New materials,New momentum &New trends

Original by Niu Fang,

Translated by Shen Da

The world New Fiber Materials Forum & the 23rd China International Manmade Fiber Conference (Xiaoshan 2017)

China is faced with external and internal development pressures, where the world economy is gestating depth adjustment to accelerate the upgrade of manufacturing industry, while China’s economy has entered the new normal to promote the supply-side structural reform. So, as an important raw material in the various fields of textile industry, the fiber has been endowed with more connotation and value.

On September 26th, the world New Fiber Materials Forum & the 23rd China International Man-made Fiber Conference (Xiaoshan 2017) was held at Hangzhou International Expo Center, the same venue with G20 Summit.The opening ceremony was presided over by Duan Xiaoping, vice president of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), and chairman of China Chemical Fibers Association.

Duan Xiaoping pointed out: “The field of new fiber materials is one of the hot spots of the global manufacturing industry in the future, and also an important opportunity for China’s chemical fiber industry to achieve transformation and upgrading, as well as sustainable development. Under such background, in order to roundly promote the development of high-tech fiber materials industry,to accelerate the upgrading of raw materials, and to promote the transformation from a large textile country to a powerful textile country, the 23rd China International Man-made Conference upgrades as the World New Fiber Materials Forum.”

The session of The World New Fiber Materials Forum was the first international conference in China, focusing on frontier technology of the global new materials, which fully embodied China’s urgent needs to seek new development momentum for the upgrading of the industry.

There were more than 600 people attending the conference, including the leaders of relevant departments, represents of enterprises, as well as experts and scholars from different countries.

Prospect forecast

The advanced fiber materials will usher in an important period of strategic development opportunities in the next 20 years.

Gao Yong, Party Secretary and Secretary-general of China Nation Textile and Apparel Council, indicated in his address: “At present, a new round of technological revolution and industrial revolution is shovel-ready, so information technology and new energy, new materials,and biotechnology will lead to the adjustment of industry competition. With the representative of high performance fiber and biological fiber, the new material industry is accelerating the development, such as the fields of aerospace, new energy automobile and so on. It’s expected that the advanced fiber materials will usher in an important period of strategic development opportunities in the next 20 years, with the growth of 15% each year, so we must attach importance to the exchange of new fiber materials industry with the industry of other countries,to promote the rapid development of new fiber materials in China.”

International viewpoints

Japan: To meet the global growing demands of fibers mainly depends on man-made fibers.

The vice president of Japan Chemical Fiber Association made a keynote report on the medium and short term development prediction of global chemical fibers, and the development trend of industrial fibers.

He indicated that, based on the increasing demand, and the enhancement of environmental and safety awareness, the demands of fibers would continue to grow as a whole. In the future, the production capacity of synthetic fiber is expected to increase by 2.6% per year, and reach 70.80 million tons in 2020. The gap between production capacity and consumption will reach 22.50 million tons. In the long run, chemical fiber has promoted the growth of global demands, which is estimated at 103.5 million tons by 2020.

Europe: The international market of industrial textiles will be further expanded.

Frédéric VAN HOUTE, president of International Rayon and Synthetic Fiber Committee and Europe Textile Polyolefin Association, delivered a speech on the development prospect of European technology textile under the background of Industry 4.0.

He put forward that at present, the application of industrial textiles in various terminal industry has been growing, such as medical industry, agriculture, architecture,packing, and automobile environmental protection, etc. Among them, automobile industry and medical industry had the largest demands for industrial textiles. In 2014,the global industrial textiles market was 155.5 billion USD, and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) would exceed 4% in 2015-2022. The industrial textiles is expected to reach 42.2 million tons by weight in 2020, and the CAGR would be around 4.68%from 2015 to 2020.

以世界阿爾茨海默病日為契機，中央電視臺自9月份以來聯合多家媒體推出大型公益活動“我的父親母親”，呼吁中國人關注全國高達1000萬人的阿爾茨海默病患者群體。其中，央視在全國范圍內為該病征名的活動最為引人注目。2012年10月10日，衛生部在新聞發布會上對此回應說，1995年審定公布的“神經病學醫學名詞表”中沒有“老年癡呆癥”這個名詞。醫學術語對其嚴格的表述是：阿爾茨海默病(曾稱老年早期癡呆癥)。

Due to the increased awareness of technical textiles, it’s expected that North American countries will become the fastest growing market for global industrial textiles during the period of 2015 to 2020. While the production of industrial textiles will be faster than that of any other countries in China, because of its huge population and technology development. In Europe, medical industry, industrial engineering and sportswear will become the main market for industrial textiles.

Frédéric VAN HOUTE said: “The international market of industrial textiles will be further expanded, therefore, manufacturers in both developed countries and developing countries will compete for global market share. The expansion will take place in Europe, and especially in emerging BRICs in Asia. Manufacturers will continue to produce differentiated products to remain competitiveness, especially in Europe. Technological innovations will play an important role in the future development of the global large industrial textiles and textile market.”

India: Strong GDP promotes the growth of chemical fiber industry.

KAPUR, secretary general of India Synthetic Fiber Association, delivered a speech entitled “Development Trends and Characteristics of India Textile Fiber Industry”.

KAPUR introduced that India’s annual GDP growth was 6.8% in 2016, and it was expected to be 7.2% in 2017, while it would continue to increase in the next five years,up to 8.2% in 2020. The strong GDP promoted the growth of chemical fiber industry,meanwhile, India was also the country with the highest consumer confidence index.The high-speed urbanization would promote man-made fiber consumption, and the government would continue to publish a series of measures to promote the growth of downstream industry. Meanwhile, the low cost also made India one of the world’s lowcost manufacturing base, so India was confident to increase market share in global trade in the future.

Piao Shengdong, president of Korea Chemical Fibers Association, introduced the development of environment friendly chemical fiber products in South Korea.

He put forward: “The production capacity and actual output of chemical fiber in South Korea have been declining since 2000. The production capacity declined from 2.99 million tons in 2000 to 1.72 million tons in 2016, down by 42%. The actual output decreased from 2.63 million tons in 2000 to 1.37 million tons in 2016, down by 48%.” He indicated that at present, the cost of production structure was high, while the efficiency was low. The proportion of manufacturing industry was high, and it seriously depended on fossil fuels; the production of polyester and nylon accounted for 96.3%; the productivity ration of clothing, home textile and industrial textiles was 56:14:30.

To solve the above problems, he said KCFA made the following measures: firstly, to increase the fiber recycling and development efforts of biodegradable fibers; secondly,to increase the development of high performance fibers and optimization of production technology, and adopt DPT to decrease pollution and achieve high quality fiber. Thirdly,to use LCA to develop environmentally friendly fibers, such as dyeable polypropylene fiber with low melting points and dyeable fiber at atmospheric pressure.

He indicated that the future direction of Korean chemical fiber is to replace petroleum-based materials, recycled fibers and energy saving fibers.

Taiwan: Differentiated thinking, strategies and products

Yu Linghua, deputy secretary general of Taiwan Man-made Fiber Manufacturing Industry made a speech on the development strategy and thinking of Taiwan high functional fiber and textiles.

She indicated that environmental protection has become a global consensus, and it was expected that the global environmental protection fiber market would exceed 20 million tons. Smart textiles have a bright future and it’s expected that shipments of global smart clothes will exceed 10 million in 2020.

In face of good prospects, the development ideas of Taiwan textile industry were differentiated thinking, strategies and products. In the aspect of high functional fiber and textiles, the strategy focused on high technology and multiple innovation, temperature management of clothing, intellectual management of health care apparel, research and development of industrial textiles, as well as environmental protection and energy saving.

In addition, she also introduced the top 10 products listed in Germany ISPO Munich Sports Show. She added that 70% functional fabric of international famous sports brands was from Taiwan, and Taiwan was the main supply area of the the world’s most advanced artificial fiber fabrics, according to WTO.

The conference also invited other guests to make speeches, including Andreas W.Englehardt, editor-in-chief of The Fiber Year, who indicated the development power and prospect from fiber to fabric; Zhao Jungui, vice president and secretary general of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, who delivered a speech on prospect of the development trend and supply and demand of global petroleum market and so on.

On September 27th, the sponsor organized four thematic forum: advanced technology of new fiber materials; R&D and application of advanced composite materials; intelligent manufacturing and intelligent textiles; high value of circular economy and fiber products, and salons, which brought professional, in-depth and subdivided feast.