World markets for technical textiles are growing by $ 23 bn during the period between 2005 and 2010 with Asian market share increasing to 4.5%. Generally the emerging economies, particularly in Asia show the highest growth rates in technical textiles. While Asia recorded 4.4% CAGR during the year 2005 - 10, America and Europe recorded around 3% CAGR during that period. China and India are expected to be the major global players in technical textiles in future. In categories,

Geotech, Indutech and buildtech

Geotech, Indutech and Buildtech are expected to have the highest growth technical textiles applications worldwide with CAGR of around 5% each during the period 2005 - 10. For Geotextiles, Asia/Pacific regions show highest growth rates. However, successful eo-tech companies in Europe are outgrowing the market with companies namely; Naue GmbH and Huesker Geosynthetics from Germany are growing around 10% CAGR during the period 2006 - 08. Also, in case of Indutech and Buidtech, companies in Europe, namely, Habasit (CH) and GKD are the leading companies in growth rates in production.

Nonwovens and Composite reinforcements

Nonwovens and Composite reinforcements are slated to be the high growth technologies of future. The nonwovens are growing at 8% CAGR during 1997 - 2012 with spun-laid nonwovens account for around 50% of the world nonwoven production. Reinforced composites are though growing in wide range of applications, above average growth is expected especially for the wind energy and aerospace segments.

Nonwovens

Nonwovens production in terms of application consist of Air-laid pulp (8%), wet-laid (4%), Spun-laid (48%) and carded (40%) as estimated for the year 2012. The spun bond is the fastest growing nonwoven production technology in the world during the period 1997 - 2012.

During the period 1997 - 2012, China had the highest growth rate in the nonwovens production in the world, which was CAGR of 16% followed by middle east with 10% CAGR.Source: Inda Indian nonwoven production is hardly 3% of the total nonwoven production in Asia while China account for 70% of the total nonwoven production in the Asian region as estimated during the year 2012.

Opportunity for India in nonwovens

Current percapita consumption of nonwovens in India is less than 100 gms, where as the percapita consumption of nonwovens in developed countries such as US and Western Europe is around 3 - 3.5 kg. The share of nonwoven production in India in the world is negligible and the share of Indian production in the Asian region is hardly 3%.

Composites

Composites are mainly produced by resin impregnation of –or Pre-impregnated fibre structures. The fibres give strength to the composite structure without adding undue weight. Composites can be categorised in to low performance that use chopped glass or glass mats as reinforcement and high performance by using fabrics of glass, polyester, aramide or carbon as reinforcement. In the field of composites, wind energy and aero space industries are the highest growth rate industries. In the commercial aircraft industry the composite usage was barely 5% during 1960s went up to 50% in 2000 and expected to go up to 80% in 2030s. There is a boom in the wind energy market across the world besides the growth of aerospace industry in North America and Europe has led 10% annual growth rate in composites manufacturing.

(Contributed by R M Shankar, ATIRA)