2021.06.11
INDUSTRY NEWS - 2021.06.11
1、越南保工業園 穩出口難硬封城
越南2020全年僅錄得1465宗新冠確診個案，而2021年首5個月卻有超過6500宗病例，然而，今年4月上場的總理范明政，未有像上屆政府般，迅速採取強硬封城措施，因為他要維持工業園運作順暢，力保出口，以免越南經濟受重創。
憂失生意 中國趁勢反撲
特別是越南最大對手中國的疫情已大致穩定，一旦越南廠房因爆疫而大混亂，很可能流失生意予中國。
令越南政府最頭痛的是，北部兩個工業重鎮北寧省和北江省是疫情重災區之一，三星、富士康等國際巨企都在該地設廠。越南決定，該兩省的24萬名工人納入可接種疫苗的優先群組，並已火速把針劑運抵。
三星有一半手機和平板電腦產自越南，讓越南成為僅次於中國的全球第二大智能手機出口國。越南也有晶片等零部件的生產，電子產品佔了越南出口的四成。
自從中國的勞工成本近年開始漲升，加上美國在特朗普年代主張跟中國「脫鈎」，不少代工生產已遷移至越南。
環球供應鏈備受疫情衝擊，美國等不少國家十分關注本國工業會否因缺乏零件進口而被迫停工。作為全球供應鏈的重要一環，倘越南未能確保本國產業鏈不出亂子，勢必面對外國官員的「噓寒問暖」，施壓要求恢復正常供貨。
資料來源：信報財經 (2021年6月5日)
2、MIT數碼纖維縫入衣服監測疾病
穿戴式科技日新月異，連日常衣物的纖維，亦可用作監測健康。美國麻省理工學院（MIT）研究團隊，首創出一種可縫製入衣物的數碼纖維，能收集及儲存身體數據，觀察心跳不規則、呼吸窘迫等徵狀，有助分析和偵測早期疾病。
由麻省理工材料科學系教授Yoel Fink率領的科研團隊，把數百塊矽晶片（Silicon Digital Chips）放入鑄造模具，並融入一條人造聚合物纖維（Polymer Fiber）之內。透過精準控制聚合物流動過程，成功研發一條長達數十米的數碼纖維，當中含有數百塊連續通電的晶片。
這種纖維物料的特點是幼細且具彈性，可穿過正常的針線，直接縫製成衣物。團隊曾把有關物料清洗至少10次仍不會被分解破壞。負責該研究的論文作者Gabriel Loke稱，「即使數碼纖維縫製在T恤中，你根本不會察覺其存在，甚至不知道它與普通衣物有何分別。」
資料斷電下可存兩個月
該物料亦可與AI結合，團隊曾在儲存器中連接一個有1650個接口的神經網絡，再縫製在衣物內，其後收集了270分鐘體溫數據；系統可了解測試者不同時間的流汗程度，從而判斷用戶正進行何種運動。經反覆測試後，其準確度可達96% 。
MIT研發的數碼纖維，除了監測和分析數據，也可用來儲存資料，團隊曾在數碼纖維存入資訊，包括一段767kb的全彩色短片，以及一個0.48MB大小的音樂檔案，就算斷電仍能儲存兩個月。研究成果已發表於科學期刊《自然通訊》上，未來有望用於健康監測等範疇。
資料來源：信報財經 (2021年6月8日)
3、浦東升級 滬港差距再拉近？
七一將近，政策不斷，帶動A股出現波動。其中最引人注意之一，是上海板塊近一周，兩天大漲，兩天大跌後又再大漲，此番「過山車」行情的政策落地，是浦東新區再獲加持被授予立法權。這被外界解讀為政策大禮包的首禮，是為浦東從「新區」升「特區」做準備。
此前在坊間已傳聞，指向浦東將獲「大利好」，有人猜浦東要從上海獨立劃分，更有甚者稱將直接設為直轄市，還有人呼籲「有現金的話6月10日前快去浦東買房」。
授立法權 支持浦東大膽試
6月7日靴子落地，全國人大常委會擬授權上海市人大制定浦東新區法規，指為建立完善與支持浦東大膽試、大膽闖、自主改相適應的法治保障體系需要。雖然力度不及傳聞中「浦東獨立」「浦東直轄」，但獲得了被視為是「特區立法權」的尚方寶劍，成為升格為「浦東特區」猜測的來由。
上海此前有直轄市立法權，但全國人大級別的授權立法，此前只有5個經濟特區享有，而真正發揮作用的，幾乎只有改革最前沿的深圳。自去年11月浦東新區比照深圳「社會主義現代化建設示範區」的定位成為「引領區」，此番獲得特區級立法權，實屬補上法律上的短板。但今次授權，也意味着，國家對於上海發展期許再進一步，「浦東金融特區」的加持將令上海國際金融中心建設進入一個新階段。
從2018年起，上海就提出要加快建設國際經濟、金融、貿易、航運和科技創新「五個中心」，而相較於貿易、航運、科創中心等定位，上海區別於深圳、北京等競爭對手最明顯的優勢就是金融。
根據此前官方釋出的信息，浦東「引領區」建設的核心正是強化金融優勢，包括3方面：1）完善四大金融體系（金融市場體系、產品體系、機構體系、基礎設施體系）建設；2）增強全球資源配置；3）加快國際金融中心建設。
就在上個月，上海剛剛發布《關於加快推進上海全球資產管理中心建設的若干意見》，提出力爭到2025年，上海要基本建成資產管理領域要素集聚度高、國際化水平強、生態體系較為完備的綜合性、開放型資產管理中心，打造成為亞洲資產管理的重要樞紐，邁入全球資產管理中心城市前列。從文件語言來看，「完善」意味着金融體系已經成熟，而「增強」的全球資源配置正是此次上海新發展的着力點。
事實上，從中美貿易戰以來，中國的金融改革就放緩腳步，而在這期間，也出台資管新規等政策整頓金融行業。如今中國在釐清國際國內形勢，提出「雙循環」發展戰略之後，也錨定了新一輪金融開放作為未來中國市場對西方世界最具吸引力的領域。
滬港可成共同體 取長補短
上海的時間表很難不令人想到滬港金融中心之爭，根據全球金融中心排名，在投資管理指標中，上海位列第五，排在紐約、倫敦、香港和新加坡之後。香港擁全球投資者優勢，而上海則有龐大的金融市場優勢，實有廣泛的合作空間。滬港之間的關係若不以城市之爭，而是大國博弈定位，則兩者即可從對手變拍檔，滬港若形成金融共同體，對彼此來說都是取長補短，如虎添翼。
資料來源：香港經濟日報 (2021年6月10日)
4、Apparel brands turn to air cargo as inventory delays continue
Dive Brief:
Supply chain issues in Q1 led brands including Levi Strauss, Lands' End and PVH to increase their reliance on expedited freight to ensure products are in stock, according to recent earnings calls.
"We have had to increase our airfreight," said Levi Strauss' Executive Vice President and CFO Harmit Singh. Lands' End President and CFO James Gooch struck a similar tone. "We are certainly seeing challenges like everybody else," Gooch said, adding that expediting shipments was "adding a little bit of cost."
PVH, which operates brands including Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, incorporated added airfreight costs into its 2021 outlook for investors. The outlook anticipates inventory delays may last between four to six weeks and will result in a need to expedite goods to "maintain our sales plan in the second half of the year," according to Mike Shaffer, executive vice president, CFO and COO at PVH.
Dive Insight:
Inventory delays have been systemic in the first half of 2021, as companies struggle to catch up to quickly rising demand.
PVH saw its factories for knits in India close as lockdowns were put in place to mitigate rising COVID-19 infection rates. In Sri Lanka, where PVH produces underwear, the factories were open but not operating at full capacity, which delayed production.
In cases like these, where factory closures are expected to last only weeks, PVH said counting on expedited freight services, or even "faster ships," was a suitable way to plan for the supply chain disruptions.
"Underwear is particularly one where we can get goods in quicker and the cost is not great," Shaffer said. "The goods are smaller in scale in terms of size, and we can put quite a few into a path. So, each order is looked at individually."
Whether it is semiconductors, jeans, masks or vaccines, many of the products in high demand at the moment can be shipped by air in the case of a disruption.
For many shippers, though, bringing in goods by airfreight can significantly increase expenses. Peloton spent $100 million to speed shipping, including the use of airfreight and expedited ocean shipping.
The logistical flexibility airfreight provides has been a lifeline and a boon for air cargo providers reeling from the pandemic.
"Air freight has been in nonstop peak-season mode despite pandemic-induced capacity decline, while other disruptions, such as the Suez Canal blockage, drove even more demand to air," Matt Castle, a vice president of air freight products and services for C.H. Robinson, wrote in a company blog in April.
Typically, airfreight would benefit almost unilaterally from global disruptions as the quickest way to transport products. But as passenger travel subsided at the start of the pandemic, airlines canceled flights and routes that also carried cargo, leading to the "induced capacity decline" alluded to by Castle.
This dynamic is part of why Shaffer told investors "faster ships" were an option for PVH, too. "We have found air freight constrained. There were not a lot of flights, but we are looking on certain product categories," like underwear, Shaffer said.
Demand is not growing in a vacuum, though. In places like the U.S. and China, it's happening as pandemic-related restrictions begin to ease and consumer confidence grows, which has led to reopenings of retail stores and a growth in passenger travel. In other words, the places where products are needed and the number of flights available to ship cargo on is starting to grow.
"As restrictions have been lifted, more passenger planes are moving cargo in addition to the industry's move to retrofit planes for cargo-only freighters," said John Pagan, president and COO at Descartes Systems Group. "Also, with physical stores now reopening, we are seeing warehouse and store replenishment as a legitimate factor in increasing shipment volumes."
For retailers and air carriers, this presents an opportunity to "offset" higher freight costs with higher sales, as well as a challenge, as they evaluate where these trends are happening and for how long they will last.
Levi Strauss President and CEO Chip Bergh commented on this dynamic, when asked during the company's latest earning call how it's planning for demand.
"It's the biggest challenge we're all facing," Bergh said. "Is what we're seeing here recently sustainable for the next six or 12 months, or is it a pop in the arm, and it goes back to something that looks more like the immediate pre-pandemic period?"
Source: www.retaildive.com (9 Jun 2021)
5、How NTX’s Cooltrans is Making Textile Coloration More Eco-Conscious
In the fashion and textile industry, water conservation has become a top sustainability priority. And one of the main focuses of water reduction is the dyeing process.
Conventional dyeing uses large volumes of water and chemicals, resulting in significant amounts of wastewater. According to the World Bank, textile dyeing and finishing contributes to 17 percent to 20 percent of all industrial water pollution.
Technology firm NTX, which specializes in textile coloration, aims to make printing and dyeing processes more sustainable by reducing resource consumption and energy use. In 2020, NTX made its official market debut with the commercialization of its Cooltrans technology, which offers a heatless and waterless color transfer process. This alternative to traditional wet printing achieves a 90 percent water savings, while also cutting back on energy and chemical use by 65 percent and 40 percent, respectively. Aside from Cooltrans’ sustainability credentials, it also speeds the process of coloring fabric.
“Generally, the thought process for [the] coloration of textiles has been you need to have heat, and you need to have a solvent, and you need to have time,” said Jeffrey Hsu, chief innovation and marketing officer at NTX. “We’ve basically changed the dynamic of all of this.”
NTX co-founders Sandra Chou and Kalvin Chung originally began research and development work in 2000 with the goal of improving sublimation, which is a waterless coloration process that uses heat to transfer color from paper onto fabric. Chou and Chung sought to make sublimation chemically safer by eliminating toxic substances such as formaldehyde. From a quality perspective, NTX was also looking to improve color saturation, resolution and colorfastness.
Over the years, NTX discovered that to make these changes, the entire process had to be revamped, including the ink chemistry and machinery. The resulting Cooltrans technology can be used on natural fabrics as well as synthetics, including stretch materials. NTX’s original Cooltrans solution transfers color via paper, while the more recently developed Cooltrans V uses a specially developed roller to apply pigment directly. This latter application allows color transfer to be used to create mélange patterns or pinstripes without having to pre-dye yarns in different hues, reducing material waste.
Within the past year, NTX has been researching the filaments and fibers that make up textiles to further improve coloration and create deeper hues. During a panel at Sourcing Journal’s Sourcing Summit Hong Kong in May, Hsu noted customers have said that NTX’s black makes conventionally dyed black textiles look grey in comparison.
While Cooltrans officially launched last year, Hsu noted that market support for NTX took off around 2017. Part of what has driven more attention toward its solutions is enhanced consumer awareness of greenwashing. “Within the past 10 years, the degree of information and the degree of concern, as well as the sophistication from consumers to get to that level of what is actually sustainable…really drove conversation from the brand house perspective to create or to do something that was real,” said Hsu.
NTX’s sustainable technology earned it a spot in the seventh edition of Fashion for Good’s Accelerator Programme, which helped further propel market interest in Cooltrans.
Last year, NTX’s Newtech Textile Singapore Pte. Ltd. entered a joint venture with manufacturer Luen Thai to build a factory in Cambodia specializing in sportswear and athleisure production using Cooltrans. NTX has also worked with manufacturer Roo Hsing to transform denim coloration. In addition to a 93 percent water reduction, the company—which supplies to brands like Levi Strauss & Co., Gap and C&A—was able to shrink its production time from about 140 days to just 60.
Looking ahead, NTX is aiming to bring waterless technology to more elements of textile production. Instead of just selling machinery, the company is also taking on more of a manufacturing role to help prove the quality and consistency of its solutions to brands. “Rather than relying on a third party to get it right, we’re saying we’ll take all the risk ourselves, but also all the responsibility and accountability of making it work,” Hsu said.
Source: www.sourcingjournal.com (4 Jun 2021)
6、Pair reach holy grail of fashion recycling: polyester-cotton blends broken down without degrading fibres or polymer
Fashion waste is a global problem, with hard-to-recycle polyester-cotton fabrics commonly ending up in landfills. Two US entrepreneurs found a solution
They developed a machine that breaks down the mix of artificial and natural fibres. ‘That really does set them apart’, says lawyer for Patagonia, an investor
It started with an offhand request. Entrepreneurs Peter Majeranowski and Conor Hartman were testing a way to recycle the fibrous stalks left over from tobacco farming, using hydrothermal pressure to turn them into pulp for paper, when a Swedish commodities trading company called up with another idea.
“They were like, ‘Hey, this pulp stuff you’re doing is great, but can you try putting a T-shirt through your machine?’” Majeranowski recalled. They obliged, and as luck would have it, it worked. Most importantly, it worked on polyester-cotton blends, the most common textile produced by the global fashion industry.
Until recently, any recycling process that preserved the polyester polymers would degrade the cotton fibres, and vice versa. This has led to a major build-up in fabric waste. Every second, a truck full of clothing and textiles gets incinerated or tossed in a landfill, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
As it turned out, Hartman and Majeranowski’s company, Circ, based in the US state of Virginia, was able to do both. Business changed overnight, Majeranowski said. “Suddenly, we’ve got the fashion industry cold-calling us – brands you’d see in any mall in Anytown, USA – who wanted a circular recycled textile solution.”
Circ’s process involves a combination of water, heat, pressure, and chemicals, which break down and purify the textile fibres, recovering 90 per cent of the original materials. So far they’ve recycled only about 12 tons of apparel waste, but the co-founders say they have the capacity to do two tons per day once their partnerships ramp up. Outdoor gear maker Patagonia and Japanese trading company Marubeni are investors, and Patagonia is already funnelling some of its worn-out clothing through Circ’s machinery.
The pair also expect to begin producing fully recycled garments later this year through a collaboration with Fashion for Good, which works with major brands and retailers such as Kering and Target to promote sustainable practices and technologies.
Other companies use similar biochemical or thermal pressure to dissolve old materials, but Circ’s edge comes from its ability to work with blended fabrics, said Greg Curtis, Patagonia’s general counsel on investments. “When you look at the total addressable market for fast fashion, and the poly-blend rubbish that comes out of it, that really does set them apart,” he added.
The company’s history begins in 2010, when the market crash dried up Majeranowski’s previous work with an overseas investment group. He got interested in biofuels, and eventually met Hilary Koprowski, a Polish immunologist known for his pioneering work on the polio vaccine. At the time, Koprowski was looking into whether tobacco plants – which grow easily and have a well-known genome – could be genetically modified to produce antibodies for a vaccine. (In 2014, they would be: Icon Genetics used tobacco plants to create the ZMapp Ebola vaccine, though Koprowski wasn’t involved.)
While in the lab, Koprowski started pursuing another question: if tobacco plants could be genetically modified one way, to produce antibodies, could they be modified in other ways – for instance, to produce chemical alternatives for fossil fuels?
Majeranowski and Koprowski created Tyton Biosciences in 2011 to monetise their research, and in 2013, Hartman joined to lead operations. (Koprowski died in 2013, and Tyton rebranded as Circ in 2020.) Hartman had previously worked in international policy for groups such as the Carter Centre, which heavily informed his desire to find a new way to develop fuel and jobs without causing harm to the environment.
“We wanted to generate something that could breathe life into rural communities,” he said. What followed was a period of research and reinvention.
Around 2016, investors lost interest in biofuels, so Majeranowski and Hartman started looking for new ways to apply the technology they’d developed. A conversation with Kentucky farmers led them to the paper pulp idea, and the pair decided to make a play in the packaging industry. Then came the T-shirt experiment.
“The pulp wasn’t solving an acute need,” Majeranowski said. “McDonald’s wants napkins made from recycled paper, but it doesn’t need that in the way the fashion and apparel industry is feeling the strain right now.”
Demand for polyester is a major driver of petrochemical extraction, said Rob Kaplan, founder of Circulate Capital, which invests in recycling technologies similar to Circ’s. But because new polyester is cheaper than both recycled polyester and natural fibres, “no one has figured out how to crack the code on making money on recycled materials”.
Circ won’t disclose the price of its recycled fibres; its closest competitor, a subsidiary of fast fashion retailer H&M, won’t talk about prices, either. However, both say the cost of their recycled textiles should be comparable to new.
A positive climate impact would be a key selling point for any business marketing recycled textiles, but proving that will be tricky. Because there’s so little accountability data in the fashion industry, there’s no generally accepted baseline from which to measure.
“What we really need to see from these companies is reporting,” said Maxine Bédat, founder of New Standard Institute, which publishes sustainability resources for designers. “We need to know how great this innovation is in terms of greenhouse gas emission figures, and so far we’re not getting that.”
Circ is focused on growth. Majeranowski and Hartman describe a “chicken and egg situation” in which nobody wants to collect and sort apparel waste until they have a buyer for it. “Our solution right now is we need to scale for that all to make sense,” Majeranowski said.
Things are moving fast. “We joke now that we were like, is recycling a T-shirt a thing?” he said. Now they’re sure. “It’s a thing.”
Source: www.scmp.com (5 Jun 2021)
7、Adidas invests in Spinnova
Adidas is continuing its quest to go green. The German sportswear retailer has invested in Finland’s Spinnova, a company that makes textile fiber out of wood or agricultural waste. The news was reported by Reuters.
Adidas has subscribed to 3.65 million worth of shares in the company’s IPO, bringing Spinnova’s total investment to 58 million euros. Spinnova is working on opening its first commercial factory in Finland with wood raw material supplier Suzano.
A 500 million euro sustainability bond Adidas issued last September was five times oversubscribed, with proceeds earmarked for investing in renewable energy production and projects to promote recycled materials. This isn’t the first Finnish company Adidas has partnered with to go sustainable. Adidas is also working with Finnish start-up, Infinite Fiber, to develop a process to transform used clothes into cotton-like material.
Source: fashionunited.uk (10 Jun 2021)
8、Fung Business Intelligence: Dual Circulation Series Issue 6
Issue 6: Hainan Free Trade Port and its Implications for the Greater Bay Area
Click here to read the full report.
Source: Fung Business Intelligence (8 Jun 2021)