From the Sector

In pandemic year 2020 circular knitting machine manufacturer Mayer & Cie. (MCT) has further improved its leading position in Turkey. So the country continues to be one of the company’s strongest and most consistent sales markets. Even in difficult years, the manufacturer and its longstanding Turkish representative Mayer Mümessillik have achieved positive results. The reasons for this year’s success, as Mayer & Cie. sees it, are the transfer of production to locations close to Europe, Turkey’s state-of-theart machinery and the increase in demand for comfortable clothing that is suitable as home office wear.

Turkish market is a growth market despite corona setback
“Compared to 2019, we anticipate a growth in the Turkish market even though the corona situation was a serious setback in the second quarter of 2020,” says Stefan Bühler, Mayer & Cie.’s regional sales manager for Turkey.

Mayer & Cie. got off to a strong start on the Bosporus in the first quarter of 2020 with additional positive effects until mid-March. This was due to a desire for production locations close to Europe. In the second quarter, during the lockdown, demand largely ground to a halt. Government measures helped to cushion the downturn. Says Ahmet M. Öğretmen, general manager of MCT’s Turkish sales partner Mayer Mümessillik: “In the second quarter, GDP was down by about 10 percent, so we got off lightly.”

Since July 2020, orders for Mayer & Cie. circular knitting machines have bounced back again. Ahmet M. Öğretmen sees an interplay of reasons for this recovery. The main reason, he says, is the low exchange rate of the Turkish lira, which has boosted exports of ready-made textiles. The Turkish daily Hürriyet reports, with reference to the Turkish state news agency, 11 percent year-on-year growth in August 2020. The most important export markets, the newspaper says, are Germany, the UK and Spain. Between them, they account for around half of exports totalling € 1.27 billion.* “This demand must be fulfilled,” Öğretmen says. “That leads to investment in machinery by manufacturers.”

Relanit is synonymous with single jersey
The machines of choice for Turkish knitwear manufacturers are regularly Mayer & Cie. machines. The long-established German firm’s share of the Turkish market is substantially higher than in other markets. The manufacturer’s position is particularly strong in the market for plain single jersey fabrics, with the Relanit 3.2 HS being the machine of choice. It achieves an extraordinarily high level of productivity, especially in processing elastomer yarns. It also handles a wide range of yarns reliably.

“Interlock is Mayer & Cie.”
Mayer & Cie. is one of the leader in the second major circular knitting discipline, rib and interlock fabrics. The machines used for double jersey fabrics are the OV 3.2 QCe, the D4 2.2 II and the D4 3.2 II. The OV 3.2 QCe knits interlock, 8-lock structures, spacers and fine gauge with 3.2 systems. The D4 2.2 II is another stalwart for rib, 8-lock and interlock. The 8-lock D4 3.2 II is the machine of choice for firms that want to manufacture structures such as Piqué, Punto di Roma or Thermal in addition to interlock.

The MBF 3.2 is another top seller in Turkey. A three-thread fleece machine, it knits fabrics for sportsand leisurewear such as hoodies and is very much in keeping with the trend in home office year 2020. “Comfortable clothing is circular knitted,” says Ahmet M. Öğretmen, “and we benefit from that of course.”

One of the world’s most state-of-the-art machine parks are in Turkey
Another advantage is the modernity of the Turkish machine park, which is doubly attractive in view of Turkey’s weak currency. Says Mayer Mümessillik general manager Öğretmen: “In the past 10 to 20 years there has been very heavy investment in high-quality machines. As a consequence we have the world’s youngest and most up-to-date production facilities.” Combined with geographical proximity to the main export markets in Europe that should prove a growth driver in the years ahead – and keep demand for Mayer & Cie. machines brisk and high.

*More informationen here.

• Significant recovery in order intake in third quarter 2020
• Order intake of CHF 425.1 million after nine months
• COVID crisis management in place
• Continuous implementation of the strategy
• Outlook 2020

The market recovery, which Rieter reported in June 2020, has continued. This is reflected in capacity utilization at spinning mills worldwide, which Rieter monitors. In April 2020, the proportion of producing spinning mills was around 40% while at the end of September 2020 this was around 90%. Against this backdrop, the Rieter Group increased order intake in the third quarter of 2020 to CHF 174.4 million (2nd quarter 2020: CHF 45.7 million). In the first nine months of 2020, the Rieter Group achieved a cumulative order intake of CHF 425.1 million (2019: CHF 524.5 million). Compared to the previous year period, this represents a decline of 19%.

Order Intake by Business Group

Due to the positive development in the third quarter of 2020, order intake at the Business Group Machines & Systems reached a total of CHF 234.5 million in the first nine months. The reason for the relatively small decline of 8% compared to the previous year is that the new machinery business was already characterized by investment restraint in the first three quarters of the year 2019. The Business Group Components recorded a reduction of 33% to CHF 116.6 million while the Business Group After Sales posted an order intake of CHF 74.0 million, a decrease of 23%. This illustrates the effects of low capacity utilization at the spinning mills, especially in the second quarter of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The order backlog as of September 30, 2020, was around CHF 515 million (September 30, 2019: CHF 285 million). Cancellations were in the normal range of around 5%.

COVID Crisis Management in Place

Rieter has quickly implemented comprehensive COVID crisis management. Priority is being given to protecting employees, fulfilling customer commitments and ensuring liquidity. The necessary measures to protect employees have been implemented worldwide and the order backlog is being processed largely as planned. Rieter has introduced 40% short-time working in Switzerland and Germany for the second half of 2020. Similar measures were implemented worldwide within the scope of the available legal options. As of September 30, 2020, Rieter had liquid funds of CHF 216.7 million and unused credit lines in the mid three-digit million range in order to ensure liquidity. At the end of September 2020, net debt of CHF 1.2 million was disclosed.

Continuous Implementation of the Strategy

In recent years, Rieter has consistently implemented the strategy with the focus on innovation leadership, strengthening the business on the installed base and optimization of the costs. The company intends to forge ahead with the strategy in the coming months in order to strengthen the market position for the time after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rieter CAMPUS is an important element of Rieter’s innovation strategy. Depending on the business situation, construction work is due to begin in the first half of 2021.

Outlook 2020

As already announced, in terms of sales and profitability Rieter expects a stronger second half of the year compared to the first half of 2020. Nevertheless, due to the deferral of deliveries by customers, Rieter will also conclude the second half of the year − and thus the full year 2020 − with a net loss. Due to the existing uncertainties, it continues to be difficult to forecast sales and profitability for the second half of 2020. For this reason, Rieter refrains from providing more specific information for the full year 2020.

At a total length of over 71 metres, the Montex finishing line that has just been installed by Monforts for Acafintex at its plant in Puebla, Mexico, is one of the highest capacity stenters the German technology leader has delivered to date.

Puebla is known as the epicentre of Mexico’s textile and clothing industry and is ideally placed for supplying both the USA and Europe, being three hours from the Gulf of Mexico for shipping via the Atlantic, and five hours from the Pacific coast as well.

Mexico's textile and clothing industry spans the entire production chain – from cotton growing and man-made fibre production to the manufacture of yarn, fabric, finished clothing and accessories. The industry is estimated to directly employ around 640,000 workers and to provide livelihoods for many more people indirectly. The country is a key supplier of textiles and clothing to the USA, but has faced fierce competition from China, which has until recently been the largest supplier of textiles and clothing to the US market.

However, the position of Mexico in the US import market has become more stable following the signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which came into force in July this year. The country has also been a key beneficiary of the current trade war that is raging between China and the USA.

In addition, there is scope for higher sales in Mexico’s domestic market. The country has a population of 129 million people who are becoming increasingly prosperous, with a large proportion of younger people who are spending more on clothing.

Flexible operation

Founded in 1986, family-owned Acafintex operates as a commission dyehouse, finishing both knitted and woven fabrics for local companies in Mexico, in widths of between 100cm to 3.6 metres. The company is run by father and son team Don Francisco and Lic Francisco Moyano.

“We have very flexible operations for fabric finishing and also produce and sell our own fabrics for both the fashion industry and for the uniforms market,” says Don Francisco. “These days, we are increasingly finishing materials for technical textiles and for the automotive industry too. We have both local and international suppliers of both yarns and base fabrics and make sure we choose the best and most reliable sources. Exports now account for over 40% of our sales.”

European contract

With a  width of 3.8 metres, the new Monforts Montex line at Acafintex is equipped with no less than 12 double TwinAir drying chambers to meet the requirements of specific technical textiles to a European customer, in a contract secured following the company’s ISO 9001 certification in 2019. The line is equipped with an integrated heat recovery system and also benefits from an exhaust air cleaning system to ensure the most resource-efficient processing available on the market.

On the Monforts TwinAir system, the airflows above and below the fabric being dried can be regulated completely independently of each other, with Optiscan Auto-Balance fully controlling the distance between the fabric and the dryer nozzles via variable-frequency fan motors and CCD chip evaluation. As a result, the evaporation rate of the stenter and its energy utilisation are always fully optimised. Contact-free drying eliminates the possibility of fabric marking or stitch draft.

Highly-intuitive Monforts Qualitex visualisation software allows all machine functions and process parameters to be assessed and controlled easily, and thousands of article specific settings and formulations to be called up at any time – with 100% reproducible results.

In combination with an existing Montex stenter, the new line has expanded finishing capacity at Acafintex to an annual 20 million linear metres.

Modifications

“From the installation to the start-up, we were supported by a team of Monforts technicians and local representative Arnulf Thaler at Sattex here in Mexico,” says Lic Francisco. “Of course, every installation has its challenges and with such big machines we needed to modify several things inside the factory and also required certain modifications from Monforts which were all carried out successfully.”  

Forced, like much of the textile industry globally, to temporarily suspend operations at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Acafintex is now back to full production, having installed the necessary safety measures for its employees, and is anticipating a bright future.

“We are passionate about developing new materials in search of mutual benefit for both our clients and suppliers, as well as our own workforce and the environment,” Don Francisco Moyano concludes. “Investment in the latest technology like this new Monforts line plays a key role in helping us achieve our long-term goals.”

As the first composites trade show worldwide since the Covid-19-crisis, the China Composites in Shanghai (September 2 to 4, 2020) took up its activity. The show counted about 600 exhibitors and over 20 000 visitors, mostly Chinese locals, attended the exhibition.

Chinese Reach Group under the lead of its president Daniel He represented a large portfolio of European companies and their recent developments through their cooperation with Dr. Michael Effing´s AMAC/Germany, among them Airborne (NL), Textechno (D) and Conbility (D).

Daniel He describes the situation: „The Chinese market is picking up again; a price increase of 7% for glass fibers was announced right before the China Composites Show, on August 25th 2020, which was even leading to a temporary material shortage. Today, the most booming industries in China are wind energy, building and infrastructure and innovation for electric cars. Unlike the rest of the world, where the aircraft industry undergoes a deep decline, in China it takes up by 50 %, which is very promising. Furthermore, we expect half a year for a full recovery of the industry, while the China growth of 2020 is still expected to be between 2 and 4 %.“

Michael Effing replied: “Enabling the composites business between China and Europe is the aim of our cooperation with Reach and with our customers, which are active in digital automatization, testing equipment or cost optimization software. We are very happy to have been present in China through our representant Reach and are looking forward to bridge and overcome the Covid-19-crisis with our upcoming event in Germany, the Composites for Europe in Stuttgart in November and hope to be back to full global business speed at the JEC in Paris in 2021.“

Asia’s leading trade platform for the home and contract textile industry, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles, is ready to welcome over 600 exhibitors to China’s commercial hub from 24 – 26 August. As China’s economy continues its recovery, the upcoming fair will serve as a key platform for the industry to reconnect and prepare for the seasons ahead. Taking consideration of current international travel restrictions, Intertextile has launched a brand new online business matching platform, enabling participation for those who cannot travel to Shanghai.

Ms Wendy Wen, Senior General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd commented: “2020 has been a difficult and unpredictable year for every business and industry across the world, so we are pleased to be providing a platform for the home textile industry to connect and recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles is the first physical trade event for the sector held by Messe Frankfurt since January, so we hope that the fair assists the sector to join forces and overcome this challenging year together.”

Ms Wen continued: “Our first priority is to create a clean and hygienic space for all participants to source and network. To achieve this goal, the fair will implement extra health care and hygiene precautions onsite. On the other hand, we are aware that a number of travel restrictions are still in place across the world. With this in mind, Intertextile will offer a series of online services for those who are unable to travel to Shanghai, allowing the fair to reach as wide an audience as possible.”

2020 fair highlights

To provide buyers with greater efficiency, the fair, which covers four halls, will be divided clearly by product categories: Household Hall (hall 3), International Brands / Upholstery Hall (hall 4.1), Brand Fabrics Hall (hall 5.1) and Sofa Fabrics Hall (hall 6.1).

In addition, the Contract Business 360° concept will return this year, with over 40 premier upholstery exhibitors presenting their latest textile products and furnishing solutions for contract use. Exhibitors include Guangzhou Yuanzhicheng Home Textile, Haining Julai Textile, JAB, Morgan Shanghai, Symphony Mills, Suzhou Roufang, Ter Molst International, Zhejiang Hexin and Zhejiang Maya Fabric. Furthermore, top brands such as Agmamito from Poland and Wollsdorf Leather from Austria will be exhibiting for the first time at Intertextile.

Online business matching platform offers new sourcing landscape

Although face-to-face interaction is irreplaceable, a virtual complement has become more important as a result of the worldwide pandemic. To support the industry during these unprecedented times, Intertextile has launched a brand new online business matching platform. With this free service, participants are able to source and network at their fingertips. The virtual platform will offer many new features including:

• Easy sourcing: exhibitors are categorised by product groups including Sofa / Decorative Fabrics, Curtains and Accessories, Bedding and Finished products, Shading and Accessories, and Editors
• Live-streamed product presentations of exhibitors
• Smart recommendations: pre-selected exhibitor lists will be provided to buyers based on their personal preferences and interests
• Convenience: participants are able to use the service through computers or portable devices without the need to download any software

High quality fringe programme covers comprehensive topics
 
The fair’s event programme will once again provide the industry with the latest trends and insights in four topics: Design Inspiration, Business O2O, Textile & Technology and Industry Empowerment. One of the highlights will be the 2021 Intertextile Trend Forum, led by Shen Lei, the Chinese representative of the Intertextile International Lifestyle Trend Committee. The forum will bring together five prominent Chinese designers including Ben Chen, Ben Wu, Meng Ye, Paul Pang and Xie Ke, who will delve into the theme of 2021 Intertextile Trends–“BOUND”, as well as the Chinese market conditions. The event will be held on day 1 of the fair, from 14:00 – 17:00 in hall 5.1 booth C18, and streamed live online.

Another not-to-be-missed event is the Ride the Storm – Home Textile Digital Printing Forum, which will include an array of educating seminars that cover the latest digital textile printing trends and technologies. The forum will be held on day 2 of the fair, from 13:20 – 17:20 in hall 3, booth M12.

Furthermore, joining forces with Tmall Global, the largest cross border B2C online retail platform in China, the fair will host a series of seminars delivering the solutions and strategies for industry digitalisation during the afternoon of day 1. In addition, the well-received Furniture & Home Textile Direct Negotiation Event will return to provide an excellent opportunity for furniture companies and fabric brands to collaborate.

Additional health care and hygiene precautions will be in place

As trade fair co-organisers, Messe Frankfurt’s number one priority always remains the health and safety of fairgoers. To maintain a clean and hygienic environment for visitors and exhibitors to meet in, extra measures will be in practice at the fair. These include: real-name registration, onsite temperature checks, frequent sterilisation of public areas and distancing measures for forum / seminar audiences, amongst others.

• Tata Communications announces its financial results for the quarter ended June 30th, 2020

Commenting on the results, A.S Lakshminarayanan, MD and CEO, Tata Communications, said, “We have started this new financial year with strong performance amidst an uncertain and unpredictable economic environment. Digital is increasingly defining and shaping the experiences in this new world. It will become even more strategically core as businesses look to adopt new ways of working and transform how they operate, and how they engage with their audiences and with each other. We continue to be a key partner for our customers as they look to now focus on business recovery, acceleration, and growth.
Our new proposition, Secure Connected Digital Experience, is aimed at enabling customers to adopt new digital working models by providing a holistic ecosystem of solutions that are suited for this digital-first environment and are built for the long term. We’re seeing good interest in the market for these solutions. We remain focused on our strategy to deliver profitable growth and to be a preferred digital partner to our customers.”

Commenting on the results, Pratibha K. Advani, Chief Financial Officer, Tata Communications, said, “We have registered another quarter of strong growth. Data portfolio, which has been the key driver for our business, recorded a double-digit growth of 10% YoY with robust margin expansion of 460 Bps.

Enterprise business has also shown a healthy increase in the quarter, on the back of strong growth in India as well as the international markets, with India growing by 6.7% and international by 8.3% YoY. We continue to drive cost efficiencies in our business and with every successive quarter, we are improving our financial fitness.

Highlights

• Strong growth in Data business; revenue grew by +10% YoY on the back of robust performance across all segments, despite an uncertain economic environment.
• Data EBITDA was at INR 975 crore; up +32.4% YoY on the back of margin expansion of 460 Bps YoY led by cost efficiency initiatives.
• Due to lockdown and remote working, we are witnessing increased bandwidth usage and higher collaboration traffic. Enterprises have upgraded their capacities and are consuming more data to support this work model. Consequently, our India enterprise business grew by 6.7% YoY and international enterprise business grew by 8.3% YoY on the back of strong demand. This has led to increase in both revenue and profitability.
• Consolidated revenue was at INR 4,403 crore; growth of +5.6% YoY on the back of strong growth in Data business.
• Consolidated EBITDA at INR 1,042 crore; increase of +26.2% YoY and margin expansion of 390 Bps on the back of strong profitable growth in data business and focus on cost efficiencies.
• Consolidated PAT at INR 258 crore as compared to a profit of INR 77 crore in Q1 FY20; growth of +236% YoY.
• CAPEX for this quarter was INR 372 crore as compared to INR 342 crore in Q4 FY20.

*Please read the attached document for more information

Following the successful commissioning of two new Monforts Montex wide-width stenter lines and additional environmental management equipment at its plant in Germany, GtA – Society for Textile Equipment GmbH – is aiming to be the first textile finishing company to become entirely CO2-neutral in the manufacture of all of its products by 2025.

GtA is a partner company to Germany’s large-format digital printing fabric leader, Georg and Otto Friedrich GmbH, which has has this year been able to considerably expand its portfolio due to the new Monforts lines.

Headquartered in Gross-Zimmern, close to Frankfurt, Georg and Otto Friedrich GmbH and its partners in Germany have an annual production of 37 million square metres of warp knits for a range of end-use applications, including garments, automotive interiors and technical textiles, but increasingly with a concentration on digital printing substrates.

Fault-free textiles

A new standard in pure white, 100% clean and fault-free textile substrates has been demanded by this market in recent years due to the rapid growth in digitally-printed banners and billboards – often referred to as ‘soft signage’.

The substrates of choice for digital printing are 100% polyester warp knits which are resilient and allow excellent take-up of inks, and vibrant colours and clear and precise images to be achieved with digital printing techniques. The knitted construction also has the advantage of elasticity, which is a plus in terms of flexibility for installers.

Critically, the warp knitted fabrics have extremely smooth surfaces which is becoming increasingly important due to the general move away from PVC coatings which were the standard in the past.

It was to finish these fabrics for Georg and Otto Friedrich GmbH as well as providing such services for many other customers, that the GtA plant in Neresheim, Baden-Württemberg, was established in 2015.

The purpose-built plant on a greenfield site was initially equipped with a fully-automated, 72 metre long Monforts installation comprising a washing machine integrated with a 3.6 metre wide, seven-chamber Montex stenter. The line quickly went from single to double shift production and then to 24/7 operation  to meet demand.

Expanded widths

Building on the success of this installation, GtA has now installed two more Montex stenter lines – both in expanded working widths of 5.6 metres and purpose-built at Montex GmbH in Austria.

A six-chamber Montex unit is combined with a washing machine to guarantee the purity of the substrates, while a five-chamber line is integrated with a wide-width coating machine. This new coating capability at GtA has led to a number of new additions to the Georg and Otto Friedrich DecoTex range for digital printing, including wide width fabrics with flame retardant, antimicrobial and non-slip finishes.

The new Montex stenter lines benefit from all of the latest innovations from Monforts, including the Smart Sensor system for the optimised maintenance planning of key mechanical wear components on the stenters. A comprehensive overview of the condition of all parts at any time is now available for operators within the highly intuitive Qualitex visualization software.

With Qualitex, all article-specific settings can be stored and the formulations for thousands of treatment processes called up again at any time. Individual operators can also personalise their dashboards with the most important machine functions and process parameters.

Environmental commitment

GtA is run by a seasoned team of textile professionals led by Managing Director Andreas Niess.

“We have received excellent service from Monforts from the outset and we were happy to place the order for these two new lines as part of our ongoing cooperation,” he says. “With all of the latest Monforts advances in technology we are fully in control of all production and quality parameters with these lines, as part of our significant commitment to innovative environmental technology.”

The GtA plant, which operates in near-cleanroom conditions, has also been equipped with proprietary technology to fully exploit the Monforts air-to-air heat recovery systems that are now standard with Montex stenters.

“Around 30 per cent of our investment volume at the site goes to energy-saving measures and we are sure that this commitment is worthwhile,” Mr Niess says. “As an example, our integrated heat recovery system fully exploits the waste heat from the process exhaust air and the burner exhaust gases of the Monforts stenters, allowing us to achieve an exhaust air temperature of  between 30 to 34°C, compared to what would conventionally be between 140 to 160°C. Another focus has been on exhaust air purification technology and here too, the latest technology has been installed with integrated heat recovery elements.”

This, he adds, saves 52% of the energy that would normally be used – equating to 5,800,000 KwH per year. The necessary audits for energy-efficient companies are also carried out annually.

In addition, GtA has purpose-designed the automatic chemical mixing and dosing systems that feed the padders for the key treatments that are carried out on the fabrics through the stenters.

The company is going further, however, in its pursuit of clean production and raw materials.

"We want to be an asset and not a burden on our immediate environment and therefore do not use any additives containing solvents," Mr Niess says. “We were the first to use fully halogen-free flame retardant chemistry, and we use bio-based, finely ground alumina products for the washing process instead of surfactants. PES polyester yarns made from recycled material are also increasingly used and the latest additions to our raw materials portfolio, the RC-Ocean products, are made from recycled sea plastic.

“We are now planning a combined heat and power plant for the production of electrical energy and heat and we will also build a photovoltaic system that converts solar radiation into electrical energy. GtA wants to be the first textile finishing company to be CO2-neutral in the manufacture of all of its products by 2025. The complete heat supply and heating for the 13,000 square metre production hall, as well as the office building and the hot water supply for the domestic water, is already energy-neutral. We are convinced that this commitment will pay off in the long term and our positive business development proves that sustainability and business profitability are perfectly compatible.”

In addition to the products for Georg and Otto Friedrich GmbH, GtA  offers its manufacturing capacities for other customers as a contract service.

All products are manufactured in accordance with Öko-Tex Standard 100, product class 1 and the company is also involved in the research and development of new sustainable manufacturing processes, in cooperation with many regional universities and funding project partners.

• New 20,000 ton Lyocell line commences production in Shandong

Sateri has successfully commenced production of Lyocell fibre in Rizhao, Shandong, China. In collaboration with Asia Symbol, China’s leading producer of pulp and packaging board, the newly installed 20,000 ton per annum production line will broaden Sateri’s portfolio of high quality fibre products, and bolster Lyocell supply to the textile and non-woven markets.

Industry associations such as the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) welcome the news. Duan Xiaoping, Deputy President of CNTAC and President of the China Chemical Fibers Association (CCFA), said, “Lyocell is not only a higher value product but also an eco-friendly fibre that is bio-based and minimises chemical use and emissions. Sateri’s investment in Lyocell is very much aligned with the aim for technical and product upgrading for China’s textile industry.”

A natural and biodegradable fibre, Sateri’s Lyocell is made from wood pulp sourced from sustainable plantations. It is manufactured using closed-loop technology, requiring minimal chemical input during the production process, and utilising an organic solvent that can be almost fully recovered and recycled. Lyocell is used to produce high quality textiles and personal hygiene materials. Textiles made from Lyocell possess high tenacity and bright lustre, and share similar qualities with textiles made from viscose – soft and silky with good drape, breathability, and absorption.

Sateri is part of the RGE group of companies which has committed to investing USD200 million to advance next-generation textile fibre innovation and technology. In March this year, Sateri achieved a breakthrough in commercial production of viscose using recycled textile waste.

The must-have fabrics platform for activewear and sportswear apparel, developed by ISKO, will be featuring in the Munich arena showcasing its Responsible Innovation™ approach resulting once more in groundbreaking performance properties.

ISKO returns once again to ISPO, Hall C1 – Booth 401, to present its pioneering innovation in the world of sportswear and activewear. The leading denim ingredient brand will be presenting the latest edition of ARQUAS™, the much-loved fabrics platform set to bring about an even more responsible era.

Featuring 35 fabrics, most of which are made with certified recycled materials, ARQUAS™ 6.0 combines high-performance properties with the mill’s Responsible Innovation™ approach – a holistic vision based on creativity, competence and citizenship that constantly defines new standards.

Although many of the textile concepts included in the collection may have the look and hand feel of knitted fabrics, they are all woven, thus ensuring superior durability and greater recovery. Among the many qualities that come with ARQUAS™ 6.0, moisture management, UV and wind protection, heat retention, water and stain repellency stand out. Nylon, which is used for the first time in this edition, allows for super light woven and cozy outdoor fabrics, reversible and packable styles, as well as patented fabrics, such as 4 waystretch ISKO Blue Skin™ for a 360° elasticity. Finally, the collection offers super compact fabrics that are made suitable also for fully bonded garments with body shaping and high recovery properties.

To provide trailblazing inspiration to its customers, ISKO’s world-class design team have created both a men’s and women’s garment collection based on three lifestyles – active, outdoor and club sports.

ACTIVE: Ideal for a wide range of sports from yoga to fitness to running. Whether participating in highor low-impact activities, these fabrics perfectly fulfill the technical requirements of athleisure and performance-wear apparel.

OUTDOOR:
Fabrics that stand for superior comfort, durability, water repellency and breathability, protecting the wearer from the elements of nature in any kind of setting.

CLUB SPORTS:
From the perfect golf swing to a wild horse ride, essential features such as maximum flexibility, fit and performance make these the ultimate textile concepts for the sportswear market.

• Construction of a new air purification and sulfur recovery plant
• Further improvement of the exhaust emission values at the Lenzing site
• Important step in achieving the CO2 targets of the Lenzing Group

Lenzing – The Lenzing Group is a global leader in the climate-friendly and sustainable production of wood-based textile fibers. Lenzing announced its climate targets in August of this year. By 2030, the company aims to reduce its specific CO2 emissions per ton of manufactured pulp and fibers by 50 percent. By the year 2050, the Lenzing Group will no longer generate any net CO2 emissions.

Lenzing‘s Management Board has now resolved to invest EUR 40 mn to expand the production of the raw material sulfuric acid at the Lenzing site. This comprises an important milestone on the path towards climate neutrality. In the future, a new air purification and sulfur recovery plant will not only optimize the company’s self-sufficiency for this raw material and enhance process reliability but improve environmental protection within the context of a clear forward-looking strategy.

Improved exhaust emission performance

The new plant represents an important contribution towards implementing the sustainability strategy of the Lenzing Group, and also helps to ensure an even higher level of environmental compatibility of all production operations at the Lenzing site. The application of state-of-the-art technologies will further improve exhaust emission values. Furthermore, the new facility will help further reduce the use of fossil fuels by generating steam which will, in turn, be converted into electricity. In this way, it will also support the energy self-sufficiency of the company’s operations in Lenzing.

Improved CO2 scorecard

As a result, the production plant in Lenzing will reduce its annual CO2 emissions by 15,000 tons. This is an important step towards further advancing the company’s ambitious plans in the coming years and also strengthen Lenzing’s leadership role as a driver of ecologically sustainable industry. “On the basis of these investments, Lenzing is taking the next step in achieving its climate targets. At the same time, it will also reach a significantly higher level of autonomy with respect to a vital raw material”, states Stefan Doboczky, Chief Executive Officer of Lenzing.