Recent acquisitions include Polymer Group Inc (PGI)'s purchases of its partner's stake in Dominion Nonwovens Sudamericana, and the Tesalca-Texnovo businesses in Spain. SCA has acquired Algodonera Aconcagua, a major player in the feminine care market in Argentina, and Smith & Nephew has acquired Nucryst Pharmaceuticals-a producer of wound care products using a proprietary nano-crystalline silver-based process.

Meanwhile, Oerlikon has divested its Enka Tecnica business to a management buyout team and Rieter has agreed to sell its Rieter Perfojet nonwovens subsidiary to Andritz. In the nanotechnology field, Elmarco has joined the Coalescence Filtration Nanomaterials Consortium (CFNC), and Inorganic Specialists has been granted US$2 mn by the US Department of Energy to develop nanofibre substrates for batteries.

Elsewhere in the sector, Nanocyl is to expand its capacity for producing carbon nanotubes, and Teijin Fibers is supplying Nanofront fibres to Acushnet Japan for use in its Nanolock golf gloves. Meanwhile, P2i has installed an ion-mask liquid repellent nanocoating line for Adidas Golf shoes in China and NanoHorizons has consolidated its corporate offices, manufacturing operations and laboratories and moved them to a new facility which has been designed and equipped to accommodate expanded research, development and testing activities. In the medical textile sector, Prestige Ameritech has turned a vacant facility-formerly owned by Kimberly-Clark for making Tecnol surgical masks-into a Global Pandemic Preparedness and Response Center.

In protective clothing, Prevent has joined DSM Dyneema's Global Licensing Program. In the nonwovens sector, Sandler will build a new nonwovens plant at its premises in Schwarzenbach/Saale, Germany, while Shalag is to open a nonwovens plant in North Carolina. Also, Ahlstrom plans to increase its focus on Asia and on added-value products. Meanwhile, The Freedonia Group has predicted that US demand for nonwoven roll goods is set to grow by 3.7% per annum between 2008 and 2013. Another market study, by the Federation of Screen and Digital Printers Associations (FESPA), has predicted that the global digital textile printing industry will be worth Euro4 bn (US$5.8 bn) in 2010.