World Production of Textile Raw Materials in 2002

Production of all types of chemical and natural textile fibres increased by 4.2% in 2002 in comparison to the previous year and attained 62.7 million tons. World production of chemical fibres increased by 6.1% in 2002, to 36.5 million tons, including a 6.2% increase for synthetic fibres, to 33.8 million tons, and a 1.6% increase in cellulose fibres (for the first time in recent years) by 1.6%, to 2.7 million tons. Polyester fibres and yarn remained the leaders in world production of textile raw materials, of which 81% was concentrated in Asia and half of the production volume was in China and Taiwan.