The Word's First Nylon 6,6 Integrated Supply Chain

The outbreak of the COVID-19 has brought huge impact to the world, and also caused chaos in supply chain and economic and industrial development in various countries. Fortunately, the Far Eastern Textile system was deployed in advance as early as 2018. Five enterprises, Far Eastern Fibertech (FEFC), Far Eastern Textile Industries (Shanghai) (FEIS), Far Eastern Dyeing & finishing (Suzhou) (FEDZ), Far Eastern Apparel (Suzhou) (FEAS) and Far Eastern Apparel (Vietnam) (FEAV), jointly built the world's first nylon 6,6 complete supply chain. Successfully solidify the leading position of the group in the textile industry.

Integration opportunity driven by sports trend

In recent years, there has been a global trend of sports and leisure clothing, with strong sales momentum. Nylon 6,6 (N6,6) high elastic fabric with light weight and exquisite hand feel has make it a hot product. Different from ordinary nylon products, the production process of N6,6 fiber has strict requirements on raw materials, technology, process and management. It is a high-value differentiated product with high industrial entry threshold. Therefore, there are only a few suppliers in the market. In the past, in the Far Eastern Textile system, only FEFC produced N6,6 precursor, which was supplied to Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Northeast Asia filament processing factories, cloth factories, and the downstream of ready-made clothes.

In view of the rapid expansion of sports and leisure clothing market and the high added value of processed filament, high elastic cloth, yoga clothes and other products in the middle and downstream, it is urgent to establish a high-quality and fast new supply chain. Therefore, Far Eastern Textile system integrates FEFC of upstream which produces nylon 6,6 precursor, and FEIS, which produces processed filament in the middle reaches FEDZ, which produces high elastic knitted fabrics, and FEAS and FEAV, which make yoga clothes downstream, totaling five enterprises, including production, technology and business colleagues to form a project team from Taiwan, mainland China to Vietnam to build up the world's only nylon 6,6 complete supply chain and seize the growth opportunity.

Work together to build competitive advantage

The Group is every experienced in vertical integration upon and supply of world-class brands in the polyester field for many years, the project team operates smoothly in no time.

First of all, representatives of 5 companies approached the brand side to discuss cooperation strategies, and issues related to yarn, cloth, garment development, quality, etc. After understanding the relevant needs, FEFC sent personnel to station at FEIS to provide suggestions of quality control, dyeing technology, production and delivery management for nylon 6,6 precursor and processed filament to accelerate the development process. On the other hand, the technicians of FEIS also stationed in FEDZ to provide technical suggestions for the development and production of skin friendly and soft fabrics, while FEDZ in addition to adding high knitting machines and dyeing and finishing equipment to expand the production capacity of N6,6 knitted fabrics, it also provided feedback and continuously improve the production quality of upstream processed filament. Finally, FEAS and FEAV factories relay to complete the design and production of apparel, and regularly review the quality and efficiency.

Each connection and integration of various production lines are closely linked, and various challenges must be overcome in the process. Due to the high active property of nylon 6,6 products, which are vulnerable to deterioration caused by ultraviolet light, high temperature and metal friction, the production difficulty is higher than that of other chemical fiber products. In addition, high-end brand sportswear requires exquisite hand feel, wear resistance, high elasticity and dimensional stability. It is necessary to weave nylon 6,6 yarns with high fine deniers together with elastic fibers. Therefore, the selection of process and equipment is critical. Therefore, FEFC selected nylon 6,6 chips from world-famous suppliers to produce high-quality precursor; Through strict market research and investigation, FEIS has also selected the most appropriate twisting machine, established a constant temperature and humidity production workshop, set the process and inspection SOP, strictly controlled the production and storage environmental conditions, and successfully maintained the stability of the quality of nylon 6,6 processed filament.

        However, the challenge is not over. From the fourth quarter of 2020, due to the global climate, shipping, industrial safety events and other force majeure factors, the global supply of nylon 6,6 chips is short. Fortunately, FEFC operates properly to ensure the full supply of raw materials. It not only stably supplies nylon 6,6 precursor to FEIS, but also continues to develop new products, Give priority to meeting the needs of customers within the Group and finally get through the difficulties successfully. In addition, members of the project team also held regular R & D discussions at FEDZ, repeatedly broke through key technical points, and successfully improved the yarn yield of FEIS to 93%, which is far higher than the average value of 85% in the same industry; FEDZ breaks through the color matching quality of the original dope dye color yarn, reduces a large amount of water consumption for dyeing and finishing, and establishes a competitive advantage.
 

Share common prosperity and welcome multiple growth

In this project, although the personnel of brand customer, spinning mills, cloth mills, and garment factories are located in Vancouver, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Suzhou and Vietnam, but through the active communication of team members, the resources and core technologies of the five companies were quickly integrated, and their respective SOPs such as raw material control, production, quality control, shipment, etc. were revised. 
Finally, in just one year, they successfully established a cooperation model from upstream nylon 6,6 filament precursor, processed yarn, to midstream weaving and dyeing and downstream garments, becoming the only supplier in the industry to provide a vertically integrated supply chain of nylon 6,6. Since then, it has been recognized by the world's top yoga brand which has placed more orders even under the impact of the epidemic in 2020. The revenue had grown significantly. In the future, the team will continue to cooperate with the brand customers to develop new series of fabrics and garments using nylon 6,6 microfiber, fluorine-free water repellent yarn, original drawing yarn, recycled yarn, super dull yarn and other materials. At the same time, it will also actively develop more nylon 6,6 customers to diversify the risks.

It is worth mentioning that this project has not only achieved outstanding results for the Group, but also the five participating companies have also achieved benefits. Among them, FEFC has increased the utility rate of nylon 6,6 precusor, and its operating performance has reached a record high; FEIS has also strengthened its competitiveness and performance due to the development of nylon 6,6 processed filament product lines; In addition, nylon 6,6 high-elasticity knitted fabric has also become the main product and growth momentum of FEDZ, helping the company to successfully transform and make a significant leap in revenue and profit; For the two companies of FEAS/FEAV, it not only improved operational performance, but also helped improve the level of garment manufacturing technology and increase corporate value.

Due to the rapid growth of market demand, in order to undertake greater growth momentum, the team is currently speeding up, replicating the successful experience of FEAV, and establishing the second vertically integrated supply chain of nylon 6,6. Among them, the processing filament production line will start production in the first quarter of 2022, and the weaving and dyeing production line will soon pass the brand certification;
On the other hand, FEFC is expanding the production capacity of precursor, and the FEAV factory has also officially taken orders. Under the joint efforts of various companies, the vertically integrated nylon 6,6 production line of Far East Textile System will become the most stable supplier of the brand, and achieve a peak performance in 2022!