Lenzing Expands Production Capacity
In response to the rising price and decreasing availability of cotton, Austrian fiber maker Lenzing AG is expanding the global production capacity of its Tencel and viscose fibers.
The expansion will add more than 200,000 metric tons of production capacity to facilities in the United States, Austria, China and Indonesia. Lenzing’s current annual fiber-production capacity is nearly 700,000 metric tons. The company has set a goal to reach a fiber-production capacity of 1 million metric tons by 2014. The investment in the current expansion is approximately 285 million euros.
“This expansion program responds to the dynamic demand development for manmade cellulosic fibers and is intended to further secure our leading world market position, said Peter Untersperger, chief executive officer of Lenzing. “The structural changes in the global textile fiber market, which are characterized by a tendency toward rising cotton price levels and an ever-increasing volatility of cotton quantities, as well as the increasing demand for manmade cellulosic fibers in nonwovens, lead us to continue to expect strong demand for Lenzing fibers over the next years. Moreover, the capacity-expansion program is intended to further secure our leading position in the industry with respect to cost efficiency and market position.”
The company plans to build a new Tencel production facility at its company headquarters in Lenzing, Austria. Lenzing’s existing pulp mill will directly supply the new facility with pulp to make the Tencel fibers, making the facility the first fully backwards-integrated production site for Tencel.
Tencel production will also be expanded at Lenzing’s facility in Mobile, Ala. Viscose production at Lenzing subsidiary PT South Pacific Viscose in Purwakarta, Indonesia, will be expanded, as will its production facility in Nanjing, China.—Alison A. Nieder
