The US$5 Billion Acrylic Fiber Industry Increased by 5.1% in Terms of Value.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c36766) has announced the addition of Acrylic Chain Report 2006 to their offering

The "Acrylic Chain Report 2006" contains 80 pages packed with up-to-date statistics on the entire value chain beginning from propylene through to Acrylonitrile, down to acrylic fiber. The report presents tabulation and graphical presentation of the trends and status of demand and supply in the acrylic chain across various countries. An objective description of the behaviour of individual segments of the value chain is also presented analytically. Major investments and capacity shut down are captured briefly. It covers time series on production, imports, exports and apparent consumption for the period 2000 to 2005. Process description, end use and derivatives along with the latest producer-wise capacity are an added feature of this report.

Highlights

In 2005, the US$5 billion plus acrylic fiber industry expanded by 5.1% in terms of value and by 2.8% in terms of volume. During the year, global production of acrylic staple fibre touched 2,791 thousand tons. Acrylic accounts for 8% of all chemical fibre produced in the world. The share has fallen dramatically from 15% in the 1980s. During the last 5-year period ended 2005, ASF production has increased at a rate of 1.25% per annum, the slowest growth rate among all chemical fibres production.

Global acrylic staple fibre production capacity stands at 3,127 thousand tons. Of this, nearly half is in Asia, with China accounting for almost a quarter of global capacity. Japan, on the other hand, shares just 9.5% of global capacity which has seen consistently falls from 13.5% in 2000. Turkey has maintained its global share at 7.8% in the last 5 years.

China has emerged as a leading producer of acrylic staple fibre in the world. It has production capacity at 900 thousand tons in 2005 which has grown by 50% since 2000. In 2005, China produced 865 thousand tons of acrylic staple fibre, which was up by almost 30% compared to a year ago. China is also a major consumer of acrylic staple fibre. In 2004, the latest estimates, it consumed about 1,125 thousand tons of acrylic fiber, of which 40% were imported.

In 2005, the acrylic fibre industry was adversely affected by rising raw material cost. Acrylonitrile was dearer by almost 22-23% in USA, 16-17% in Europe and by 20% in Asia during 2005. During this time, acrylic staple fiber prices increased at a slower pace. They were up 15% in USA, 4% in Europe and 3-5% in Asia.

Acordis Acrylic Fibers and Solutia exited the acrylic businesses in 2005. This led to decommissioning of almost 75,000 tonnes of production capacities. However, the additions were much more. Mitsubishi Rayon, Hangzhouwan Chemical Fibre and Aditya Birla Group have commissioned 190,000 tonnes of capacities in China and Eqypt. In the pipeline are capacities aggregating 235,000 tonnes of acrylic staple fiber. The projects are scheduled to come up in the next two years. Turkish company Aska was also planning to set up an acrylic fiber plant in China.

Companies Mentioned

- Acordis Acrylic Fibers

- Solutia

- Mitsubishi Rayon

- Hangzhouwan Chemical Fibre

- Aditya Birla Group

- Aska

- Sterling Chemicals, Inc

- Pemex

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c36766