Specialty Chemicals Update Program
In 2015, China was the largest consumer of textile chemicals, accounting for close to half of the global value. China has become the largest market for textile chemicals, based on ever-growing apparel and textile production, and on huge production of synthetic fibers and cotton. North America was the second-largest market owing to the higher value of binder and coating chemicals consumed in the United States in the nonwoven and carpet industries.
In the past 30 years, there has been a continued shift in the geographic location of the world’s textile production and chemical consumption: first to South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Thailand in the 1980s, and second to China and India after 1995, and away from the traditional production centers of the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. These regions have suffered from the loss of their traditional export markets and major increases in imports, mainly from East Asian countries. The only textile segments in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan that remained unaffected by this geographic shift were the production of carpets, tire cord, technical textiles, and nonwoven fabrics.
