According to show organisers Messe Frankfurt, the American editions of Techtextil and Texprocess which were held in Atlanta, Georgia last week experienced 13% growth in square footage for this year with a total of 519 exhibitors. Over 7000 visitors pre-registered and the shows were held in conjunction with the JEC Americas Composites Show.

Our US based correspondent Debra Cobb reports that like its parent show in Frankfurt, Techtextil/Texprocess 2016 North America, offered visitors an overwhelming array of textile-related developments geared primarily—but not entirely—to technical markets.

Unlike the Frankfurt show, however, Debra explains, exhibitors and visitors at the Atlanta edition were mostly focused on doing business in the western hemisphere, where potential customers include 40% of the world’s consumption (by volume) of personal protective equipment (PPE), and a military budget of US$1.5bn (according to OTEXA) for clothing and equipment which by law must be sourced domestically.

You can read Debra’s full show report here – Techtextil/Texprocess NA highlights new opportunities for US textile industry.

Nonwovens in robust health

Industrial nonwovens were of course in evidence at Techtextil in Atlanta, but many of the industry’s movers and shakers were actually in Boston for the IDEA show and nonwovens summit. There was some speculation in Atlanta that Techtextil may have been less well attended due to IDEA taking place at the same time and one can’t help wondering if the shows should have shared the same location if they had to be held at the same time.

So, how is the global nonwovens industry faring so far in 2016? According to our correspondent Adrian Wilson, the message to be taken home from last week’s show is that the garden is rosy almost everywhere right now, with the exceptions of South America and the Middle East.

In North America, things certainly couldn’t be better, Adrian reports. Speaking at the Global Nonwovens Summit, held on May 5th, the final day of the exhibition, Dave Rousse, president of show organiser INDA, said that of the 14 new North American manufacturing lines announced during 2015 and 2016, nine will be located in North Carolina. Happy days indeed.

You can read Adrian’s views on IDEA and the Global Nonwovens summit here - IDEA 2016: Nonwovens in robust health.

International Conference on Textile Coating & Laminating

Watch out for a forthcoming additional show report from Techtextil NA from our US correspondent Bill Smith. And just in case you missed it a few weeks ago, Bill reviewed the coating and laminating conference TCL2016 Prague for us.

The 2016 edition of The International Conference on Textile Coating and Laminating (TCL2016) opened in Prague March 16-17 to a packed house of 130 or so delegates from over 23 countries. Started by Bill in 1990 and mostly alternating yearly between the US and Europe, the conference is designed to appeal to a broad range of participants, primarily middle to upper management, marketing, and technical, virtually every step of the value chain from raw material suppliers, chemical and machinery producers, coaters and laminators, even regulators and end-users.

You can read Bill’s in depth conference review here - TCL2016 Prague – Focus on sustainability in an evolving and vital industry.

Talking Heads – interviews with the industry’s movers and shakers

For those of you who haven’t seen them yet we are now publishing regular interviews with leading industry figures in our Talking Heads section. Watch out for a forthcoming interview with Michael Jaenecke brand manager for Messe Frankfurt’s Techtextil and Texprocess shows.

Events Calendar

Don’t forget to check out our Events Calendar which is updated every week. We list and provide links to most industry events including trade fairs, conferences, seminars and webinars. To get your event listed, simply email us at [email protected].

Reports

In our Reports section we preview and offer for sale industry reports from some of the world’s best textiles industry publishers. The section is updated regularly with new reports being added most weeks. Be sure to check our listings regularly.

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Billy Hunter

Editor