Following an unprecedented rate of investment in meltblown nonwovens around the globe in 2020-2021 due to a need for face mask and respirator materials during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, this nonwovens market has returned to a point of normalcy. As requirements for face coverings in public places have dwindled, demand for these materials in this market have dropped. Today, as nonwovens manufacturers deal with a significant oversupply, they’re looking to applications like filtration, wipes, sorbents and other areas to use this excess supply.

“New meltblown investments were installed by multiple suppliers over the last 24 months across the globe,” says Matt Kocian, director, Product Management, Berry Global. “The new capacity, coupled with decreasing PPE use post-pandemic, has created a state of oversupply in the meltblown market. Global supply chain challenges shifted a preference to in-region supply. We have seen improvement in the cost and lead-time for ocean bound freight, but are still seeing a preference from our customers for in-region material supply with residual concerns of unpredictable events driving supply disruptions.”

According to provisional data from a forthcoming Smithers study—The Future of Meltblown Nonwovens to 2028—consumption of meltblown nonwovens will reach a projected 253,500 tons in 2023; equivalent to 4.0 billion square meters, with a value of $1.0 billion. This represents a return to normalcy following the Covid-driven surge. Projections for 2023-28 growth rates are 4.9% by tonnage, and 6.2% by value—only slightly above historic norms.

“After the Covid crisis drove increased expansion with significant additional capacity, the meltblown nonwovens market globally is significantly oversupplied,” says Phil Mango, nonwovens consultant, Smithers. “While North America is probably the least oversupplied, now that ocean freight has leveled off, imports from Asia are growing again.”

Nonwovens suppliers are also witnessing this trend. Serkan Gögüs, CEO of Mogul Nonwovens, has seen supply from Asia increase. In the last three years, supply of meltblown from China significantly reduced due to excessive freight costs and lack of containers. As the freight issue returns to normal, Mogul has seen a return of Chinese meltblown which Gögüs says will reduce capacity usage for North American and EU suppliers.

RadiciGroup has also witnessed traditional imports from the Far East coming back at very competitive prices. According to the company, this situation will discourage European companies to keep on manufacturing such devices. In fact, the company is aware that some customers have already discontinued lines.

Mango also reports many lines have closed globally during the past year, and more are running at relatively low rates.

According to Smithers, the demand globally for meltblown used in face masks is estimated at about 22% of the demand in 2020-21. Another slight drop in demand is expected in 2023, followed by more stable growth.

Outside of masks, globally, sorbents, filtration (liquid and air/gas), insulation (acoustical and thermal) and wipes are all projected to see good growth in meltblown nonwovens consumption, especially with excess supply and moderating prices, Mango says.

Looking ahead, Smithers projects that, barring another pandemic, meltblown consumption will return to near its historical annual growth rate (or slightly above) in the next five years.  “We also project that ‘onshoring’ of meltblown production will be short term and marginal in volume; Asia will re-assume its position as major global supplier within five years,” Mango concludes.

More Than Masks

With all the excess meltblown capacity added within the last three years, nonwovens producers are looking at application areas beyond masks.

Kimberly-Clark uses proprietary technology to produce meltblown. Its material is used in a variety of products, which includes wiping for disinfecting and cleaning multiple surfaces, filtration media and sorbents.

“Similar to many manufacturers, we experienced increased demand in wiping solutions and filtration for N95 respirators during the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Lori Shaffer, vice president of Global Nonwovens, Kimberly-Clark. “While Kimberly-Clark has seen face mask demand soften, we have a highly diverse portfolio of industries that we service. We continue to see strong demand in our existing markets while exploring new opportunities to grow even more in new ones.”

Currently, Kimberly-Clark sees strong growth in existing markets and is expanding into underserved and developing markets. Wiping solutions, filtration and sorbents continue to generate high demand and growth potential.

“We believe that the market may continue to tighten over the next year, however, we view meltblown as a technology that has significant growth potential,” says Shaffer.

During the pandemic, Berry Global invested in both new equipment and temporarily converted pilot lines to produce meltblown in support of the fight against Covid-19. “This has given us the flexibility to convert our pilot equipment back to support new innovation with our customers as demand has slowed,” says Kocian. “We continue to support critical, regional filtration applications with material produced on our dedicated meltblown investments in North America, Europe, Asia and South America.”

Berry is seeing opportunity for growth with its proprietary Meltex Meltblown technology, where it can deliver value to its customers with enhanced performance and quality. “With various bonding capabilities throughout our network, combining Meltex with other materials can deliver interesting composite solutions for challenging applications,” he says. 

Additionally, characteristics of meltblown provide an opportunity to expand into adjacent markets for filtration, wipes, automotive and industrial applications to deliver innovative solutions over traditional nonwovens, according to Kocian. Berry Global recently launched an innovative new industrial wipe in Europe, which combines recycled materials with a meltblown fabric for a unique, sustainable cleaning solution.

Mogul, which invested in its first meltblown line in 2000, added its fifth and sixth meltblown lines in 2021 to produce materials for N95 and higher efficiency masks as well as high efficiency filtration applications and other industrial applications. The company added its seventh meltblown line in Turkey last year, a 1.6 meter-wide Reicofil machine. The meltblown system is equipped with technology for electrostatic charging and supplies high-quality filter material that ensures a high degree of separation, low pressure loss and a high storage capacity. The plant brings an additional annual capacity of 550 tons for N95 material or 365 tons for N99 material to the market. In addition to PP, the new line is capable of running PBT, TPU and PLA polymers.

“Mogul’s first four lines were mainly targeting the spill control market and producing medium efficiency filter media that’s not really good for masks or filtration applications,” Gögüs explains. “So, investing in a Reicofil meltblown line is both for targeting high efficiency masks and filters and running specialty polymers to enter new areas.”

The sorbents industry was Mogul’s main market for meltblown pre-pandemic and remains the producer’s biggest market area. And, as demand in face mask material has decreased around the world, filtration has become one of the major applications Mogul is targeting.

“Due to environmental concerns and climate change, we expect that business volume of filtration, indoor and outdoor filtration market particularly, will be increased within the upcoming period,” Gögüs says. “In addition to filtration products, sorbent materials manufactured using meltblown nonwoven goods will be sought after products used in a wide range of areas such as hazardous and spill control, waste management and environmental protection purposes.”

Also investing in meltblown during the pandemic was RadiciGroup. At the time, the Italian company’s vice president and COO Maurizio Radici cited the lack of meltblown production in Europe as one of the reasons the company invested in the technology.

The state-of-the-art meltblown line supplied by Oerlikon Nonwovens produces fabric that has excellent filtering capability even for particles of microscopic size, such as viruses, and ensures breathability and protection. The machinery can realize products with special technical characteristics, not only made of polypropylene, but also other polymers, such as polyester, polyamide and TPU with applications in the medical and filtration sectors, according to the company. With the new line RadiciGroup can offer a wide range of composite structured filter media up to four layers combining its Radimelt Meltblown with Dylar and Respunsible Spunbond, thanks to its long-term experience in the field of nonwovens and to its dedicated in-house lab facilities and specialists.

With demand for masks declining, RadiciGroup is targeting sectors such as air filtration, liquid filtration and oil absorbency. It also continues to focus on supplying to medical applications as well as hygiene and protective apparel.

Meanwhile, Fitesa operates 11 pure meltblown lines in Brazil, the U.S., Germany and Italy to supply mainly the respiratory protection and wipes markets in these regions.

According to Mariana Mynarski, corporate marketing, Fitesa, the demand for meltblown for respiratory protection peaked during the pandemic, as countries invested significantly in local production. During this period Fitesa strongly invested to support the market needs. Since then, the demand has significantly reduced, and finished products resumed being imported from their original sources, mainly China, she adds.

Fitesa continues to focus on respiratory protection, delivering innovative solutions to help its customers compete in the market. A recent example is a new composite material that combines the filter and external layers of the face mask in one roll good, improving the production efficiency of its customers. Fitesa has also developed biobased external layers that help its customers increase the sustainable content of their finished products and reduce the carbon footprint of the finished product.

For German nonwovens producer Sandler, the filtration industry is the primary application for its meltblown materials. The company develops and produces a comprehensive spectrum of pocket as well as pleatable filter media, applied in HVAC, automotive filtration, synthetic vacuum cleaner bags, customized special filters for liquid filtration as well as medical and hygiene applications. “All of our meltblown nonwovens are produced without any chemical additives,” says Dr. Günter Müller, head of Sales Filtration Products. “While the meltblown fine filter layer is essentially the heart of the filter medium and determines its efficiency, Sandler combines different technologies in the production of our filter media.”

For HVAC, Sandler’s media are used in filters classified up to EPA or MERV 16. Its media is also able to cover all efficiency ranges according to ISO 16890. For automotive, its meltblown media are used for cabin air applications, filter compounds, or liquid filtration, but it also has media for special applications in its portfolio. In addition, Sandler offers meltblown-based media for home care applications, filter media for face masks, or media for liquid filtration non-automotive.

“We continuously look for new applications for our meltblown media,” says Dr. Müller. “Even at the start of the corona pandemic, we were able to use our expertise and production capacity to supply meltblown filter media for the manufacture of protective face masks and we contributed to setting up an entire value chain for the manufacture of face masks in Bavaria.”

In close cooperation with customers and partners along the supply chain, Sandler is also constantly working on developing more sustainable product alternatives to expand its product range. Alternative raw materials, for example, create new possibilities for further development. This includes the synthetic polymer polylactic acid, he says. Being based on natural raw materials, PLA enables the production of biodegradable materials, responding to the continuing trend for greener products.

According to Dr. Müller, the current meltblown market is subject to various influences in a global environment, including energy costs, raw materials and logistics costs as well as political influences. Additionally, the Coronavirus pandemic is still having a huge aftermath. “Additional meltblown capacities have been installed. There are new players on the market. Competition will increase in certain markets. However, this also offers the opportunity for companies such as Sandler to differentiate via a strong and innovative portfolio, a high service level and long-term partnerships,” he says.

Roswell Launches Plant-Based Meltblown

Responding to the green trend in nonwovens, Roswell Textiles just launched Ecofuse, a plant-based low carbon meltblown nonwoven material that can provide carbon offsets and is intended to replace incumbent synthetic nonwoven materials with more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives.

Roswell Textiles developed, commercialized and scaled Canada’s first domestic supply of synthetic meltblown during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company was able to scale production quickly and efficiently, by engineering and manufacturing its own nonwoven production equipment in-house and making its first commercial sale of Canadian produced meltblown material in just two months.

The next generation of high performance and technical nonwoven materials under the brand name of Ecofuse are plant-based and manufactured from biopolymers. These highly engineered materials possess similar technical specifications as synthetic, polypropylene materials but with a 65% net carbon reduction.

Ecofuse materials are being used by Roswell Textile’s partners and clients to decrease the carbon footprint of their products.

The Ecofuse materials are already commercial in medical filtration, water filtration and residential filtration applications with additional commercialization processes underway for the use of Ecofuse materials in hygiene, food and beverage packaging as well as in construction materials. Ecofuse meltblown materials, currently in commercial use in regulated medical applications, are certified to be 100% biobased by the United States Department of Agriculture BioPreferred Program.

Toray Now Manufacturing Airlite Meltblown Acoustics in Czech Republic

Toray Industries subsidiaries Toray Textiles Central Europe s.r.o. (TTCE) and Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc. (TAK) have set up new facilities in the Czech Republic to expand the scope of its Airlite automotive interior sound acoustic Insulation business in Europe. This material enhances passenger comfort by suppressing noise from driving, vibrations and from outside vehicles. The new facility went online in October 2022 with an annual production capacity of 1200 metric tons.

Europe has spearheaded efforts in the developed world to steadily tighten automotive noise regulations, including for internal combustion engine models. Demand should surge for electric vehicles in the next few years. These automobiles are essentially free of engine sounds, so drivers and passengers are more likely to notice road and tire noises. Quieter cabins feel more comfortable and luxurious. Markets for top performance sound absorbing materials should thus continue to grow, according to Toray. Moreover, as the growth of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) industry using propellers is expected in the future, the lightweight sound-absorbing application field will be further expanded.

Airlite is a meltblown nonwoven sound-absorbing material made of lightweight polypropylene and polyester and delivers exceptional sound absorption across a broad frequency range. It is lightweight, reducing energy consumption from driving.

The new Airlite facilities complement TTCE’s airbag fabric operations, helping it to expand its automotive materials business. TAK looks to leverage the new facilities to bolster its automotive interior sound-absorbing materials business in Europe and step up efforts as Europe’s electric vehicle market grows.