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Textile manufacturing is one of the world’s oldest and most mature industries. Worldwide, textile production and consumption are growing at a rate of about 3% per year, with the most significant growth occurring in the developing countries. In the past thirty years, there has been a continued shift in the geographic location of the world’s textile production, first to the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand in the 1980s, and second to China (and India) after 1995 and away from the traditional production centers of the United States, Western Europe and Japan. These regions have suffered from the loss of their traditional export markets and major increases in imports, mainly from East Asian countries. In the United States in particular, the situation was exacerbated by the slowness of the U.S. textile industry to adopt modern high-speed production equipment. The only textile segments in the United States, Western Europe and Japan that remained unaffected by this geographic shift were the production of carpets, tire cord, technical textiles and nonwoven fabrics.
Textile chemical products range from highly specialized chemicals (such as biocides, flame retardants, water repellents and warp sizes) to relatively simple commodity chemicals or mixtures thereof (such as emulsified oils and greases, starch, sulfonated oils, waxes and some surfactants). Several thousand textile chemical specialties are sold, many of them quite similar and differing from one supplier to another merely in trade names and prices. Altogether, over sixty distinct functional chemical product classes are used in yarn formation, fabric pretreatment and finishing, textile laminating and coating, and other miscellaneous applications.
The global textile chemicals market had a value of over $8.5 billion in 2006 and is forecast to grow by 2–2.5% annually over the next five years. The volume growth of global textile chemical consumption in the past three years was about 3% per year, including growth in textile chemicals for apparel in China and India and for carpets and technical textiles in the United States and Western Europe. The increase in the value of textile chemical consumption over the past three years is attributable to a textile chemical price escalation of 10–20% on average (30% in cost-competitive countries such as China and 5–10% in less cost-competitive countries) caused by a dramatic increase in crude oil prices.
The following pie chart shows world consumption of textile chemicals:
In the United States, Western Europe and Japan, the textile chemicals market for apparel, sheets, curtains and towels has declined substantially, mainly because of increasing imports. Because the textile markets for carpets, nonwoven fabrics and industrial fibers in the United States, Western Europe and Japan have been largely unaffected by geographical shifts in textile production, the markets for binders used in carpet backcoatings and nonwoven fabrics have remained relatively strong, as have those for advanced textile finishes such as water/oil/soil repellents and flame retardants.
In the past ten years, Turkey has become a growing market for textile chemicals, based on strong cotton production and proximity to the markets in the European Union. For the next couple of years, the Turkish textile industry is expected to stagnate or grow only slowly (2%) due to increased competition from Chinese and Indian exporters; increasing labor, finance and energy costs in Turkey, which are considerably higher than those in China, India and Pakistan; the displacement of the production of low-quality products to low-cost countries such as Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, or the North Africa region; and the lack of support of the textile industry by the Turkish government.
Total consumption of textile chemicals in East Asia grew 17% per year on a volume basis during 2003–2006 and represented 43% of the world market in 2006. Consumption in this region will continue to increase at about 5.0% per year on average through 2011 and account for 50% of the world market. China has become the largest market for textile chemicals, surpassing the United States and Western Europe in the past three years, based on ever-growing apparel and textile production and on huge production of synthetic fibers and cotton. It remains to be seen, however, how long the textile boom in China is going to last at its current pace. The Chinese textile industry might experience rising production costs and will suffer from severe environmental protection measures.
Like China, India has become a fast growing market for textile chemicals, reflecting strong cotton and synthetic fiber production as well as the country’s growing domestic demand and increasing exports. The other textile chemical markets in East Asia are also influenced by China’s and India’s booming textile industries and will decline more slowly (e.g., –0.7% for Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia) or more rapidly (e.g., –3.6% for the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan).
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