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| Last year's output of nonwoven and unspun end-uses fell by 3.5% to 6.7 million tones after a long expansion phase. A nonwoven fabric shopping bag is featured in this picture. |
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The global fiber demand had enjoyed a six-year growth above the blue trend line. In 2008, world fiber demand dropped 6.7% to 67.3 million tones. To a certain extent, this long-standing economic activity in full swing may be a result of China's accession to WTO end-2001. Lower priced apparel was available across the world, pushing innumerable manufacturers in the western hemisphere out of business.
All fiber types suffered from the slowing demand. Small-scale fiber types like aramid and carbon fibers weathered the downturn alright until Q4 2008. Although firms' demands fell in the aerospace, automotive, military and wind power sectors, they managed to stay on the positive territory in terms of the growth rate. The usage of cotton, wool and silk decreased by 10.1% to 25.2 million tones, manmade fibers fell by 4.5% to 42.2 million tones.
The filament yarn industry has lost a volume of 680,000 tones last year. The strongest decline in volume in carpet yarn spinning has resulted from the US housing bubble where housing prices peaked in early 2005 and started to decline in 2006. In December 2008, the Case-Shiller home price index reported its largest price drop in its history. The staple fiber processing volume dropped by 4.2 million tones, of which two thirds was due to lower output from cotton spinning.
Latest estimates for current season's world cotton production account for 23.6 million tones. This would be a decline of 10.2% over the last season. World consumption is projected to drop to 23.9 million tones, down 2.8 million tones, or 10.5%, from last season. The cotton production used to grow according to the orange trend line until 2002/03. The increasing approval and cultivation of genetically modified cotton has resulted in soaring cotton yields. In the season 2003/04, actual cotton production started to outpace the long-term trend. Since then, the cumulative oversupply accounts for 25 million tones. This scenario has surely triggered surging investments in PES-SF in 2004/05, the major product in blends with cotton. This supply-driven growth has ended in the actual season as the global cotton farmland is forecast at 31 million hectares, down about 2.1 million hectares from the last season.
The cellulosic fiber market has declined by 9.1% to 3.3 million tones after six consecutive years of growth. The viscose staple segment dropped 10.8% to 2.2 million tones while the filament business for textile and industrial yarns declined 17.4% to 370,000 tones. The only growing subsector was acetate filter which rose 2.1% to 732,000 tones.
The development in the synthetic fiber segment was also negatively affected by the economic downturn, in particular the established types of fiber. Total market was down 4.1% to 38.8 million tones while PAN dropped 20%, PP (-11%), PA (-10%) and PES (-2%). The only increasing segments were aramids and carbon fiber, jointly accounting for just nearly 0.2% market share.
Last year's output of nonwoven and unspun end-uses fell by 3.5% to 6.7 million tones after a long expansion phase. The majority of about 6 million tones is nonwoven-based while the remaining portion comes from filling material for sleeping bags, anoraks, pillows, mattresses and insulating material in the automotive industry as well as padding material for reinforced building structures. Unlike the spinning industry, bad news about closure or restructuring measures in the nonwovens industry was significantly less.
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