The nonwoven fabric industry is a segmented industry formed by the innovative industrial application of nonwoven technologies such as needle punching, hydroentangling, thermal bonding or chemical bonding in the traditional textile industry,which is applied to non woven machine. The principle is to directly use polymer slices, short fibers or filaments to orientate or randomly arrange to form a fiber network structure, and then use acupuncture, spunlace, thermal bonding or chemical methods to reinforce it, and finally finish the molding. The fabric formed without spinning and weaving is a new type of fiber product with soft, breathable and flat structure.
1. Industry Analysis
(1) Characteristics of the nonwoven fabric industry
Traditional textile technology adopts weaving and knitting to spin fibers into yarns, and then weaving the yarns to form fabrics. The production process is long and the number of workers is large. Nonwoven technology can directly use high polymer chips, short fibers or filaments for orientation or random arrangement to form a web structure, which is then reinforced by needle punching, spunlace, thermal bonding or chemical methods, and finally finished and formed, which is without the spinning process. Compared with the traditional textile industry, the nonwoven fabric industry has the characteristics of automation and digitization of production equipment, interdisciplinary composite production technology, fast innovation speed, short production process flow, small number of labor, low comprehensive cost, and high production efficiency. Nonwoven technology possesses great value in the textile industry.
(2) Trends of nonwoven fabric industry
The development of the nonwoven fabric industry mainly lies in its technological innovation and the application of the products. In terms of technological innovation, the first is to further enrich the functional characteristics of products through the development of multi-process composite, functional finishing, post-processing and other technologies, and to develop differentiated products that can be adapted to different needs. The innovation of the process further improves the production efficiency of the industry, and finally realizes the development of automation, digitalization, intelligent manufacturing and green manufacturing. In terms of product application, it is going to further expand the industrial application of nonwoven fabrics.
2. Market Analysis
(1) Development history
The nonwoven fabric industry originated in Europe and the United States in the 1950s, and was introduced to China for industrial production in the late 1970s. In the process of development, nonwoven fabrics have gradually evolved into a variety of processes such as spunbond, needle punch, hydroentanglement, chemical bonding, thermal bonding, air laying, wet laying, and melt blowing. According to the statistics of China Industrial Textiles Industry Association, the production process of China's nonwoven fabric industry is mainly spunbond. In 2019, the output of spunbond nonwoven fabrics was 3.0943 million tons, accounting for 49.80% of the total output of nonwoven fabrics, followed by acupuncture process accounting for 23.03%, spunlace process accounting for 11.23%, chemical bonding process accounting for 6.43%, thermal bonding process accounting for 5.33%, airlaid technology accounting for 2.47%, meltblown process accounting for 1.07%, and the wet process accounting for 0.64%.
(2) Features and advantages
Compared with traditional textiles, nonwoven fabrics have the following three major advantages: First, nonwoven fabrics have a wide range of raw materials and strong adaptability, and most of the natural and non-natural chemical fibers can be used for nonwoven fabric production. Second, nonwoven fabrics have a unique engineering structure and flexible production processes. Through various subsequent finishing processes, textiles with various functional characteristics can be produced, including filtration, reinforcement, isolation, etc., so their application range is wider. And it is expandable. Third, the production process of nonwoven fabrics is short, the number of labor is small, and the comprehensive cost is low. It has unique advantages in the field of many one-off consumption.
Based on the advantages of nonwoven technology and product performance, the nonwoven fabric industry has developed rapidly in many countries. At present, China has become the world's largest nonwoven fabric producer and consumer. According to the statistics of China Industrial Textiles Industry Association, in terms of investment in fixed assets of nonwoven fabrics, the country has been increasing investment in recent years.
(3) Industry prospects
In terms of application fields, the current application of nonwoven fabrics focuses on the penetration of high-tech and the use of new materials. The market volume of textiles for vehicles, footwear and artificial leather is also showing a new atmosphere. With its high added value and high efficiency competitive advantages, nonwoven fabrics have huge potential in the industry.
(4) Competitive Analysis
The development differentiation of enterprises in the industry has initially appeared, and a few outstanding enterprises have come to the fore. In recent years, with the development of the industry, some advantageous enterprises in the industry have accelerated their development by virtue of their advantages in scale, capital, technology and operation, focusing on the mining of production processes, the expansion of product types and the improvement of product quality. The improvement has enabled a few companies to establish a good reputation and brand influence in the industry first.
3. Risk Analysis
(1) Risk of price fluctuations of major raw materials
The main raw materials of nonwoven fabrics are viscose staple fiber, polyester staple fiber and ES fiber, and the raw materials account for about 80% of the main business cost of enterprises in this industry. If the prices of the above-mentioned materials fluctuate significantly in the future, it will have a certain impact on the company's product operations, and the company faces the risk of changes in profitability due to the fluctuations in the prices of major raw materials.
(2) Risk of macroeconomic fluctuations
Nonwoven fabric manufacturers are in the middle of the industrial chain, and their industry cyclicality and volatility are closely related to the cyclicality and volatility of the industries where downstream customers are located. The purchasing power and willingness of consumers finally determine the development of the nonwoven fabric industry. When the macro-economy is in a rising stage, consumers' purchasing intention and purchasing power will increase, and the strong downstream demand will drive the rapid development of the industry. When the macro-economy is in a downward stage, consumers' purchasing intention and purchasing power will slow down, and the development of the industry will also slow down. Therefore, if the macroeconomic growth slows down, the production, operation and profitability of nonwoven fabric enterprises will be adversely affected.
(3) Market competition risk
Although there are certain industry barriers in the nonwoven fabric industry, the good policy orientation and broad market space continue to attract new competitors to enter, and the industry competition continues to intensify. If enterprises in the industry cannot adapt to the competitive situation of the industry through capacity expansion and technological upgrading, their industry position and market share will face certain risks, which will adversely affect their operations.