INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, has released its latest North American Nonwovens Industry Demand & Forecast Report, updating its outlook for one of the textile sector's fastest-moving material categories.

The report, published by Textile World, covers demand patterns across the North American nonwovens supply base — the tier that feeds hygiene, medical, filtration, automotive and industrial applications rather than apparel cut-and-sew. For sourcing teams, the INDA series functions as the reference dataset for capacity planning and supplier negotiations in nonwoven roll goods.

What does the report cover?

INDA's demand and forecast reports track volumes and growth expectations across the major nonwoven process routes — spunbond, meltblown, spunlace, needlepunch, airlaid and carded formats — segmented by end use and by regional production footprint.

The association's membership spans the full nonwovens value chain, from polymer and fibre suppliers through roll-goods producers to converters, which positions the report as a consolidated read on where North American capacity sits and where buyers are directing volume.

Why it matters for sourcing decisions

Nonwovens sourcing has shifted visibly since the pandemic-era surge in meltblown and spunbound capacity for filtration and hygiene end uses. Forecast data of this kind signals where utilisation rates, new investment and potential oversupply sit across the region.

Buyers of roll goods and converted nonwoven products — from disposables manufacturers to industrial filtration assemblers — use the INDA outlook to benchmark supplier pricing and to judge whether to commit volume to North American producers or to import streams.

The report lands at a moment when regionalisation of supply chains remains a live question for textile-adjacent materials, with tariff exposure and freight volatility still shaping sourcing calculus for US and Canadian buyers.

The decision it forces

Procurement teams working with nonwoven suppliers should treat the new forecast as a benchmarking trigger: revalidate volume commitments against updated demand projections, and pressure-test quoted price movements from roll-goods suppliers against the report's growth picture before the next contracting round.

Full methodology, segmentation detail and forecast horizon figures are available in the report itself, which INDA distributes to members and sells to non-members.