Chinese Enterprises Enter The Global Top 10 Nonwovens For The First Time

In September 2024, the nonwoven magazine Nonwovens Industry published on its official website a list of the world's top 40 nonwoven manufacturers ranked according to the sales volume in 2023. Zhejiang Jinsanfa Group Co., Ltd. ranked ninth with a sales volume of 840 million US dollars, becoming the first Chinese enterprise to enter the top 10 global nonwoven industry. Junfu Nonwovens, Nanliu, Yanjiang, Dalian Ruiguang The other five nonwoven enterprises from mainland China and Taiwan, such as Connexion, ranked 21, 23, 26, 28 and 35 respectively (see Table 1 for the detailed list).

The China Industrial Textile Industry Association compared and analyzed the changes of the world's top 40 nonwoven manufacturers since 2018 (Figure 1). From 2018 to 2023, the total sales of the top 40 will increase from 19.9 billion dollars to 22.6 billion dollars, with an average annual growth of 2.6%. The total sales of the top 10 will increase from 12.4 billion dollars to 14.6 billion dollars, with an average annual growth of 3.3%. However, compared with 2022, the sales of top 40 enterprises and top 10 enterprises decreased by 4% and 5.7% respectively. Among the 30 comparable enterprises, the sales of 16 enterprises will decline to varying degrees in 2023.

The concentration of the global nonwoven industry is increasing. In 2023, the sales of the top 10 enterprises will account for 64.8% of the sales of the top 40 enterprises; The sales of Calderbil and Berry International were 2.75 billion dollars and 2.6 billion dollars, respectively, ranking first and second in the world, while the sales of Oslon, the third, were 1.6 billion dollars, a difference of 1 billion dollars from the first two enterprises; Among the top 40 enterprises, the sales of six enterprises are all less than $100 million, while in 2018, only one enterprise has sales less than $100 million.

Figure 1 Changes in total sales of the world's top 40 nonwoven manufacturers and the top 10 nonwoven manufacturers from 2018 to 2023

　　 Source: Nonwoven Industry, China Industrial Textile Industry Association

　　 According to the regional distribution of the world's top 40 nonwoven manufacturers in 2024, the proportion of American enterprises is the highest, reaching 22.5%, and that of German enterprises is 10%. However, American and German enterprises account for 60% of the top 10 enterprises; The sales of American enterprises accounted for nearly 40% of the total sales of the top 40 enterprises, and the sales of German enterprises accounted for 16.7%. Six Chinese enterprises accounted for 15% of the top 40 enterprises and 8.3% of the sales. Among the top 20 enterprises, except for China's Jinsanfa Group, Brazil's Fitesa Group and Turkey's Gulsan Group, the other 17 are enterprises from developed countries.

Table 1 World Top 40 Nonwovens Manufacturers in 2024

　　 Source: Nonwovens Industry

Nonwovens Industry emphasized that the ranking of the world's top 40 nonwoven manufacturers is based on the sales volume of enterprises in 2023. In order to facilitate comparison, all sales volumes are converted from the local currency to US dollars (using the average exchange rate in 2023). The sales listed in the table are basically from the data provided by each company, and the data of several companies are estimated based on the industry news. Since the fluctuation of exchange rate and raw material price will have a significant impact on the ranking, the ranking is only for reference, and more attention should be paid to the innovative initiatives and investments made by these companies.

(Source: China Industrial Textile Industry Association)