Foreword |
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INDA and EDANA are pleased to publish this third edition of the Worldwide Outlook for the Nonwoven Industry. It is incredible to believe this multi-billion dollar industry had its start only about 50 years ago. Up until the last decade or so, much of the world’s nonwovens industry was based in the areas where the technologies were conceived and developed, which were the U.S., Europe and Japan. Large companies, such as Freudenberg, Dan-Web, Kimberly-Clark, DuPont, Johnson & Johnson’s Chicopee operation and Asahi and numerous other companies invented nonwoven technologies and nurtured them to commercial scale. The result was a whole new range of technical materials that ultimately replaced a number of traditional textiles and helped create new product categories . . .the most obvious: disposable diaper and disposable wipes, particularly baby wipes. These pioneering companies’ large-scale production facilities were capital intensive and it was far too risky for smaller companies to set up production. Thus, for many years the nonwoven industry was very much an “exclusive club” of large producers with proprietary technologies. Certainly this was the case with the spunlaid, wetlaid, airlaid pulp and spunlaced technologies. But as the markets and industry developed, machinery builders, such as Reifenhauser, Nordson Corporation (formerly J&M Laboratories), STP Impianti, Fleissner and Rieter Perfojet (to name only a few), began to produce “turn-key” production lines capable of making high-quality nonwoven materials at competitive costs. This resulted in continued strong growth in the original three regions of the U.S., Europe and Japan as new end-markets for nonwoven fabrics developed with the increased fabric supply from new nonwoven producers. At the same time, the industry began to expand globally with many new local producers. Spunbonded polypropylene, for example, now has close to 500 production installations located in 41 countries. The nonwoven industry is truly global. The mission of both INDA & EDANA, as allies in a strategic partnership, is to promote the growth and profitability of the nonwovens industry. It is also our role to serve the worldwide interests of our many members and consumers of the industries’ products. To that end, we are publishing this report on the worldwide industry to provide a benchmark of where the industry was at the beginning of the 21st century and its outlook for growth by geographic region and nonwoven forming and bonding technologies. As defined in this report, from INDA’s and EDANA’s point of view, the worldwide nonwovens industry’s prospects are excellent and it remains an exciting industry in which to be involved. Please feel free to contact us on any aspects of this report. You may reach Ian Butler, per: email: ibutler@inda.org, Phone: +919-233-1210, ext. 113, Jacques Prigneaux, per email: Jacques.prigneaux@edana.org, Phone: +32-2-740-1818 Ian Butler, Director of Market Research & Statistics, INDA |
Phone
(919) 233-1210 Fax (919) 233-1282