Toray Industries, Inc. will establish a new company for producing polypropylene spunbonded nonwovens in Foshan, Guangdong Province (China).
Toray Polytech (Foshan) Co., Ltd. (TPF) will be set up this month, and will start production at an annual scale of 20,000 tons in FY2019. TPF will be Toray’s second polypropylene spunbond production base in China after Toray Polytech (Nantong) Co., Ltd. (TPN) in Nantong, Jiangsu Province.
Capitalized at 420 million yuan, the capital contribution ratio is 70% for Toray and 30% for Toray Industries (China) Co., Ltd. The representative of TPF is Lee Young-kwan, President of the Korea Toray Group and Chairman and CEO of Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc. (TAK).
The Toray Group has a polypropylene spunbond production capacity of 153,000 ton/year: TAK, 43,000 tons; TPN, 73,000 tons; and P.T. Toray Polytech Jakarta (TPJ) in Indonesia, 37,000 tons. Since TAK will expand its capacity by 18,000 tons next April, and TPF is to commence operations in FY2019, the group’s production capacity will increase to 191,000 tons, up about 25% from the current scale.
According to the company, Asian demand for polypropylene spunbondeds, which are used mainly for disposable diapers, is growing at an annual rate of 9%, and it is expected to reach 1.4 million tons in 2025. With the establishment of TPF, Toray will certainly secure demand in China, which is the largest consumer of disposable diapers, as well as accelerating its global business expansion backed by a strong production base and superior quality.