Global nonwoven per capita use reached 1 kg in 2011: EDANA
November 21, 2014 - Belgium
“Almost exactly as the earth's population reached 7 billion people in 2011, global nonwoven output reached 7 million metric tons, and thus the world annual average per capita consumption of nonwoven reached an impressive and unprecedented figure of 1 kg”, informs a top official of a Europe based nonwovens trade body.
In an exclusive chat with fibre2fashion, Pierre Wiertz, director at EDANA, an international association supporting nonwoven and related industries discusses the current scenario, statistics, the EDANA Outreach Program and other important aspects of the nonwoven industry.
In sharing statistics related to the global nonwovens sector, he adds, “In 2013, based on EDANA statistics and some estimates, global production of nonwoven almost reached 8 million metric tons. From a continental viewpoint, approximately 35 per cent of this total comes from Asia, about 25 per cent from Greater Europe and a little less than 20 per cent from America.”
To a query on since China has reached a per capita nonwovens consumption of over 1 kg, can it be considered a saturated market, he informs, “There are still huge opportunities for growth in both production and consumption of nonwoven in China as long as there are essential needs in hygiene, healthcare, mobility, infrastructure and water and air purification, beyond the current proportion of the country's population who can be classed as regular nonwoven goods' consumers.”
On global production growth rate of nonwovens outpacing that of many other industries since the beginning of 21st Century, he explains, “The growth rate of nonwovens sector for many years been 7 per cent or more, even if this has somewhat decreased in the last few years. This compares favourably with many manufacturing industries.
“As far as the textile industry in a broad sense is concerned, this makes nonwovens one of the fastest growing fibre consuming sectors, if not the fastest. However nonwoven are not just textiles, as they can be made of many other materials such as cellulose, carbon or mineral fibres than what conventional classifications consider to be 'textile fibres'. This is another good reason to consider nonwoven as industry in its own right.” (AR)
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