BRUSSELS — April 19, 2013 — Today the European annual statistics on Nonwovens Production and
Deliveries for 2012 were disclosed by EDANA, the International Association Serving the Nonwovens
and Related Industries, during its Nonwoven Producers Forum.
Jacques Prigneaux, EDANA’s Market Analysis and Economic Affairs Director, described the
evolution by nonwovens process leading to an overall growth of 2.2% in production volume for 2012,
despite an unfavourable macroeconomic context in Europe.
The total deliveries reached the level of 1,954,000 tonnes and 57,690 million square metres
last year. Spunmelt processes accounted for 45%, the rest was fibre-based materials. Within the
drylaid, the leading bonding technologies remain spunlace and needlepunch in terms of tonnage
produced.
Jacques Prigneaux stated that “This is the third year in a row of output growth following the
slowdown of 2009. Nevertheless, the different market segments follow different trends. In
nonwovens, drivers are multiple as linked to the numerous and increasing possible applications.
Some sectors like construction and automotive are directly impacted by the economic background,
while disposable end-uses are less affected. Moreover, within the Greater Europe, different major
trends have also been observed on a country basis.”
Compared to the situation in 2011, hygiene wipes and automotive segments showed some growth
rates higher than 5%, but construction, the second most important sector in volume, recorded a
decline of 3%.
Nonwovens trade flows in and out of the European Union are still limited compared to local
production. The positive trade balance with the rest of the world increased last year, in both
volume and value. A large part of the flows was in spunmelt materials and EU27 maintained a
positive trade balance for each sub-category by grammage.
The EDANA nonwovens database and statistical methodology, which is over 30 years-old (and has
been refined over the years using the latest IT features), is unique and the largest of its kind in
the world, based on an exhaustive annual survey with direct input from nonwoven producers.
With all significant players from Greater Europe and a large number of companies
participating already from the Middle East and Africa, more than 100 major nonwoven producers are
directly involved, representing over 85% of the production in both regions. The remainder of the
market is covered by qualified estimates for an equivalent number of generally much smaller
players.
EDANA’s leadership in this area is based on a multi-dimensional expert system with internal
consistency checks, based on verified reports of the consumption of raw materials, production of
roll goods by process, and deliveries both by process and end-uses.
Other systems, relying on less frequent direct input, on nominal – published or estimated –
capacities of installed nonwoven production lines and/or random telephone interviews, often result
in much less accurate data.
“Our leadership in nonwoven market surveys, with a scope representing well over 30% of the
world’s nonwoven production, gives EDANA both an advantage and responsibility for the future
provision of global nonwovens statistics”, said Pierre Wiertz, General Manager. “We are pleased to
cooperate with INDA on a Global Nonwovens Outlook 2012-2017, and during ANEX 12, we have offered
our colleagues from ANFA (representing companies from China, Japan, India, Korea, and other
countries) to explore a similar collaboration for the future.”
EDANA members, as part of their membership benefit, will get soon their complimentary copy of
the full report and detailed data for the “2012 European Nonwovens Production and Deliveries”.
Posted on May 6, 2013
Source: EDANA
