Mixed fortunes for European PP

Spunmelt nonwoven fabrics have gone against the grain in the overall performance of polyolefins in the past two years, according to the latest report from EATP – the European Association for Textile Polyolefins.
Polyolefin Textiles in the Greater European Area is a unique analysis of the situation and the evolution of polyolefin fibres and textiles in Europe. It covers market developments in all kinds of polyolefin textile products in Western and Central Europe and Turkey. This includes a huge range of technologies and end-uses – fibres, yarns, fabrics, nonwovens, ropes and twine, carpets and rugs, FIBCs, agrotextiles, geotextiles, other technical textiles etc.
The polyolefin textiles industry in Europe, like all parts of the textile industry and most other manufacturing sectors, has been badly hit by economic recession. After an 8% decline in output volume in 2008, a further 7% decline is estimated for 2009.
Despite this disappointing performance, polyolefin textiles have proved to be more resilient than many other textile sectors. The market share of polyolefins in fibres and textiles has increased. In 2008, they accounted for 45% of all man-made materials used for textiles, and EATP estimates that this share increased further to 46% in 2009. Consumption of polyolefin textiles in 2009 was over  2.3 million tonnes.
Spunbond nonwovens were the star performer in 2008 and 2009, with increased output – even against a difficult market background. They grew by an estimated 4% even in 2009 and are now the largest sector in polyolefin textiles conversion.
The other large sectors of the polyolefin textiles industry are slit film and tape, staple fibres and filament yarn.
The largest end-use market is technical textiles, consuming 900,000 tonnes of polyolefins, in articles such as agrotextiles, geotextiles, strapping, packaging, construction and a wide range of other technical applications.
Carpet markets – the second largest end-use – demonstrated the difficulties of this sector, with PP consumption falling to 548,000 tonnes.
Hygiene and medical applications have continued to grow slowly, with consumption of PP in their processing reaching 540,000 tonnes.
Polyethylene usage has changed little, and is less than 10% of the total polyolefin textiles market.
Western Europe still accounts for most polyolefin textiles production, but the combined share of Turkey and Central Europe has risen to almost one third, the report finds.