#Index 2014

2014-04-03

Nonwoven production exceeded 2 million tonnes in 2013 in Greater Europe

Fibre production at Trevira (c) 2014 Trevira

EDANA disclosed the preliminary European annual statistics for 2013. This release offers a comprehensive picture of the Nonwovens industry in Greater Europe, information which offers significant value a few days before the opening of INDEX™ 14, the world’s largest nonwovens exhibition.

According to figures collected and compiled by the EDANA secretariat, production of nonwovens in Europe grew by around 1.9% in 2013 to reach 2,037,400 tonnes. This compares with 1,998,900 tonnes in 2012 when the annual growth was 1.5%. Despite these two low growth years, the average growth rate since 2009 has been nearly 5.2%.

Obviously, a more in-depth analysis will be necessary to draw any definitive conclusion, as diverging trends have been observed in different European countries, and between the various production processes of nonwovens.

Jacques Prigneaux, EDANA’s Market Analysis and Economic Affairs Director, stated “Growth in the Wetlaid nonwovens has been substantial this year, but it is actually the Hydroentanglement process that has recorded the highest apparent growth of more 5.7%. However, other bonding processes within the Drylaid technologies (thermally, chemically bonded and needled punched), and also Spunmelt nonwovens witnessed low growth rates in 2013. Airlaid production, compared to its performance of 2012, recorded a higher growth, at 3%.”

The main end-use for nonwovens remains the hygiene market with a 32% share of deliveries, amounting to 645,700 tonnes, which has grown by 1.9% in 2013. The most significant growth areas for nonwovens in 2013 were in medical (+14.0%) and all types of filtration applications (+11.5 %), followed by all wipes together (+7.4%), in which the specific evolution of personal care wipes (+12.4%) must be underlined.

On the contrary, major declines were noticed in interlinings, coating substrates and artificial leather markets. Additionally, several important durable sectors in terms of volumes sold, such as in construction markets or agriculture, showed limited (and sometimes negative) growth.

Nevertheless, sales to the Automotive interiors market continued to increase (+4.1% in 2013). This trend confirms the importance of the Automotive sector for the European nonwovens industry, which will be highlighted during INDEX™ 14 (with a special workshop to be held from 1.30pm on Tuesday 8th April).

Only EDANA members receive the full report, as part of one of their most valued membership benefits, and will soon get their complimentary copy of the report “2013 European Nonwovens Production and Deliveries”. EDANA nonwoven producers member companies will receive detailed data, in recognition of their participation.

"Thanks to a convergence of efforts of the participating companies and of the EDANA staff in the last few years, these statistics are available earlier than ever, making these ever more relevant for planning and benchmarking purposes within member companies" said Jacques.

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EDANA would like to remind its members and industry stakeholders of the legal requirement to comply with the EU rules on customs classification when importing nonwovens from third countries outside the EU. In this regard, it was recently discovered that there appears to be a high level of customs misclassification occurring in our industry. This could have dangerous and costly consequences for importers.

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