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The output of non-woven fabrics in Southeast Asia is quite small from Asia as a whole.

According to the statistics of non-woven production provided by INDA, China's non-woven production accounts for 81% of the total production in Asia in 2020. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan together accounted for 9%, while India accounted for about 6%. In a recent study by INDA and EDANA, "Global Nonwovens Market Survey Report 2020-2025," the rest of Asia is classified as "Other Asia". The "other Asia" region mainly includes Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, as well as smaller suppliers such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. "The total production of nonwovens in these countries has almost quadrupled in 10 years, with a total production of more than 400000 tons in 2020," said Brad Kalil.

In terms of trade, China exported nearly 1.4 million tons of non-woven materials in 2020, 54% of which were exported to other Asian countries. According to the report, the two largest importers were South Korea and Japan, followed by Vietnam (120,100 tons), Indonesia (52,200 tons) and Cambodia (38,200 tons). "Although some of these countries have nonwovens production bases, they also import non-woven materials for conversion, or some materials classified as nonwovens, which may also be finished products, such as wet wipes," Kalil added. In Malaysia, Fibertex Personal Care is adding its sixth non-woven production line in the country, Reicofil 5 with spunbond and meltblown capabilities, which will be operational in early 2022.

The company's new production line in Malaysia has a capacity of about 100000 t/a. "The Asian market continues to grow and we plan to further strengthen our position here in the coming years," said Peter Andersen, CEO of Fibertex Personal Care / Innowo Print Malaysia. "With our central location in Malaysia, we have the ability to supply the whole of Asia. Fibertex Personal Care believes that the increase in the use of disposable diapers is the main growth driver in the region. "We are very optimistic about the future market in Southeast Asia and will continue to invest in innovation and sustainable growth," Andersen added. Oceancash are also investing in Malaysia. The company announced last year that it would double its production capacity of non-woven materials used in the production of personal protective equipment (PPE). The Malaysian company produces hot air and hot-rolled non-woven fabrics, which are widely used in disposable hygiene products. The investment will double the Oceancash's capacity to 16,000 tons per year.

"We observed that during the new crown pandemic, the demand for non-woven materials accelerated, because PPE is the key raw material for the production of non-woven fabrics. We believe that this pandemic is a good time for this kind of expansion, "Oceancash managing director Lor Seng Thee said at the time of the announcement. "We believe this plan will mark a new and important milestone for the Group, with strong potential to enhance our earnings growth trajectory. Lor said the new expansion involves a major upgrade in production technology that will allow the company to produce three-layer materials for three-layer masks.

"In addition, the non-woven materials of the new plant can be supplied to the disposable hygiene products industry Oceancash already has a stable customer base," Lor said, adding that the company believes that the demand for hygiene products will continue to grow in view of the improvement of living standards and the higher hygiene awareness caused by this pandemic.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, Fitesa completed work on a third spinning line at the plant that it acquired a majority stake from CNC in 2018. The multi-beam Reicofil line CNCFitesa by Rayong reportedly represents a $70 million investment for the Brazilian nonwovens manufacturer. Prior to the acquisition, CNC operated two spinning and melting plants in Rayong Province and a sales office in Tokyo, mainly supplying the sanitary products market.

Also in Thailand, Japanese nonwovens producer Asahi Kasei is adding a new production line with an annual capacity of 15,000 tons to its subsidiary Asahi Kasei Spongbang (Thailand) Limited (AKST). The company produces 35,000 tons of polypropylene spunbond nonwovens annually. Since entering the spunbond business in 1973, Asahi Kasei has been supplying Eltas spunbond for a variety of applications, including disposable diapers and other hygiene products, automotive and other industrial applications, and deodorant sheets and other consumer products. AKST began operating its second production line in 2016 to meet the rapidly growing demand for spunbond for diaper applications in Asia. The third production line will further strengthen AKST's ability to meet continuous demand growth with higher product performance, quality and cost competitiveness. Asahi Kasei Asia Pacific Limited (AKAP), another division of Asahi Kasei, began operations in 2019 as the regional headquarters for Asahi Kasei's operations in the ASEAN region. Asahi Kasei currently has 16 entities in five ASEAN countries. With steady population growth and continued economic expansion, the company said ASEAN is not only an important region for manufacturing, but is also emerging as a key market. It was therefore determined that Asahi Kasei's regional headquarters in the ASEAN region would be able to effectively manage the increasingly diverse and complex risks. Located in Bangkok, Thailand, AKAP contributes to the further development of Asahi Kasei Group's business in the ASEAN region by strengthening marketing and management functions while supporting the operation of each entity, advancing human resource development, facilitating coordination among different entities and improving operational efficiency.

Toray is another Japanese nonwovens producer with a production capacity of 231,000 tons per year in five Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, China, India and Indonesia. In Indonesia, its capacity is 37,000 tons per year. The company mainly produces polypropylene spunbond for sanitary products, and polyester non-woven fabrics for industrial filters.

The region is an important market for Toray as demand is still growing, according to Tatsu Matsushita, general manager of Toray Industries High Performance Nonwovens Products Division, which focuses on Indonesia due to its large population. "We believe that the performance of the [health] market has stable demand growth, and the growth drivers will be large population and high birth rate," Matsushita added.

At present, Toray is committed to maximizing sales based on existing production sites in Asia and India. "Toray Group has original expertise. By using our technical advantages in each of our production bases in Asia and India to prepare many products to meet the requirements of each customer, we believe that the demand expansion itself still exists. Our approach is to maximize our production network advantages in Asia." Matsumoto Konosuke said that Toray has also started internal discussions to advance the next step in its expansion plan, to consider this complex market situation very carefully.

Markus said that due to several factors, the Southeast Asian nonwovens market is becoming increasingly competitive. Some nonwovens manufacturers in mainland China have invested in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. "This makes prices very competitive," he said, in terms of supply and demand, "as more and more new players enter the market, supply is already higher than demand."