Freudenberg Performance Materials Apparel (Freudenberg) will showcase two new solutions in the sports and outdoor sector at the digital Performance Days.

As per Textile Network, Freudenberg will offer customers the Freudenberg Active Range of sustainable, highly elastic and breathable interlinings and tapes for all types of sportswear.

Most of the products in this range are made from at least 70 percent recycled polyester that Freudenberg produces in a closed loop system from used PET bottles. The company recycles around seven million of these plastic bottles per day, making it the largest user of post-consumer PET bottles in Europe.

In the Freudenberg Active Range, a special technology ensures that highly-elastic outer fabrics retain their flexibility and remain breathable despite being fixed. Thanks to their highly-developed adhesive polymers, selected products in the range are exceptionally suitable even for complicated outer fabrics that are difficult to process. The bonding compound is applied to a carrier material in the form of small dots without using a base material. Moreover, the Freudenberg Active Range also features sewable interlinings that allow a natural yet elastic feel while keeping the garment in the desired shape

The increasing sales of imported apparel products ahead of Eid is one of the reasons for the decline of domestic sales, says Redma Gita Wiraswasta, Secretary General, Indonesian Fiber and Filament Yarn Producers Association (APSyFI).

As per Indo Textiles, Redmainformed Indonesia’s sale of textile raw materials during this Eid period fell by 30 per centUtilization also dropped to 70 percent for fiber and 65 percent for yarn, he added.

Redma explained, the local textile market has continued to decline since the end of March 2021, especially in the downstream areas such as weaving and apparel. He said that people prefer to buy imported apparel online compared to local textile products offline.

According to him, the textile industry has not yet recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in the first quarter of 2021, not many imported goods entered. Thus, local producers can dominate the market.

Redma said the textile industry could recover if the government could stem the invasion of imports. According to him, local products are still difficult to compete with imported products because the prices of imported apparel are sold very cheaply.

UK-based industrial thread manufacturer Coats Group reported a return to organic growth following a strong operational performance in three months to 30 April.

As per Fashion Network, the group’s organic sales for the three-month period grew by 26 per cent year-on-year, versus just a 1 per cent gain in 2019.

Its apparel and footwear reported a 30 per cent jump in organic sales versus a flat 2019 period.

Meanwhile, against 2019, the core thread business — which represents around 85 per cent of Apparel and Footwear — grew by 2 per cent. Performance Materials organic sales also rose by 14 per cent versus 2020 and by 4 per cent versus 2019. Rajiv Sharma, CEO, says, the company expects recovery in trading to continue and its anticipated performance for the year will be slightly ahead of its previous expectations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not had any major impact on production in Taiwan’s upstream and downstream polyester market. However, it has affected consumption to certain extent, says CCF Group report. Taiwan is big import and export province in China. Its PTA capacity totals 3.95 million tonne and all PTA units run normally, except for CAPCO’s 700kt/year unit running at 90 per cent.

Taiwan has a Polyester capacity amounting to 4.63 million tonne/year. Its factories reported no major influence of the pandemic and large-scaled power on their operations. The country also produces 1.62 million tonne/year of PET bottle chips.

At present, the epidemic basically has no impact on the operation of local PET bottle chip plants. However, the island is mainly concerned about the problem of water shortage, which might face problems if the drought continues.

Animal rights group PETA has hailed luxury fashion firm Valentino’s plans to go fur-free by 2022. Around 185,000 consumers and brands have supported PETA’s Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade initiative so far. The animal rights NGO routinely unearths cases of alleged negligence on animal farms used as suppliers of products such as fur. It highlighted the plight of thousands of minks held in cramped cages before being either electrocuted, gassed or poisoned for their fur.

PETA believes such incidents have the potential to breed new diseases and viruses. It opines the coronavirus too originated from one of such farms in Spain, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Canada and the US, etc.

It therefore urges fashion brands and retailers to shun animal products from their supply chains in order to dismantle the regime of killing animals for their fur. Last August, Valentino banned alpaca wool from its supply chain upon learning about the findings of a PETA investigation into the world’s largest alpaca farm, Mallkini, in Peru.

Stäubli will showcase a wide range of machinery equipped with state-of-the-art, high-end technologies and software solutions at ITMA ASIA+CTME 2021 that will be held from June 12 to 16 at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre (NECC) in Shanghai.

As per Knitting Industry report, one of the machines Staubli plans to showcase is its D4S toe-closing device at the exhibition. Installed directly on the circular socks knitting machine, it closes one sock whilst the machine is already knitting the next one.

Besides offering many functional benefits, the D4S Solution promises durability especially after replacing of the original parts. Stäubli has worked extensively on this world class automation solution for toe closing on circular sock knitting machines. The company also manufactures the machine controller and all of the mechanical parts for the D4S device.

Sportswear brand Puma along with Calvin Klein and Marks & Spencer has committed to ban mulesed wool by 2025. Mulesing is a controversial breech modification technique through which strips of wool-bearing skin are cut from sheep to prevent parasitic infection.

Animal welfare organisation Four Paws has congratulated Puma on its decision. The organization recently published a list of 38 leading apparel brands that have committed to ban mulesing within their supply chains. The list includes brands like Patagonia, Orvotex, Max Mara and Escada.

Proposals to outlaw mulesing were put forward late last year in the Australian state of New South Wales, though an inquiry heard that it was not the right way forward after advocates of the method fought for its continued use.

Amongst those that have criticized mulesing are animal rights groups such as Four Paws, which argues that more humane methods could be introduced to make the transition from mulesing more manageable.

Global sustainability organization Fashion for Good (FFG) has selected six young designers for its ‘Grow’ talent project, a three-month program to develop ‘sustainable’ garments using biomaterials. As per an Eco Textile report, the selected designers include Frederieke Broekgaarden, Charlotte Bakkenes, Huong Nguyen and Eva Sonneveld; content creator Christan Mpamo and copywriter Zainab Goelaman. These were selected from over 100 applicants whittled down by a jury of creative professionals and Katrin Ley, Managing Director, FFG

A part of FFG’s year-long exhibition Grow, the project focuses on biomaterials in the fashion industry. The ongoing first project will run from June to September. At this project, the selected participants will create products for the second exhibition, Grow 2.0, which will launch in October.

Over the course of the project, the participants will receive guidance and support from the jury, FFG team, as well as selected mentors. Materials will be provided by innovators Flocus, based in the Netherlands with textiles made from Kapok fibre, Finnish innovator Spinnova that supplies its cellulosic based fibre, French-Indian innovator Green Whisper, that creates banana fibre-based textiles, and American innovator Natural Fiber Welding that developed Mirum, a plant-based, plastic-free leather that is entirely recyclable.

An independent life-cycle assessment (LCA) conducted by Spanish private research organization Cartif has confirmed Metsä’s new sustainable wood-based textile fibre, Kuura is more eco-friendly than any commercially-available cellulosic fibre. The LCA indicates Kuura is made with pine and spruce from certified, sustainably-managed Finnish forests which have almost doubled in size since 1970, making them a major carbon sink.

Meanwhile, the company's bioproduct mill in Äänekoski which produces wood pulp for the fibre is the world’s first mill to be fossil-fuel free. The manufacturing concept is based on locally-sourced wood obtained from its own forests, says Niklas von Weyman, CEO. Its Kuura concept is competitive in terms of both environment and social sustainability, he adds.

A horizontal, private and non-profit research institution, Cartif aims to provide innovative solutions to the industry to enhance processes, systems and products.

German textile machine manufacturer Thies GmbH & Co KG plans to exhibit an extensive portfolio of machinery at ITMA Asia+CTME 2021 exhibition. As per Textile World, Thies not only manufactures machines but also develops intelligent software solutions to actual dyeing process. These energy efficient solutions help its customers reduce their water, energy, chemicals and utilities consumption.

Thies’ machines have been installed at all modern dye houses as well as dosing and dispensing systems. The machines enable perfect dissolving and provision of dyes and chemicals that leads to exact dyeing results, maximum reproducibility, significantly increased occupational safety and tremendous time savings.

All Thies machines, including the dispensing systems, the dye kitchen, the beam winding machines and/ or the heat recovery systems can be connected to MES systems and deliver important data which customers can use to improve their performances. The company also offers semi- to fully- automated loading and unloading of its yarn dyeing machines.