Investment in nonwoven materials designed to increase production of personal protection equipment (PPE) like face masks and surgical gown—as well as lines to convert these items — has led to an unprecedented expansion in global capacity, not just for nonwovens but for PPE.

While the surge in new investments has slowed down, a bit, in recent weeks, new lines have been announced in areas like Australia and Turkey, adding to investments in more traditional nonwoven hotspots like the U.S., Brazil, China and Western Europe.

These far reaching investments likely follow government directives that these types of materials be made locally to avoid countries stockpiling or hoarding materials in the time of crisis.

In April, at the peak of his state’s Coronavirus crisis, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would pay a premium to companies who could quickly pivot to make PPE. He also partnered with other states in the Northeast U.S. to create regional PPE manufacturing hubs that would exclusively serve local markets. Unsurprisingly, investment in U.S. meltblown lines has been stronger than ever.

These efforts are being made in the hopes that certain markets won’t face the same shortages in PPE seen this Spring in the U.S and Europe as these areas battled the Coronavirus. During the last two or three decades the majority of meltblown—a key ingredient in PPE—as well as PPE converting had moved out of the U.S. and into Asia. This created a supply chain that was too fragile to serve an unprecedented spike in demand for masks and gowns, and in the early days of the pandemic price gauging—as despicable as it sounds—was prevalent.

A few months later, new operations making nonwovens and converting them into PPE are being built around the world. The world’s largest maker of nonwovens, Berry Global, has added nine new meltblown lines as well as large mask-making operation to its output. Other nonwovens leaders have joined suit including those with medical expertise like DuPont, Ahlstrom-Munksjö and Jacob Holm (Sontara) as well as others with solid filtration backgrounds like Lydall, Hollingworth & Vose and Sandler.

Suddenly, it seems everyone is making meltblown. Now we will wait to see if it will be enough…or conversely, will it be too much? Hopefully, a vaccine will be developed and the needs for masks won’t be so steep. Then, what will we do with all this meltblown?

As always, we appreciate your comments.


Karen McIntyre
Editor
[email protected]