EDANA, the International Association Serving the Nonwovens and Related Industries, released preliminary European annual statistics for 2014, offering a comprehensive picture of the nonwovens industry in Greater Europe. This information, released to the industry earlier than ever before, shows an overview of the industry´s strength and resilience across Greater Europe.
According to figures collected and compiled by EDANA, the overall production of nonwovens in Europe grew by around 4.7 per cent in 2014 to reach 2,165,000 tonne. Despite two lower growth years in 2012 and 2013, the annual average growth rate has been nearly 5.3 per cent since 2009.
Jacques Prigneaux, EDANA´s Market Analysis and Economic Affairs Director advised ´Spunmelt nonwovens recorded its highest growth rate since 2011 with 3.3 per cent. Nevertheless, following two years at around per cent, the production of fiber-based materials, including drylaid, wetlaid and airlaid technologies, recorded an even higher increase of 5.9 per cent. The highest apparent growth in tonnes were observed in hydroentanglement and needle punched bonding processes within the drylaid production, with respectively .3 per cent and .1 per cent.´
The hygiene market, which is still the main nonwoven end-use in volumes, has grown by 6.1 per cent in 2014, following a limited growth of 1.8 per cent in 2013. The main driver of this increase was the development observed in the incontinence market.
The most significant growth areas for nonwovens in 2014 were in personal care wipes (.1 per cent), floor covering (.3 per cent), civil engineering (.9 per cent) and automotive interior (.1 per cent), and positive evolution in those nonwovens materials used in electronic and food & beverage applications should be also highlighted.