Interview with Wolfgang Plasser

It altogether depends on which survey you are looking into. In rough figures 100-105 million tonnes of fibres are used in the textiles and the nonwovens markets, out of which about two-thjird is synthetics, One-fourth is cotton, and the rest is cellulosic and other natural fibres. From application perspective 90 percent of fibres are used in textile and 10 percent in nonwovens. Lenzing's volumes are 70 percent in textile and 30 percent in nonwovens. As a consequence, Lenzing's market share in nonwovens is higher than in textiles.

Veocel is a new brand from Lenzing Group for all nonwoven applications. Like mentioned above the US, Europe, Japan, and China are our major markets. The nonwovens business is very different from the textile one. If you buy a wipe or a sheet mask in China, it is highly possible it is made in China.

We think the 70-30 balance is a healthy one for Lenzing now. Both the industries (textiles & nonwovens) have different cycles. In general, the textile industry is more volatile where nonwovens are more stable. When you go deep into trading patterns, sometimes you see monthly or even weekly offers and orders in the textile field. Where as in the nonwovens field we usually go for quarterly contracts. For some products in the hygiene and the technical textile sectors in developed markets like Japan, we also have yearly contracts. This makes a big difference.

Several different market surveys tell us, from the 10 million tonnes for nonwovens we spoke of earlier, 50 percent are durable nonwovens and 50 percent are disposable nonwoven products. Durable nonwovens include all items for technical applications such as filtration while disposables include products for hygiene and wipes applications. We at Lenzing, are mostly involved in the disposable nonwovens industry. Since our products are 100 percent biodegradable, which is the opposite of durable nonwovens we are only in the disposable nonwoven segment. We cannot offer too much claims in the durable part.

There are clear regulations concerning this in the US and the EU at least. You need to pass a series of seven tests to reach flushability level and to be able to claim that your product is flushable. These groups of tests were launch by INDA and EDANA together in the US and Europe under what is referred to as - GD4. This gives a guideline to players in the flushable nonwovens market. The application requires to meet two targets. One is to be able to do the cleaning job and the other is to disintegrate completely while flushed without blocking the sewage systems. This was a tricky thing and took us a while to develop such a product. The fibres used here, also called shortcuts, are much shorter than the usual. The usual fibres are 40 mm long while shortcuts are 10 mm or shorter. According to the GD4 guideline flushable nonwovens require to use 100 per cent biodegradable fibres. (HO)