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Fibre year 2002 - Demand for fibres at record level

The Switzerland-based Saurer AG, leading supplier of textile machinery, for the third time now issues a report on developments in textile markets worldwide. The annual report for 2002 for the first time presents an all-embracing analysis of the situation in manmade and staple fibre spinning and the nonwovens industry.

In 2002, global fibre production experienced an increase by 4.5 per cent to 56,1 million tons, which represents an annual average per-capita consumption of 9.0 kg.

By now says Saurer, the market is dominated by manmade fibres, which make up 60 per cent of the market and showed an increase of 6.1 per cent, which once more is significantly higher than that of the natural fibres (+2.2 per cent).

Peak demand for natural fibres

As regards natural fibres, the striking fact is that the increase in the demand for cotton has continued, reaching a new record level of 21.1 million tons (+ 2,4 per cent). This trend was supported in decisive measure by the price level of cotton being at a historical low.

The low cotton prices led to reductions in the overall cotton cultivation acreage which, together with occasional periods of drought, caused a substantial drop in the quantity of harvested cotton to 19.1 million tons (-11 per cent). The result was a significant reduction in cotton inventories worldwide to around 8.0 million tons.

In contrast, production of manmade fibres increased by 6.1 per cent to 33.7 million tons. The output of filament yarns could be raised by 6.7 per cent to 18.0 million tons and the output of staple fibre yarns by 5.3 per cent to 15.7 million tons. All types of manmade fibres contributed to this growth, but the proportion of the contribution of polyester was particularly high, with an increase by 7.2 per cent to 21.0 million tons.

The above-average increase experienced in the continuous filament yarn sector is mainly due to a marked rise in the demand for these yarns for textile and carpet applications.

Looking at the production of fibres according to geographic regions, it is evident that 65 per cent of all manmade fibres produced throughout the world come from producers in the Asian countries. Last year, the output could be raised by 8.2 per cent. With an increase in output by 2.8 per cent, America could again maintain its place slightly ahead of Europe, where the growth by 1.5 per cent is predominantly due to the positive developments in Turkey.

The PR of China could further extend its market position, a leading position anyhow. It now produces 30 per cent of the global production of manmade fibres. The Chinese polyester industry, in particular, stood out by record investment volumes. As a consequence of the boom in the automotive industry, manmade fibre production capacities for technical and industrial yarns will in the future also take a higher-than-proportional share in the market.

Shifts in the staple fibre sector

Staple fibres are used as feed-material in short-staple and long-staple spinning and for the production of nonwovens. Last year, this sector processed staple fibres in a volume of 38.0 mio tons. 59 per cent of the staple fibres were natural fibres: 21.1 mio tons of cotton and 1.3 mio tons of wool. Of the 15.6 mio tons of manmade fibres, 58 per cent were of polyester.

The production of short-staple yarns rose by approximately 4 per cent to around 30 mio tons. Here again, the VR China has a share of slightly less than 30 per cent. In the previous year, significantly higher investments were made both in ring spinning and in OE-rotor spinning. While sales of ring spindles rose by 7.0 per cent to a little more than 4 million spindles, deliveries of rotor spindles exploded, with an increase by approximately 40 per cent to 360,000 spinning positions.

Compared with this, both production and investments in the long-staple sector were on the decline. Th world output decreased slightly to a level of 4 mio tons and the investments cooled off by around 20 per cent. While investments in the PR China were made for mill modernisation, investments in Turkey were for further expansion of production capacities. The volume in the global nonwovens industry is estimated at 6 m tons, two thirds of which being nonwovens made of staple-fibres. This volume includes applications such as surgical cotton, needle felt and filling material, which are partly not taken into account in the statistics of the industrial and trade associations.

Summary: 51.8 million tons of yarn was produced in the previous year. While short-staple yarns are still predominant (57.5 per cent) in the market, filament yarns in the past have experienced a distinctly more dynamic development and already have a market share of 35 per cent (1980:21 per cent).

Source: Saurer