Toray Industries, Inc. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Akihiro Nikkaku, hereinafter referred to as “Toray”) today announced that it has acquired commercial-use land in the city of Foshan, Guangdong Province in South China, with the aim of starting a high-performance polypropylene spunbond (hereinafter referred to as PP spunbond) business. Toray will establish a new company, Toray Polytech (Foshan) Co., Ltd. (TPF), in November, and plans to set up a production facility with an annual capacity of 20,000 tons of PP spunbond. The facility is expected to start operations in fiscal year 2019.
It will be the second PP spunbond production facility in China for Toray following the Toray Polytech (Nantong) Co., Ltd. (Nantong, Jiangsu Province, referred to as “TPN”).
Demand for disposable baby diapers is expanding in China as the people’s lifestyle improves with rising income and also due to increase in newborns with the discontinuation of the one-child policy. Major sanitary product manufacturers are actively establishing or expanding their production facilities for diapers in China, which has led to a rapid increase in demand for PP spunbond, the main material for disposable diapers. Especially, South China region, which accounts for nearly 60% of the PP spunbond demand in the country, is witnessing a rapid demand growth and PP spunbond manufacturers are facing increased requirements for strengthening the supply of the material in the region.
Toray Group has been supplying high-performance PP spunbond to its customers in China primarily from TPN, and with the establishment of the new production facility in South China, which is experiencing booming demand, the group expects to have timely and stable supply to meet the needs of the customers while providing meticulous service as the two facilities work closely together.
The demand for PP spunbond in Asia is growing at a rate of 9% annually and is expected to expand to 1.4 million tons by 2025.
Toray Group has been working on enhancing the production capability at its bases in Republic of Korea, China and Indonesia to cater to the robust demand for PP spunbond and has built a strong supply structure as the major supplier for the material in Asia.
With the establishment of TPF, Toray Group will not only ensure to capture the demand in China, which is the largest consumer of diapers, but also accelerate the PP spunbond global business on the back of a strong production foundation and quality superiority.
Under the medium-term management program “Project AP-G 2019,” Toray has positioned expansion of non-woven fabric business as one of the important tasks of the fiber business. The group will aim for further expansion of the non-woven business by bolstering the global supply structure led by PP spunbond and pursuing development aimed at improving the products.
