Toray plans to double its fiscal 2019 sales amount of woven and knitted fabrics for sportswear applications to overseas apparel companies, as compared with fiscal 2016.
While the Japanese domestic market is unlikely to grow sharply in the future, the company intends to strengthen overseas sales utilizing overseas production bases in addition to exports with an aim at enlarging the scale of its business.
The tasks that are to be undertaken for overseas sales of woven and knitted sportswear fabrics are: (1) the promotion of exports with high-performance materials developed from the yarn stage to megabrands, (2) the proposal of consistent operations up to apparel manufacturing toward the growing lifestyle wear market in cooperation with Toray International, Inc., (3) the sales of overseas produced products toward the middle zone and the sales of apparel, and (4) heightening the quality of fabrics with patents.
Exports occupy an import position as they occupy one-third of its sportswear fabric sales. Woven fabrics account for ninety percent, but knitted fabrics have been increasing in recent years. Knitted fabrics made from Primeflex stretch materials and Karuishi two-layer knitted fabrics featuring light weight, warmth retention and abrasion resistance are growing for application in soft shell garments featuring light weight and stretch and toward the lifestyle wear sector such as commuter wear.
In the future, Toray will expand exports of woven fabrics mainly to the top zone outdoor wear sector, as well as making proposals for apparel in cooperation with Toray International toward the lifestyle wear sector, as apparel firms have emerged in large numbers in this sector.