TECHNICAL TEXTILES

MARKET CONSUMPTION STATISTICS

2/28/2011
Tanveer Ahmed
NED UET Karachi
Contents
ABSTRACT:..................................................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION: ............................................................................................................................................ 3
NICHE MARKET APPLICATION SEGMENTS AND FIBRE CONSUMPTION:....................................................... 3
GEOGRAPHICAL SEGMENTATION AND CONSUMPTION: .............................................................................. 6
ASIA: .............................................................................................................................................................. 7
USA: ............................................................................................................................................................. 10
CONCLUSION:.............................................................................................................................................. 10
REFERENCES: ............................................................................................................................................... 10

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ABSTRACT:
This document is focusing statistical level of Technical Textiles and their market consumption
with respect to fibre types, applications as well as geographical locations. Technical Textiles are
new emerging scientific technologies that adding functionality to the various fields. There are
remarkable capabilities of high performance textiles for the market attraction. Technical Textiles
world demand is still growing as its end use applications are developed with the power of
creativity and innovative techniques. Technical Textiles markets are more distinguish than
conventional textiles because it approaches to maturity. Supply chain system for these types of
product influence on the price, demand and availability. Careful segmentation is also prerequisite
fundamental philosophy for marketing. So we can analyze the Technical Textile markets on
different level of application in respect of clothing, geological, medical, civil construction,
industrial fabrics, sports, environmental protection, transport and packaging etc.

There is geographical utilization is under considerable due to growth of technical textiles

applications continuously increasing. But a large area of the world is still not aware or ignores
this enormous technology of solution. There is some process or cost effects that make hurdle in
the way of mass development. These economical barriers also interlinked with copyright law of
technological patent.

INTRODUCTION:
Basically the word ‘Technical’ is an adjective which means relating to the knowledge, machines
or methods used in science and industry1. The definition of technical textiles adopted by the
authoritative Textile Terms and Definitions, published by the Textile Institute, is ‘textile
materials and products manufactured primarily for their technical and performance properties
rather than their aesthetic or decorative characteristics’.2. Historically natural fibres and woven
fabrics had been used in numerous functions, now that relevance’s are expanding as per end uses
in various industries becomes an individual market segment. Basically it is exploring the niches
due to highly innovative and specialty incur. As compare to all conventional textiles
manufacturing, technical textiles economically produces 50% output including high tech fibres,
yarns, woven and nonwoven yield.3Despite over one quarter of the textile market is consumed by
nonwoven industry, growth rate by volume and weight still 4% to 5% in the developing countries
while under developing countries extremely absent in this market.4 there is still restricted or
closed environment which conceal the real world statistics regarding technical textiles market.

NICHE MARKET APPLICATION SEGMENTS AND FIBRE CONSUMPTION:

Technical textiles fibres consist on separately three main classes:
• Regular/ Generic fibres,

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• Specialty variants of regular/ generic fibres, and
• High tech/ high performance fibres
Natural and synthetic fibres as regular or generic like (polyester, viscose, nylon, polypropylene)
account for 70% of the entire fibres used in technical textiles. Specialty fibres accommodate at least 30%
and the high performance fibres comprise a small proportion, i.e. 5%.Today about 10% of the fibres
are converted into spun yarn for technical applications.5
World consumption of fibres in Technical Textiles in 2005 was 22% of the total fibres consumed. Of the
total fibres consumed (19.68 mn tonnes), around 80% comprised of MMFs and remaining comprised of
natural fibres. Industry experts believe the share of MMFs in total fibre consumption will further increase
to 81.3% by 2010. Among various fibres, polyoliefin and polyester collectively accounted for 50% of total
fibre consumed in Technical Textiles in 2005 followed by glass (15%) and jute (14%). Specialized fibres
like aramid and carbon account for 1% of fibres consumed in Technical Textiles. Natural fibres find
6
application in comparatively less demanding applications like sacks, twine and carpet backing.

POLYESTER 25%
POLYOLEFINS 25 %

GLASS 15 %

JUTE, COIR, ETC. 14 %

COTTON 7%
VISCOSE 3%
OTHER CELLULOSICS 3%
POLYAMIDE 7%
ARAMID AND CARBON FIBRES 1%

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Technical textiles signify one-third of all fiber usage. In the area of Material Science, products
like micro fibres, optical fibres, high polymer plastics & resins, temperature resistant textile
fibres, fibres reinforced composites etc. are used in greater volumes in the area of technical
textiles. According to Australian report up to 40% fibre consumption within developed countries
is in the manufacturing of technical textiles. The majority of fiber usage will enhance traditional
apparel and home goods which will promote technology found in the technical textile area.
Primary innovative international trade exhibition for technical textiles, Techtexil by Messe
Frankfurt, categorize 12 main application areas; Where as David Rigby Associates also identified 150
technical end-use products 1.Agrotech-Fabrics used in agricultural, farming, landscaping
applications 2.Buildtech-Materials used in construction, civil engineering, temporary buildings,
etc. 3.Clothtech--Technical components of clothing, shoes, etc. 4.Geotech--Geotextiles and
geosynthetics --materials for soil control, road reinforcement, landfill liners, etc. 5.Hometech --
Technical components of home furnishings 6.Indutech--"Industrial" items not categorized
elsewhere: filtration, mechanical rubber goods, sound absorption, etc. 7. Medtech–Textiles for
medical, hygiene, rescue use 8.Mobiltech-Automobile, truck, trains, buses, aerospace
9.Oekotech-Environmental fabrics; can be from many other segments, such as filtration, erosion
fencing, and landfill lining. 10. Packtech--Materials for packaging (i.e. lumber wrap), protective
covering systems, sacks, bulk storage bags 11. Protech--Protection of persons or property --
firemen's, chemical hazmat garments, clean room garments. 12. Sportech --Sports and leisure
active wear, outdoors and sports equipment, sports shoes7.
Aforementioned categories are basic functions in which geographically consumption and
demand can be forecasted. A study accomplished by David Rigby Associates, UK on Technical
textiles details an estimate that world consumption of technical textiles in 2000 amounted to just
over 16.7 mn tons of fibre and polymer with a finished textile product value of US$92.9 bn. In
weight terms, this represents over one-quarter of the estimated 62.2 mn tons of fibres consumed
across all end-uses in that year.

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Above mentioned pie chart shows Technical Textiles Market shares with respect to each
application segment. There is main trade linkage between entire nations converge at WTO stands
for world trade organization, that govern the rules and regulations. 1995 to 2005 the average
consumption rate had been 2.8% per annum where as 2005 to 2010 forecast recovered but only
3.6% per annum.Where as analysis shows that United states still in top position approximately
25%of the world Technical Textile fibres consumption holding country where as total world
wide fibre consumption in 2009 was 120 billions from which 21 billion dollar sales take place in
USA.

GEOGRAPHICAL SEGMENTATION AND CONSUMPTION:

At a glance to the fiber consumption data by world region, DRA (David Rigby Associates) reports the
following consumption forecasted for 2010.this table must considered in terms of population and
size of the region to avoid contradiction.8 According to DRA report Region-wise technical textile
Maximum consumption of technical textiles is in USA & Western Europe and Japan,
together these three regions account for 65 percent of the consumption of technical textiles in the
world.9
Region Technical Textiles consumption (%)

USA 23
Western Europe 22

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China 13
Japan 7
Rest of the World 35

ASIA:
When we talk about ASIA it means China, India and Pakistan. These three countries are
producing textiles at high rate of production with lowest cost. The Asia's consumption for
technical textiles products is expected to rise at 10,645,000 tons by 2010. This market is
increasing at approximately 4%. Particularly 9.6 per cent per annum nonwoven products are
expected to growth rate in Asia as compare to world market.
China is one of the important country which is cover 50% of technical textiles from total Asian
utilization with growing at rate of demand 10% per year. Nonwoven growth rate is 30% per year.
China nonwoven industry is having more than 500-600 nonwovens manufacturing companies8.
In China growth rate of geononwovens is about 15%, exceeding the growth of China’s GDP. In
the past 20 years, the Chinese government has invested in its infrastructure on a large scale. It is
forecasted that China will become the largest nonwoven fabric market in the world by the year 2012
10
and will account for 38% of total demand.

Other important Asian country is India. Currently the consumption of technical textiles in India
forms only 3 % of the total world consumption; however, it is growing at a rate higher than most
developed countries. A forecast by Goldman Sachs says that the Indian economy will overtake
the economy of Europe and Japan by 2020 and that of USA by 2042.For the fiscal 2009-10
India‘s economy grew by 7.4 percent which is an upward revision from earlier estimates of 7.2
percent. The World Bank has also projected that the Indian economy will grow at a rate of 8% in
2010. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its latest report, „The Asian Development
Outlook 2010,“ has stated that the strong domestic consumption and the growing investments
will put India‘s economy in the growth trajectory. ADB emphasizes the importance of domestic
consumption and infrastructural investments on the growth of Indian economy, meaning more
opportunities for the technical textiles industry.11

According to some
industry experts
estimations overall
technical textiles
market for India will
grow at a rate of 10%
which is $189
million by year
2007-08. Use of
functional textiles in
fields like
Automotive, Medical
uses, construction is

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already on the move. India is expected to be one of the largest producer and consumer of
technical textiles and nonwovens by 2012. India’s share in the global technical textile market
was around 6% in 2005 which is expected to be 12% by 2012: Growing at a CAGR of 10.4%. At
present the total nonwoven production in India is 90,000 tonnes and is expected to grow to
200,000 tonnes by 2010. The market size for technical textile and nonwoven in India in 2005-06
was US$ 6.7 bn which has increased to US$9 bn by 2007-08. It is interesting to note that 93% of
the present market is domestic and the remaining 7% is for exports.12
Pakistan is fourth largest cotton producer country but unfortunately there is still ignorance
towards the technical textiles. According to Dr. Noor Ahmed Memon and Noor Zaman ,Pakistan
lags behind in technical textiles, while Mr.Kamran Iqbal also mentioned this ignorance in his
article published in Pakistan Textile Journal December 2009 page39.the above mentioned
statistics which representing the overall world journey towards Technical Textiles is enough for
exploring the market space for new developers, so it is necessary to initiate large steps towards
these markets to buildup better economy of Pakistan. Government should take interest to
encourage the investors for installing facilities because we have very low labor cost and better
location in respect of supply chain management. Pakistan’s Intellectual Property Rights
Organization (IPO), an autonomous body under Pakistan’s Cabinet Division, consolidates
authority over trademarks, patents, and copyrights – areas that were previously handled by three
separate ministries. Businesses operating in Pakistan have repeatedly called for strengthening
law and order.13

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 World Wide Consumption Technical Textiles
Region 1995 2000 2005 2010
USA 4288 5031 5777 6821
EUORPE 3494 4162 4773 5777
ASIA 5716 6963 8504 10645
Rest of World 473 558 628 730
TOTAL 13971 16971 19683 23774

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USA:
Approximately 25% of all fiber consumed in US for Technical Textiles about 24 million tons of
fiber worldwide roughly $120 billion worldwide about $31 billion sales in US CAGR 3.8%.14

CONCLUSION:
World economic situation rapidly changes with change in technology. Countries like Pakistan
have a great potential for large markets as these technical markets continuous growing. As
applications of Technical Textiles spread with constant growth demand can be vary while costs
remains same until bulk production of these innovative techniques incur.

REFERENCES:
1. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/technical
2. HANDBOOK OF TECHNICAL TEXTILES Edited by A R Horrocks and S C Anand.
3. Innovations in intelligent apparel and technical textiles by Dr. Noor Ahmed Memon. 44
PTJ July 2010.
4. Technical Textiles and Nonwovens: World market forecasts to 2010 By David Rigby
Associates
5. Indian technical textiles prospects By: S. Chakrabarty
6. Speciality Fibres Ministry of Textile Government India.
7. Technical Textiles 2009 State of the IndustryWilliam C. (Bill) Smith Industrial Textile
Associates Greer, SC 29650, USA June 5,, 2009
8. The Outlook for Technical Textiles Worldwide Presented to Korean Federation of Textile
Industries (KOFOTI) Gerald J. Mauretti July 13, 2006
9. Growing Global Demand of Technical Textiles
10. The applications of nonwovens in technical textiles by Muhammad Kamran Iqbal and
http://www.ttistextiledigest.com/
11. Insight India Technical Textiles Market India by Sheetal Soparkar | Project Assistant
Cologne
12. The applications of nonwovens in technical textiles by Muhammad Kamran Iqbal.
13. PAKISTANTRADE SUMMARY
14. Technical Textiles 2009 State of the IndustryWilliam C. (Bill) Smith Industrial Textile
Associates Greer, SC 29650, USA June 5,, 2009

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