Production plants in China have increased supply on nonwovens making competition fiercer
Iago Castro Asensio, International Business Manager of RCfil Distribuciones S.L. talks about its biggest markets, its manufacturing sites and the latest trends in the nonwoven segment.
Our main product is the polypropylene spunbond nonwoven, which is sold mainly for industrial and agricultural uses. Despite the product becoming more and more of a commodity and the fact that we are facing fierce competition in prices, both from other factories in China and abroad, I think that there are many potential customers that we can reach in different areas. Niches such as the bed making industry, furniture, bags, table cloths, automotive industry, advertising, crop cover and others will keep us busy in the years to come.
Western Europe, North Africa and Latin America are right now our biggest markets, which we are still developing. Asia, for us, is mainly our production site and our way to source some of the items we distribute, such as spunlace nonwovens. In my opinion, countries like Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru may be countries which will see growth in their technical textile needs in the near future.
Being producers for just two years, we are still a very new company. So, fortunately, we've been able to keep our export rate growing strong in the past years, reaching new markets and consolidating our traditional business fields. We expect the growth in sales to be at least 20 per cent in the next two years.
Our product, the polypropylene spunbond, is among the most basic nonwovens. So our focus is on efficiency and quality control, rather than innovation. That said, every year we spend a part of our profit improving our process to reduce defects and to get the best of our production lines without increasing the costs.
All our production is in China, so we purchase almost 100 per cent of our raw materials locally, except for the polypropylene that is often imported from Korea, Saudi Arabia and Europe.
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