From the Sector

US Vice President Kamala Harris announced significant multimillion-dollar investments by Parkdale Mills and six other companies today, as part of the Administration’s Call to Action to the private sector to promote economic opportunity in the region, as her office works to address the root causes of migration.

Vice President Harris, who is overseeing diplomatic efforts with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, announced several private sector commitments to strengthen economic opportunities in the Northern Triangle and made remarks at a White House roundtable, which included Anderson Warlick, Chairman and CEO of Parkdale Mills. The textile and apparel co-production chain is one of the most essential supply chains for employment and economic development in both the United States and the Northern Triangle region, currently supporting over 1 million jobs in the United States and the Central American region. The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and its strong rules of origin are the primary reasons this co-production chain exists, which is seeing significant growth this year.

North Carolina-headquartered Parkdale Mills, one of the largest manufacturers of spun yarn and cotton consumer products in the world, will make a multimillion-dollar investment in a new yarn spinning facility in Honduras and make an additional substantial investment to support existing operations in Hillsville, Virginia. This investment will help customers shift 1 million pounds of yarn per week away from supply chains in Asia and China and enhance U.S. and CAFTA-DR co-production resilience and increase regional product offerings. Parkdale’s announced investment will create hundreds of jobs in Honduras and further support hundreds of employees in Parkdale’s Hillsville operations.  

Recently, administration officials from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and the Vice President’s office met with the U.S. textile industry to reaffirm the importance of rules of origin in nearshoring production chains, helping address labor and environmental challenges and mitigating supply chain risk.

“I would like to sincerely thank Vice President Harris for making this announcement and leading the effort with private industry to create more economic opportunities in northern Central America and the United States,” said Anderson Warlick, Chairman and CEO of Parkdale Mills. “Parkdale’s investments will support good paying jobs in the United States and in the Central American region and significantly increase our extensive product offering and capacity, including the production of sustainable specialty yarns.

Parkdale sees an enormous opportunity for brands and retailers to re-shore and nearshore production supply chains and double the size of U.S.-CAFTA-DR trade, because of the rules of origin in our trade agreement and a shift in sourcing by brands and retailers mitigating their supply chain sourcing risks.  We are excited about what this opportunity means for jobs in the U.S. and the region for this critical production chain and couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of this effort.  We look forward to working with the Vice President and her team on strengthening the textile and apparel production chains in the U.S. and region.”

National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas, said, “This is an exciting and important announcement by Parkdale and Vice President Harris. Our industry has invested billions of dollars in the U.S. and in the region as a result of the investment-based rules of origin in the CAFTA-DR agreement, which ensures the job benefits of the agreement are reserved for the parties to the agreement.  Additional substantial announcements on further investment in textile and apparel production are expected soon.

As brands and retailers are seeking more environmentally sustainable, vertically integrated, transparent, and quick turnaround supply chains, our collective industries stand ready to work with companies that are seeking to mitigate sourcing strategies as Asian supply chains have faced enormous production constraints.  Further verticalization in the industry, like Parkdale’s announcement today, allows broader product diversification and grows jobs across the textile and apparel production chain.

We are thrilled with today’s announcement because it is a win-win for American and Central American workers and our environment and a huge opportunity to further recalibrate supply chains out of China and Asia. This valuable co-production chain between the U.S. and the CAFTA-DR region accounts for $12 billion in two-way trade and billions of dollars of investment. Significant growth is occurring in our sector and is expected to continue as supply chains continue to recalibrate.  We are delighted about this today’s announcement and appreciate the Administration’s strong support.”

National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas issued a statement welcoming the Biden administration’s launch of new database and waiver process for government contract solicitations made under the Buy American Act.

You can read the statement here.

The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas issued a statement following President Biden’s remarks on the global supply chain crisis and stressed the importance of investing onshoring and nearshoring:

"We appreciate President Biden’s call to ensure we are building more resilient and reliable supply chains and to invest in our manufacturing industries here at home, in his address earlier today.

There is a reason we got into this mess and there is a reason we have a global supply chain crisis. Years of offshoring production in a race to the bottom –exacerbated by predatory trade practices that have undermined so many manufacturing industries--has led to a tipping point. In fact, it was not too long ago that nurses in New York City and beyond were wearing garbage bags as gowns as our overreliance on Chinese production chains exposed severe fragilities in keeping our health care workers safe during the height of the pandemic.

China’s virtually unlimited and unrealistic pricing power coupled with its subsidies and lack of enforceable environmental standards strips benefits and undermines policy objectives, and leaves us in an untenable situation of overreliance on a foreign supply chain for critical products and raw materials. This must change.

We must hold China accountable for predatory trade practices that have offshored our industries and our jobs. We must onshore and nearshore more textile and apparel production chains out of Asia to the U.S. and also to Western Hemisphere trade partners. This has a multitude of benefits to ensure more reliability in production and also has remarkable job benefits to U.S. manufacturers and our allied trading partners who adhere to higher labor and environmental standards. Further, it will help address the migration crisis and grow better paying jobs.

Now is the time to we need to unlock long-term commitments to source product from the USA and from our Hemispheric partners.  If we moved another 10 percent of global production to the U.S. and the Hemisphere, imagine the benefits that could be achieved.  Ensuring further verticalization and investment in all aspects of the industry, from raw materials to finished products, is good for the American economy and workers in the U.S. and in the region.

Our industry stands ready to help and provide the solutions to onshore and nearshore these production chains that benefit manufacturing workers, the U.S. economy, our Western Hemisphere allies, and consumers.   Further, onshoring and nearshoring these critical production chains has remarkable benefits for the environment and addresses the growing, systemic and alarming issues associated with climate change.  

It is critical that supply chains mitigate risks so that we are never in this situation again.  We appreciate President Biden recognizing the value of onshoring these critical production chains and stand ready to work with the administration in these efforts."

A sector alliance that was formed to tackle issues relating to microplastics has completed the next phase of its project to develop a harmonised industry standard for the supply chain. The Cross Industry Agreement (CIA) has revealed the results of a fibre fragmentation trial that has been carried out in advance of establishing a CEN Standard (from the European Committee for Standardization). Once confirmed, the standard will also become an ISO standard under the Vienna Agreement, providing apparel manufacturers and policy makers with a vital tool as part of wider work to reduce microfibre shedding into the environment.

In 2018, five industry organisations agreed to join forces to proactively tackle the issue of microplastics, and signed the Cross Industry Agreement. The initial signatories were European industry associations that represent the European and global value chains of garments and their associated maintenance – the International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products (A.I.S.E.), European Man-Made Fibres Association (CIRFS), European Outdoor Group (EOG), EURATEX the European apparel and textile industry confederation, and the Federation of the European Sporting goods Industry (FESI). Together, the five organisations understood that the very first step to enable global action around the topic, was to agree a harmonised test method which would allow the collection and comparison of globally generated data, to aid the identification of solutions.

The microfibre shedding test method was developed thanks to the joint efforts and cooperation of experts from 28 European, American and Asian organisations; the result was handed over to CEN in 2020. Since then, representatives from the CIA have been working with CEN to fine tune details in order to meet the requirements for a CEN Standard. To verify the reproducibility of the method, the partners have carried out a round robin trial (RRT) to determine if the method could be replicated in different laboratories and produce similar results. 10 organisations participated in the RRT, which was co-ordinated by the CIA, sending fabric samples to all of the laboratories involved and then collecting and analysing the data.

The results from the RRT show statistically significant consistency, both within and between participating laboratories, which demonstrates that the method is both repeatable in the same setting and reproducible in other laboratories.

The CIA has submitted the results of the RRT to CEN, with the intention that the CEN Standard is confirmed in the near future. Once that has happened, it will be promoted throughout the apparel industry and will become a key tool for researchers, businesses and governments as they accelerate efforts to reduce microfibre shedding associated with garment production.

INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, wrapped up its 15th annual World of Wipes® International Conference, July 12-15, with a presentation of the World of Wipes Innovation Award® to Kimberly-Clark Corporation and the highest attendance record in six years.

This year’s WOW conference welcomed 475 enthusiastic professionals from 14 countries to its in-person World of Wipes® (WOW) International Conference to advance their wipes business. Held in Atlanta, GA, the conference was notable as the first in-person conference in the nonwovens and engineered fabrics industry in 500 days due to the pandemic.

Industry professionals from 33 global companies delivered presentations and answered questions in sessions that included Wipes and the Growing Plastics Debate, Regulatory Requirements for Disinfecting and Sanitizing Wipes, Trends in the Wipes Markets and Among Consumers, Wet Wipe Preservative Innovations, Covid-19 Impacts on Wipes Consumption and Cleaning Habits, Sustainable Wipes Packaging and Dispensing, Nonwoven Substrates for More Sustainable Wipes, and Flushable Wipes: Loved by Consumers, Wrongly Accused by Utilities.

Highlights included the announcement of Kimberly-Clark Scott® 24-Hour Sanitizing Wipes as the winner of this year’s World of Wipes Innovation Award®. The annual award recognizes the product that most expands the use of nonwovens and demonstrates creativity, novelty, uniqueness, and technical sophistication within the entire nonwovens wipes value chain.

Other highlights included the presentation of the 2021 INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award to John Poccia. The annual award is nominated by INDA’s Technical Advisory Board and presented to an individual whose technical achievements over a long-standing career have significantly contributed to the technical advancement, success, and growth of the nonwovens industry.

Other presentation highlights included:

• Recent Developments Under the EU Green Deal and Plastics Strategy – Pandemic Update – Gyongyi David, Attorney at Law, V V G B Advocaten-Avocats, Director- EHS Regulatory, Steptoe & Johnson LLP
• FDA & EPA Framework of Regulations: Dry Wipes Claims – Tony Herber, Principal Regulatory Consultant/Assistant Federal Team Manager, Scientific & Regulatory Consultants, Inc. (SRC. Inc.)
• Consumer Wipes Usage During Covid-19 and Future Use – Chris Dresselhuys, Business Director-North American Retail Wipes, Rockline Industries
• Sustainable Solutions for Wipes – Vishal Bansai, Vice President, Innovation, and Silke Brand-Kirsch, VP, Marketing and Business Development, Glatfelter Gernsbach GmbH
• Sustainability Impacts Across the Value Chain of Wipes Packaging – Vicky Chang, Marketing Manager, Consumer & Industrial Products, Amcor Flexibles
• Unveiling Wet Wipes Preservation: New Findings on Microbial Risks and Preservative Solution – Paul Salama, Ph.D., CTO& Head of Innovation, Sharon Laboratories

Lectra’s Shareholders’ Meeting appointed Jean Marie (“John”) Canan as a new Director, for a period of four years. Jean Marie Canan becomes a member of Lectra’s Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and Strategic Committee.

A Canadian national, at 64, Jean Marie Canan is currently Lead Independent Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of REV Group, an American company listed on the NYSE; Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Acasti Pharma, a Canadian company listed on the NASDAQ and Director of the Angkor Hospital for Children, a leading non-profit pediatric hospital in Cambodia.

Jean Marie Canan, graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and is a Canadian Certified Public Accountant (CPA), began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 1978, starting in their Montreal office, and then two years in their Hong Kong office. From 1990 to 2014, he held many ever-increasing positions of responsibility at Merck & Co, Inc. (“Merck”). These included senior roles in finance, strategy development, business development and operations. He was part of a small team that led the acquisition of Schering-Plough by Merck. He also provided operational oversight for most of the Merck group’s joint ventures, including DuPont-Merck, Johnson and Johnson-Merck, Astra-Merck, and Schering-Plough-Merck. Merck’s Executive Committee selected Jean Marie as one of the five senior leaders charged with defining Merck's new strategy in 2006.

U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member and Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, applauded the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for passing their bipartisan legislation that will strengthen efforts to onshore production of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the United States by requiring federal agencies to issue long-term contracts for American-made PPE. Reshoring production will ensure American workers, health care professionals, and more have the PPE they need as the economy continues to reopen. Domestic production of PPE supplies also will create American manufacturing jobs and ensure that America is better prepared for the next pandemic.