Natural fibers derived from plants or animals, such as raw cotton, wool, hemp, and flex that can be twisted to form yarn are known as staple fibers. Silk is an exception for staple fibers as it is a filament yarn. Filaments delivered from various sources are heated, cooled, and crimped to develop strength. Depending upon the requirement, fibers are cut into ½ to 18 inch long fibers, which are packed and processed into yarn. Spinning process of these fibers includes processes, such as opening, bending, carding, drafting, roving, spinning, and winding. Among which bending, carding, and drafting are critical steps.

Staple fibers have high mechanical strength and they can easily be recycled. They offer excellent resilience for all filling activities. Staple fibers are used in manufacture of next generation, thermal-bonded high loft nonwovens mattress, which are comfortable as compared to other mattress.

Staple Fibers Market Taxonomy

On the basis of raw materials, the global staple fibers market is segmented into:

Woven
Nonwoven
Industrial

On the basis of structure, the global staple fibers market is segmented into:

Solid
Hollow

On the basis of end-use industry, the global staple fibers market is segmented into:

Automotive
Construction
Furnishing
Personal Care
Filtration
Others

Staple fibers are widely used in furniture, owing to properties such as durability, comfort and excellent aesthetics. Polypropylene staple fiber (PPSF) are also used for RCC building construction and manufacturing of tiles, cement sheets, and hume pipes. This improves strength of the cement/RCC. Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) known as Portland Cement concrete is reinforced with staple fibers thus improving concrete properties. Polypropylene fibers of 0.5% to 1% are normally used in concrete. Natural white polypropylene fibers of 3 and 6 Deniers and in lengths of 6, 12 and 20mm respectively are commonly used in various applications. In automotive industry, staple fibers are used for soundproofing of vehicles.

Staple fibers Market Outlook – Increasing Environmental and Soil concern to be the Major Market Driver

Asia Pacific and North America are major markets for staple fiber. Asia Pacific is projected to witness high growth rate over the forecast period. This mainly attributed to the rapidly growing urbanization coupled with growing population in the emerging economies such as India and China. In 2016, the construction industry in China witnessed a growth of 17%, which was greater than 5% as compared to 2015. According to IBEF, the Indian infrastructure industry is expected to grow to US$ 5 billion till 2022. From April 2000 to March 2016 infrastructure and construction development in India received a foreign direct investment, which accounted for US$ 25.19 billion. The growth of allied industries such as construction materials and furnishing have boosted growth of staple fibers market in the region.

Product plant expansion and development of innovative portfolio are some of the key strategies adopted by the top players in the global staple fibers market. In September 2016 W. Barnet GmbH & Co. KG and Albis Plastics launched a joint venture in USA. With this acquisition, the global production capacity of ALBIS was increased by 45,000 tons per year. It also offers other advantages such as direct market access point for post-industrial raw material qualities, repelletizing expertise, and compounding and product development. Some of the major companies operating in the global staple fibers market include W. Barnet GmbH & Co. KG, TEIJIN FRONTEIR Co. Ltd., Sateri International Co. Ltd., Hubei Botao Synthetic Fiber Co., ltd., ADVANSA, and Kayavlon Impex Pvt. Ltd.

Key takeaways of the market

In March 2019, Beaulieu Fibres International (BFI) launched an UltraBond staple fiber for automotive & flooring needle punch applications. This fiber has been designed to eliminate need of chemical binders required to bind nonwoven.
Wood pulp is used as feedstock for the production of staple fibers. Leading manufacturers are focusing to increasing their feedstock capacity in order to meet the rising demand for staple fibers. For instance, in July 2019, Lenzing completed expansion of its wood pulp plant based in Lenzing (Austria). The plant capacity was increased from 3,00,000 to 3,20,000 tons per year. The expansion will help the company achieve its aim of increasing self-supply of wood pulp to 75%.
In January 2018, Indorama Ventures Public Limited Company and Huvis Corporation announced a 50:50 joint venture to produce low melting fiber (LMF) with an annual capacity of 60 kilo tons. The joint venture has been established to strengthen LMF business in North America.
In August 2017, Ascend Performance Materials expanded staple fiber production plant in Greenwood, South Carolina. The expansion project added 24 million pounds of staple fiber into company’s overall staple fiber production capacity.
In April 2017, Sateri expanded its production capacity of viscose staple fiber by one million ton per year in Jiujiang, China. With addition of this plant, the total capacity of the company exceeded two million ton per year in Jiujiang.