The rate of nonwovens investment during the last six months has been unprecedented. Of course, much of this has centered around meltblown and materials destined to face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) applications, but investments targeting other nonwovens segments like hygiene and wipes continue to be announced practically daily.

In the past few weeks, Fibertex Personal Care announced it would add a spunbond line in Malaysia and expand it printing capabilities in the U.S. Toray and Union Industries are expanding their spunbond output in China and Italy, respectively. Lydall is adding meltblown capacity in France. Foss is adding a fourth needlepunch line targeting carpet applications in the U.S.. Also, a number of smaller companies and startups like Meltblo and Oceancash have announced significant investments.

These investments are just the latest in a string of investments globally that span most technologies for nonwovens and will surely offer converters and users of nonwovens more options when designing their products across many consumer categories. In fact, it is this flexibility and ability to react quickly that has made the nonwovens stronger than ever in 2020 as the industry rose to the challenge of battling a global pandemic.

Last month at EDANA’s virtual Outlook conference, Jacques Prigneaux, market analysis and economic affairs director at EDANA,  discussed the industry’s reaction to the Coronavirus epidemic. Noting that the nonwovens industry is used to  long-term, reasonably stable demand and established supply lines, he said he was  impressed by the speed in reacting to such an unforeseeable development by both industry and the authorities. “The rapid reaction by a number of producers in adapting lines and prioritizing mask production has been impressive,” he added. “In mid-April if you were looking for meltblown I would have said you won’t get any before the third quarter or even the fourth quarter. However, now all kinds of people are adding capacity.”

As this capacity comes onstream throughout the remainder of this year and into next, it surely won’t just mean there will be more nonwovens available for sale. The nonwovens coming off of these new lines promise to be more sophisticated than previous generations of materials meaning better products and potentially new applications.
The industry is getting bigger and nonwovens just keep getting better.


Karen Bitz McIntyre
Editor
[email protected]