Development Of The Russian Nonwoven Industry

摘要

The nonwoven trade between the EU and Russia has been developing at a breakneck pace over the past few years. Between 2004 and 2006, EU exports to Russia increased from 13,331 t to 21,831 t, achieving double-digit growth rates, which makes Russia the third largest export mar-ket for the EU. In 2007, the EU sold a total of 35,000 t of nonwoven roll goods to Russia and the CIS states. The demand for sanitation products has risen accord-ingly, as shown in the chart of the sales of the 27 EU nations. With a volume of about 875 t in 2006, EU imports from Russia are still negligible, which indicates that Rus-sia is moving very slowly to build its own nonwoven production. Still, the increases in sales also indicate a growing consumer demand, which is met with a rising inter-est in investments. In the past few years, a few important European nonwoven pro-ducers did invest, e.g. Freudenberg Poli-tex with its factory in Nizhny Novgorod, which has been successfully producing nonwovens for roofing girders since 2006. The market for hydrobonded nonwovens is still young and not very well developed yet. According to an AKPR estimate, 9,240 t were used in 2006, which is about 2% of worldwide use. Wipes account for 92% of this, the other 8% are dispos-ables. Russian investments are also on the rise, as seen in the example of the Bumfa Group (Cherkessk). In the near future, the group will begin its production of hyd-robonded cotton nonwovens in Stavropol, being able to sell top-quality products worldwide, thanks to Fleissner Aqualet technology.