2019 The Calm Before the Storm

In 2019, things seemed to be slowing down in the nonwovens industry. After a few years of ambitious investment as well as some pretty aggressive merger and acquisition activity, last year many of the major makers of nonwovens seemed to be taking time to evaluate their assets and focusing on innovation. This has meant that there wasn’t too many major changes in the rankings in this year’s top companies report. No one new was added and no one dropped out.

Of course, 2020 has been a completely different story. As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe during the first and second quarters of 2020, nonwovens producers swiftly mobilized adding capacity and shifting their focus to technologies and products to help stop the spread of the virus.

In fact, many industry experts are saying that the level of investment in and demand for nonwovens is unprecedented. It is finally the industry’s time to shine as world leaders spotlight the fabrics that go into face masks, surgical gowns and other personal protective equipment.

This has led nonwovens producers who have never before been involved in face masks and medical gowns to quickly reallocate assets. Construction specialist Johns Manville has set up production of medical gowns and face masks in North America; Fitesa is rumored to be adding a meltblown asset; Tenowo’s U.S. site applied technology normally used in automotives to medical gown production

Also, companies with experience in these markets have significantly boosted their capacity. Berry Global has not only boosted its meltblown capacity on four continents, it has also forward integrated into face mask production with the installation of nine lines globally. DuPont has launched a program that not only has improved its Tyvek nonwovens for protective gowns but partnered with converters to help make them more quickly. Jacob Holm partnered with Under Armour to make medical gowns and masks for first responders, boosting its output so significantly that the company announced a global investment program. Filtration specialist Lydall, with the help of the U.S. Department of Defense, is adding two meltblown lines in Rochester, NH, to supply the facial mask market.

The list goes on and the nonwovens industry is going to face a level of expansion not seen before as these new lines come onstream across the globe. While they will initially target demand for PPE caused not just by this current pandemic but also governments’ calls to stockpile these items for future situations. Still, this level of demand can’t go on forever so it will eventually be up to these companies to find new uses and markets for these fabrics. If the past is any indicator, nonwovens producers will meet this call.

By the Numbers

This year’s top companies report includes 40 nonwovens producers located around the world. While many of the leading companies are based in established markets like the U.S. and Western Europe, companies from less developed areas are increasing their role. This year, there are companies based in many developing countries like Brazil, Turkey, China, Taiwan and the Czech Republic. As companies in these emerging markets continue to grow, surely we will see their ranking positions climb in future years.

As is always the case, each company in this survey is ranked on the basis of their 2019 sales, which were translated from local currencies into U.S. dollars using the yearly average. Many economic factors like exchange rates and raw material pricing can skew the ranking so, while ranking companies by sales is necessary to the nature of this report, it is really the activities of these companies—as reported in their profiles—that should be considered. All sales figures were provided by the companies except in some cases, such as Kimberly-Clark, Saudi German Nonwovens, and Johns Manville, which were estimated.

Karen McIntyre, Editor
kmcintyre@rodmanmedia.com