By Alfred Dockery
CLEMMONS, NC — As 2003 opened, American textile and industrial textile executives said they expect this year to be at least as good — and, they hope, better — than 2002, according to an informal survey by a leading industrial textiles newsletter.
For its annual economic outlook edition, the HunTex Report spoke with executives in a variety of areas, including nonwoven carpet, manmade fiber, specialty fabrics, cotton spinning and academia.
As a whole, respondents were upbeat if somewhat cautious.
Dina Dunn, vice president of Marketing for Nylstar North America, Greensboro, NC, was the most optimistic.
“This year is a big growth year for us,” Dunn said. “Our new Martinsville, VA, plant has brand new, state-of-the-art technology for producing nylon. Our main focus is apparel.
“With the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) legislation in place, we need a very healthy plant to meet the needs of the United States and North America. Our outlook for 2003 is growth, growth, growth.”
At Avondale Mills’ Specialty Fabrics division in Graniteville, SC, business has been very good and the outlook is good. This division of Avondale coats woven and nonwoven substrates with acrylic, urethane, vinyl and silicone. Its growth has been driven by its ability to coat fabrics using solvent as well as water-based chemistries.
“Fiscal 2003 for us so far has been very good and I think it will continue. It’s strong early. Fiscal 2003 will be better than fiscal 2002,” said Kevin Crean, vice president, Specialty Fabrics, Avondale Mills Inc.
Crean reported that one of his facility’s five coating ranges is sold out for the rest of the year.
“We expect that 2003 will be a flat to slightly down year versus 2002. Our business is very dependent upon the automobile build rate in North America, and this is projected to be slightly down versus 2002 (2 percent to 4 percent),” said Lee Sullivan, general manager of the Tuft Division, Freudenberg Nonwovens, Durham, NC.
“However, the automobile build rate will still be relatively strong versus the historical averages, and 2003 will likely be the third or fourth highest rate of production in the history of the industry. So, on a relative basis, 2003 will be a reasonably good year.”
The biggest challenge that these executives see for the year ahead is making a profit. Price pressure is enormous and most of them would probably be happy just to hold what they have as far as margins go. All appear to be looking for niches.
“The challenge is to keep a viable strong industry here in the United States,” said Richard Gregory, Ph.D., director, School of Materials Science and Engineering at Clemson University, Clemson, SC. “The opportunities to do that are to move away from competition with countries that have very low labor costs that can run large volumes at relative low cost to making niche markets here in high-tech materials. The challenge is to move the industry this way, and for us academics to follow suit.
“A lot of the smaller companies that haven’t changed or are unwilling to change will eventually go away,” Gregory said. “The ones that are more dynamic like Milliken & Co. will always be in the forefront because they are making those changes.”
H. Malloy Evans, president of Cheraw Yarn Mills, Cheraw, SC, summed up the situation quickly and neatly.
“Our challenge is to improve margins,” Evans said. “We have the price of raw materials (cotton) going up and our customers saying ‘no, no’ to price increases. So you have both ends of the stick hemmed up.”
Alfred Dockery is editor of the HunTex Report, founded more than 10 years ago by Bob Huntoon. It is published monthly.
