From the Sector

• Order intake of CHF 698.6 million in third quarter 2021
• Order intake of CHF 1 673.9 million after nine months
• Acquisition of the three Saurer businesses on schedule
• Credit lines renewed early
• Outlook 2021

The positive market dynamics, which Rieter has already reported on several occasions, continued in the third quarter of the current year. Rieter recorded an order intake of CHF 698.6 million in the third quarter of 2021 (2020: CHF 174.4 million).

The order intake of CHF 1 673.9 million after nine months corresponds to an increase of 294% compared to the prior year period (2020: CHF 425.1 million).
 
The market development is broadly supported at the global level and is based on a catch-up effect from 2019 and 2020 in combination with a regional shift in demand. Rieter believes that a major reason for this regional shift in demand is the development of costs in China. This is leading to increased investments outside the Chinese market. The orders came primarily from Turkey, Latin America, India, Pakistan and China. Overall, Rieter is benefitting from its innovative product range and the global positioning of the company.

The Business Group Machines & Systems achieved an order intake totaling CHF 1 281.6 million in the first nine months of 2021 (+447%).*

In the first nine months of 2021, the Business Group Components recorded an increase of 95% to CHF 227.0 million, while the Business Group After Sales posted an order intake of CHF 165.3 million, an increase of 123% compared to the prior year period.*

Acquisition of the three Saurer businesses on schedule
The acquisition of the three businesses from Saurer, which Rieter announced on August 16, 2021, is proceeding according to plan. The incoming orders for these businesses are not taken into account in this trading update.
 
Credit lines renewed early
The Rieter Group arranged the early renewal of the existing committed credit lines (five-year term, totaling CHF 250 million).
 
Outlook 2021*
The first nine months of 2021 were characterized by a rapid market recovery combined with a regional shift in demand. Rieter expects the demand for new systems to gradually return to normal in the coming months.  
 
For the full year 2021, Rieter anticipates sales of around CHF 900 million.

* See attached document for more information.

International technology group ANDRITZ has received an order from Albaad Massuot Yitzhak Ltd. to supply a neXline wetlace hybrid line for their Dimona facilities, Israel. The line will produce a wide variety of pulp-based wet wipes and is scheduled for start-up during the third quarter 2023.

The state-of-the-art neXline wetlace hybrid is the perfect combination of inline drylaid and wetlaid web forming with hydroentanglement and drying, including quality control equipment and a Metris Industry 4.0 package. All components will be delivered by ANDRITZ and are designed to produce first-class fabrics, including biodegradable, carded-pulp and flushable/dispersible nonwovens for end uses as wipes.

Tobias Schäfer, Vice President Sales at ANDRITZ Nonwoven, comments: “Our innovative production line gives Albaad enormous flexibility in the production of wipes. In addition, the Metris digitalization package by ANDRITZ will provide Albaad with highly efficient and smart operation.”

Dan Mesika, CEO and President of Albaad, says: “We are dedicated to developing new products – such as eco-friendly, biodegradable wipes. As pioneering manufacturers of our Hydrofine® flushable wipes, we are committed to environmental sustainability. Thanks to the new ANDRITZ line, we will enlarge the product portfolio at our Dimona production site with innovative fabrics and high efficiency.

Gadi Choresh, President of the Nonwovens Division at Albaad, says: “Our knowledge and experience in drylaid and wetlaid technology, together with the state-of-the-art equipment supplied by ANDRITZ, will enable us to provide the market with natural-source nonwovens and the best answer to the market demand.”
 
Albaad is one of the world’s three largest wet wipe manufacturers and is committed to delivering excellent wipes for every need. The company runs world-leading production facilities on three continents, each equipped with the latest technologies. Albaad produces spunlace and flushable fabrics in its facilities as well as purchasing from other roll goods suppliers in order to support production of a wide variety of wipes.

Reifenhäuser Enka Tecnica will exhibit its wide range of replacement components for spunbond, meltblown, and composite lines at the world's leading nonwovens trade show INDEX in Geneva from October 19 to 22, 2021. The highly specialized custom manufacturer offers high-end technology "Made in Germany" that is 100% compatible with all globally installed lines.

Producers of nonwovens worldwide rely on Enka Tecnica components to manufacture products for complex applications in hygiene, medical or filtration to provide them with access to new profitable markets. Trade-show visitors will gain a detailed insight into the entire range of products, from meltblown and spunbond spinnerets to meltblown cassettes and complete meltblown spinning beams designed with an energy concept optimized for sustainability. The tips and capillaries assure consistent product quality and precision, allowing producers to meet their tolerance specifications reliably and avoid scrap at the same time..

With its refresh service for refurbishing used components, Enka Tecnica not only offers a cost-efficient alternative to new parts, but also extremely fast delivery times, a factor that is often decisive to maintain daily production targets. Visitors to Geneva will be able to see the quality of refresh components displayed at the booth - a meltblown and a spunbond spinneret, half of which has been refurbished. They will be able to see the condition of the capillary holes before and after the refresh through a microscope.

Another trade show highlight includes jet strips for hydroentangling nonwovens. Depending on the application, they are offered in Smart, Advanced, and Premium versions and have a special unique selling point – the strips are fully hardened, whereas competitor products usually only have a hardened surface. This quality advantage results in significantly longer service lives, which is why they are also known on the market as "The World's Hardest Strips”.

With PicConnect, a new fully digital platform, Picanol is offering a wide range of features, from industrial IoT to service-related applications. PicConnect is a web-based application that can be accessed through a web browser on any device and it functions as the gateway to all Picanol’s digital services. The platform is cloud-based and it allows connecting the Picanol weaving machines to the platform in order to leverage its full extent of possibilities.

“PicConnect enables weavers to quickly react to changes in the weaving room, and it will have an immediate impact on the performance of the weaving machines. It will not only change how weavers interact with their machines but also the way they interact with Picanol. For this reason, Picanol can boldly state that PicConnect is bringing weavers into the era of intuitive weaving,” comments Johan Verstraete, Vice President Weaving Machines.

The first four applications that will be launched as part of PicConnect are: production monitoring, energy monitoring, style administration, and PartsLine, which is Picanol’s new online webshop.

The UK’s Fibre Extrusion Technology (FET) will introduce its new lab-scale spunbond system at the forthcoming INDEX 2020 nonwovens exhibition taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 19-22.

The new spunbond range provides unprecedented opportunities for the scaled development of new nonwoven fabrics based on a wide range of fibres and polymers, including bicomponents.

FET has already supplied one of these new spunbond lines to University of Leeds in the UK, and a second, in combination with a metlblown line, to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany.

“Our new spunbond technology is unique in providing the ability to process a wide range of polymers, including those normally not considered appropriate for the spunbond process, at the scale required to fully explore material combinations and bring new products to market,” says FET Managing Director Richard Slack. “FET has built on its melt spinning expertise to develop a true laboratory scale spunbond system.”

Korteks, one of the world’s biggest yarn producers based in Bursa, Turkey, has started the production of recycled polyester filament yarn in its production facility using a Starlinger recycling line.

With the new recycling facility, which comprises a total closed area of 17,000 m² and has a monthly production capacity of 600 tons, Korteks was able to reduce the production waste at its virgin PES yarn site to zero.

The Starlinger recoSTAR universal 165 H-VAC iV+, which is part of Korteks’ 10 million dollars investment in a new polymer recycling facility, took up operation in May 2021. It has a production capacity of 7,200 tons per year and currently processes clean in-house polyester fibers from production scrap together with washed post-consumer PET flakes at a ratio of 50/50. Korteks uses the polyester regranulate at a share of 100 % for its new polyester filament yarn line it is going to market under the name “TAÇ Reborn”. With this investment, the company has made an important step towards establishing a circular economy in the Turkish textile industry.

The Starlinger recycling line is the first of its kind in Turkey and is equipped with special components for filament yarn recycling. A RSC (Rapid Sleeve Changer) candle filter developed by Starlinger ensures finest melt filtration down to 15 μm. It has been specially designed for polyester recycling and reaches an output of 1000 kg/h. For continuous operation the filter elements are changed “on the fly” without interrupting production, which significantly limits melt loss.

The viscoSTAR SSP unit at the end of the recycling process guarantees consistent IV increase according to the first-in-first-out principle. This makes sure that the produced regranulate has the ideal properties required for filament yarn production. The technical configuration of the line does not only allow the processing of a polyester fiber/PET flake mix as input materials, but also 100 % polyester filament scrap or 100 % PET bottle flakes.

Korteks expects the recycling market in general to grow as there is increased acceptance for recycled products in the society, and predicts the need for recycling solutions also for other synthetic and natural fibers.

• FM Global ‘Highly Protected Risk’ Achievement Award for Komen site, Belgium
• Completes HPR Award status for B.I.G. YARNS’ European production facilities
• Fifth plant in Beaulieu International Group to attain HPR Award

B.I.G. YARNS is proud to announce the attainment of a FM Global ‘Highly Protected Risk’ Achievement Award (HPR Award) for its yarn production facility in Komen, Belgium.

The HPR Award is assigned by insurer FM Global, Beaulieu International Group’s insurance partner of the past five years in its on-going dedication to property loss prevention. A worldwide team of engineers focuses on providing assistance and protection of B.I.G.’s assets, helping the Group to achieve a higher level of risk protection. The FM Global assessment considers implementation of measures to protect against fire, natural hazard, mechanical breakdown of machinery and also cyber risks. The local team worked diligently over the last five years to implement all the FM Global recommendations.

Emmanuel Colchen, General Manager B.I.G. YARNS, comments: “Achieving the prestigious HPR Award recognizes the commitment of the teams at B.I.G. YARNS and the wider Beaulieu International Group to proactive risk management and contingency planning to ensure the safety and protection of our workplaces. Safeguarding property is a key element in enabling us to provide business continuity for our customers in demanding sectors like automotive, commercial contract and residential flooring.”

B.I.G. YARNS’ Komen production facility is the fifth plant at B.I.G. to receive HPR status - the highest level a plant can achieve for fire risk prevention and protection.

The Yarns division of Beaulieu International Group achieved HPR status for its other European site in Comines, France, in 2017.

• Luc Tack und Stefaan Haspeslagh resign with immediate effect

The two members of the Board of Directors Luc Tack und Stefaan Haspeslagh announced on August 30, 2021, that they are resigning from the Board of Directors with immediate effect.

Rieter will inform the law enforcement authorities that there is no interest in continuing the criminal proceedings any further.

The Board of Directors welcomes the fact that a joint solution was found that is in the best interests of Rieter and Picanol, both of which are among the world’s leading textile machinery manufacturers.

According to Luc Tack, the Picanol Group (Belgium) will remain a shareholder of Rieter.

Originally conceived as a low-cost, high-volume alternative to knitting and weaving, nonwovens was already expanding its market boundaries by the 1970s with new applications in ‘disposables’ such as diapers, hygiene and teabags.

In the past five decades, the nonwovens business has exploded in all directions, reaching a global market worth USD 40.5 billion in 2020, projected to grow to USD 53.5 billion by 2025. This annual growth rate of 5.7% (MarketsandMarkets, Nonwoven Fabric Market Report) is based on countless new applications and expansion into durable, as well as additional disposable, products.

Major growth drivers include the hygiene sector, and filtration media for power plants and air conditioning systems. Especially during the peak of the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021, demand in the hygiene sector multiplied. Worldwide capacities for both meltblown and spunlace production rocketed compared to a normal business year. Swiss Autefa Solutions, for example, significantly benefited from this trend, notably with the launch of a fully-automatic machine for producing face masks.

The automotive industry is the second big growth area, with many new applications being pioneered. The trend to electric and hybrid vehicles has helped this, as nonwovens reinforced with carbon fibres are widely used as battery housings.

Swiss nonwovens competence
Innovative applications across all sectors have driven the rapid evolution of sophisticated nonwovens machinery. Today’s trends demand higher productivity, sustainability and Industry 4.0 compatibility – demonstrated by the full equipment portfolio of Swiss Textile Machinery member Autefa Solutions. With V-Jet Futura, the company recently sealed the link in its product range between web forming and drying technology. This latest Hydroentanglement Machine, together with the SQ-V Square Drum Dryer, embodies advanced technology combined with significant reductions in energy consumption compared to other process solutions.

A vital contribution to nonwovens production is offered by Rieter subsidiary Graf, a leading supplier of clothing and combs for carding and combing processes in spinning and nonwovens. Graf's Hipro card clothings – suitable for any man-made fibres in the nonwovens sector – are focussing on higher productivity. Their superior performance delivers up to 10% higher throughput and greater carding efficiency compared to conventional clothings. These reliable card clothing elements also ensure a consistently reproducible high web quality, as well as 20% fewer failures in the web, thanks to the precise fibre transfer to and from the cylinder.

Another constant trend in nonwovens today is the drive for better quality. Manufacturers want to take charge of contamination levels in their processes, as well as eradicating defects which may arise during production. Uster Technologies, a leading provider of quality management solutions from fibre to fabric, offers a combined solution to achieve both these required quality standards. At the fibre preparation stage, Uster Jossi Vision Shield N ensures the best possible initial inspection and removal of contamination. Then, at the end of the production sequence, Uster EVS Fabriq Vision N handles automated detection and marking of all the main defects caused during production. This combined solution avoids material waste and takes full advantage of the potential for process optimization.

It is exactly 100 years ago on August 17th this year that Carl Axel Gustafsson returned from the USA to Sweden with a significant agency agreement from the Boston-based sewing machine leader Reece.

Back in 1921, Reece, along with its competitor Singer, entirely dominated the buttonhole machine market and were the world’s only manufacturers of these machines for jackets, trousers and coats.

Gustafsson’s license enabled his new company A C Gustafsson to become one of Europe’s first leasing organisations, hiring out Reece buttonhole machines and receiving payment per sewn buttonhole stitch.

This business thrived for many decades and formed the basis for the entire ACG Group as it exists today.

Forty years later, on September 2nd 1961 to be precise, Reimar Westerlind walked out of a restaurant after a long and enjoyable lunch with someone he’d never met before, having signed his intention to buy a company he knew nothing about on an improvised contract written on the back of a menu.

“What I didn’t know then was that my dining partner was the family lawyer of Carl Axel Gustafsson,” Reimar explains. “I had no money and knew nothing about the textile industry and I also quickly discovered the business was not doing so well at that time and tried to get out of the agreement, but he insisted I honour it. He told me he had money and would back me, but I’d have to work hard and pay him back in full.”

Reimar certainly took that advice, and at the age of 92 still travels to his office every day to oversee the operations of the diverse companies now operating under the ACG umbrella.

Although textiles remain the bedrock of the business, under Reimar Westerlind’s management, ACG Group has branched out into many other fields of activity over the past 60 years, and its diversity has also led to some highly unexpected developments.

Like many other European manufacturers, ACG also began to expand beyond its traditional borders from the 1970s onwards – initially into the former Soviet Union and subsequently establishing subsidiaries in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, the Ukraine and Denmark.