In order to ensure competitiveness and increase capacity, two major Taiwan fiber manufacturers; Far Eastern Textile Ltd and Shinkong Synthetic Fiber are planning to invest substantial amounts.
Far Eastern Textile will invest 2 billion NT Yuan in both Taiwan and the Chinese Mainland to construct a plant in each country, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons PTA in each plant.
Shinkong Synthetic Fiber is also planning to spend 800 million NT Yuan to add 210,000 tons of new production capacity of PET polyester chips, thus bringing its total capacity up to 420,000 tons
Far Eastern Textile says that Japan's chemical industry suffered very serious losses last year, and has not yet fully recovered from the abyss of depression and the US and EU retail industry is still in the doldrums.
Therefore the economy as a whole is not optimistic, Taiwan's chemical fiber industry recorded a negative growth of 13 percent last year, of which, exports fell 6 percent and domestic sales showed a serious setback.
However, the overall performance of Far Eastern Textile was not bad and maintained its industrial gross margin at about 10 percent, down by only 1 percent from the previous year, despite the recessionary trends.
In order to maintain its status quo amongst the world's top chemical fibre companies', Far Eastern Textile has decided to set up two PTA plants in Mainland and Taiwan with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons each.
The construction is expected to complete by the end of next year and total production capacity will then reach 2,000,000 tons. Shinkong Synthetic Fiber will also expand capacity by 210,000 tons of PET chips, bringing its total capacity to 420,000 tons.
At present, a new fiber plant is under construction in Thailand with an annual capacity of 180,000 tons. Shinkong Synthetic Fiber achieved a net profit more than 100 million NT Yuan in the second quarter due to better performance of its PET chip business.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - China