In Turkey which remained behind the European countries in terms of nonwoven production, technical textile investments of firms have accelerated. Following the investments of Mogul and Hassan Group, General Nonwoven and Kurt Nonwoven continued the investment trend. Nonwoven production increase and requirements seen in the global arena also accelerate the investments of firms. Nonwoven production which continues its increase trend as in previous year grew by 5.7 % in total. On the other hand, China became the biggest supplier of Europe with a growth rate of 24 %.
New Fabric Production from General Nonwoven
General Nonwovens, polyester and polypropylene spunbond nonwoven manufacturer operating in Kilis made a new investment in a production plant. Establishing a new production plant in its factory which is 60 km away from Gaziantep, General Nonwovens made this investment for the production of a new fabric that it added to its portfolio. This fabric produced via air has features to be used in filtration and technical textile markets. The firm also provides supply to the automotive and industry sectors with its current production lines.
One of the important names of nonwoven fabric production, General Nonwovens, was established in 2000 in Gaziantep. Choosing nonwoven production as its core facility field, the firm is increasing its export volume with 100 % polypropylene and 100 % Polyester Spunbond nonwoven fabric production. Increasing its production capacity to 12 million tons in the plant covering an area of 6500 square meters, the company manufactures calender-bonded fabric at the size of 3400 mm and between 10-200 gr/square meters. Products of General Nonwovens, a member to EDANA, can be optionally used in hydrophobic, hydrophilic, antistatic and antimicrobial surface applications as well as ultraviolet stabilization and power imflammability applications. Products display high performance in hygiene, health, filtration, home textile, automotive industry, agriculture and landscape, geotextile and roof isolation.
Kurt Nonwoven Expanded the Target
Following the Turkey’s investment trend, another firm Kurt Nonwoven also accelerated its activities in this respect. Kurt Nonwoven will increase its annual production to about 15000 tons with this investment of SMS line. The polypropylene based nonwoven products produced with this line will target Europe, Africa, Middle East and American region in the fields of diaper and medical markets.
Kurt Nonwoven which started to operate with the name of Kurt Kumaş as a cotton processing plant in 1970 continued its activities with Open-End plant in the following years. Maintaining its fast growth, the firm exports an important part of its production. Deciding on investing in promising spunbond nonwoven fabric production in 2003, the firm started to operate in 2nd Organized Industrial Zone of Gaziantep on a closed area of 10,000 square meters within a total area of 25,000 square meters.
Following the latest technologies, Kurt Nonwoven purchased a line with a capacity of 5,000 tons/year at the size of 3,20 meters to produce high quality Spunbond fabric in Turkey. Producing fabric for all kinds of applications, Kurt Nonwoven has the technology to implement different applications on fabric such as printing, PP Spunbond + PP or PE laminated pattern. The firm produces U/V added, hygienic, antistatic, fireproof fabrics at all colors. With the latest technology cutting-transfering machine, the firm can meet the hygienic and high-length (10,000 mt/batch) fabric need of the diaper and sanitary pad sector in particular.
Global Nonwoven Production Increased
Considering the statistics compiled by EDANA, it is stated that this year, nonwoven sector will increase its growth. According to the latest statistics of EDANA, nonwoven production grew by 5,7 % in 2011. Total figure was 1.897.748 tons in Europe which constitutes 25 % of the global production. Increase of 2011 was lower than the previous year (10.9 %) and this situation was attributed to the global crisis but the increase observed despite the crisis pleased the manufacturers.
Market Analysis and Economic Relationships Director of EDANA, Jacques Prigneaux expressed that spunmelt production increased by more than 9 % when compared to 2010. Besides, he emphasized that thermo-nonwoven production was static while a considerable increase was recorded in spunlace production. When we look at China which has the biggest textile power of the world, it was explained that it increased its export to the European region by 24 % in comparison to the previous year. With these figures, China has become the most important nonwoven supplier of Europe.
Nonwoven Production Increases more rapidly in Asia than Europe
The increase observed in Asia became a bit more rapid than Europe. According to the explanation made by Asian Nonwoven Fabric Association (ANFA), the annual production volume rose to 3.096.928 tons in 2011 from 2.882.225 tons in 2010. Although this increase rate was lower than 13.1 which was the growth rate of the previous year, it was an expected outcome. In the report prepared in this respect, it is envisaged that Asian manufacturers will meet almost half of the global nonwoven fabric production in 2020.
When the nonwoven production segments of Asian countries are examined, we see that spunmelt production rate is 45 %, needlepunch production is 26,2 %, spunlace production is 10,9 %, thermo-nonwoven production is 6,1 %, the rate of chemical products is 5,2 % and disposable wet towel production is 2,1 %. The biggest share belongs to China among Asian countries. China, which meets two third of the need of the region with its production of 2,054,700 tons, is followed by Japan (10 %), Korea (7,9 %), India (6,3 %) and Taiwan (5,6 %) by their production potentials.
