At the beginning of 2020, the spread of the new crown epidemic made China's nonwovens industry set off a "meltblown cloth" whirlwind, from PetroChina, Sinopec more than a dozen new lines put into production, to Ogilvy Medical investment in Levenhoe's meltblown line and SMMS spinning composite line, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hubei, Zhejiang and other places have been put into production a number of meltblown production lines. Ordering information from the equipment factory shows that at least 300 production lines have paid a deposit. For nonwovens in the "small and specialized" meltblown cloth industry, such a huge amount of investment influx, after the outbreak with the decline in demand for masks, the industry is bound to usher in a difficult "shuffle". After the epidemic, where will the new meltblown line go? Where is the future of meltblown nonwovens? In this article, Mr. Han Tao reviewed the development history of China's meltblown nonwovens, analyzed the investment situation of meltblown fabrics in 2020, and put forward his own thinking on the future development path.
Foreword
According to the statistics of China Industrial Textile Industry Association, in 2018, the actual output of melt blown nonwovens in China was 53500 tons/year, and there were 136 continuous production lines with a width of more than 1.6 meters, accounting for only 1% of the output of all nonwovens. Relatively speaking, meltblown is a "small and specialized" type in all non-woven processes, which is more suitable for slow farming, suitable for strengthening in certain subdivisions, and not suitable for "quantitative" scale development.
The Origin of Meltblown Nonwovens
In 1954, in order to collect radioactive particles in the upper atmosphere, the U.S. Naval Research Institute began to study the air jet spinning method, and spun very fine fibers with a diameter of less than 5 μm, which is the origin of the melt blown nonwoven process.
In the 1970 s, ExxonMobil companies in the United States converted this technology to civilian use and began industrial production, which enabled the rapid development of melt-blown nonwovens technology.
ExxonMobil, AccurateProducts, BiaxFiberfilm, Reifenhauser, 3M, Kimberly-Clark and Neumag(Nordson) have all contributed to the development of meltblown technology.
A Brief History of Melt-blown Nonwovens Development in China
This figure is from Sinopec
China's research on meltblown technology is also early: in the late 1950 s, the second Academy of China's Ministry of Nuclear Industry and other institutions began research in this area; in the early 1990 s, China Textile University, Beijing Chaolun Company and other units designed intermittent meltblowing equipment, nearly 100 units have been put into production in China.
Meltblown cloth was mainly used in battery separators, filter materials, oil absorption materials and other fields. Due to the limitations of the domestic market, the market development of meltblown cloth was slow and difficult.
1994Tianjin TEDA, Jiangyin Jinfeng and Anhui Aohong (now known as Anhui Ogilvy) have introduced three 1.6-meter wide continuous meltblown production lines from Accurate and Reifenhauser, Germany respectively.
During this period, Tianjin TEDA adhered to the air filter/mask market, Anhui Ogilvy preferred the insulation cotton/oil absorption material market, Jiangyin Jinfeng introduced the hot rolling mill from Germany, started the two-step SMS market, and then entered the wiping cloth market. At that time, Tianjin TEDA was a state-owned enterprise, and the other two were collective enterprises, both of which had gone through a very long period of persistence and market development.
2002Tianjin TEDA introduced a second 2.4-meter-wide meltblown production line and continued to focus on the air filter/mask market. In 2004, Shandong Junfu introduced a 3.2-meter-wide meltblown production line from Reifenhauser, Germany, mainly targeting SMS products in one and a half steps. In the following years, it successively installed a 1.6-meter domestic meltblown line.
During this period, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other regions also successively put into production 1.6-meter-wide domestic equipment. During the "SARS" period in 2003, more production was carried out. According to the statistics of the spunbonded nonwovens branch of the China Industry Association, in 2007, the actual output of meltblown nonwovens nationwide was 22300 tons/year.
2003 (first year of SMS)After the SARS epidemic, due to the increased demand for medical materials such as surgical clothing and protective clothing, SMS production lines were put into operation in China from 2004 to 2005, as shown in Table 1. Looking at the SMS project in 2005 at that time, only 2~3 were successful.
2003 can be regarded as the first year of online SMS in China, but China's first SMS production line was earlier.
At the end of 1999, Nanhai Nanxin Non-woven Fabric Co., Ltd. (now acquired by Berry Group) introduced SMXS style production line from German Reifenhauser Company and put it into production in April 2000, which is the standard that China has the production capacity of online SMS nonwovens. In July 2003, PGI Nanhai Nanxin added an "M" meltblown head to the original "X" vacancy, enabling it to produce SMMS composite products and upgrade the products.
From Table 1, we can see that in 2005, China's SMS online composite nonwovens production enterprises, at that time only Nanhai Nanxin could officially produce.
Hubei Jinlong was struggling with the market and funds, and most of its shares were later acquired by Israeli company Avgol.
Zhangjiagang Steed Horse is swaying in SMS and meltblown markets. Later, it added a meltblown "M" die head to produce SMMS products. However, the market has been struggling and occasionally makes meltblown products.
Table 1: Domestic Online Composite SMS Nonwovens Manufacturers by 2005
After the successful trial production in 2005, Wenzhou Changlong Company began to sell SMS equipment and connect equipment projects. A large part of the SMS production lines currently put into production in China are Wenzhou Changlong equipment. At the same time, Changlong has also set up a non-woven fabric production company, which can produce all spun nonwoven products such as PP spunbond, SMS, polyester spunbond and meltblown. It is the most successful private enterprise among the above enterprises since 2005.
In 2018, according to the statistics of the China Industry Association, there were 123 online SMS nonwovens production lines nationwide, with an actual output of 635000 tons/year. After 15 years of development, it is in line with the original prediction of the meltblown fabric market in 2005. The meltblown market with the largest output will be the SMS nonwovens series.
2007 (first year of sound-absorbing materials)3M Company began to promote meltblown two-component sound-absorbing materials in China, and at the same time, Tianjin Teda also launched two-component sound-absorbing materials.
From 2008 to 2010, Anhui, Shanghai, Wenzhou, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hebei and other places successively installed nearly 20 1.6-meter two-component sound-absorbing material production lines, including Wuhu Yuefei, Wenzhou Busen, Shanghai Jieyingtu, Guangzhou Santai, Taiwan Xinli (Hebei/Hangzhou) and other companies. Since then, the meltblown two-component sound-absorbing material production line has been put into operation in the concentrated areas of the national automobile main engine factory.
In 2012, Shanghai said the company put into production its first meltblown two-component sound-absorbing material production line, the production line configuration is better, the market for its product quality is more recognized.
From 2014 to 2017, the national two-component sound-absorbing material production line reached its peak, and several production line projects were put into operation in Shanghai, Chongqing, Hebei, Guangxi, Guangdong and other places. As of 2018, the number of national statistical meltblown sound-absorbing material production lines has reached more than 60, and nearly 30 companies have produced it.
Sound-absorbing materials are used in the automotive field and have become a large application market in the meltblown field.
2009During the H1N1 epidemic, the country also began to melt-blown production lines. At that time, as long as the "heart" of masks was melt-blown, many mask manufacturers did not have the concept of level.
After the H1N1 incident, the application of meltblown nonwovens in the field of masks dropped to freezing point, and the operating rate was generally within 50%. It took 3 years for the meltblown mask filter material to recover slightly. After that, the melt-blown mask filter material has been digesting the production capacity during the outbreak, in a small circle has been tepid one after another put into production.
From 2010 to 2018, including Jiangyin, Zhangjiagang, Kunshan and other southern Jiangsu regions, Hubei Xiantao, Suqian in northern Jiangsu, and Tongcheng in Anhui, more than 10 production lines were put into production in a small circle of spontaneous market. At the end of 2015, Jiangxi Tianfei put into production its first production line, filling the melt blowing gap in Jiangxi Province.
Early 2015The broadcast of "Chai Jing Smog Survey: Under the Dome" made hundreds of millions of people know the harm of smog and gave birth to such an application field as "smog mask. The large number of applications of air purifiers has allowed more purifier manufacturers to directly intervene in the meltblown field.
From 2015 to 2018, Shenzhen Zhongfang, Tianjin TEDA, Shandong Junfu, Handan Hengyong and other companies entered the field of high efficiency and low resistance. Jiangsu Yimao, Shanghai Mingguan, Zhejiang Jinhai, Shaanxi Keda and other enterprises also successively installed 1.6-meter-wide meltblown production lines during this period.
Table 2: Distribution of enterprises in China's meltblown nonwovens application market in 2019
Under the concept of smog, the meltblown industry has also been rapidly stimulated. In 2019, the melting cloth in the field of air purifiers, a chicken feather. Remember a small episode, the field of air purification "flameout", so that Shenzhen Zhongfang and Chongqing rose again in the profit gambling agreement, the founder team directly lost the company's controlling stake, Chongqing rose again directly accounted for about 74% of the shares.
Meltblown application market, in addition to the mask filter, sound-absorbing materials two categories, other applications including air filtration, wiping cloth, oil-absorbing cotton, liquid filtration, insulation materials, etc. are more niche, more narrow segments, more professional.
Since 1994, the development of meltblown nonwovens in China has experienced the above several important time points, simple carding as above.
In the field of meltblown nonwovens, in addition to the original production enterprises continue to open up new market applications, the customer base it has diffracted to, and new enterprises continue to enter, such as the entry of secondary and tertiary suppliers of automobile main engine factories, except for the three sound-absorbing material coil suppliers of Tianjin TEDA, Shanghai Zendao and Wenzhou, into the two-component sound-absorbing material production enterprises are more or less auto parts suppliers background or back.
Air purification field, such as the above-mentioned Jiangsu Yimao, Shanghai Mingguan, Zhejiang Jinhai and so on, is the field of purification related enterprises. Mask manufacturers, except for Shanghai Port Kai and Xianning Aike, have basically not entered the field of melt-blown filter production until 2020.
The above-mentioned "SARS" epidemic in 2003 and the "H1N1" epidemic in 2009 have stimulated the development of the melt-blown nonwovens industry, but it is basically a small-scale impact.
The new crown epidemic in the spring of 2020 is to popularize the three words "meltblown cloth" to the people of the whole country, and all kinds of capital are leaps and bounds into the field of meltblown nonwovens. In February 2020, meltblown production lines in all of the above applications entered the field of mask filter production. In March 2020, oil-absorbing cotton, wiping cloth, air filter meltblown has been unable to order, sound-absorbing materials have all entered the field of mask filter materials.
Thinking
With such a large amount of capital entering meltblown production, where is the future of meltblown nonwovens after the epidemic?
In 2020, new meltblown production lines are targeting only one market: masks. After the epidemic, the newly put into production of the meltblown market will go from here? What are the inspirations? After such a large-scale epidemic, people's awareness of masks has increased a lot, the future of masks will be used as a family necessities, the market size of masks will inevitably be expanded, but after the epidemic homogenization will inevitably bring fierce price competition to the meltblown filter production market.
Sinopec, PetroChina and other large state-owned enterprises to enter, after the outbreak of this production capacity will be used as the country's strategic material reserves, but it will inevitably enter the market, especially Sinopec is now through its gas station convenience stores to sell masks, is a more direct and cash-out channels.
The newly put into production of meltblown production line, not up to the corresponding mask standard meltblown cloth, after the outbreak in addition to selling equipment, can also enter the field of oil-absorbing cotton, its corresponding standards are not high, but price competition will be inevitable.
The positive effect of the outbreak on the field of masks is that the field of mask production will be more standardized production, the quality requirements of melt-blown filter materials will be greatly improved. After that, meltblown mask filter material will no longer have the concept of ordinary meltblown cloth. BFE99 grade meltblown will be the minimum requirement for meltblown filter material in the mask field.
After the epidemic, the pattern of the entire meltblown industry will undergo greater changes. Enterprises deeply engaged in the field of meltblowing will invest more funds in research and development, develop more environmentally friendly, lower cost products and new application fields, which will enhance the global competitiveness of China's meltblowing.
During the epidemic, most of the meltblown production enterprises showed corporate social responsibility, of course, there are a lot of "chaos" occurred. The madness of shanzhai small meltblowing is a "strange phenomenon" intertwined by many forces, such as the pursuit of profit by small private capital, the indifference of legal consciousness of small business owners and the absence of local supervision.
The new meltblown production lines in early 2020 are as follows:
On February 28, Nanning Qiaohong New Materials stopped the wood pulp system in the 2019 matting project and produced medical grade meltblown materials.
On March 2, Yibin Seria trial-produced meltblown, reaching a daily output of 1 ton on March 8. On March 6, 2020, Sinopec's two meltblown production lines were put into operation at the Yanshan Petrochemical plant and were webcast live from 23:00 on the 6th to 23:00 on the 8th.
On April 15 and April 16, Liaoyang Petrochemical and Lanzhou Petrochemical under PetroChina successively put into operation two melt-blown nonwovens production lines, and Liaoyang Petrochemical planned a total of two production lines.
As of April 20, all four meltblown cloth production lines of Yanshan Petrochemical have been put into operation, with a daily output of 12 tons. Yizheng Petrochemical has put into operation its fifth production line, all of which have planned 12 production lines, which will be put into operation one after another by the end of May.
Sinopec and PetroChina are on the meltblown production line with great fanfare, and many listed companies have also announced that they will enter the meltblown field, including Nar, Xingyuan Material, Midland New Material, Dawn, etc. More capital has quietly entered the meltblown field, and several production lines have been put into production in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hubei, Zhejiang and other places.
It is expected that more production lines will be put into production in May. According to the ordering data of the equipment factory, at least 300 production lines have paid a deposit.
