American-made coronavirus testing kit swabs on a massive scale. It is an honor to work with our government to help fight this pandemic and use our innovative technologies based here in the United States to fill a national and global demand for testing kits. I especially want to thank Senator Brown and Senator Portman for all their incredible support to help us retool and expand our operations in Cleveland. We can’t thank them enough for their tireless work and also want to recognize their hard working staff. As the Delta variant surges across the country, this timely investment will help in the fight against COVID by adding this much-needed, long-term surge capacity.”

Kim Glas, President and CEO of NCTO, said, “We want to sincerely thank President Biden, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Health and Human Services for leading this critical industrial expansion effort. We appreciate the administration’s commitment to expand the U.S. industrial base for these essential products.  We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to onshore these critical supply chains long-term and we look forward to working with the administration and Congress to advance long-term solutions.”

• Circular economy at Kelheim Fibres: Examples of innovation from raw material, product design and all the way to “end of life”

Kelheim Fibres, the world's first viscose fibre manufacturer with an EMAS-certified environmental management system, is continuously working on optimising its special fibres. These can be functionalised as needed - in many cases to save further processing steps (such as dyeing or coating) and thus energy, water and chemicals - and are completely biodegradable at the end of their product life in a short time (according to OECD Test 301 B).

Currently, the specialists in Kelheim are working on the development of alternative raw materials for the production of viscose fibres, such as recycled cellulose as well as other cellulose-containing starting materials. One approach to closing the product cycle in the textile sector is the use of pulp produced from recycled post-consumer waste materials.

In production, Kelheim Fibres focuses on resource conservation by minimising emissions and waste through closed-loop recovery systems, as well as through highly efficient energy generation and the corresponding operation of the plants.

Dr. Roland Scholz, Project Manager Fibre and Application Development at Kelheim Fibres, will present details of this on Wednesday, 15 September, at 5.50 p.m., in Hall B of the 60th Dornbirn GFC WEBINAR WEEK.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

• Full utilization of production capacity possible at the site
• New EU environmental requirements will be fully and promptly satisfied starting in 2024

The Lenzing Group, a global provider of wood-based specialty fibers for the textile and nonwoven industries, is investing GBP 20 mn (equal to EUR 23.3 mn) to build a new, state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant at its site in Grimsby, United Kingdom. The investment is part of the company’s plans to reduce wastewater emissions by 2022.

Once it has implemented this project, Lenzing will have biological wastewater treatment plants that meet the best available techniques (BAT) quality standard at all its production sites. The plant design, which will employ a new technology developed as part of a research project, is fully aligned with the UK regulator and supported by the local authorities.

The site’s current wastewater situation complies fully with the EU Water Framework Directive as well as all local laws and regulations. The investment has been approved by the Supervisory Board, ensuring that construction can start this year and the plant will be commissioned well before the UK-ratified EU directive1 goes into effect. This will be the largest investment since opening this lyocell site, which manufactures premium products for technical and innovative market segments, among other things.

Responsible water use
After modernizing the wastewater treatment plant at the company’s Purwakarta site in Indonesia, the construction of the new plant in Grimsby marks another big step toward reducing the Group’s wastewater emissions 20 percent by 2022 (against a 2014 baseline). Responsible water use is one of the core elements of Lenzing’s “Naturally positive” sustainability strategy and is largely executed by using water efficiently in manufacturing and employing state-of-the-art water treatment technologies.

SUPREME GREEN COTTON®, the water-saving smart-tech yarn by Varvaressos has been chosen by Diesel, Champ Blanc and Muntagnard, and won the Gold Award at the Greek Exports Forum & Awards 2020.

Thanks to a pioneering satellite-powered drip irrigation system, SUPREME GREEN COTTON® saves up to 40% of water. The range of yarns is entirely Made in Europe and comes with influential sustainable verifications. The MADE IN GREEN by OEKO-TEX® label guarantees that the yarns have been tested for harmful substances and manufactured using sustainable processes under socially responsible working conditions in accordance with STeP by OEKO-TEX®. Complete transparency and traceability are guaranteed throughout the whole production and supply chain by the unique diafania SI platform, powered via blockchain technology.

Global clothing and lifestyle Italian premium jeans brand Diesel stands out for its unique mindset and sustainable imprint. That’s why it chose SUPREME GREEN COTTON® for its collection ‘Green Label’ and ‘NightCrush’ as well as its ‘Malign’ jersey T-shirts, available in two different colours and prints.

Thee Swiss brand Muntagnard believes in «sustainability» as a powerful lever for innovative solutions for people who go their own way and think outside the box to advance sustainable development. Muntagnard rethinks textiles - from the sewing thread to the label – selecting only sustainable materials and minimizing the use of plastic to the bone while seeking sensible, biodegradable textile alternatives. The MANGOLA collection of T-sets is 100% made of SUPREME GREEN COTTON®.

CHAMP BLANC is a responsible French brand renown for its ready-to-wear men clothing and for its strong commitment to traceability. The brand has been working for nearly 8 months on the design of the "Traceable T-shirt" made of 100% SUPREME GREEN COTTON®. The result is a high quality and finishing t-shirt to make it last. By relying on existing technologies, the entire production chain is traceable and can be discover thanks a QR-code on the label.

SUPREME GREEN COTTON® has also been bestowed with the influential Gold Award in the “Top Branded Export Product” category of the Greek Exports Forum & Awards 2020

FibreCoat GmbH from Aachen, Germany, together with DBF Deutsche Basalt GmbH, developed a completely new type of fibre material to shield electromagnetic radiation from digital end devices, medical technology or e-car batteries cheaply and effectively. The joint project was awarded the overall prize of the“ IQ Innovationspreises Mitteldeutschland“ on 24 June in an online event broadcast live from Leipzig.

The prize is endowed with €15,000 and was sponsored by the Halle-Dessau, Leipzig and East Thuringia Chambers of Industry and Commerce.

Electromagnetic radiation from smartphones, hospital diagnostics and electric car batteries must be shielded so that they do not inter-fere with each other. To prevent mutual interference, they have so far been covered with metal fibre fabrics, a very time- and energy-consuming and thus expensive procedure. The new material from Basalt Faser GmbH and FibreCoat GmbH prevents this with a fibre core made of melted, thinly drawn basalt, which is coated with aluminium and bundled into the so-called AluCoat yarn. This yarn remains just as conductive and shielding, but is lighter, stronger, cheaper and more sustainable than previous alternatives. In addition, there are further advantages:

• The number of process steps required is reduced from ten to one.
• 1,500 metres of yarn are produced per minute instead of the previous five metres.
• The energy required is only 10 per cent of the previous amount.

The result is a price that is twenty times lower.

The textile made of AluCoat fibres is versatile and flexible: as wallpaper it can shield 5G radiation in offices or medical rooms or encase batteries and thus ensure the smooth functioning of electric cars. AluCoat is already being used in some companies. A European fibre centre in Sangerhausen is being planned for mass production.

The two innovative companies DBF Deutsche Basalt GmbH and FibreCoat GmbH from East and West combine the two materials basalt and aluminium to protect against electromagnetic radiation. In doing so, they coat basalt with aluminium and, through this novel combination, create an inexpensive, sustainable and quickly produced alter-native for a market worth billions.

FibreCoat GmbH from Aachen is a spin-off of the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University; the managing directors Dr Robert Brüll and Alexander Lüking and Richard Haas have completed their doctorates at the ITA or are in the process of preparing their doctorates. Georgi Gogoladze, Managing Director of Deutsche Basaltfaser GmbH, also studied at RWTH Aachen University. The two managing directors Brüll and Gogoladze know each other from their student days.

The textile industry is constantly searching for new, sustainable, and circular materials. Following thorough research and testing, Spinnova and KT Trading have developed a natural leather fabric made from leather waste without harmful chemicals.

"Leather is an amazing high-quality material with unique properties. With this new textile, we have taken yet another step towards completing the circular economy for leather," says Kristian Geert Jensen, CEO of KT Trading, who now has a joint venture with Spinnova.

Spinnova CEO: Sustainable innovation
Together with KT Trading, ECCO’s key leather provider, Spinnova has established the Respin company - a new joint venture. The partners are already constructing a leather fibre production pilot plant in Finland.

ECCO’s Applied Research division and Spinnova have been in a R&D collaboration since 2018 and have made successful trials with spinning the protein biomass into fibre. Processing leather raw material does not require further technology development from Spinnova. The company already has proof of concept from using the method on wood-based raw material.