The supply and demand of Lyocell fibers have maintained a nearly 40% growth rate in the past two years, while nonwoven fabric output surpassed 9 million tons for the first time in 2025. These two figures reveal an underappreciated fact: green fibers are no longer a conceptual topic but are becoming the core engine of incremental growth in the textile industry.
Current Status and Bottlenecks
At the industry chain conference held in Changshu, the China Chemical Fibers Association disclosed that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, bio-based fibers achieved leapfrog growth. However, looking toward the 15th Five-Year Plan, key monomers such as high-purity lactic acid, lactide, and furandicarboxylic acid still rely on imports, and large-capacity continuous polymerization and melt direct spinning technologies are not yet fully autonomous. This means that despite strong downstream demand, upstream raw materials and equipment remain bottleneck constraints, directly limiting cost reduction and large-scale expansion.
Academician Cheng Bowen proposed building a full-chain research system covering "mechanism tracing, technology breakthrough, application and standards," precisely targeting this pain point. Although Lyocell fibers have achieved stable operation of thousand-ton production lines, the industrialization maturity of green dissolution technologies such as the ionic liquid method varies, with cost differences among different technical routes potentially exceeding 30%, significantly affecting downstream procurement strategies.
Policy and Market Dual Drivers
Zhang Qian from the China National Textile and Apparel Council pointed out that green development has evolved from an environmental issue to a market access survival issue. International green trade rules such as the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism are forcing export enterprises to recalculate product carbon footprints, while domestic dual-carbon goals require full decarbonization from energy to chemicals. For export-oriented textile companies, this means that within the next two years, failing to provide verifiable carbon footprint data could directly lead to losing some European orders.
Researcher Wang Huaping from Donghua University predicted that bio-based fibers and biodegradable materials will maintain high growth rates in the coming years, with the share of green fibers in the overall structure increasing significantly. This judgment aligns with the industry association's "Excellent Fiber Selection" project, which is establishing a traceable closed loop from fiber to garment through evaluation technical specifications and carbon footprint disclosure mechanisms, providing a credit basis for green premiums.
Application Scenarios and Industry Chain Collaboration
Data from the China Nonwovens & Industrial Textiles Association show that nonwoven output exceeded 9 million tons in 2025, with disposable hygiene products and wiping materials as the main markets, making biodegradable raw material development a hot spot. This implies that the growth space for bio-based fibers is not limited to apparel fabrics but extends to disposable products in hygiene and medical fields, where the demand for biodegradability is more rigid and consumers have higher willingness to pay.
Corporate practices are also accelerating. Xinxiang Chemical Fiber's "Shousail" thousand-ton production line is running stably, Yisheng New Materials optimizes PLA fiber strength through copolymerization modification, and Jiangsu Sanlian has launched a bio-based polyester filament matrix covering functional directions such as cooling. These cases show that bio-based materials are upgrading from a single environmental attribute to a composite value of "appearance + performance + sustainability," but technical routes vary significantly among enterprises, requiring downstream buyers to carefully verify actual performance indicators.