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John R. Starr, Inc., a management consulting firm that has specialized in the nonwoven products, hygiene absorbent products and related fields, worldwide, for nearly 40 years, will publish in September 2010 a new report which provides comprehensive global and regional market information on spunbonded polypropylene manufacturing costs and capacities through 2014.

The report provides detailed information on capacity by producer, country, line and technology and beam configuration and compares regional and global supply to demand.The report is of value to companies at all levels of the spunbonded polypropylene value chain to allow them to enhance their understanding of capacities, comparative producer costs and regional and global supply/demand.

Significant changes have occurred in this largest of all nonwoven technologies since 2009. Most important have been global acquisitions and joint ventures and a capacity expansion boom in both mono and bi component filament extrusion spurred on by new investment in wide width, six beam high capacity technology. Hygiene demand continues to dominate consumption in this technology segment and has been resilient throughout the economic downturn, particularly for nonwovens made on the most modern technology platforms. Some intermittent shortages have occurred.

Several other major factors continue to influence producer profitability around the world, including shifting raw materials costs, supply/demand imbalances, increasing use of modern, low-cost technology, emergence of new global and regional producers, shifts in merchant market versus captive demand, producer consolidation and restructuring.Many spunbonded polypropylene producers struggle with profitability, while others are performing well.In some regions, capacity rationalization has occurred as new technology is commissioned.Modern, high output lines have been, and will continue to be, installed which will take share from older, less productive units placing increased pressure on existing producers operating older technology to remain cost-competitive.

The new John R. Starr, Inc. study provides significant new findings on the following topics: perspective on regional and global capacity and demand development from 2003 to 2010 and an updated forecast for 2014;estimates of exports by region and their impact on regional capacity utilization and capacity planning; enhanced analysis of regional capacity capable of supplying modern hygiene end uses by individual machine and in total by producer and region as compared to regional demand; and cost-of-manufacture estimates for leading regional low cost producers using the latest generation technology based on estimates of third quarter 2010 polypropylene costs.