2015 World Nonwovens Manufacturers Released

2015 world nonwovens producer 40 forecast release

This year, our global

Many significant changes have taken place in the list. This is mainly due to a series of mergers and acquisitions in 2013 and 2014, which disappears several names from the list, as well as new members and changes in the ranking of some companies.

Of course, the most noticeable changes are at the top of the list.

With many years of active investment, including some excellent acquisitions, Avintiv (formerly PGI) took the place of FreudenbergPerformanceMaterials (high tech high performance material) this year and reached the top of the list of top 40.

From the beginning of the 40 strong list, Freudenberg has been firmly in the top position every year, and this year they rank second in the list.

Avintiv's investments in the past few years have led many companies to disappear on this list. The latest acquisition is CompanhiaProvidencia, which is now incorporated into Avintiv's sales.

Another company is AndrewIndustries, a company that runs industrial filtration business and was bought by Lydall in early 2014.

this

It also increased the ranking of Lydall from twenty-first last year to fourteenth this year, and its company name is now changed to AndrewLydallIndustrialFiltraiton.

The other two acquisitions were JacobHolm and TWE.

The former increased about $200 million in sales through the acquisition of DuPont's Sontara Spunlaced business.

TWE group has increased its sales by buying Libeltex in Europe and VitaNonwovens in the US.

Other important initiatives include Suominen's ambitious growth plan, including the addition of a new production line in the United States and upgrading of production lines in Europe and South America.

In addition, Avgol has added a new production line in the United States, and FibertexNonwovens and Mogul have entered the North American market, and Tenowo has announced a comprehensive investment project.

This year's top 40 includes 41 nonwovens manufacturers worldwide.

The first company to be included in the list this year is the first producer from Saudi Arabia, AdvancedFabrics.

In recent years, the company has made considerable progress by investing in the most advanced spinning and melting equipment.

Meanwhile, KNH (Kang Naxiang) from China's Taiwan region and Japan's Unitika have returned to our list this year. This is the first time that the name of the first place is not Freudenberg, but Avintiv's stay will be very short.

The nonwovens manufacturer has just announced its acquisition by BerryPlastics, which previously provided thin film products for health products and other markets.

In addition to Avintiv and Freudenberg, the other ten companies remain basically unchanged, except that DuPont has fallen to fourth place due to the sale of Sontara business. The growth plan of the TWE group has also led to a decline in Bonar's ranking.

The ranking is based on the sales volume of each company in 2014. For comparison purposes, all sales are converted from US currency to US dollars.

Since exchange rate fluctuations will have a significant impact on the rankings, we should not stick to the ranking in the view of this report. We should focus on all the innovative initiatives and investments carried out by these companies.

In particular, the US dollar has to be strong in the euro this year, which has also brought a great impact on the rankings.

The sales figures listed in the form basically come from the data provided by the companies themselves. Besides Kimberly-Clark (Kimberly Clark), DuPont, FirstQuality and JohnsManville, the data of these companies are estimated based on the industry information.

1Avintiv

This will be the first and last row of Avintiv (formerly PGI) at the top of the top 40.

In 2014, the company increased its sales by a series of acquisitions, including Fiberweb and CompanhiaProvidencia, and became the largest nonwovens manufacturer in the world. However, it was acquired by BerryPlastics, plastic and film manufacturer not long ago.

Bringing Avintiv into the capsule will make BerryPlastics the world's largest nonwovens producer, and will also accelerate its expansion of the global health and healthcare market and reduce its dependence on food and beverage packaging business, which accounted for about 40% of the company's sales.

57% of Avintiv's $2 billion sales in 2014 came from health and health businesses, compared with 10% of Berry.

Berry and Avintiv already have some common key customers.

In fact, nine of Avintiv's top ten customers in the field are also important customers of Berry.

Avintiv provides polypropylene non-woven fabrics for diapers and sanitary materials for women's surface and water absorbing materials, while Berry sells base film materials and molded packaging materials.

2015 top 40 list of world nonwovens manufacturers

Berry most of its sales and production are located in North America, and Avintiv has established mature operational institutions on four continents and sells products worldwide.

"Avintiv has broader international tentacles, which will bring more advantages to Berry. We believe that Avintiv's leadership in many emerging markets will help drive the growth of the company."

Jon Rich, chairman and chief executive officer of Berry, said.

According to the company's data, 44% of Avintiv's sales last year came from North America, 26% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 20% from South America, and 10% from the Asia Pacific region.

The latest international investment of the company was the acquisition of Dounor in France in 2015, which further promoted the development of its European business, which increased about 40 thousand tons and 100 million US dollars in sales in the region.

"Dounor has grown into a top supplier of adult care and health materials in Europe and is an ideal complement to our business," said Avintiv CEO J. Joel Hackney. "This acquisition will enable us to better serve customers in the health products market, especially in northern Europe."

In the South American market, last year's acquisition of Companhia Providencia gave Avintiv a strong foothold in Brazil and a strong complement to recent investments and upgrades in Argentina, Mexico and Columbia.

The integration of Providencia has also brought Avintiv the most advanced spinning and melting equipment in North America. Now the company has a spinning and melting line in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Mexico.

Before Berry was bought, Avintiv seemed to be heading towards the IPO.

The company even applied for official documents earlier this year.

However, they did not have initial public offerings. Instead, they were acquired by Berry Plastics, a publicly traded company. Berry also looked forward to synergy with Avintiv in areas other than health and health services, such as wipes and construction markets. Avintiv provided substrates for the wipes market, providing coating materials and Geotextiles for the construction market. These can complement Berry products, such as film and adhesive tape products.

One area of competition between the two companies is

They can provide isolation clothing and respirators in the market, but the role of Avintiv in this market is obviously greater than that of Berry.

"Avintiv provides diversified products in the medical and health market," explains Rich. "One of our most exciting things is that we now have the opportunity to provide our customers with solutions that can reduce processing time and streamline the process."

For example, by integrating the purchase and production of absorbent materials and bottom films in baby diapers, they can now provide customers with a complete set of product solutions.

Avintiv's recent investment in technology is the expansion of Spinlace capacity in North Carolina.

The 300 million square meter Spinlace material, which is mainly for the wet towel market, has been put into operation in the third quarter of 2014. This enables Avintiv to better serve the global customers and support its continuous growth in global business.

At the same time, Avintiv owns several spinning and melting lines in Mexico, and now invest in advanced printing, cutting and packaging equipment.

This helps customers simplify supply chain and reduce supply chain risk.

The new equipment is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2015.

In addition to the field of disposable products, the company upgraded the equipment in Waynesboro, Virginia, to enhance its capacity to filter materials, including production facilities related to two nanotechnology.

Avintiv announced the first achievement of this investment at the end of 2014, Everist filter medium.

At the top of the company, the product is called the next generation of highly efficient filtration materials. The nanofiber based technology can achieve enhanced mechanical efficiency, low resistance and excellent dust holding capacity. It is an ideal solution for heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) and other companies that rely on highly efficient filtration media.

Everist is the result of three years of intensive research by the company. From the three aspects of filtration efficiency, low resistance and dust tolerance, Everist has met the highest standard and has good durability and continuous stability.

In fact, one of the important reasons for Avintiv's acquisition of Fiberweb is its production facilities in the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain and France, as well as a series of technologies and products in the field of industrial cloth, including filtration, roofing materials, geosynthetics and so on.

For Berry, because of its limited development in these markets, it is also very keen to help and integrate the unique advantages of Avintiv in this area, which is also one of the important reasons for their acquisition.

2 Freudenberg Performance Materials

Freudenberg ranked second this year, and ushered in a new name and new architecture.

At the beginning of this year, its parent company integrated Freudenberg Nonwovens and Freudenberg Politex Nonwovens into new Freudenberg Performance Materials (high tech high performance material).

The combined annual sales volume of the company is 905 million euros, and the market for it includes automotive interior, clothing, construction, sanitary products, medical treatment, shoe materials and special materials.

"Many products of previous Freudenberg Nonwovens and Freudenberg Politex Nonwovens have similar production technologies and applications," CEO Bruce Olson said. "Therefore, we can take advantage of the synergy of the entire value chain, such as expertise on materials."

He said that on the one hand it was a very young company, but at the same time it inherited the long and successful history of the previous company.

The new group will continue to be driven by the same value, adhering to the same guiding principles. Nonwovens are the core technology platform of the company. The establishment of high performance materials will continue to strengthen the core position of nonwovens.

"But our vision is not just that," he continued.

It is not only a new business name, it also represents a new strategic direction and task, hoping to provide customers with solutions from the perspective of not only nonwovens, to help them achieve success and increase profits.

On the same day when Polymer was launched, it also acquired the UK's Polymer Health Technology, a polyurethane foam supplier for advanced wound care applications.

With the completion of the acquisition, high tech materials can now provide more innovative solutions to modern wound care to its customers worldwide.

The Polymer Health Technology hydrophilic polyurethane foam system absorbs the exudates of the wound and creates an ideal environment to keep the wound dry and accelerate healing.

"Our substrates for advanced wound care dressings can help treat complex and difficult wounds, such as feet, legs and bedsore of diabetic patients," Olson said. "The design of non-woven fabrics and foam designed by CDC can provide customized and innovative solutions for advanced wound care: hydrophilic nonwovens, high absorbent nonwovens, hydrophilic foam and other customized solutions."

The newly developed nonwovens only have a thickness of 2 millimeters, but they can absorb exudates of 25 times their own weight.

Another important sector of high tech materials is its spunbond business, which is mainly used in the automotive, construction and bedding markets, and operates in North America, Europe and Asia.

In January 2014, Codbo announced a plan to upgrade its spunbond equipment in Durham, North Carolina and Kaiserslautern, Germany.

According to the company, this project will enable the company to produce non-woven fabrics with higher quality and better performance.

In Durham, they used advanced production technology to pform three spunbond lines, and upgraded the existing test line in Kaiserslautern, which provided a good platform for product development.

Codbo's spunbonded facilities in Taiwan, China, were not included in the project. In 2012, a new production line was added to help promote the development of the company in Asia.

In 2014, the growth of its business in Europe was mainly due to the economic recovery in southern Europe, especially in Italy and Spain.

A series of product innovations also contributed to growth.

The driving force of growth is mainly from elastic interlining and innovative gaskets, and the optimization of product positioning in key markets.

In 2015, interlining business was re operated as a global department, making it global.

The service of industry customers is more effective and efficient.

In August 2014, Codbo bought the H nsel brand lining business from H nsel Textil, Germany.

"H? Nsel brand will help him further strengthen its strength in the lining material field."

"As a leading textile manufacturer in the world, we can provide customers with more high-end lining materials solutions with the help of H nsel brand," explains Dr. Mohsen Sohi, chairman of the Management Committee of the group.

H? Nsel is an expert in high quality innovative lining materials in the international fashion industry.

"H? Nsel brand is famous for its quality and innovation," Olson said. "Nowadays, the textile industry is widely used in the fashion industry. We will look ahead and expand the product mix and related know-how in the textile industry."

In addition, Olson also believes that the synergy of logistics and procurement can create profit opportunities.

In terms of new products, Codbo developed the world's first nonwoven interlining made of 100% biodegradable polyester fiber.

This lightweight one.

The interlining has good water washability and is suitable for ironing.