Russia wants to increase exports of technical textile and nonwoven products. Companies are beefing up production capacity accordingly. For example, Leading Russian manufacturer Inmed is building a new facility that will be used for the needs of the technical textile, medical and chemical industries. Total production capacity of the new plant will be 1.5 million linear meters of membrane materials and 6, 00,000 innovative functional materials, based on nanofibres, per year.

Vtor-Com, a leading producer of technical textiles and nonwovens, will increase the production of nonwovens and fibers by 50 per cent. The company aims to increase the annual output of nonwoven needle-punched fabrics up to 18 million sq mts. In addition, the company plans to produce three million running meters of nonwoven fabrics a year and will expand the production of synthetic polyester fibers.

Consumption of technical textiles in Russia has significantly increased, mainly due to an increase in demand from the military, medicine and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, demand for Russian textile materials is also growing abroad. These include the EU, former Soviet countries, including the CIS states, China and the Asia Pacific region.

Russian producers are aiming for higher exports to Germany, where demand for innovative textile materials has been steadily growing since the beginning of the millennium.