EXPERTISE
MAN-MADE FIBERS
MAN-MADE FIBERS
Global production of man-made fibers (MMF) has been growing in the last decade, albeit at the expense of margins. The core of my MMF advisory work is mapping and exploiting growth and margin improvement strategies through differentiation and innovation.
NONWOVENS
NONWOVENS
I can help you assess growth opportunities and the outlook regarding new technologies. The nonwoven sector has seen increasing M&A intensity, and I can support you as an as M&A advisor.
TECHNICAL
TEXTILES
TECHNICAL
TEXTILES
The market is gradually maturing in the developed world, and globalisation strategies are becoming more important. I can support and advise you as opportunities for industry consolidation via M&A arise.
COMPOSITES
COMPOSITES
Prospecting potential attractive routes to success and planning corresponding industrial and commercial strategies are just a few of the ways I can help your business in this domain.
Man-Made Fibers
Man-Made Fibers
Global production of man-made fibers (MMF) has grown from about 50 million tons in 2010 (synthetic and cellulosic) to about 80.5 million tons in 2019 (5.4 % CAGR – source: www.ivc-ev.de)
Growth drivers include:
o Growth of world population and limits in natural fiber availability
o Increasing GDP per capita
o New higher growth applications for fibers, like in nonwovens
One of the key issues for many fiber producers (outside China) has been how to grow and remain profitable in view of the increasing competition from China.
Market growth is increasingly driven not by large-scale commodity segments, but rather others such as functional fibers, customized products (e.g. through coloring or functional additions like flame retardancy), or new technologies like Bico or Trico fibers, etc. This allows for differentiation strategies based on innovation, time to market, and service - and thus the establishment of a competitive advantage versus large-scale Asian commodity producers.
Also, sustainability is potentially working against larger-scale commodity polymers (like standard polyester) favoring new biodegradable polymers or new recycling business models, for example.
Mapping and exploiting such “growth through differentiation” strategies has been the core of my MMF advisory work in the past.
Nonwovens
Nonwovens
World production of nonwovens has grown from 9.4 million tons in 2010 to about 15.5 million tons in 2019 (about 6 % CAGR).
Nonwoven growth has profited from generic trends stemming from an increasing GDP per world capita (e.g. in hygiene or medical nonwovens, wipes, etc.) or from the growing mobility sector (nonwovens increasingly employed in cars). Nonwovens have also been able to exploit increasing environmental awareness (such as in regard to nonwovens for filtration).
New manufacturing technologies have supported this growth (also in non-China regions), for instance in the spunmelt or spunlace nonwoven domain.
Until 2023, the industry associations INDA (USA) and EDANA (Brussels) have forecasted a 4.8% CAGR (annual growth rate) which seems realistic (despite the COVID-19 pandemic) as likely hygiene and medtech market growth compensates what is lost in B2B nonwoven demand, such as in automotive.
Assessing growth opportunities and the perspectives of new technologies or product concepts have been topics which I have successfully addressed with clients in the past. Also, the nonwoven sector has seen an increasing M&A intensity where I have been instrumental in several cases as M&A advisor.
Technical Textiles
Technical Textiles
Technical Textile markets (outside of nonwovens) continue to show attractive growth rates (5% CAGR on average) - although differing substantially between market clusters in a more and more complex industry segmentation
As of recent studies, this part of the technical textile market (characterised by products like sewing thread, coated fabrics, geotextile wovens or grids, woven medical bandages, crop protection nets, etc.) has shown a growth from about 16 million tons in 2010 to about 25 million tons in 2019 (5% CAGR).
This highly segmented and fragmented market allows for the establishment of high entry barriers, especially against Chinese competition, through innovation and differentiation strategies; but scaling up a promising business in an acceptable timeframe is not always easy.
As the market is gradually maturing in the developed regions of the world, globalisation strategies become more important and opportunities for industry consolidation via M&A arise.
My work as advisor has concentrated on these critical topics (among others).
Composites
Composites
High-performance (load-bearing) composites (fiber-reinforced plastics) based on textile reinforcements (like wovens) and plastic resin have demonstrated strong growth in the past (5% CAGR that is from about 8 million tons – including plastic resin – in 2010 to about 11.5 million tons in 2018).
Much but not all in this generally positive scenario has come from carbon-fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) outgrowing glass fiber-based composites (GFRP). CFRP, however, is still limited to more or less high-end niche markets and cost reduction in all elements of the CFRP value chain still remains a major issue to render this promising material more suitable to volume applications such as in mobility (carbon fiber/epoxy high performance SMC - sheet moulding compound or towpreg applications in high pressure tanks are two examples in this regard).
More and more textile companies are discovering this rather new growth domain. I was able to support many industrialists on this new venue by prospecting the potential attractive routes to success and then helping management of client companies in planning and subsequently implementing corresponding industrial and commercial strategies. Successful growth missions in composites require a holistic view on the textile reinforcement aspect of composites as well as on the plastic resin, moulding technology, and end-market application-related questions.
