Since the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, global trade activities have been severely impacted, but investment in the nonwoven materials market has maintained a good growth state, corporate investment confidence is strong, and nonwoven manufacturers around the world are actively relocating capacity and invest in new production lines. From the analysis, the direction of corporate investment is mainly concentrated in three aspects: medical and health, safety protection, and air cleaning.
The annual growth rate of medical nonwoven materials is expected to reach 10%
The latest round of investment boom in the global nonwovens industry is mainly to respond to the growing demand for medical protective fabrics during the new coronavirus epidemic. According to a recent study released by the authoritative forecasting agency Research Dive, the annual growth rate of medical nonwoven materials is expected to reach 10% from 2020 to 2026. This growth will be driven by current demand, but also by governments stockpiling these materials to deal with future health crises.
The Swiss Jacob Holm Group recently announced an increase in the production of personal protective equipment. The company will implement a new investment plan to expand nonwoven production capacity by 500 million square meters per year. The project started in June and will be completed in the third quarter of 2022. Company CEO Martin Mikkelsen said that advancing this project is the company’s response to the needs of global partners to increase production capacity, provide more sustainable substrate options, and continue to maintain its position as a leader in nonwoven innovation.
While the global health crisis has put a pause on nonwovens application markets such as construction, demand for masks and medical protective clothing is at an all-time high, prompting some companies to shift production center of gravity. Global construction materials specialist Johns Manville Group announced in May that it had converted its factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to produce disposable medical gowns. Souvik Nandi, technical director of nonwovens for engineered products of the company, said that the protective clothing produced this time can provide superior liquid barrier properties and better comfort compared with materials used in level 1 and level 2 medical clothing. resistance and suture strength.
Hollingsworth & Vose has also recently shifted its production focus from traditional medical, automotive and filtration markets to materials for non-surgical clothing. Jeff Crane, head of the company’s division, said H&V is already producing critical medical materials used in the fight against COVID-19, including filter media for N95 respirators, ventilator filter media and materials used in surgical masks.
DuPont launched the “TyvekTogether” program at the beginning of this year. The plan not only includes expanding Tyvek production capacity at the Richmond, Virginia, factory to ensure that the production of medical protective clothing increases to 15 million pieces per month, but also introduces a new Tyvek-specific fabric. According to John Richard, vice president and general manager of DuPont Safety Solutions, the new protective clothing-specific fabric optimizes material use by adjusting the drape and feel of the fabric and is available to new customers in good roll form.
Investment in spunlace nonwoven materials is becoming more high-end
With the existing spunlace nonwovens As the fabric market continues to grow and new uses are developed, spunlace technology continues to attract new players, meaning the competitive landscape is constantly changing. The growing market demand for spunlace nonwovens is largely related to the demand for wet wipes. Due to the improvement of living standards and awareness of self-hygiene protection, more and more consumers around the world have put forward more demands for wet wipes products.
“In this environment, innovation is crucial for growth, as are long-term relationships with customers and suppliers.” said Carolin Weber, sales director for hygiene and wipes at Sandler , “To achieve these goals and continue to help customers develop products, Sandler leverages the most advanced technology to innovate products.”
Aralar is the first company to introduce cellulose substrates into flushable wet towel. Although the application of cellulosic substrates is new to the spunlace nonwovens and even wipes market, Aralar’s long experience using this material in the flexible packaging industry has helped them adapt it to the wipes market. Javier Falcon, the company’s regional manager, said in an interview that the ongoing wave of public opinion and regulatory changes targeting plastics directly threaten the existing market. Only by gradually shifting towards sustainable substrates can the wipes industry survive and thrive. Aralar’s latest flushable material is the result of years of research and development. Continuously improving production technology, fiber combinations and expertise have made flushable wipes much more usable than they were a few years ago.
Gerald Alligros, marketing and communications project manager for spunlace equipment expert ANDRITZ, said that starting from traditional baby wipes, spunlace nonwovens are gaining ground in newly launched hygiene products. popularized and diversified applications. Therefore, many companies are investing in this technology. Among the latest projects ANDRITZ has received is a new spunlace production line delivered to BCNonwovens in Barcelona, Spain, which will be put into production in 2021.
Other hot areas for spunlace investment include China and India, where the market demand for wet wipes and the use of facial masks are increasing. China’s Nanliu Company recently announced investment plans in India. Another Indian manufacturer, Welspun, has also made great progress in spunlace technology in recent years.��Investment. “In a short period of time, we have created six spunlace nonwovens brands that represent 40% of our business and are tailored for a variety of applications including wipes, feminine hygiene, industrial, civil engineering and aerospace . We are increasing our spunlace nonwovens production capacity and will triple our production capacity by 2021,” said Pranay Sahu, head of strategic business at Welspun.
Although wet wipes are still the largest market for spunlace nonwovens, manufacturers have moved into markets such as hygiene and medical, hoping that diversified strategies can drive sales growth . Some manufacturers believe that more applications should be discovered besides wet wipes. For example, there are many opportunities in technology applications and in the hygiene products market. Producers can use different techniques to combine material properties to further enhance functionality.
Nonwoven materials for high-efficiency filtration are popular
For cleaning Demand for air and water drives global market demand for more efficient filtration media. The global market demand for cleaner air and water is rising, which is leading to an increase in demand not only for filters with nonwoven media, but also for media that can separate finer particles from air and drinking water The demand is also rising. These two factors make filtration one of the fastest growing application markets for nonwovens.
According to the Smithers report, filtration is the second largest end application market for durable nonwovens and the third largest market for nonwovens overall. Filtration media accounted for 9.9% of global nonwovens sales last year, and this market continues to grow at a high rate. For filter media manufacturers, the challenge is to develop a product that can remove higher particulate counts from the air without compromising mechanical efficiency, which results in increased costs for heating and cooling a home. “We see the filtration market continuing to grow,” said Scott Tennison, director of innovation at Kimberly-Clark Filtration. “A lot of it has to do with educating consumers about the importance of air quality in their homes. As consumers become more concerned about their health As people become more aware and understand how viruses and bacteria are spread, they will want the air to be as clean as possible.”
Because it sees filtration-related applications growing, the Ahlstrom-Munksjo Group continues to Investment in enhanced filter materials. Ahlstrom-Munksjo Group has recently completed the initial analysis and design phase of its ongoing project to enhance its manufacturing platform for high-performance filtration and energy storage applications. In order to meet growing customer demand, the company has now decided to proceed with the second phase of the project, which includes a significant expansion of its fiberglass media production capacity and a further increase in industrial filtration product production capacity. The second phase of the plan includes expanding the production capacity of industrial filtration products in Melmedy, Belgium; increasing the production capacity of fiberglass media at the Fabriano plant in Italy; establishing a new production line in Turin, Italy; revamping machinery in Binzhou, China to increase production capacity to serve Asian industries and Transport filtration market expands product range. Noora Blasi, the company’s marketing and communications manager, said Ahlstrom-Munksjo Group sees further growth opportunities in the industrial filtration products market. “The increasing demand for pure, pollution-free air and liquids in the industrial sector is a key growth factor. Specific segments supported by sustainable market drivers are our target markets,” she said.
Brian Little, president of nonwovens manufacturer Bondex, believes that as global demand continues to change, innovative technologies in the filtration industry are gradually maturing. “For too long, industrial filtration has been limited to limited material solutions, but with recent technological developments such as hydroentangled filter mats, we are seeing customers rethinking their approach to solving their filtration needs,” he said. In terms of product development, Bondex has increased production of multiple fiber types and filter mats over the past few months. Little said they are actively considering future investments to meet various customer needs in different markets.
Since the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, global trade activities have been severely impacted, but investment in the nonwoven materials market has maintained a good growth state, and corporate investment confidence is strong. Nonwovens manufacturers around the world are actively transferring production capacity and investing in new production lines. </p
