The US$1,000 million nylon industry – the first synthetic fibre produced ever, has been performing in a very sluggish manner in recent times. Nylon production has been hovering between 3.8 million tonnes to 3.9 million tonnes since the past 5-6 years. Investments are severed in this industry which is facing serious competition from cheaper material of polyester and polypropylene.

Research and development is limited to further improvement in the nylon performance with little effort to explore new usages. However, engineering nylons have been showing great potential for its usage in automobiles, aircrafts and engineering goods.

Injection moulding is another area explored recently. Many top companies in the past have been developing nylons of higher grade for exclusive application on a standalone basis. This trend is seen diminishing and companies are attempting to homogenize nylon products to endeavour application on mass basis. Future demand for nylon will largely come form industrial and home textile (basically floor covering) rather than from textiles.