Changxing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang, China
www.kingsafe.com
2024 Nonwovens Sales: $840 million

Key Personnel
Huarong Yan, CEO; Yun Jan, general manager

Plants
Zhengjia, Guangdong, Wuhan, Chongqing, Tianjin, China

Processes
Spunlace, spunbond, meltblown, hot air, wetlaid, CAC

The latest news from Zhejiang Kingsafe Hygiene Materials, Huzhou, China, is the addition of two air through bonding nonwoven lines capable of making ultra-soft absorbent diapers, which are bringing the total number of ATB lines at the company to four. According to Yun Jan, general manager, these new lines are an upgrade compared to existing technologies.

“These lines feature double-carded technology that allow us to flexibly use more fine fibers and fibers that are low denier. This makes material that is thinner and softer,” he says.

Additionally, on the converting side of its business, Kingsafe has added two baby pull-up lines, bringing that total to eight.

“Our business novel in that we are vertically integrated,” Jan says. “By producing our own nonwovens to use in our converting business, we gain a competitive edge, flexibility and a cost advantage.”

Kingsafe’s converting operation, known as, Uniquality, was founded in 2012. It originally focused on producing wet and dry wipes but expanded two years later with baby diaper manufacturing. In 2018, Youquan Life was established to independently operate Uniquality’s own brand products, with its headquarters in Hangzhou.

“The extension from raw materials to end products was a carefully considered decision, offering numerous advantages in terms of the industrial chain, mainly reflected in cost control, quality assurance, technical synergy and risk management,” says Fred Li, regional director, Americas Area, Kingsafe Group. “Producing nonwoven fabric in-house reduces intermediate elements, lowers packaging and transportation costs, thereby reducing the raw material costs for wet wipes, dry wipes and diapers.”

In 2020, Uniquality saw an opportunity for further expansion with the breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic. Responding to market demands, the company added a new factory in Changxing, Zhejiang, in 2021, and established a branch in Wuhan, Hubei, in 2022, making its wet and dry wipes production capacity among the top three in China. Growth for the company continued into 2023, with a new factory for baby diapers put into operation. The site, designed with a production capacity of 28 lines for diapers, training pants and menstrual pants, is also equipped with an internationally advanced laboratory and testing center. There are currently eight production lines in operation, with plans to increase to 16 by 2026 and to complete all planned lines by 2028.

This year, Uniquality is establishing its first production site outside of China, in Vietnam, which is expected to officially start operations later this year. According to Jan, this site will not only focus on converting but will also house nonwovens production lines, to serve both internal and external needs, but its main focus will be converting.

Back to the company’s nonwovens operation, Kingsafe operates a sizable spunlace business. Recent investments include a line capable of processing either 100% biodegradable fibers or blends of polyester and viscose and is dedicated to the production of hygiene and medical fabrics. The final products will have fabric weights ranging from 30 to 100 gsm, and the annual production capacity will be up to 18,000 tons.

Additionally, with the acquisition of Nantong Weier Nonwovens New Material Co., Ltd., Kingsafe added a flushable, degradable line plus wood pulp composition function with 6000 tons of annual production capacity. In the future, the company will make further investments based on market development needs.

“China is seeing a big increase in the penetration of new products,” Jan says. “Greater acceptance is a big part of why absorbent hygiene is growing, even though the lower birth rates can present some challenges.”

Plants: Zhengjia, Guangdong, Wuhan, Chongqing, Tianjin, China
Processes: Spunlace, spunbond, meltblown, hot air, wetlaid, CAC

The latest news from Zhejiang Kingsafe Hygiene Materials, Huzhou, China, is the addition of a 21,000 ton-per-year carded/airlaid/carded sandwich spunlace line, the only line of its kind in Asia, in 2022. This new line is ideal for the production of dry and wet wipes with a weight range from 60-100 gsm.

This new investment has allowed Zhejiang Kingsafe to continue to diversify its offerings to the wipes market. The company has also recently added a 10,000-ton-per-year wetlaid line serving the flushable wipes market.

Before these investments, Zhejiang Kingsafe already operated a sizable spunlace business. In 2022, the company added its ninth Andritz-supplied spunlace line, a high capacity eXcelle line capable of processing either 100% biodegradable fibers or blends of polyester and viscose and is dedicated to the production of hygiene and medical fabrics. The final products will have fabric weights ranging from 30 to 100 gsm, and the annual production capacity will be up to 18,000 tons.

“We are proud to operate Andritz nonwoven lines, which are very reliable and efficient,” says Kingsafe’s president Huarong Yan. “The company helps us a lot in producing top-of-the-range, nonwoven roll goods, enabling us to be recognized as a key player among nonwovens producers worldwide.”

Zhejiang Kingsafe founded in 1987, is one of the largest companies in China producing spunlace and spunbond nonwoven roll goods, with several spunlace lines already in operation. The final products are exported all over the world and used in many fields, such as the medical sector, health care, high-tech agriculture and high-quality consumer and household products.

In recent years, the production of wipes and nonwoven fabrics for wipes will become the top priority for Kingsafe. Therefore, the company made a number of investments including new facilities in Guangdong, Wuhan, Chongqing and Tianjin, as well as the expansion of its Huzhou facility. Additionally, with the acquisition of Nantong Weier Nonwovens New Material Co., Ltd., Kingsafe added a flushable, degradable line plus wood pulp composition function with 6000 tons of annual production capacity. In the future, the company will make further investments based on market development needs.

Kingsafe started its business with manufacturing garment fusible interlinings three decades ago, and today, its interlining business continues to be one of the company’s three major businesses.

Plants: Zhengjia, Guangdong, Wuhan, Chongqing, Tianjin, China
Processes: Spunlace, spunbond, meltblown, hot air

The latest news from Zhejiang Kingsafe Hygiene Materials, Huzhou, China, is the addition of a high-capacity spunlace eXcelle line in late 2022. The line is able to process either 100% biodegradable fibres or blends of polyester and viscose and is dedicated to the production of hygiene and medical fabrics. The final products will have fabric weights ranging from 30 to 100 gsm, and the annual production capacity will be up to 18,000 tons.

The new line is now the ninth spunlace line supplied by Andritz and the third with high-speed TT cards.

“We are proud to operate Andritz nonwoven lines, which are very reliable and efficient,” says Kingsafe’s president Huarong Yan. “The company helps us a lot in producing top-of-the-range, nonwoven roll goods, enabling us to be recognized as a key player among nonwovens producers worldwide.”

Zhejiang Kingsafe founded in 1987, is one of the largest companies in China producing spunlace and spunbond nonwoven roll goods, with several spunlace lines already in operation. The final products are exported all over the world and used in many fields, such as the medical sector, health care, high-tech agriculture and high-quality consumer and household products.

In recent years, the production of wipes and nonwoven fabrics for wipes will become the top priority for Kingsafe. Therefore, the company has taken a series actions including new facilities in Guangdong, Wuhan, Chongqing and Tianjin as well as the expansion of its Huzhou facility.  Additionally, with the acquisition of Nantong Weier Nonwovens New Material Co., Ltd., Kingsafe added a flushable, degradable line plus wood pulp composition function with 6000 tons of annual production capacity. In the future, the company will make further investments based on market development needs.

Kingsafe started its business with manufacturing garment fusible interlinings three decades ago, and today, its interlining business continues to be one of the company’s three major businesses.

Plants: Zhengjia, Guangdong, China
Processes: Spunlace, spunbond, meltblown, hot air

In 2020, Kingsafe tripled the sales of spunbond nonwovens, increased its spunlace business by more than 150%, and increased sales of wipes (OEM) by about $123 million (RMB800 million) as the company has shifted its focus toward wipes and spunlace manufacturing, according to Yan Huarong, CEO.

Kingsafe started its business with manufacturing garment fusible interlinings three decades ago, and today, its interlining business continues to be one of the company’s three major businesses. The other two are nonwovens and wipes. As the market has matured, the growth rate of the fusible interlinings business has slowed down to about 10% every year, with sales currently around RMB400 million. The company hopes to keep this business steady by focusing on high quality in the future.

Beyond interlinings, Kingsafe also makes spunlace, spunbond, air through and absorbent cotton nonwovens. Among these, the spunlace business is growing the most quickly, with an annual capacity of 220,000 tons on 19 lines. The spunbond business, meanwhile, comprises 10 lines, which produce 80,000 tons of roll goods each year. One of the spunbond lines is a 3.2 meter SSMMS line while the others are SMS lines. The company’s two air through lines produce 6000 tons of roll goods per year, and the annual capacity of the absorbent cotton production line is 4000 tons.

Looking ahead, Kingsafe will complete a second phase of facility construction in Huzhou, China, which will allow it to make 10,000 tons of absorbent cotton materials per year. Kingsafe also has plans to establish production plants in Guangdong, Chongqing, Tianjin and Wuhan, all in China.

According to Huarong, chairman of Kingsafe, the company’s strategy is growing with high-efficiency and high-quality materials based on high capacity and focusing on the wipes business and spunlace manufacturing.

The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 dramatically increased the demand of medical protective goods. In order to help ease the desperately short supply of masks in China in early 2020, Kingsafe remodeled its existing three SMS spunbond-meltblown lines and shifted them all into meltblown nonwovens production. As soon as the situation got under control in China, and the number of overseas cases began increasing, Kingsafe shifted its SSMMS and SMS production lines to manufacture nonwovens for protective garments. Its maximum monthly capacity climbed to 70 tons of product, which were all exported to overseas markets.

Today, wipes in the market can be classified mainly as baby wipes, adult wipes and hospital disinfection wipes, with baby dry wipes and adult dry wipes developing quickly. “We see more and more consumers recognizing the advantages of wipes and using them as daily necessities,” Huarong notes. “Meanwhile, as the volume of wipes keeps increasing, the price decreased 2/3 compared to five years ago, and the cost is expected to drop further in the future.”

In 2020, Kingsafe sold more than four times the amount of spunbonded nonwovens and 2.5 times of spunlace nonwovens compared to the year before. “Recently, we delivered about 200 containers to a customer in the U.S. each month, all these nonwovens will be processed as disinfectant wipes,” Huarong says.

Additionally, with the acquisition of Nantong Weier Nonwovens New Material Co., Ltd., Kingsafe added a flushable, degradable line plus wood pulp composition function with 6000 tons of annual production capacity. In the future, the company will make further investments based on market development needs.

The production of wipes and nonwoven fabrics for wipes will become the top priority of Kingsafe. Therefore, the company has taken a series actions. So far, a new factory has been built in Guangdong. “In the second half of 2019, we set up the Wuhan plant. We will have the Chongqing plant and Tianjin plant in 2021 and 2022. In addition, we will expand our Huzhou facility,” Huarong explains. “In terms of production lines, we will install 12 more production lines. Two of them are spunbond lines and the remaining 10 are spunlace lines.”

Plants: Zhengjia, Guangdong, China
Processes: Spunlace, spunbond, meltblown, hot air

Zhejiang Kingsafe Group is a high-tech enterprise integrating production, research and development, design and sales of nonwoven materials and hygiene products. The company operates a range of advanced production equipment and technology from Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan at its plants in Zhejiang and Guangdong. This enables the company to provide a variety of products including spunlace nonwoven fabric, functional composite nonwoven fabric, filament fiber fabric and other products.

Based on positive outlook for future medical and hygiene market needs in nonwovens, wet wipes, dry soft wipes and baby diapers, Kingsafe has extended its value chain with heavy investment in materials for wet wipes, dry soft wipes and baby diapers. At the end of 2017, two additional hot air nonwovens production lines were added and in June 2018, one Dilo spunlace line with two parallel carding machines were put into operation, adding 6000 tons of hot air nonwovens and 18,000 tons of spunlace nonwovens to the annual capacity.

Kingsafe has been focusing on investing in research and development and developing high and new nonwovens materials and products for years.

The company also formed Zhejiang Provincial Nonwoven Material Institute, Zhejiang Kingsafe Composite Nonwoven Fabric Institute, and established a post-doctoral workstation on the base of “Zhejiang provincial ecological interlining research and development center” and “Zhejiang Kingsafe Nonwoven Fabric Co., Ltd, Zhejiang provincial enterprise technology center.” With local talents and first-class testing equipment and instruments imported from Germany, Switzerland, Japan and other countries, the company is ambitious to keep growing and expanding in the nonwovens industry value chain with plans to establish new plants in Wuhan and Xi’an to produce more value added high performance products.

The company also will expand its presence in South, West, Central, Northwest, and North China and gradually cover the inland market of China with an aim to increase its marketshare in the country.

Plants: Zhengjia, Guangdong, China
Processes: Spunlace, spunbond, meltblown, hot air

Zhejiang Kingsafe Group is a high-tech enterprise integrating production, research and development, design and sales of nonwoven materials and hygiene products. The company operates a range of advanced production equipment and technology from Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan at its plants in Zhejiang and Guangdong. This enables the company to provide a variety of products including spunlace nonwoven fabric, functional composite nonwoven fabric, filament fiber fabric and other products.

Based on positive outlook for future medical and hygiene market needs in nonwovens, wet wipes, dry soft wipes and baby diapers, Kingsafe has extended its value chain with heavy investment in materials for wet wipes, dry soft wipes, and baby diapers. At the end of 2017, two additional hot air nonwovens production lines were added and in June 2018, one Dilo spunlace line with two parallel carding machines were put into operation, adding 6000 tons of hot air nonwovens and 18,000 tons of spunlace nonwovens to the annual capacity.

Kingsafe has been focusing on investing in research and development and developing high and new nonwovens materials and products for years.

The company also formed Zhejiang Provincial Nonwoven Material Institute, Zhejiang Kingsafe Composite Nonwoven Fabric Institute, and established a post-doctoral workstation on the base of “Zhejiang provincial ecological interlining research and development center” and “Zhejiang Kingsafe Nonwoven Fabric Co., Ltd, Zhejiang provincial enterprise technology center.” With local talents and first-class testing equipment and instruments imported from Germany, Switzerland, Japan and other countries, the company is ambitious to keep growing and expanding in the nonwovens industry value chain with plans to establish new plants in Wuhan and Xi’an to produce more value added high performance products.

The company also will expand its presence in South, West, Central, Northwest, and North China and gradually cover the inland market of China with an aim to increase its marketshare in the country.

In  July 2018, Kingsafe hosted the “Win in the Future” event at the Intercontinental Hotel in Shanghai and launched three new baby diaper lines in the presence of nationwide disposable personal care product manufacturers and distributors from baby diapers, wet wipes, dry soft wipes and facial mask segments.

Plants: Zhengjia, Guangdong, China
Processes: Spunlace, spunbond, meltblown, hot air

Zhejiang Kingsafe Group is a high-tech enterprise integrating production, research and development, design and sales of nonwoven materials and hygiene products. The company operates a range of advanced production equipment and technology from Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan at its plants in Zhejiang and Guangdong. This enables the company to provide a variety of products including spunlace nonwoven fabric, functional composite nonwoven fabric, filament fiber fabric and other products.

Compared to 2016, in 2017, Kingsafe’s sales increased 3.9% to $385 million while volumes increased 17.6% to 80,940 tons. Based on positive outlook for future medical and hygiene market needs in nonwovens, wet wipes, dry soft wipes and baby diapers, Kingsafe further extended its value chain with heavy investment in materials for wet wipes, dry soft wipes, and baby diapers. At the end of 2017, two additional hot air nonwovens production lines were added and in June 2018, one Dilo spunlace line with two parallel carding machines were put into operation, adding 6000 tons of hot air nonwovens and 18,000 tons of spunlace nonwovens to the annual capacity.

Kingsafe has been focusing on investing in research and development and developing high and new nonwovens materials and products for years.

The company also formed Zhejiang provincial nonwoven material institute, Zhejiang Kingsafe Composite Nonwoven Fabric Institute, and established a post-doctoral workstation on the base of “Zhejiang provincial ecological interlining research and development center” and “Zhejiang Kingsafe Nonwoven Fabric Co., Ltd, Zhejiang provincial enterprise technology center.” With local talents and first-class testing equipment and instruments imported from Germany, Switzerland, Japan and other countries, the company is ambitious to keep growing and expanding in the nonwovens industry value chain with plans to establish new plants in Wuhan and Xi’an to produce more value added high performance products.

The company also will expand its presence in South, West, Central, Northwest, North China and gradually cover the inland market of China with an aim to increase its marketshare in the country.

In  July 2018, Kingsafe hosted the “Win in the Future” event at the Intercontinental Hotel in Shanghai and launched three new baby diaper lines in the presence of nationwide disposable personal care product manufacturers and distributors from baby diapers, wet wipes, dry soft wipes and facial mask segments.

Although China and the U.S. are rivals on trade issues with tariff increases in many sectors, currently there is no clear impact on the nonwovens business—because few nonwoven roll goods are exported to the U.S.  as the country leads the business in production and technology development perspective around the world.  The raw material price decrease and the local demand increase may be good news, but the dollar appreciation should also be considered.

Plants: Zhengjia; Guangdong
Processes: Spunlace, spunbond, meltblown, hot air

Zhejiang Kingsafe Group is a high-tech enterprise integrating production, research and development, design and sales of nonwoven materials. After years of development and expansion, the company has a range of advanced production equipment and technology from Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and other countries and regions. The lines span many types of technologies including spunlace nonwoven fabric, functional composite nonwoven fabric, filament fiber fabric and other products, in both international and domestic markets with an excellent reputation and popularity.

The company insists on developing high and new modern textile materials as its target, with new nonwoven material products as its main business and will take the lead in nonwoven material products, thus realizing overall development of scale, efficiency, innovation, brand and quality.

Based on the “Zhejiang provincial ecological interlining research and development center” and “Zhejiang Kingsafe Nonwoven Fabric Co., Ltd, Zhejiang provincial enterprise technology center,” the company formed Zhejiang provincial nonwoven material institute, Zhejiang Kingsafe Composite Nonwoven Fabric Institute, and also established a postdoctoral workstation at the same time. The institute, the provincial technology center, has 1200 square meters. The first-class testing equipment and instruments are imported from Germany, Switzerland, Japan and other countries.

The original value of the equipment is as much 15 millions yuan, plus more than 60 million yuan spent on research and development each year. At the same time, equipped with computer and information technology equipment, with good R&D and test conditions, Kingsafe produces world class nonwoven materials.

For many years, Kingsafe has developed a new type of nonwoven material that has been included in the national spark program, the torch program and in national new products. It has five items in the national torch program, three items in the national and provincial spark program, 12 items in national high-tech products, three items in provincial major science and technology projects, two items in provincial excellent industrial new products, 93 items in provincial new products, eight items in provincial, city and country of science and technology progress prize, 84 items of authorized national patents, including 23 items of innovation patents and two computer software copyrights. Through the implementation of these projects, the industrialization of the new products and new technology has been accelerated, and the technology, craft, equipment level of the company has been significantly improved. High technology content, high added value, high quality new product development and industrialization have become the new growth point of the company.