Worldwide sales of nonwoven roll goods continued to increase at a mid-single digit growth rate in 2007, reaching nearly US$17 bn. Of the 2007 total, about 79% of sales, worth around US$13.4 bn, was generated by just 40 producers.
Sales of the 20 medium sized producers profiled in this report—which rank from number 11 to number 30 among the world’s leading companies—ranged individually from US$125 mn to US$237 mn and together accounted for about 18% of the global total.
The 20 companies ranking 11-30 include long established players as well as new ones. Hollingsworth & Vose has been in the business for more than 160 years but Pegas Nonwovens and Concert Industries are relatively new companies. Recent investments among the 20 companies include new lines in the Czech Republic and Denmark for Fibertex as well as new lines in China and Russia for Avgol—which is also upgrading its North Carolina lines. Companhia Providência plans to add two new spunmelt lines in the USA and Concert Industries is adding a new air-laid line in Germany. This will be the last year in which Western Nonwovens will be profiled in this series of reports as a separate entity. In mid-2008 the company filed for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code and most of its plants were subsequently sold to Milliken Industries. Another company which has faced difficulties is Propex Fabrics, the world’s largest manufacturer of needlepunch nonwovens. Propex also filed for protection under Chapter 11 in 2008, but in April 2009 it obtained approval to sell its assets as a going concern to an affiliate of Wayzata Investment Partners—a private equity firm.