YarnsandFibers: 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.

Global acrylic staple fibre production capacity stands at 3,127 thousand tons. Of this, nearly half is in Asia, and 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 dropping 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 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 tonnes of acrylic fiber, of which 40% were of imported.

In 2005, 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 the time, acrylic staple fiber prices increased at a lesser pace. They were up 15% in USA, 4% in Europe and 3-5% in Asia.

Acordis Acrylic Fibres and Solutia exited 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 Egypt. In the pipeline are capacities aggregating 235,000 tonnes of acrylic staple fiber. The projects are scheduled to come up in next two years. Turkish company Aksa was also planning to set up acrylic fibre plant in China.