Global consumption of spunlace nonwovens continues to grow. The latest exclusive data from Smithers – The Future of Spunlace Nonwovens to 2028 show that in 2023 world consumption will reach 1.85 million tonnes, worth $10.35 billion.
As with many nonwoven segments, spunlace resisted any downward trend in consumer purchases during the pandemic years. Volume consumption has increased at a +7.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2018, while value surged at an +8.1% CAGR. Smithers forecasts demand will accelerate further over the next five years, with a +10.1% CAGR pushing value to $16.73 billion in 2028. Across the same period consumption of spunlace nonwovens will increase to 2.79 million tonnes.
Wipes – Sustainability, Performance and Competition
Wipes are central to the ongoing success of spunlace. In the contemporary market these account for 64.8% of all spunlace variants produced. Spunlace will continue to grow its share in the overall wipes market in both consumer and industrial applications. For consumer wipes, spunlace produces a wipe with desired softness, strength and absorbency. For industrial wipes, spunlace combines strength, abrasion resistance and absorbency.
Of the eight spunlace processes covered by its analysis, Smithers shows that the fastest rate of increase will be in newer CP (carded/wetlaid pulp) and CAC (carded/airlaid pulp/carded) variants. This reflects the tremendous potential these have to produce plastic-free nonwovens; simultaneously avoiding legislative pressure on non-flushable wipes and meeting personal care brand owners’ demand for planet friendly material sets.
There are competing substrates used in wipes, but these face their own market challenges. Airlaid nonwovens are used in North America for baby wipes and dry industrial wipes; but airlaid production is subject to severe capacity limitations and this also faces strong demand from competing applications in hygiene components.
Coform is also used in both North America and Asia, but is heavily dependent on polypropylene. R&D into more sustainable coform constructions is a priority, although it will be several years before a plastic-free option is even close to development. Double recrepe (DRC) suffers from capacity limitation as well, and is only an option for dry wipes.
Within spunlace the main impetus will be to make plastics-free wipes cheaper, including the evolution of better dispersing flushable substrates. Other priorities include achieving better compatibility with quats, imparting higher solvent resistance, and boosting both wet and dry bulk.
Post time: Mar-14-2024