Last year man-made fiber production in Asia shared for an 83% of world market or accounted for more than 36 million tons. As expected, China remained the biggest producer of man-made fiber with a total production of 26.3 million tons (11.2% increased) in 2009. For synthetic fiber business, the report shows that the total market increased 3.7% to 40.3 million tons last year. More details of production and consumption of major fiber types are shown as follows.

Cotton

                Oerlikon’s report shows that the current season’s world cotton production is speculated to decrease 4.8% to 22.3 million tons.  However, an increasing approval and cultivation of genetically modified cotton had resulted in an increase of cotton yields.  For cotton consumption, it is estimated to reach 25.2 million tons (5.4% increased).

                According to the Organic Cotton Market Report published by Organic Exchange (OE) in Texas (an organization that promotes the supply and use of organic cotton), it shows that in 2008/09 175,113 tons or 802,599 bales of organic cotton was produced on 625,000 acres of land in 22 countries, a 20% increase over 2007/08 production of 145,872 tons. In 2009 world retail sales of organic cotton apparel and home textiles increased 35% to a total of US$4.3 billion. It is speculated that the growth rate will continue to be 20-40%, reaching US$5.1 billion in 2010 and US$6 billion in 2011.

Wool

                In 2009 world production of wool decreased 7.4% to 1.1 million tons in which the production for apparel dropped 8% to 552,000 tons and that for interior textiles dropped 6% to 547,000 tons. Nearly half of the world production came from Australia, China and New Zealand.

Cellulosic fiber

                Last year world production of cellulosic fiber increased 7.7% to 3.8 million tons. However, the output of filament was down by 5.4% to 351,000 tons. On the contrary, the output of viscose staple fiber increased 11.4% to 2.7 million tons due to a growing demand in nonwovens, textile applications and flame retardant products as well as due to a shortage of cotton fiber in the market. Market statistics have shown that currently China has a demand of high whiteness viscose fiber approximately at 4.5 million tons per year. Around 3 million tons of them are imported from Indonesia and Taiwan and the rest is from local production. For the sector of acetate tows, the production steadily increased 2.3% to 759,000 tons last year.

Polyester

                Last year world production of synthetic fiber increased 3.7%, reaching 40.3 million tons. For polyester fiber segment, the production of staple fiber and filament was found to increase by 5.3% to 31.9 million tons in which 12.6 million tons was from staple fiber production and the rest 19.3 million tons was from filament production. Among the total production of 31.9 million tons, China shared for 69% or approximately 22 million tons of polyester fiber in 2009.

                In terms of staple fiber segment, the production increased 4.4% to 12.6 million tons last year. Asia accounted for an 89% of the share with China remaining the biggest producer at a production of 7.9 million tons (9% increased). India was the second from China with a production of around 860,000 tons (15% increased), followed by Taiwan and South Korea with productions of 570,000 tons (13% increased) and 516,000 tons (5% increased) respectively. The output of staple fiber in other parts of the world was found to decline in 2009. In Greater Europe, the output was down by 14% to lower than 600,000 tons. Western Europe decreased its output to 268,000 tons (23% decreased) and CIS decreased by 18% to 82,000 tons. In the Americas, the output was down by 15% to approximately 725,000 tons.

                Last year the production of polyester industrial yarn decreased 6.1% to nearly 1.1 million tons due to the downturn in the automotive industry. Production in Greater Europe and the Americas dropped by 44% and 19% respectively. On the contrary, China’s output was up by 22% reaching 550,000 tons, according to figures from the China Chemical Fiber Association.

Polyamide

                It was observed that last year products made of polyamide fiber increased in prices and this was due to the continuously rising prices of caprolactam to nearly doubling. Output of polyamide fiber was found to decrease by 1.4% to a total volume of 3.5 million tons. The fiber industry was further put in additional strain when the housing market in the United States depressed as well as the vehicle build rates decreased.  However, total output of polyamide yarn was up by 8.3% to 1.6 million tons. For polyamide industrial yarn segment, it was found that the business was down by 7.4% to 0.9 million tons. Carpet yarn also fell by 8% to 0.7 million tons and staple fiber dropped by 15.7% to 214,000 tons.

Polypropylene

                In 2009, world polypropylene market was down by 6.5% to 2.6 million tons due to a significant increase in fiber grade prices and a reduction of consumer spending for home textiles. Output of filament yarn was down by 12.7% to 1.5 million tons while application of staple fiber was up 3.5% to 1.1 million tons last year.

Acrylic

                Last year acrylic fiber production was found to increase 4.4% to 1.9 million tons.  This was the first growth for the acrylic fiber market after four years of contraction and losing a volume of 825,000 tons from a record high of 2.7 million tons in 2004.