Asia will account for over half of global nonwoven fabric production by 2020, according to a report from Textiles Intelligence. Between 2001 and 2011, production more or less trebled. As a result, Asia accounted for over 40 per cent of global nonwoven fabric production in 2011. During the year, nonwoven fabric production in Asia increased by 7.4 per cent to 3.1 million tons after rising by 10 per cent in 2010 and 13.1 per cent in 2009.
These strong growth rates reflect rising usage of nonwovens in Asia as countries in the region continue to industrialise. Furthermore, developments and innovations in the field of nonwovens are leading to the opening up of new applications for nonwovens.
Among the major nonwoven fabric producing countries in Asia, China accounted for about two-thirds, or 2.1 million tons, of total production in 2011 in the region and thus emerged the largest producing country by far. Furthermore, its share was up sharply compared with 2001, reflecting much faster growth in Chinese production during the 10-year period than elsewhere in Asia. Indeed, output in China increased almost five-fold over the period from just 417,000 tons at the start.
The most important category of nonwoven fabrics produced in Asia in terms of production process in 2011 was, by far, that of spunbonded and meltblown nonwoven fabrics with a 44.2 per cent share. However, the fastest growing category of nonwoven fabrics was that of spunlaced nonwoven fabrics with an average increase of 20 per cent per annum between 2008 and 2011 and a rise of 21.8 per cent in 2011 alone.
Many analysts have predicted unlimited growth in the use of nonwoven materials in Asia in the coming years in several end use markets, including medical and healthcare, hygiene, filtration, agriculture and geotextiles, among others. Furthermore, China and India, which together account for over a third of the world population, are set to become the largest potential markets for such products.
Although economic growth in Asia has been revised downwards recently, it is still expected to be much faster than in Western economies. Moreover, sales of nonwoven products in Asia are expected to grow at an even faster pace as strong economic growth and rising incomes per head in the region have resulted in a rapid increase in the use of nonwovens products.
However, if Asia’s nonwoven fabric producers are to fulfil their potential, they will have to invest in the most advanced technology and production equipment available and to use higher quality man-made fibres and functional fibres.