Home / News / Nonwoven fabric production in Asia

Nonwoven fabric production in Asia

06 Nov '12

3 min read

Asia will account for over half of global nonwoven fabric production by 2020, according to a report in the latest issue of Technical Textile Markets from the business information company Textiles Intelligence.

Between 2001 and 2011 production more or less trebled. As a result, Asia accounted for over 40% of global nonwoven fabric production in 2011.

In 2011 alone, nonwoven fabric production in Asia increased by 7.4% to 3.1 million tons after rising by 10.0% in 2010 and 13.1% 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 and, in turn, resulting in an increase in nonwovens usage.

Among the major nonwoven fabric producing countries in Asia, China accounted for about two-thirds, or 2.1 million tons, of total Asian production in 2011 making it the largest producing country by far.

Furthermore, its share was up sharply compared with 2001, reflecting much faster growth in Chinese production between 2001 and 2011 than elsewhere in Asia. Indeed, output in China increased almost five-fold over this ten-year 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% share.

However, the fastest growing category of nonwoven fabrics was that of spunlaced nonwoven fabrics with an average increase of 20.0% per annum between 2008 and 2011 and a rise of 21.8% 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's 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, as well as using higher quality man-made fibres and functional fibres.

Textiles Intelligence