Expanding downstream application adds fuel to hot spandex

In 2021, the demand for spandex has remained strong. Although it has entered the traditional off-season from May to June, the demand does not decrease. Conventional spandex 10-40D are often lined up for delivery, and prices continue to rise. Increasing demand for spandex is mainly due to the following 2 reasons: On the one hand, it is the expansion of spandex applications in sports, underwear, fashion dress, home furnishing, and anti-epidemic sanitary materials. The proportion of elastic clothes has increased significantly. On the other hand, the content of spandex has climbed up. Recently, the content of spandex has advanced significantly in clothes with a content of 5%-15%. Underwear and intimates with spandex at 15-40% have also become a hot spot this year. Popular spandex downstream products are briefly summarized below:

Yoga-driven fashion: After the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for healthy sportswear has surged sharply. Sportswear, especially yoga and cycling clothing with spandex, has greatly improved, and fashionable shark pants, Barbie pants, and high-fitting clothing have moved from the gym to daily wear.

This category is a product with high content of spandex, ranging from 15% to 25% among branded products, and from 7% to 12% for ordinary products.

The development of underwear: The most comfortable and free wearing feeling of Ubra (a branded underwear) has been replaced by some cheaper products, and the comfort of wearing has been improved. The production and sales of such products have climbed up significantly in the past two years, and this type of product has a large amount of stretch fabrics and spandex content. The content of spandex in the fabric can be as high as 20%-40% and that of a small part of fabrics can be above 50%.

Dralon fabrics: High-content spandex products in winter cannot avoid dralon fabrics. Dralon is a must-have item in winter for the past two years. It has a warm touch and good personal warmth.

The spandex content of this type of fabric generally ranges from 4% to 7%, and the content of a few with better fit can reach 10% to 12%. Strong sales of spandex starting in May was also partially due to the early production of dralon products.

Super soft series: This type of products has expanded rapidly in recent years and has been widely used. There are super soft products in home thermal products, fashion dress, home textiles, sofa fabrics, blankets, etc., and they have expanded rapidly in recent years.

The content of spandex in this category of products is mostly 5%-6%.

Anti-epidemic materials: The consumption of anti-epidemic materials has increased significantly in the past two years due to the outbreak of the pandemic, and there is a demand for spandex in masks and protective clothing.

The unit consumption of spandex is only 0.1-0.3 grams in masks and is very low in protective clothing. However, due to the huge number of masks and protective clothing, the accumulated spandex consumption has lifted greatly.

Except for the above hot spots, the application ratio and content of spandex in trousers, winter wear, sunscreen clothing, household goods, etc., have increased too. Growing demand for spandex from traditional field and some hot sectors kept spandex in crunch in the first half of 2021.