The Fiber Year 2007/08
A World Survey on Textile and Nonwovens Industry
The world fiber market has enjoyed growth in cotton, cellulosics, polyesters and smallscale fiber types like spandex, aramid and carbon fibers. Established fibers like polyamide, polypropylene and acrylic were down in volumes. While the usage of cotton, wool and silk increased by 1.2% to 28.5 million tonnes, manmade fibers rose by 8.0% to 44.1 million tonnes. The third section with kapok, ramie, flax, hemp, jute, sisal and coir is anticipated to have stagnated at 5.8 million tonnes.
On a world basis, fiber demand of cotton, wool, silk and manmade fiber has increased by 5.2% to 72.6 million tonnes, clearly above the average annual long-term growth rate of 3.4% (1980-2007).
The global yarn production is shown below with a further increasing share of filament yarns.
The installed spinning capacity of short staple spindles in major markets is summarized below:
The cellulosic fiber market again showed a stronger growth rate than synthetic fibers. While cellulosic fibers rose 9.0% to 3.7 million tonnes, synthetic fibers managed to grow 7.9% to 40.4 million tonnes. The favourable development in cellulosics was predominantly linked to viscose staple fibers. The growth in the synthetic fiber segment was mainly driven by polyester fibers while established polymers like polyamide, polypropylene and acrylics declined.
The manmade fiber spinning business has further declined in Europe, Japan and the United States. The Asian output of 34 million tonnes corresponds to a 77% market share, of which two thirds are being manufactured in PR China. The Chinese industry succeeded in lifting output by 17.4% to 22.7 million tonnes, equal to the world manmade fiber production volume in 1994 – deeply symbolic, as it was the year before the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing came into effect to provide developing nations a better access to indus trialized countries during a ten-year phasing out period of quotas.
The chart below shows the performance of manmade fibers by end-use. Carpet yarns suffered from a downturn due to the U.S. subprime crisis and increasing competition from hard surface floorcovering.
Last year’s output of nonwovens and unspun end-uses has continued to increase by 7% to 7.1 million tonnes. The majority of almost 6 million tonnes is nonwoven-based while the remaining portion comes from filling material for sleeping bags, anoraks, pillows, mattresses and insulating material in the auto motive industry as well as padding material for reinforced building structures. The manufacturing activity has been almost balanced between Asia, the Americas and Europe. Dominating subjects apart from growing consumption along most applications were the addition of new capacity and restructuring measures around the world.
Carded nonwovens still take the quantitative lead in the web forming process, although this technology has been continuously losing market shares. Last year’s output has grown by 5% to about 2.4 million tonnes.
The spunlaid market, as a consequence of persistent strong investments, has produced nearly 2.4 million tonnes with spunbond – mainly polypropylene and polyester – and SMS as the most important technologies. This output level refers to a 7% growth over 2006.
The demand for airlaid nonwovens mainly used in wipes, hygiene products and absorber pads for the food industry was solid, amounting to about 480,000 tonnes in 2007. Although the industry has suffered from undamped capacity additions in the early 2000s, it has currently enjoyed a growth in profitability as well. Investments in the highly concentrated segment of wetlaids were less. The output just marginally in creased to about 230,000 tonnes in 2007.
Previous year’s performance has confirmed the long-term trend of further shifting manufacturing to Asia, in particular to PR China. The share of Asian manmade fiber production has advanced to 77.5%, up 3.6 million tonnes in 2007. An impressive 11.7% boost of the global polyester production to 30.7 million tonnes has sustainably proven the fiber’s ultralarge standing, now accounting for 70% of the global manmade fiber market.
The charming aspect of textiles is its sustainable growth that is forecast to pick up dynamic because of income gains mainly in PR China and India. For the period until 2020, an additional demand of 30 million tonnes of fibers and yarns is forecast, raising the annual per capita consumption from 10.9 kg to 13.5 kg by 2020. The manufacturing contribution from Western Europe and the United States will continue to be subject to changes in favor of sophisticated and innovative solutions. This strategy means serving small-size markets with ambitious requirements providing above-average margins.
Prosperous expectations are assigned to cotton, thanks to increasing GM cotton planting, polyester and cellulosics. A future without manmade fibers is unimaginable to meet consumers’ demand. Poly ester will continue to dominate due to its favourable cost/benefit ratio, further spinning expansions and an ongoing broadening of the raw material base in Asia and the Middle East. Cellulosics, solely staple fibers, will go on with growth rates due to increased use in nonwovens and textile applications. Meanwhile, polyamide and acrylic fibers are anticipated to be subject to further relocations and mergers. Small niche markets like aramid and carbon fibers will continue its fastpaced growth.
Dominating topics continue to be imbalanced trade flows, compliance with social regulations and labor laws, smuggling of ready-made garments and counterfeited clothing. This may increasingly fuel trade tensions. Although an unrestricted evolvement of the market forces will eventually increase economic welfare the most, it is indispensable to stick to globally acknowledged rules of trade practice and intellectual property rights. Otherwise, trade frictions and punitive tariff duty may come into operation.
Will the current trend of globalization in clothing manufacturing continue? The increasing importance to save resources and to protect the environment might lead to a rethinking towards “localization”, a thought already raised by Professor Pietra Rivoli in last year’s issue. Taking into consideration the carbon footprint of today’s clothing production with raw materials and ready-made garments being shipped halfway around the world, this actual system of international division of labor does not appear to be the way to success for environmentally sound efforts. In contrast, “green” clothing requires a change in the retailers’ sourcing, distribution and marketing strategy that would lead to a more balanced industry’s structure. The year 2008 will show what priorities will remain for the above mentioned issues while a lot of textile producers will face heavy economical pressure.
Finally, global investments according to market needs are essential. In fact, a short-term increase of market shares appears to be tempting to a manufacturer, but in the longrun it will solely lead to de pressed margins and to cut-throat competition. Complying with those aspects in line with a company’s spirit and its management’s leadership to make changes happen, will result in sustainable success for responsible manufacturers. This seems to be an essential accomplishment for a further changing tex tile scenario. The transition period is anything but over, just lost a little momentum. Mergers and ac quisitions, closures and relocation of manufacturing operations will continue. Only today’s strongest companies, steadily enriching its scope of supply and international presence, will be in the position to lead tomorrow’s way. Industrial groups winning recognition in this respect are Indorama, Lenzing, Performance Fibers, Reliance and Toray to mention a few majors of the manmade fiber industry.
The Fiber Year 2007/08 |