The annual report on “Nonwovens Production and Delivery in Europe for 2013” has been made available to all EDANA member companies as part of their membership benefit and service.
 
“For the first time ever, we have published this report before the end of May, making this valuable information available to our member companies when they need it for their business planning purposes,” says Jacques Prigneaux, director for Market Analysis and Economic Affairs at EDANA. “In addition, we know uninterrupted data, like our series produced since 1972, is highly valued by our members and regarded as a reliable resource for their business.”
 
In 2013, nonwovens production in Greater Europe (which includes Turkey and the CIS countries of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus) increased in volume by around 2% to reach 2.04 million ton. This compares with growth rates in the two previous years of 1.7% in 2012 and 6.2% in 2011, on a comparable basis. The same production in square metres grew faster (+2.9%) and reached the level of 59,833 million last year. The production in CIS countries and Turkey continued to grow, respectively by 4.8% and 12.9%.
 
The report made available to the more than 240 EDANA member companies answers questions such as:
–          how fast have spunmelt nonwovens sales grown, compared to staple-fibre based technologies?
–          was hydro-entanglement again the fastest growing bonding technology within drylaid nonwovens?
–          what are the leading end-uses in Greater Europe in 2013?
 
The EDANA nonwovens database and statistical methodology, which was established appoximately 40 years ago (and has been refined over the years using the latest IT features), is unique in its size – it is the largest of its kind in the world and is based on an exhaustive annual survey with direct input from nonwoven producers.
 
With all significant players from Greater Europe and a large number of companies participating already from the Middle East and Africa (whose data is currently not published), more than 100 major nonwoven producers are directly involved, representing more than 85% of the production in both regions. The remainder of the market is covered by qualified estimates for an equivalent number of generally much smaller producers.
 
This year, for the first time, details of these compiled results were made available to participants before INDEX14 in early April 2014. EDANA is grateful to responding companies for their cooperation in making this report unique by its exhaustive and consistent character.
 
“While it is always a challenge to collect, compile and deliver in final format such data within a reasonable time frame every year, we recognise the value to our member companies to deliver the data in a timely manner, and to keep the information it meaningful and sufficiently relevant to play a useful role as a benchmarking and planning tool for companies.  As a result, not only brought the collection and analysis in-house several years ago, but continue to commit significant resources towards this project every year, in order to deliver this valuable service to our members,” says Pierre Wiertz, EDANA General Manager.
 
EDANA’s leadership in this area is based on a multi-dimensional expert system with internal consistency checks, based on verified reports of the consumption of raw materials, production of roll goods by process, and deliveries both by process and end-uses. Other systems, relying on less frequent direct input, on nominal—published or estimated—capacities of installed nonwoven production lines and/or random telephone interviews, often result in much less accurate data.
 
“Our leadership in nonwoven market surveys, with a scope representing more than 30% of the world’s nonwoven production, gives EDANA both an advantage and responsibility for the future provision of global nonwovens statistics,” says Wiertz. “We will continue to work with our partner associations around the globe towards the objective of global harmonised data of a comparable scope and quality.”