EDANA, the global association of the nonwovens and related industries, released an overview of the high-level figures from the EDANA Statistics Report on Nonwovens Production and Deliveries for 2022. After a spike caused by the exceptional increase in demand for nonwovens materials in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, (+9.3% in 2020-2021), production in Greater Europe, including Western and Eastern European countries, Türkiye, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, is back on track. The figures, while lower than during COVID-19, have returned to pre-pandemic levels and it can be seen again a steady growth trend despite the economic and energy crisis, and the war in Europe. In 2022, compared to data from 2019, nonwovens production in Greater Europe increased in volume by 3.3% to reach 3,017,085 tonnes, and by 9.1% in surface area resulting in 85.8 billion square metres of nonwovens being manufactured.
EDANA’s Market Analysis and Economic Affairs Director, Jacques Prigneaux said that this conclusion can be refined according to the different production processes, saying that some processes, such as drylaid-hydroentangled and air-through bonding, recorded an even higher output in 2022 than in 2021. Prigneaux stated: “While, the production of other fiber-based materials, including drylaid, wetlaid, and airlaid technologies, were below the levels observed three years earlier. The production of spunmelt nonwovens was down again after peaking in 2021, but the 2022 output was still 8.1% over its 2019 level.”
In 2022, the most notable increase was in table linen applications
According to the report, similar conclusions were achieved awn from the end-use perspective. Nonwovens market segments such as hygiene, medical, building construction, filtration, electronic materials, and wipes, which were almost flat or had significantly decreased compared with their 2021 levels, were still well over figures observed in 2019. There were some exceptions in other durables applications, where nonwovens sales were still below 2019 levels: automotive interiors (-27.8%), agriculture (-13.1%), and civil engineering (-4.6%). In 2022, the most notable increase was in table linen applications, which exceeded both 2019 and 2021 levels.