Study sees slow, steady textile chemical growth

Abstract

The U.S. textile industry will grow slowly over the next five years, predicts a new study by Hochberg & Co., New Jersey-based marketing consultants. Consequently, use of chemicals associated with dyeing and finishing—such as bleaching agents, dyes, water and soil repellents, softeners, silicone lubricants, and backcoating resins—also will grow slowly. The report, Textile Dyeing and Finishing Chemicals and Resins, says textile fiber use will grow modestly through 1996 to 15.3 billion lb from 13.8 billion lb last year—a 2% annual growth rate for the five-year period. However, textile fiber processors used 3.6 billion lb of textile- related chemicals in 1991, according to Edward G. Hochberg, author of the study, and will consume 3.9 billion lb of textile chemicals in 1996—a growth rate less than 2% per year. A reason for the slower growth of textile chemical consumption is a drop in use of polymers to bind nonwoven textiles in favor of thermal bonding techniques. Therefore, ...