Nippon Kodoshi Corporation (NKK)
HQ JP30% share
Japanese specialty-paper maker; leading producer of wet-laid nonwoven SEPARATOR paper for alkaline batteries and electrolytic capacitors.
manufactured · input
Nonwoven Battery Separator
Wet-laid nonwoven fabric from nylon (polyamide 6 or 6,6) or polyolefin fibers that electrically isolates anode from cathode while allowing potassium-ion transport. Must be stable in concentrated KOH.
3
Source countries
5
Companies
1
Goods affected
0
Claims on record
What depends on it
Goods that need this input
1 essential American goods rely on nonwoven battery separator somewhere upstream in their supply chain.
Where it comes from
Source countries
Share of global supply, by country.
| Country | Share of supply |
|---|---|
| JPJapan | 45% |
| DEGermany | 25% |
| USUnited States | 18% |
Who makes it
Supplier companies
5 companies produce nonwoven battery separator.
Glatfelter (Magnera)
HQ US20% share
Engineered/wet-laid nonwovens maker (merged into Magnera 2024); alkaline-battery and specialty separator media.
Hollingsworth & Vose Company
HQ US20% share
Advanced nonwoven/filtration media maker; battery-separator and filtration media.
Ahlstrom (Ahlstrom-Munksjö)
HQ FI
Finnish specialty fiber and filtration materials company; merged with Munksjö 2017; produces ReliaFlow™ conjugate pads (8980, 6614) for lateral flow immunoassays; serves infectious disease, pregnancy, drugs-of-abuse, food safety, veterinary, and environmental LFA markets; major European alternative to Whatman/Cytiva glass fiber pads
Freudenberg Performance Materials
HQ DE
Freudenberg Performance Materials GmbH & Co. KG (Weinheim, Baden-Württemberg Germany; private, subsidiary of Freudenberg Group; ~€1.2B revenue) manufactures technical nonwovens including meltblown filtration media under the Enka brand. Freudenberg is a major supplier of meltblown media for HVAC air filtration (MERV 13-16 rated filters), automotive cabin air filtration, and respiratory protection including N95-equivalent FFP2/FFP3 respirators for European markets. Freudenberg's meltblown media are used by Camfil, AAF International, and other HVAC filter manufacturers. Key meltblown sites: Colmar (France), Kaiserslautern (Germany), Durham NC (US), and Nantong (China). Freudenberg's filtration nonwovens are a critical component for hospital HVAC systems — the same material in an N95 mask also filters the air recirculating through ICU HVAC units.