Interview with Daniel Dayan

Fiberweb has several unique technologies, such as Reemay which is a spunbond polyester fabric and Typar which is a very strong polypropylene fabric. Terram was one of the first spunbond geotextiles which is still being developed today. S-Tex is very soft polypropylene spunbond with relatively high elongation which makes it very appropriate for several important personal hygiene applications. We use Reemay products and a wide range of carded products in filtration, including one of the first filtration fabrics that complies with the European standard EN779. Our unique polyethylene nonwovens are largely used in medicinal fabrics. So, I think all these are very good examples of unique technology which Fiberweb and its predecessor companies followed in the market over the last several decades and we even continue to innovate today. Our latest innovation in geotextiles is notable specifically for the railway industry. Our Hydrotex used in rails is very effective. It filters fine clay particles and has water control properties. So, we have a long history and heritage to provide leading and unique fabrics.

Yes, I think it has to be so. One needs technical as well as management experience. It is equally important to be able to hire and manage excellent finance people, engineering people, scientists and sales & commercial people. So, I think one’s management expertise has to be wide ranging. We are an engineering and technology based company so it’s hard to imagine not needing some level of expertise in engineering and manufacturing of chemicals and fibers business. I am a chemical engineer. I worked in a chemical industry for a considerable time. I have also worked in building products industry for a good time and also in electrical products industry before joining Fiberweb in 2005. My experience varies in a range of manufacturing industries of chemicals and factories processing electronic products. I have had a considerable experience in business management and business development.

I think it is well recognized that in some of the big industries the usage of nonwovens or technical textiles have created significant changes and one obvious example of it is, the increased use of disposable baby and adult diapers. These products are taken for granted in many parts of the world. The usage of such products has been possible with the development in technical textiles. In the automobiles area, a key use of technical textiles is for noise and heat insulation, energy control and they can be very helpful in reducing the energy consumption through reducing the weight of a vehicle. In buildings it is used for controlling the quantity of light entering inside. In geotextiles the usage of technical textiles allows construction to have a longer life with lesser impact on the environment. It has enormous impact on sanitation around the world. In medical area the use of technical textiles makes cost effective disposable garments possible, which has improved hygiene and reduced costs. This makes it accessible to more and more people. There are a lot of examples which are very important in various large industries.

Today of course that region is Asia. There are very big technical textile industries in Europe, North America and Asia. Because of population growth and economic growth Asia is becoming the most important arena today. But given that the added value per cubic metre for our products is relatively low, transporting large quantities of products is also not very economical so, over the time we would expect that it will follow what world population or wherever the market demands are. In general, over a very long time period, the industry will grow in all these regions. So, Asia is a very important region in terms of technology development and also North America. With different companies having different technical expertise more industries will be set up in various places. Some of our products are made in Europe and some in North America. But, over the time I expect Asia to be the largest producer.

I think nanotechnology is an interesting area, creating opportunities to develop new things. There is no question in technical textiles industry that the use of very fine fabrics can give some very interesting effects in areas like filtration. However, the definition of nano fibres is not yet completely clear and it is very hard to say whether they will be really cost effective. So, there is no doubt about growth in the usage and application of fine fibres. There is a lot of hype about ‘nano’ at the moment, but we will have to see what cost effective solutions are possible in this areas.

Areas we are particularly interested include in filtration i.e. of both liquid and air. Here I would like to quote an example of Reemay, our leading material used for filtration in pools and spa applications. We have a bunch of developments in the filtration area which I won’t be able to discuss in detail at this point. I think there are lots of areas where I understand that the application of filtration has expanded very well and then moving to unique technology application, it gives customer an advantage. Another area would be housing where we produce housewraps, which can be very cost effective to improve moisture control and energy efficiency of a residential house. This applies fabric and coatings technology intelligently with appropriate level of strength and protection from radiation of the sun. Another good example would be its application in rail, where we are applying filtration and geotextiles together to produce a new product called ‘HydroTex’ for use to support rail ballast in weak soil areas. Another example would be use of polyester fabric in the production of composites and providing more and more solutions and hi-tech applications such as in construction, where usage of our fabric can provide excellent exterior and additionally strengthen the construction. We can intelligently apply some of the technology asses that we have and provide our customers higher performance materials.

All of them. I think we are into a technology business and this is a relatively young industry particularly on the nonvowens side. Even on the wovens side there are lots of traditionally made products which need to improve particularly taping, lamination, making composites, surface treatments etc. I think there a number of areas for innovations in the technical textiles that needs to be improved. There are many opportunities for further improvement like reducing the environmental damage and increasing the benefit to the customers.

I think we can look at this in two ways. Firstly, I expect the industry to be growing at the rate of 5% to 7% in terms of volume. This has been the growth rate for quite some time and I expect this to continue on a global basis. The development of technical textiles around the globe depends on economic development in a region, population growth and other macro-economic factors. But, I expect over the globe the industry will continue to grow. The second aspect is about the price factor and it will continue to depend on technological development in a region. In a longer time, we will get better fabrics at lower costs and made with less impact on the environment. There will be more advanced fabric continuing to displace materials with better components like metals and composites using technical textiles.

We have a very small presence in Asian markets directly, we are currently present in a JV in Gujarat, India and we export materials to many Asian markets, notably China and Japan. We see that the business opportunities are rising in the Asian markets. I think that is a positive factor for our presence in Asian markets. Given that the source of the products for technical textiles has shifted to products that are made relatively close to the end user, there is a good opportunity. There is a demand for vast quantity of technical textiles around the world especially on the nonwovens side. So, we are exploring the growth opportunities and expansion in Asia and I would expect an upward movement in the growth of this area over the next couple of years.