Fabric Coating Mills (NAICS 31332) — U.S. Industry Primer

Short "pass-through" page. In the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the five-digit industry 31332, Fabric Coating Mills, contains exactly one six-digit national industry — 313320, Fabric Coating Mills. The two codes describe the same set of businesses, so this level is effectively identical to its single child. This page gives the top-line facts and the federal statistics reported at the 31332 level; for the full treatment — coating methods, the company-by-company investable universe, margins, demand, regulation, and outlook — see the 313320 primer.

1. Overview

Fabric coating mills take a base cloth and apply a layer of polymer — vinyl, polyurethane, rubber, silicone, acrylic, or wax — to one or both sides, turning an ordinary textile into an engineered material that is waterproof, abrasion- or flame-resistant, air-tight, or wipe-clean [1][2]. The output, coated fabric, shows up as vinyl upholstery, truck tarps and billboard media, tent and awning fabric, architectural roof membranes, inflatable boats, protective clothing, and the silicone-coated cloth inside a car airbag [1][2].

For an investor, this is a small, essential middle-of-the-supply-chain converter business: mills buy commodity cloth and chemicals, run expensive coating lines, and sell finished material at a markup. Most U.S. capacity is private and family-held, so the practical routes in are direct ownership, private equity, and M&A rather than the stock market. Because 31332 and 313320 are the same industry, everything in this section is developed in full in the 313320 primer.

2. What's inside — and why this level equals its one child

NAICS is a nested system: five-digit industries subdivide into six-digit national industries. Most five-digit codes split into several children; a few, like this one, have only one. 31332 = 313320, so there is no aggregation to do and no mix of sub-industries to weigh — the five-digit rollup simply carries the six-digit numbers up one level unchanged.

The single child covers establishments "primarily engaged in coating, laminating, varnishing, waxing, and rubberizing textiles and apparel" [2] — for example making oilcloth and vinyl-coated fabric, rubberizing or waterproofing purchased garments, laminating or metallizing purchased cloth, and producing artificial leather from purchased fabric [1][2]. The 313320 primer details the coating methods (knife-over-roll, calendering, dip, transfer, lamination), the toll-vs.-merchant model, and the adjacent codes that blur the true footprint — textile finishing (313310), broadwoven fabric mills that weave and coat (313210), downstream cut-and-sew (314), and plastic/rubber synthetic leather (326) [2].

3. How big it is (this level's figures)

Federal statistics for NAICS 31332 (United States) — identical to the 313320 line because they are the same industry:

These imply a small, concentrated-by-plant industry: roughly 147–153 establishments averaging about 46–48 workers each, average pay near $67,000 per worker (payroll ÷ employment), and revenue on the order of ~$400,000 per employee — typical of a capital- and materials-intensive processor where value sits in machinery and inputs, not headcount [3][4]. The Census found 153 establishments but 138 firms in 2022, explicitly showing that some companies operate multiple plants [3]. An independent trade estimate put 2022 U.S. coated-fabric production at about $2.6 billion, close to the Census receipts figure and a useful cross-check [6].

Undercount caveat. This is a straightforward manufacturing census, so the plant count is reasonably complete — the distortion runs the other way. The real economic footprint of coated fabrics is larger than the $2.88 billion 31332 line because integrated weave-and-coat plants are counted under broadwoven fabric mills, plastic/rubber synthetic leather is counted under plastics/rubber, and a large share of U.S. consumption is imported rather than made here. Broad market-research estimates that lump all of these together put the global coated-fabrics market near $28–30 billion in 2024–2025, growing about 5% a year — a much wider definition than this Census industry [7].

4. The investable universe

There is no large-cap U.S. pure-play and no dedicated exchange-traded fund (ETF). Because this level is 313320, the same short list applies — see the child primer for the full table and detail.

• Public pure-play: essentially one micro-cap — Uniroyal Global Engineered Products (ticker UNIR, OTCQB), ~$70M revenue, owner of the Naugahyde brand; thinly traded and balance-sheet-sensitive; latest SEC annual filing covers 2021 [8].
• Public diversified proxies (coated fabrics is a small segment): Saint-Gobain (SGO), Trelleborg (TREL-B), SergeFerrari (ALFER), Surteco (SUR), and SRF [9][10][11][12]. Continental (CON) exposure is temporary: on July 4, 2026, Continental agreed to sell ContiTech to Lone Star Funds for €4.0B plus up to €250M in performance payments, with closing expected by end of 2026 [13].
• Airbag-fabric exposure: mostly Japanese-listed — Asahi Kasei, Toyobo, Toray, and Seiren, plus U.S.-based Highland Industries [14].
• Where value actually concentrates — private mills: Seaman, Cooley Group, Herculite, Glen Raven (Sunbrella, ~18% of the marine-fabric market), Haartz, Milliken, Shawmut, and Morbern, plus U.S. plants of European groups Sioen and Freudenberg — reachable only via direct ownership, PE, or M&A [15][16][17].

5. How the money works

A coating mill is a spread-and-utilization business. Owners buy two main inputs — a base fabric (woven or knit greige cloth) and a polymer system (PVC resin and plasticizers, polyurethane, rubber, silicone, or acrylic) — coat them, and sell by the yard at a markup. The levers that decide profitability: the input-cost spread (resin and energy track petrochemicals, so margin compresses when input prices outrun pricing power); capacity utilization of expensive coating lines; and, above all, product mix — commodity upholstery vinyl earns thin, import-exposed margins, while specialty grades (architectural, defense, medical, marine, airbag) that require qualification and certification command materially higher margins. The 313320 primer breaks each lever down further.

Producer-price trends: The BLS industry PPI for NAICS 313320 rose from 218.3 in December 2020 to 297.4 in April 2026, an increase of approximately 36%, showing substantial producer-price realization during and after the supply-chain shock [18]. Margin data is scarce; the lone public pure-play (Uniroyal) reported a 12.4% gross margin and a negative 2.1% operating margin in 2021 — an example, not an industry benchmark [8].

6. What drives demand

Demand is derived and cyclical, tied to the end markets coated fabric serves: automotive and transportation (the largest use, roughly a third of the global market — seating, airbags, convertible tops, trim), construction and architecture (tensile roofs, awnings, single-ply membranes), furniture/hospitality/healthcare/marine, industrial and protective (tarps, geomembranes, PPE — personal protective equipment), defense, and consumer/outdoor [7][14]. Two structural shifts — a move to sustainable materials (PVC-free, PFAS-free, bio-based) and, in autos, EV interiors and lightweighting — are reshaping specifications rather than just cycling volume [7].

7. Regulation

Coating is a chemical process feeding cars, buildings, and clothing, so the industry sits under several regimes: air emissions (volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants under the U.S. Clean Air Act, including a fabric-coating NESHAP — National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants — category covering compounds such as toluene, MEK, methanol, xylenes, and formaldehyde; new polymeric-coating facilities may also face VOC-control requirements under applicable NSPS) [19][20]; water quality (EPA textile-mill effluent rules and ongoing study of PFAS discharges) [21]; PFAS restrictions (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the chemistry behind many durable-water-repellent finishes, now banned in textiles by California's AB 1817 effective January 2025 and phasing in across other states and the EU) [22][23]; PVC and phthalate-plasticizer scrutiny under EU REACH and California Proposition 65; worker-safety rules on solvents and isocyanates (for the broader NAICS 3133 group, OSHA's federal inspections from October 2024 through September 2025 recorded 21 citations across 10 inspections, with machine guarding and hazardous-energy control prominent) [24]; and product-performance standards (auto, aircraft, furniture, and medical flammability specs). Trade policy — tariffs — also shapes competition directly. The child primer expands each.

8. Competitive dynamics and consolidation

By the numbers, U.S. fabric coating is fragmented and unconcentrated. Federal concentration data for this level: the largest four firms hold about 24.7% of revenue, the top eight 39.2%, the top twenty 64.3%, and the top fifty 88.7%; the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI, a standard concentration gauge where under 1,500 counts as "unconcentrated") is just 288.6 [3]. No single firm dominates. Beneath that, the industry is really two tiers — price-competitive commodity vinyl exposed to Asian imports, and defensible specialty/technical grades held by global majors and specialized private mills. Consolidation has been steady rather than dramatic: Synthomer bought Omnova in 2020 and sold its coated-fabrics unit to Surteco (effective February 2023); the Sioen family took Sioen Industries private in 2021; Continental agreed to sell ContiTech to Lone Star Funds in 2026 [12][13][17]. Meaningful barriers to entry — capital-intensive lines, hard-to-copy formulation, long customer qualification — protect incumbents while capping growth.

9. Risks

The same risks as the child industry: cyclicality with auto builds and construction; input-cost volatility in resin, plasticizer, and energy; import competition and tariff whipsaw (U.S. tariffs on Chinese textiles reached roughly 145% in 2025, cutting both ways) [25]; regulatory/ESG obsolescence as PFAS and PVC restrictions strand product lines and force reformulation [22][23]; substitution by molded plastics, spacer fabrics, and next-gen synthetics; customer concentration in a few automotive or defense programs; and, for the lone listed pure-play, small-cap financing risk — the most recent SEC annual filing covers 2021, so current investability requires separate securities diligence [8].

10. How to invest and the outlook

Public routes are limited and indirect — one speculative micro-cap (UNIR), a handful of diversified proxies where coated fabrics is a minor segment, and Japanese-listed airbag-fabric names; there is no U.S. large-cap pure-play and no dedicated ETF [8][9][14]. The industry actually lives in the private market: most U.S. capacity is private and family-owned, and a fragmented, sub-$3-billion industry with an HHI under 300 is structurally suited to private-equity roll-ups and specialty-mill platform-and-bolt-on deals [3][15].

Outlook. Expect low-single-digit demand growth overall (global forecasts near 5% a year for the broad category) with sharply diverging fortunes by tier: continued import and margin pressure on commodity vinyl, and the growth-and-margin story concentrated in specialty and technical grades — architectural membranes, solar shade, defense, medical, and EV interiors [7]. Two forces dominate the next few years — the reshoring pull of tariffs and the sustainability transition to PFAS-free, PVC-free, and bio-based coatings — rewarding mills that move up-market and reformulate early [7][22][23][25].

For full detail on every point above, see the 313320 (Fabric Coating Mills) primer, which this page summarizes.

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Sources

1. Encyclopedia.com, "NAICS 313320 — Fabric Coating Mills," https://www.encyclopedia.com/manufacturing/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/naics-313320-fabric-coating-mills
2. NAICS Association, "NAICS Code 313320 — Fabric Coating Mills" (definition and cross-references), 2022, https://www.naics.com/naics-code-description/?code=313320
3. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, EC2200BASIC for NAICS 313320 (firms 138; establishments 153; receipts $2.884B; CR4 24.7%; CR8 39.2%; CR50 88.7%; HHI 288.6), https://data.census.gov/table/ECNBASIC2022.EC2200BASIC?codeset=naics~313320&g=010XX00US
4. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP), NAICS 313320, 2023 (establishments 147; employment 6,992; annual payroll $470.5M), https://data.census.gov/profile/313320_-_Fabric_coating_mills?codeset=naics~313320&g=010XX00US
5. U.S. Small Business Administration, Table of Small Business Size Standards (NAICS 313320 = 1,000 employees), 2023.
6. IndexBox, "Production of Coated Fabric in the United States," 2025 (U.S. coated-fabric production ~$2.6B in 2022), https://www.indexbox.io/search/production-coated-fabric-the-united-states/
7. Mordor Intelligence, "Coated Fabric Market Size, Drivers & Opportunities 2025–2030" (global market ~$28–30B, ~5% CAGR; automotive ~33% of demand; sustainability shift), 2025, https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/coated-fabric-market
8. Uniroyal Global Engineered Products, Form 10-K (fiscal 2021), SEC EDGAR, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1172706/000121465922004642/unir10k0122.htm
9. 360Quadrants, "Top 15 Coated Fabrics Companies, Worldwide 2024" (Saint-Gobain, Trelleborg, Freudenberg, Continental, Serge Ferrari, Sioen), 2024, https://www.360quadrants.com/chemicals/coated-fabrics
10. Trelleborg, "Engineered Coated Fabrics" business unit; MarketsandMarkets, "Rubber Coated Fabric Companies" (Continental and Trelleborg as leading players), 2024–2025, https://www.trelleborg.com/en/engineered-coated-fabrics; https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/rubber-coated-fabric-market.asp
11. Yahoo Finance / Euronext, "SergeFerrari Group Reports 2025 Full-Year Revenues of €347.5 million" (ticker ALFER), 2026, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sergeferrari-group-reports-2025-full-165700512.html
12. SURTECO North America, "OMNOVA Films and Laminates to Rebrand as SURTECO" (acquisition effective February 28, 2023), https://surteconorthamerica.com/omnova-films-and-laminates-to-rebrand-as-surteco-2/
13. Continental AG, 2025 Annual Report (ContiTech segment) and sale announcement (July 4, 2026: ContiTech to Lone Star Funds for €4.0B plus up to €250M performance payments), https://annualreport.continental.com/2025/en/report/economic-report/development-group-sectors/contitech.php; https://www.continental.com/en/investors/ir-news/ad-hoc-news/continental-ag-continental-ag-sells-contitech-group-sector/
14. Mordor Intelligence, "Automotive Airbag Fabric Market" (coated fabrics ~73% of airbag-fabric market; silicone coating dominant; Asahi Kasei, Toyobo, Toray, Seiren, Highland Industries), 2024–2025, https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/automotive-airbag-fabric-market
15. Dataintelo, "Marine Fabrics Market Report" (Glen Raven / Sunbrella ~18.5% share; Herculite, Seaman), 2025, https://dataintelo.com/report/global-marine-fabrics-market
16. Shawmut Corporation, "Who We Are" (fourth-generation family-owned advanced-materials company), https://shawmutcorporation.com/who-we-are/
17. Sioen Industries take-private (2021 founding-family buyout via Sihold NV), MatrixBCG / company history, https://matrixbcg.com/blogs/growth-strategy/sioen
18. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index for NAICS 313320 via FRED (series PCU313320313320), https://fred.stlouisfed.org/data/PCU313320313320
19. U.S. EPA, "Fabric Coating, Printing, and Dyeing — Emission Inventory Assessment," final 2003, https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/documents/fabric_eia_neshap_final_02-2003.pdf
20. U.S. EPA, "Polymeric Coating of Supporting Substrates Facilities: New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)," https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/polymeric-coating-supporting-substrates-facilities-new-source
21. U.S. EPA, "Textile Mills Effluent Guidelines," https://www.epa.gov/eg/textile-mills-effluent-guidelines
22. California Health and Safety Code §108971 (AB 1817 — PFAS prohibition in textile articles effective January 1, 2025), https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&sectionNum=108971
23. Bluesign, "PFAS in Clothing: 2026 Bans, Health Risks, and Safer Alternatives" (California AB 1817; multi-state and EU phase-outs), 2025–2026, https://www.bluesign.com/pfas-in-clothing
24. U.S. OSHA, Frequently Cited Standards for NAICS 3133 (October 2024–September 2025: 21 citations across 10 inspections), https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/citedstandard.naics?p_esize=&p_naics=3133&p_state=FEFederal
25. Yahoo Finance / Sourcing Journal, "It Will Take More Than Tariffs to Bring Back U.S. Textile Manufacturing"; People's Daily, "Chinese textile industry pivots as US tariffs bite" (U.S. tariffs on Chinese textiles ~145% in 2025), 2025, https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/more-tariffs-bring-back-us-135523173.html