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| Issue date:01/02/2008 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Feb 2008 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
| by He Ping and Staff Reporters |
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Technical textiles, or industrial textiles, have extensive applications in such realms as industry, agriculture, civil engineering, transportation, medicine and aerospace.
Compared to the development of garment and home textiles, the technical textile industry has been underdeveloped and it is expected to expand swiftly in the next decades for its extensive applications and possibilities.
Over 70% of Chinese technical textile manufacturers are currently located in coastal areas including the provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Hebei, and Shanghai city. The remaining enterprises are found in Central China. In recent years, some enterprises have moved towards inland, including the western provinces of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Gansu as the central government calls for developing West China.
In the first half of 2007, the Chinese technical textile industry kept expanding. Given that the Chinese authorities are strongly advocating environmental protection, more technical textiles are thus used in the areas of building and agriculture, leading to a fast growth in filtration materials, awnings, construction textiles and geotextiles.
In the course of developing West China, a large number of construction projects are made to improve local infrastructure and living environment.
More garbage landfills and sewage treatment facilities are built and more geotextiles are consumed. Geotextiles are used to separate soil from gravel so as to improve the stability, load bearing capacity, and drainage of the site. It has been used in the areas of subgrade, roadbed, soil reinforcement, erosion control, and subsurface drainage.
Other coated fabrics, awning fabrics and signage fabrics used for outdoor advertising are also popular, with orders from abroad and production facilities running in full capacity.
In addition, new projects were initiated last year to upgrade the existing machinery or add new ones among technical textile producers in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.
Output of various types of technical textiles in China in 2006 |
Fuelled by such favorable factors as the strong domestic economy, the availability of raw materials and the talent needed, more advanced domestic textile machinery, and the support of Chinese industrial associations, the Chinese technical textile industry has expanded at a 20% averaged annual growth rate in the past five years. Technical textile output in China reached 4.537 million tons in 2006, up about a quarter from 2005.
By 2010, the country expects to demand more than four million tons of technical textiles. According to the 11th five-year plan of the textile industry, the Chinese technical textile industry is expected to share 17% of the national textile and apparel industry from the current 13%.
Day-to-day healthcare nonwovens rapidly penetrate into China
Day-to-day healthcare nonwoven products promise a bright future in China as citizens get richer.
Sanitary napkins are expected to gain a deeper penetration in the rural female population as Chinese rural regions are increasingly urbanized. Secondly, China is still a growing market for baby diapers with an estimated birth rate of 13.45 births per 1,000 people in 2007.
On the other hand, the country's population is aging. By the end of 2005, about 11% of the total population, or 144 million people, were people aged 60 and above.
According to the Chinese authorities, the figure of aged population will reach 400 million by 2045. The silver population is a challenge for the society and also an opportunity for suppliers offering adult diapers and other related medical products. Suppliers say that adult diapers are used by only 0.1%-0.9% of the aged population at the moment so the market potential is huge.
Medical textiles are also expected to take off in China with a larger affluent population, looking for improved medical services in safety and hygiene in the hospital and clinic.
Infrastructure boom provides momentum
Construction of infrastructure in China provides another source of momentum for the domestic technical textile industry.
In view of the surging demand for transport, the Ministry of Commerce of China announced this January that it planned to invest some RMB 450 billion (US$62.5 billion) to build a total of 97 new airports across the country by the end of 2020.
Compared with 147 by the end of 2006, the General Administration of Civil Aviation (GACA) estimated that China would have around 192 airports by 2010 and 244 by 2020. By then, about 82% of China’s total population would be living within 100km or a 90-minute drive from an airport.
On land, the Ministry of Railways estimated that China would have built 19,800 kilometers of new railway lines and modernized 15,000 kilometers of existing railway lines by 2010. Faster passenger trains, including maglev trains, would have been introduced as well.
China currently spends approximately 9% of its GDP a year on infrastructure. With megaplans under way, related technical textiles are expected to experience a strong demand in years and even decades ahead.
In spite of the rosy picture mentioned above, it is found that majority of the total output of technical textiles produced in China (3.66 million tons in 2006) remain at the medium and low end, including one-off medical gowns for surgery, sanitary towels, diaper products for the baby and adult.
Research for military and high-performance textiles needed
Comparing to the counterparts of Europe and North America, technical textile manufacturers in China are less knowledgeable in the advanced development of sophisticated materials and their applications, especially in the field of military and defense.
In view of this, Zhu Minru, President of China Nonwovens & Technical Textiles Association (CNITA), took a group of nonwoven manufacturers from Shandong and Guangdong onto a road show, promoting their nonwoven products to the relevant military enterprises in different regions such as Hubei in July 2007.
During the meeting, military experts and engineers reviewed a range of nonwoven samples and discussed their specifications and possible applications. Samples were taken for further experiment and research.
Aside from military textiles, CNITA identified other areas the domestic technical textile industry should consider.
First, there is a narrow scope of applications for raw materials in the industry.
Second, nonwovens have been dominating the development of the Chinese technical textile industry for the past three decades. Other technologies and materials, including knitting, weaving and multi-layer composites are relatively underdeveloped.
Third, even within the field of nonwovens, Chinese producers have not utilized all possible applications of the materials for military and defense, civil, and cultural/sports purposes.
Fourth, the overall underdevelopment of the Chinese technical textile industry is rooted by the fact that domestic entrepreneurs may not have sufficient understanding about technical textiles and nonwovens. Those who are developing technical textiles may also find more obstacles than their peers in engaging in the fields of garment and home textiles.
Nonetheless, technical textile experts predict that the technical textile sector will be the only sector in the entire textile supply chain in China that can enjoy substantial growth over the next 40 years. It is because the sectors of fiber and garment making are getting saturated and so is the sector of home textiles. On the contrary, technical textiles are more likely to continue its strong growth.
It is noteworthy that the development of new raw materials is crucial. In recent years, China has put substantial efforts into the related R&D. Some of the achievements include the development of carbon fiber, aramid 1414, aramid and new-generation high-strength high-modulus polyethylene.
Aramid is a type of fibers characterizing with its high strength, high modulus and high temperature resistance. Depending on its varied properties, aramid fibers can be used on airplanes, space shuttles, automobiles and sports equipment.
Due to their extensive applications, high-performance fibers can play a significant role in the future of Chinese technical textile industry.
Take the application of high-performance fibers on an airplane as an example. Most materials on the plane are composite textile materials, particularly carbon fibers. A 777 plane, carrying between 280 and 370 passengers, utilizes up to 2.5 tons of carbon fibers; and a more recent 787 plane, carrying between 210 and 330 passengers, consumes around 12.5 tons carbon fibers. In this respect, high-performance fibers promise a great potential.
Fifth, in order to facilitate future development of the industry, relevant industrial standards and national standards are required. Relevant policies and guidelines for different applications and processing procedures are also needed.
Shanghai Tanlon produces protective textiles |
Sixth, in the aspect of talent, textile universities and colleges in China currently do not offer any specialized program of technical textiles. The situation, however, will soon be changed as relevant parties are proactively preparing for curriculum framework, which may be launched later this year.
At this moment, some major enterprises in the Chinese technical textile field include Anhui Huawan (安徽華皖), Shandong Tiantai (山東天泰), Jiangsu Haocheng (江蘇昊成), Hebei Silicon Valley Chemical (河北矽谷化工), Shanghai Tanlon (上海特安綸), Beijing Tongyizhong (北京同益中), Hunan Zhongtai (湖南中泰) and Ningbo Dacheng (寧波大成).
Global growth for technical textiles still expected
Technical textiles are less susceptible to the economic cycle, so they are expected to keep expanding in the years to come.
Technical textiles account for about 23% of the total market share of the textile apparel industry in Europe.
Global technical textiles consumption currently reaches 19.6 million tons and is expected to reach 33.8 million tons by 2010, due to the availability of improved technical textiles that are lightweight, high-performance and visually attractive for more diversified applications.
In the next decade, technical textiles are expected to maintain an annual growth rate of more than 10%. By 2010, the global fiber consumption for technical textiles is expected to reach 61.2 million tons.
The global market size of technical textiles reached 60 billion euros in 2006 and Asia shared 40% of it. Meanwhile, major players such as Germany and the US had a 40% annual growth rate in their technical textile industries.
Germany is leading developer and exporter of technical textiles
Germany is currently a leading developer and producer of technical textiles in Europe and in the world. It is also the largest technical textile exporter globally. Major exporting markets are other European countries, the US, Russia, China and more recently, India.
Internally, the German technical textile industry represents 40% of its national textile industry in value.
Russia was the fastest-growing market for the German technical textile industry in 2006, followed by China and Poland in terms of growth rate, while India was one of the most potential exporting destinations. Germany exported US$440 million worth of technical textiles to India in 2005 and it kept growing fast in 2006 and 2007. In this light, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) granted 20 million euros to support the development of technical textiles in India.
US integrates nanotechnology into technical textiles
Advance military wear, Defender M, developed by TenCate |
Technical textiles in the US account for about 37% of its national textile industry in value. The fiber consumption for technical textiles reached 2 million tons in 2000 and it was expected to drop to 1.84 million tons by 2012.
Based on end applications, some growing areas are seen in the medical, conveyer belt, filtration, and packaging sectors.
The country tries to integrate nanotechnology into technical textiles and develop new-generation military nano-clothes that shield off toxic gases from biological weapons. Such clothes aim to increase the surviving capacity of soldiers under various conditions.
The US is known to invest heavily in research, development and production of advanced technical textiles in an attempt to maintain its globally leading position.
Italy exports technical textile machinery to the world
Technical textile sales revenues in Italy reaches about 1.2 billion euros a year and more than 100 enterprises currently engage in production of technical textiles machinery and nonwoven equipment.
Italian technical textile machinery is mainly marketed to the European market (including Turkey), followed by Asia and North America.
Japan strong in specialty textile production
In Japan, technical textiles are even more important, representing half of its national textile industry in value. Its technical textiles are featured with additional functions and many of them are specialty textiles. The technical textile industry continues to expand, consuming more fibers than the garment industry.
The country is able to produce majority of high-strength, high-modulus fiber products available in the world market.
Japanese specialty textiles are often made by nonwovens and composite materials, and applied in the realms of information technology, transportation, environment, safety protection and such general industrial applications as filtration and wiping cloth.
Considering that the Chinese technical textile industry currently shares no more than 15% of the national textile industry in value, compared to 23% in Europe, 37% in the US, 40% in Germany, and 50% in Japan, Chinese industry experts believe that the industry has great potential in the coming decades.
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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