Can lyocell showcase a bright future?

As a fiber with superior physical properties and green concept, lyocell has bright prospect in the future, but the capacity is growing rapidly, so the industry may be difficult to enjoy the dividends in the short term and will still be challenging in 2022. The capacity of Chinese lyocell is likely to reach 450kt by the end of this year, but the utilization is relatively not high.

In terms of the actual operation, lyocell performs better in the first half of year when cotton soared above 22,000yuan/mt. Therefore, lyocell was used as substitutes in textiles, especially during May-Jul. However, cotton price started to decline sharply in the second half of year and lyocell was even higher than cotton, coupled with the emergence of new capacities, Chinese lyocell may face new challenges.

As the quality of Chinese lyocell continues to improve, the application outside China will be increasing in 2022. However, it takes some time for the application of Chinese lyocell abroad, so we keep mild expectation for the export growth. In China local market, there may be still increasing demand from several fields like traditional products, cotton/lyocell and nonwovens as well as more textile technics applicable to lyocell.

Although the outlook for lyocell industry is good, as far as 2022 is concerned, huge oversupply will still be the main contradiction at present, and lower prices will effectively be positive feedback, which will restrain supply on the one hand and boost demand on the other hand. The future loss may be caused by concentrated capacity to a greater extent, while after experiencing the pain, lyocell is expected to usher in its own future with the improvement of the technology and equipment of the whole industry chain.