| Abstract: | The Near and Far East (except for Japan) will be the primary promising markets for chemical fibres to the end of the 1990s. In particular, Taiwan is now in second place in the world (after the US) in production of chemical fibres. The fibre production capacities of China, the Republic of Korea, and recently India are continuously expanding. In China, according to plan specifications, the capacities of the chemical fibre industry will significantly increase from 3.5 million tons in 1995 to 4.5 million tons in 2000, while production will increase from 2.9 to 4.0 million tons, respectively. It is believed that this will allow increasing the degree of supplying the textile industry with domestically produced chemical fibres to 85–90% by 2000. The total production volume of chemical fibres in “third world≓ countries is now almost four times higher than the production volume for all of Western Europe. The structural changes in the world chemical fibre industry can thus hardly be considered complete; global, radical changes in the market for these fibres are most probably coming, and Russia will carefully monitor them, exhibiting patience and interest in the development of her own potential. Translated from Khimicheskie Volokna, No. 3, pp. 3–7, May–June, 1998. |
