Japanese Market For Medical Nonwoven Products

摘要

Demand for medical nonwoven products such as surgical gowns, drapes, masks, caps, sheets and gauze significantly increased in the mid-1980's and is still on the rise. The market scale for medical nonwoven products—estimated at ¥30 billion for 1998—had near- ly doubled over the previous seven years from 1991's figure of ¥15.8 billion. The current growth rate, however, has dramatically dropped. Although the annual growth rate of medical nonwoven products was experiencing jumps of 10% or higher during the mid-1980's to the mid-1990's, the figure fell by 6% in 1997 and reduced even more to a mere 4% in 1998. This negative change is due to unit price reduction influenced by severe sales competition and the fact that a greater amount of items produced is not always accompanied by a hike in the sales price.