Taking place November 10-11, EDANA’s Turkish Nonwovens Symposium delivered on its promise to gather the whole nonwovens supply chain from Turkey and its key trading partners in EMEA, around a range of topics and issues from the general economic background and trade and regulatory context, to the nonwoven markets, from their raw materials to the machinery and processes. The symposium brought together 250 participants and 30 exhibitors representing 121 companies and 24 countries.
 
The symposium, the second of its kind to be held in Istanbul, symbol of cultural diversity and sitting at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, “reinforced trading links in nonwovens between regions which need each other, thereby supporting the development of new markets for our industry’s products that bring value and benefits to society in a variety of applications from personal to healthcare and filtration to transportation and construction,” says Pierre Wiertz, general manager of EDANA.
 
“EDANA is proud of its 15 Turkish member companies, and will continue to support them as part of our mission in favor of the sustainable growth of the whole supply chain of the nonwovens industry primarily in EMEA,” commented Jacques Prigneaux, market analysis and economic affairs director at EDANA, in his presentation, showing that the production of nonwovens in Turkey grew by 20.3% between 2009 and 2014 to reach 265,000 tons, representing 12% of the Greater European and nearly 3% of the global output.
 
The session on the hygiene markets put Sub-Saharan Africa in the spotlight as a huge potential market, but as Mr. Michel Verstraeten from Henkel noted “in Africa nothing is impossible but everything is difficult.”  Difficult but not impossible, Africa shows an ongoing trend of attracting investments in vast sectors of the economy.
 
Presentations from Arzu Karatekin, Hayat Kimay and Selda Akbasli of H.B. Fuller gave a clear picture of the players on the Turkish market and the latest technological developments.
 
Durable nonwovens were an integral part of the agenda of the conference, too, from the automotive sector to nonwovens as filter media.
 
The session on machinery and processes sparked many questions from the audience, reflecting the importance of technology in producing nonwovens for niche and mainstream markets.
 
“The quality of the presentations, along with the organization, was outstanding.  The breaks enabled great networking opportunities, meeting old friends and, more importantly, making new contacts,” comments Mike Bird, applications development manager – specialties, IMERYS Carbonates, U.K.