Interview with Dr Ahmad Farag – NEC Consulting Company
By: Kohan Textile Journal
Please let us know more details about your company, history and success story.
NE Consulting company (NEC) is a worldwide consulting company specialized in nonwoven industry and related fields has been established in 2015 in Turkey and expanded its activities in 2020 in MEA Region (the Middle East & Africa) & APAC (Asia Pacific), through its new branch in Bahrain to serve the entire range of nonwovens projects.
NE Consulting Company has achieved many success stories with its clients by launching many new Nonwovens projects and products in KSA, UAE, EGYPT, INDIA, SINGAPORE & CANADA.
NE Consulting is cooperating with our customers to develop 4 new projects in MENA regions in various nonwovens segments, these new projects will launch its commercial production in between 2021-2022 and will add additional production capacity to the region with the state of the art technology and diversified niche portfolio and market segments, achieving a high standard of commercial and operational excellence.
Our vision is to serve our customers with utmost dedication and become a leader in the nonwoven industry advisory by providing a superior level of consultation to our customers through our professional and experienced team, enabling them to stay one step ahead in producing and developing a new generation of Nonwovens products with high quality and high performance in their target segments.
Give us more details about the Services that you offer textile companies all around the world.
Relying on years of experience & professional development, combining commercial and operational excellence with market intelligence, our company has successfully developed a large scale of Nonwovens projects to serve the nonwovens markets and launching new segments with new products and applications.
NE Consulting Co. provides a broad range of consulting services are grouped into three main categories:
1- Business Advisory
2- Market Consultancy
3-Technical Consultancy
including Projects development, new business development, market studies, market analysis, strategic planning, competitive intelligence, product development, feasibility studies, new business models, business plans , technology assessment and analysis, sourcing of speciality materials and converting, marketing strategies, and other business and managemental services.
How do you evaluate textile and nonwoven sector in Saudi Arabi and MENA Region?
MENA Nonwovens production practically has doubled over the last decade, due to the burgeoning population and strong export potential,
Nonwovens sector in Saudi Arabia is one of the important and fast-growing industrial sectors,
The strategic location of KSA which is one of biggest global oil supplier besides owning and operating SABIC, the third major raw material supplier in the world, allows it to serve the global market and to establish the biggest platform of Nonwovens industry in MENA region, with different technologies, numerous production facilities and diversified product applications, ranged from hygiene, medical and covers also construction and other sectors.
Egypt as well is considered the second biggest platform for the nonwovens industry with a burgeoning market, both in consumption and increasingly for production due to its geographical proximity to EMEA markets
Many nonwoven players in the MENA region had boosted its production capacities by launching new production facilities in some strategical locations or adding additional production lines to maintain their value proposition in the global supply chain.
Such as Advanced Fabrics (SAAF) the Saudi Nonwovens manufacturer which had added RF4 line in 2013, HAYAT ( global player in the FMCG industry and Baby diapers manufacturing) had launched its first nonwovens plant in Egypt in 2018, Gülsan also, had added additional production line RF4+ to raise its capacity to 40K tons- annum, PFN as well had built a new site for nonwovens production in South Africa in 2019 ..
As a Nonwovens industry expert, how do you evaluate the nonwoven and technical textile sector in the Middle East and Africa and its potentials for Future? What is your prediction for the nonwoven industry in this region?
The nonwovens industry is one of the fastest-growing industry in the MEA region, especially after COVID-19 pandemic which adds significant impact due to the accelerated demand of Nonwovens in medical and hygiene sectors.
Nonwovens outlook for the period of 2021-2026 is revealing that the CAGR of the industry will be boosted to reach 9% regionally after it was a bet. 4-5% in between 2018-2019.
This potential rocket CAGR of nonwovens business in MENA region has shown many indications during 2020, started with the announcement of JOFO’s intent to acquire Advanced Fabrics (SAAF) Saudi nonwovens manufacturer and the official signature of MOU between both entities and the commencement of due diligence. (JOFO is a Chines Nonwovens manufacturer and one of the 40 Mega manufacturers of Nonwovens in the world)
Also, Advanced Fabrics (SAAF) the Saudi nonwovens manufacturer have achieved more than 30 million SAR (8 million USD) during the last 3 quarters of 2020 as per the published financial statement (Published in October 2020) .
Furthermore, COVID 19 has a positive impact on Nonwovens industry due to raising of global demand & new regulations which have boosted the Nonwovens CAGR and change it positively after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic towards achieving more remarkable growth.
COVID 19 shows us how much we are related to nonwoven products, what do you think about pandemic and importance of nonwoven industry?
Nonwovens fabrics had witnessed a massive acceleration of demand all over the world during COVID-19 Crises especially, Face mask materials (melt-blown and spun-bonded nonwovens ) which has witnessed a massive shortage after calls of WHO and American CDC to wear masks to prevent COVID-19 spread.
Furthermore, all medical disposables witnessed a sharp market demand for the same reasons and the heavy utilization in hospitals and health care during the handling of huge numbers of COVID-19 patients.
COVID -19 pandemic has unveiled the actual capabilities of the Medical Sector all over the world and it pushed the governments all over the world to impose many new regulations to support medical industry and its supply chain to provide a strategical stock of medical disposable materials and to build strong & strategical capabilities against any threat in the future similar to COVID-19.
Based on the current circumstances resulted from COVID-19 pandemic and the booming of the nonwovens industry, we have started to develop nonwovens materials with high quality, high standard and decisive technical performance which will be capable of giving high protection and high filtration function for the users and decrease the spread of pandemic all over the world, moreover, it will produce a new generation with new features in medical disposables fabrics.
Furthermore, we are presenting our consultation to our clients to keep production capacity at the highest level to meet the accelerated market and maintain a healthy manufacturing environment and sanitary housekeeping.
These days sustainability and green products are so important, what do you think sustainability in the nonwoven industry?
NE Consulting company (NEC) believes that it is the most major challenge the nonwoven industry has faced, and it will have an impact for many years to come.
Nonwovens fabrics have a significantly lower impact on the environment and climate footprint compared to other plastic-based materials used in other industries.
There are many nonwovens manufacturing technologies utilizing the recycled raw material such as Nonwovens fabrics used in the Construction sector, besides, producing recyclable or biodegradable material which is ecofriendly and has no impact on the environment.
These properties qualify nonwovens to displace many products which had a bad impact on the environment as in packaging & disposable industries.
NEC is closely working with clients to develop new projects relying on recycled raw material, in addition to developing many new sustainable nonwovens products ecofriendly, fulfil property requirement and is biodegradable.
Finally, we would like to thanks KOHAN TEXTILE JOURNAL for this interview …
