Nonwoven textile industry has made great progress in recent years. As of 1998, the world's consumption of non-woven fabrics has reached 2 million 400 thousand tons. In 1970, its consumption is only 400 thousand tons, and by 2007, its consumption is expected to reach 4 million tons.

Nonwoven fabrics are mainly concentrated in theUnited States(41% of the world), Western Europe accounts for 30%,Japanaccounts for 8%, andChina's output accounts for only 3.5% of the world, and its consumption is 17.5% in the world. It is estimated that by 2007,China's output will reach 7% of the world's total output, and its consumption will increase to 21% of the world's total.

At present, man-made fiber still dominates the production of non-woven fabrics, and this situation will not change much before 2007. In the world, 63% of the fibers used in the production of non-woven fabrics are polypropylene, 23% are polyester, 8% is viscose, 2% is acrylic fiber, 1.5% is polyamide, and the remaining 3% is other fibers.

In recent years, the application of non-woven fabrics in health absorbing materials, medicine, transportation and shoe making textile materials has increased significantly. The global non-woven fabric consumption was 800 thousand tons in 1983, compared with 1 million 100 thousand tons in 1985 and 1 million 400 thousand tons in 1988. By 1998, the global non-woven fabric consumption reached 2 million 400 thousand tons. It was expected to reach 3 million 700 thousand tons in 2005. The consumption of synthetic fibers for various textiles was 16 million 900 thousand tons in 1983, to 20 million 400 thousand tons in 1988 and 30 million 400 thousand tons in 1998. It is expected to consume 37 million tons in 2005 and 38 million 300 thousand tons in 2007.

The growth rate of artificial fiber consumption in nonwoven production is estimated to reach 10% in 2005 and 10.4% in 2007. This is partly due to the growth of ancillary industries inChina, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

The factors that affect the growth rate, all the factors that affect the growth of artificial fiber can more or less affect the textile with artificial fiber as raw material, which has the greatest impact on non-woven fabrics.

The population growth factor has less impact on non-woven fabrics than other textiles used for clothing. But if we consider the important application of non-woven fabrics in baby diapers, population growth is also an important factor.

Natural fibers are partly replaced by textiles, but they have little effect on non-woven fabrics, because the production of non-woven fabrics is basically dependent on man-made fibers. The commercial development of artificial fiber and the professional application of non-woven fabric: the trade of microfiber, composite fiber, biodegradable fiber and new type polyester fiber has been increased because of the establishment of international economic treaties. This has great influence on non-woven fabrics, but has little effect on clothing and knitted fabrics.

Instead of textiles and other items, this includes the substitution of non-woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, plastic films, polyurea foam, wood pulp, leather and so on. This is determined by the cost and performance requirements of the product.

The introduction of new more economical and more effective production processes: the application of various articles made of polymers, the competitive non-woven fabrics, and the introduction of special fiber and non-woven fabric additives.

The three major fibers used for non-woven production are polypropylene (62% of the total), polyester (24% of the total) and viscose fiber (8% of the total). In the past 1970~1985 years, viscose fiber has been the most widely used in the production of non-woven fabrics. But in the past 5 years, the application of polypropylene fiber and polyester fiber has begun to dominate in the field of health absorbing materials and medical textiles. In the early non-woven production market, the amount of nylon was very large. Since 1998, the amount of acrylic fiber began to rise, especially in the field of artificial leather manufacturing.