Toray Industries Inc has decided to enhance the production capacity of its high-performance polypropylene spunbond nonwoven fabric (PP spunbond) at Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc (TAK) in Seoul, South Korea, which manufactures and sells the material. TAK will build an additional facility with a production capacity of 18,000 tonnes 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 percent from 500,000 tonnes 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 tonnes, Toray Polytech Nantong Co Ltd (TPN) in China about 73,000 tonnes and PT Toray Polytech Jakarta (TPJ) about 19,000 tonnes, 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.
The decision to increase its PP spunbond production capacity is promoted as a part of the Asia, America and Emerging Country Business Expansion (AE-II) project to capitalise on the growth of Asia, Americas and emerging countries in other regions, where significant economic expansion is expected, as well as of Life Innovation Business Expansion (LI) project, which calls for improving the quality of health care, easing the burden at medical institutions and contributing to health and longevity.
