Industrial textiles in China

Textile composite materials have played an important role in aerospace, new energy sources, and high-speed transportation applications. The application of geo-tech in the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Construction Project has successfully solved the problems of geological-plateau fracture, frozen partitions, inadequate insulation and excessive seepage. Disposable surgical clothing, masks, and other medical protection products with efficient virus-blocking properties have greatly reduced infection rates. Disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, wipes and related products have become more advanced to meet increasing domestic demand. Advanced filtration materials not only efficiently capture dust (five times more than standard materials) but can also separate precious metals, making them more valuable.

Economic recovery and growth impacts

In 2010, the whole industry began to recover from the adverse effects of the global financial crisis and entered a fast-growth path. The output of industrial textiles and nonwovens is about 8.2 and 2.8 million tons, respectively.

In 2010, as investor confidence returned, the industry experienced increased investment funds. Low-level, redundant construction has been reduced, while the actual investment of three categories of industrial textiles (rope, cable, thread; textile belts and cord; and nonwovens) reached 8.9 billion yuan, attaining a year-to-year growth of 43.4 percent. The correlating number of implementation projects, new projects, and completed projects was 378, 271, and 185, showing an increase of 3.3 percent, 4.6 percent, and 28.6 percent, respectively, compared to 2009.

In 2010, the export value of 18 categories of textiles amounted to $11 billion U.S., an increase of 19.5 percent over the previous year. Import value attained $2.46 billion U.S., with a growth of 7.9 percent. Asia has taken most of the exported items, while imported goods were mainly from the United States and Japan.

High-performance fibers, breakthrough technology

Industrial textile production is characterized by high efficiency and fast technology updates. The breakthrough of wide-width forming technology has raised the capacity of a single spunbond line from 1,000 tons to 5,000 tons, reducing overall production costs by nearly 20 percent and increasing productivity by more than 200 percent.