Chemical fibres and thread in a crisis year

For the first time in recent years, the total consumption of all types of fibres dropped significantly in 2008 — by 6.7%, including natural fibres by 10.1% and chemical fibres by 4.5%. The economic crisis affected the large-tonnage synthetic fibre sector especially negatively: world consumption decreased by 4.1% in comparison to 2007: polyacrylonitrile by 20%, polypropylene by 11%, polyamide by 10%, and polyester by 2%. Chemical fibre production in 2008 was 42,156 tons, i.e., a 4.5% decrease, primarily in Europe, Japan, and the US. China alone enjoyed a 2.5% increase in comparison to 2007. In CIS countries, chemical fibre production decreased by 2.6%. Belarus leads on all indexes, although there was a decrease there, too, especially in the first half of 2009. In Russia, the crisis was deeper, with an unfortunate tendency for chemical fibre production to decrease from year to year: in 2008, it was 18% lower in comparison to the preceding year, with an extremely low (almost postwar) volume of 121,000 tons/year. Many enterprises in the sector almost disappeared, production of viscose fibres and polyester staple fibre for textile applications almost totally stopped, and production of polyacrylonitrile and polypropylene fibres, and PA-6 textile and cord fibres dropped sharply. The development of production of nonwovens in the country was comforting. The revival around construction of new enterprises is still only apparent.