17 June 2016
DETAILS
announced today that it has decided to enhance
the production capacity of its high-performance
polypropylene spunbond nonwoven fabric
(hereinafter referred to as "PP spunbond") at
Toray Advanced Materials Korea, Inc. (TAK)
which manufactures and sells the material.
TAK will build an additional facility
with a production capacity of 18,000 tons per year
on the premise leased by TAK
in the Gumi National Industrial Complex 5
in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea.
The new facility is expected to start operations
in April 2018.
Demand for disposable diapers for
babies and toddlers has been rapidly increasing
in ASEAN member countries, India and China,
as the lifestyle of people in these countries improves
against the backdrop of high economic growth
and rising national income.
Especially in China, which is the largest market,
import of high-end products made in Japan and Korea
has been sharply expanding
as the people increasingly opt for safe products,
and major sanitary products manufactures
with global presence have been declaring plans
in succession to expand plants producing products
for the Asian countries.
Given this situation, demand for PP spunbond,
which is the main raw material of disposable diapers,
is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 9%
from 500,000 tons per year in 2015
reflecting expanding demand for diapers
* for senior citizens in developed countries
in addition to that
* for babies and toddlers in emerging nations,
and the material’s supply is forecast to fall short.
In the PP spunbond business of Toray Group, currently
* TAK in Korea has annual production capacity
of about 43,000 tons,
* Toray Polytech (Nantong) Co., Ltd. (TPN) in China
about 73,000 tons and
* P.T. Toray Polytech Jakarta (TPJ) about 19,000 tons,
and it sells the material widely to the markets
in Asian countries including Japan, Korea, China,
ASEAN nations and India.
The production facility being added at TPJ
is expected to start operation in September 2016
and the Group as a major PP spunbond supplier in Asia
is promoting the business expansion
into emerging markets such as rapidly growing
China, India and ASEAN countries.
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
