By Seshadri Ramkumar, Texas Tech University, USA
Nonwovens is a growing segment of the textile industry. The Brussels-based EDANA has reported that nonwovens based on production volume grew at 5.7 per cent in 2011.
According to EDANA, sectors such as baby diapers, wipes, geotextiles, automotive textiles and agrotextiles recorded good output. In spite of economic slowdown in Europe, the industry has registered reasonable growth.
In a press release, Mr. Jacques Prigneaux, EDANA’s Market Analysis and Economic Affairs Director, stated that spunmelt production has recorded successive growth of more than nine per cent in 2010 and 2011.
According to EDANA, China is EU’s important supplier and EU-27 was a net exporter of nonwovens. India is also registering a steady growth in nonwovens. Recently, Mr. Thayumanavan, General Manager – Polypropylene Development of Reliance Industries Ltd., estimated India’s installed spunlaid capacity to be 170,000 tons. Consumption is estimated to be 140,000 tons. The growth in the past six years has been phenomenal and has recorded approximately 50 per cent CAGR.
According to Thayumanavan, China’s polypropylene nonwovens capacity is over one million tons. Mr. C.K. Wong, Chairman and CEO of Hong Kong-based U.S. Pacific Nonwovens Industry, who has been a frequent visitor to India in the past few years, says 90 per cent of India’s spunmelt production is spunbond fabrics and the country has tremendous scope to grow in the nonwovens and technical textiles sector.
Almost 10 per cent of India’s spunbond production goes into medical and hygiene products, and the majority share is taken up by the packaging sector, adds Mr. Thayumanavan.