Technical Textile Market

Market Overview

The global technical textile market size was valued at USD 233 billion in 2022. It is projected to reach USD 364 billion by 2031, growing with a CAGR of 5.1% during the forecast period (2023–2031).

Technical textile is well-known for their technical (mechanical, electrical, durable, and thermal) and functional properties, rather than decorative and aesthetic characteristics. It is used for technical applications such as protective clothing in the chemical industry, defense sector, automotive interiors, and others. The market is growing owing to various factors, such as the rise in demand from the healthcare sector. In addition, technical textile has a huge consumer base in countries such as the U.S., China, Germany, and others. This is attributed to established sectors such as healthcare, automobile, construction, military & defense, and others. However, some of the factors that hamper the market growth are the high cost of raw materials and highly toxic waste production. On the contrary, there may be significant demand for industrial protective wear in the coming years, owing to industrial growth in developing regions.

Market Dynamics

What are the factors driving the market growth?

Increase in Demand for Geotextile from the Developing Economies

Agriculture-based countries such as India face a high level of soil loss each year due to its monsoon seasons, and due to this, geotextiles are increasingly being used to control soil erosion on hillsides and embankments. According to the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, approximately 146.8 Mha (Million hectares) of arable land in India is degraded. A large number of imported textiles are used on projects in India, such as the Karnataka state highway improvement project (KSHIP), where Andhra Pradesh highways and Kerala highways used a significant quantity of nonwoven geotextile to improve the road network. Geotextile is utilized as a layer between the subsoil and a total layer of roads to guard the mixture layers against vanishing within the subsoil. Geotextile technology uses polymeric materials to construct roads, drains, and harbors. The rise in infrastructure projects in emerging economies is a major factor driving market growth. Moreover, there is an increase in trend in the development of agricultural production, which includes the latest technologies such as Mulching, Vertical Farming, and Aeroponic and Hydroponic farming technologies that significantly increase the demand for technical textiles in the form of agricultural sheets and covers.

What are the factors restraining the market growth?

High Toxic Waste Production

Formaldehyde resin, chlorinated solvents, chlorophenols, short-chain chlorinated paraffin, perfluorinated chemicals, and azo dyes, brominated and chlorinated flame retardants are some of the harmful chemicals that are used in the production of technical fabrics. Chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethane are ozone-depleting substances; azo dyes break down during use and release aromatic amines that can cause cancer. The textile industry's primary concern is the use of chemicals in the production of fabrics, as well as the large amounts of water required for various operations. Various advanced treatments are required for the separation of toxic chemicals from wastewater; however, the complete removal of chemicals is not possible. The wastewater released from textile mills is directly discharged into the environment without any further treatment, affecting humans and animals. The major waste generated includes fiber wastes, which comprise soft fiber wastes, yarn spinning (hard fiber) wastes, beaming wastes, off-cuts, packaging, and spools.

What are the future opportunities for technical textiles?

Recyclability Improvement

There is a rise in the demand for recyclability improvements, such as replacing foam with nonwoven, in vehicles with cabin air filters and composite materials. The foam created is highly hazardous to the environment and affects the human body. Recycling is important in the textile industry as it generates a considerable amount of wastewater with dye particles. Re-granulated nonwoven textiles, composite recycling, and fiber recycling are significant operations that reduce waste and decrease the cost of purchasing materials. The recycling of waste is an opportunity to organize the textile recycling sector.

Segmental Analysis

The global technical textile market is segmented based on material, process, and application.

The material segment is segmented into the natural fiber, synthetic polymer, mineral, regenerated fiber, and others.

Synthetic polymers dominate the market, registering a CAGR of 4.4%. Synthetic polymers are man-made polymers obtained from chemicals, mostly from petrochemicals. Examples of synthetic fiber include polyamide, polyethersulfone, polyacrylonitrile, polypropylene, polyester, and others. The advantages of synthetic polymers are durability, elasticity, strength, softness, and cheapness as compared to natural fiber. There has been an increase in attention toward synthetic fibers such as glass, carbon, and boron fiber over the last two decades.

On the basis of the process, it is divided into woven, knitted, nonwoven, and others.

Woven fabrics dominate the market and are growing with a CAGR of 3.5%. Woven fabrics are made of yarns by weaving in different combinations. It is done by interlacing two sets of yarn or thread made of fibers called the warp and weft of the loom. Some properties of the woven technical textile include strength, thickness, extensibility, porosity, and durability. They can be varied as per the requirements, and depend on the weave used thread spacing, (the number of threads per centimeter), raw materials, structure, linear density, and twist factors of the warp and weft yarns. Plain weave is one of the simplest interlacing patterns that is formed by alternately lifting and lowering one warp thread across one weft thread.

Based on application, the market is classified into MobilTech, InduTech, SportTech, BuildTech, ClothTech, HomeTech, MediTech, AgroTech, ProTech, PackTech, OekoTech, and GeoTech.

PackTech dominates the market and is growing with a CAGR of 3.8%. PackTech textiles comprise materials used for agricultural requirements, industrial consumers, and other goods. It ranges from jute sacks for packing food grains to synthetic bags for industrial packaging. They are broadly used in applications such as flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBC), polyolefin woven sacks, wrapping fabrics, jute hessian, leno bags, tea bags, and others. Woven sacks account for 50% of the PackTech textiles, followed by jute hessian and sacks.

Regional Analysis

The technical textile market is divided into four regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and LAMEA.

Asia Pacific dominates the global market and is growing with a CAGR of 4.1%. India and China are some of the major textile manufacturers in the region. China is one of the leading players in terms of consumption as well as manufacturing. It has the presence of established sectors, such as the end-use sector, such as automotive, construction, and others. The market is expected to witness considerable growth in the coming years in India, owing to numerous factors such as developing end-user sectors, rising awareness, government initiatives, investment in technology, and others. Some of the developing end users include healthcare, automotive, construction, and others.

North America is one of the major regions in terms of consumption of technical textiles, registering a CAGR of 3.4%, owing to the presence of established sectors such as defense, oil &gas, automotive, healthcare, and others. The technical textile market in North America is competitive as traditional manufacturers are ramping up for more systematic production by cutting expenses and becoming low-cost manufacturers. North America is a significant player with the highest share of wound dressings, and this trend is anticipated to continue during the analysis period. This is attributed to the rising geriatric population, growth in the incidence of chronic wounds, and the presence of key wound dressing manufacturers in North America. The U.S. is also well known for producing protective wear for the military and defense sectors.

Europe is one of the significant regions in terms of consumption of technical textiles, owing to the presence of the established healthcare sector, automotive, defense, petrochemical, construction sector, and others. Europe is well-known for its outstanding automotive industry and excellence in engineering across the globe. Due to intense competition in the region, the automotive sector may create ample opportunities for the growth of technical textiles, as they play an important role in producing various automobile interiors. Europe is one of the major players in the automotive sector. There has been continuous growth in automotive production in Germany since 2010. Furthermore, in coming years, the demand for automotive interiors in the automotive sector is expected to come from electric vehicles, which will consequently boost the demand for technical textiles.

LAMEA is one of the developing regions, owing to the presence of emerging economies such as Brazil, South Africa, and others. The demand for industrial protective apparel is expected to increase in coming years, owing to the presence of developing end-user industries such as automotive, construction, and others. Moreover, the companies operating in Brazil import equipment and raw materials related to nonwoven and technical textiles. Brazil's frequently imported raw materials are synthetic fibers, polyester, nylon, and acrylic. The Brazilian technical textile market is expected to grow considerably, owing to the technical development of local technical textile industries.

Recent Developments

• July 2021- The Belgian factory of Ahlstrom Munksjo is on track to increase production capacity. The €10 million expansion will quadruple the plant's production capacity and increase output to include filtering materials.
• September 2022- Berry Global, a manufacturer of nonwoven fabrics, announced the formation of a closed-loop recycling ecosystem in order to incorporate post-industrial recycled materials into the production of its EnduraTM spun bond and melt-blown nonwovens.

Technical Textile Market Segmentation

By Material

• Natural Fiber
• Synthetic Polymer
• Mineral
• Metal
• Regenerated Fiber
• Others

By Process

• Woven
• Knitted
• Nonwoven
• Others

By Application

• MobilTech
• InTech
• SporTech
• BuildTech
• HomeTech
• ClothTech
• Meditech
• AgroTech
• ProTech
• PackTech
• GeoTech
• OekoTech

By Region

• North America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• LAMEA