EDITORIAL

TECHNICAL TEXTILES, INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

These days, more than 34 million tonnes of technical textiles are consumed across the globe. And this number is likely to reach 57 million tonnes by 2027.
The sector is foreseen to grow with a CAGR of 6.4% by 2022 due to the increasing demand for enhanced functionality, better performance and improved durability textiles for workwear, sport and leisure apparel, as well as for industrial, automotive and agriculture applications, just to mention a few. Moreover, Governments are adopting tougher regulations and instituting new stringent standards for health, safety and environmental compliance in both developed and developing countries.
In this segment of the textile industry, in addition, the ability to deliver customized solutions trumps the ability to churn out huge volumes at cheap prices, leading to a growing number of companies which are showing interest towards these higher profitability fabrics.
In this scenario, woven technical textiles play a central role, since weaving remains the most flexible, convenient and high added value technology to produce these particular fabrics. In fact, the wide range of densities and materials that can be processed guarantees endless possibilities and the opportunity to switch production with limited added costs.

Technical textiles can be divided into 12 sub-categories:

	Agrotech agricultural use
	Buildtech construction
	Cloth-tech functional apparel
	Geotech civil engineering
	Hometech curtains and other domestic textiles
	Indutech filters and other industrial applications
	Medtech healthcare
	Mobiltech transportation
	Ecotech environmental protection
	Pack-tech packaging materials
	Protech protective textiles
	Sportech athletics

Mobiltech and Buildtech are currently seeing particularly rapid increases in demand thanks to factors such as:

• strong growth in automotive production and infrastructures
• increased quantity of textiles used in cars and construction to meet lightweight and functionality needs

Among the hot products in Mobiltech we can find air-bags, automotive engine oil filters and high-speed train gangways. Buildtech includes, for example, fabrics used to separate different types of cement, for example in the construction of roads, airports, and subway tubes.
Due to the increasing demand for innovative technical textiles, segments such as Oekotech, Geotech, and Sportech are set to grow at the highest CAGR through 2020.
Oekotech – technical textiles used in environmental protection and recycling – are gaining traction globally owing to the growing focus on sustainable development. The Oekotech segment is anticipated to increase at the highest CAGR and total US$ 4 billion in revenues by 2020.
Geotech – technical textiles used in geotechnical applications such as construction of roads and pavements, rail-track bed stabilisation, slope stabilisation – is expected to increase at nearly 6% CAGR through 2020.
Sportech, another quickly growing segment of technical textiles, finds applications in creating artificial turfs, fishing rods, golf clubs, parachute fabrics, etc. Demand for Sportech technical textiles is expected to witness a CAGR of 5.5% through 2020.
Asia Pacific is the largest market for technical textiles, both in terms of production and consumption. In fact, Itema installs every year a large number of weaving machines for technical fabrics production across Asia Pacific countries, especially for applications such as coating, filter and automotive fabrics.
Besides Asia Pacific, important countries for technical fabrics production are Germany, USA, Italy and Russia, where Itema holds a significant – and often the largest – market share.
The future looks brigth for technical textiles and technology providers must be capable to meet the challenging requirements of these highly specialized products. Itema developed and continuosly designs advanced weaving solutions to meet technical fabrics weavers needs, acting as a pioneer and a future-oriented weaving provider in the industry. In this Red Dot News you will discover more about Itema success stories and unique developments in technical fabrics field.