Taiwan's synthetic fiber makers upgrading facilities to boost competitiveness

Taipei, June 18, 2004 (CENS)--Facing the impact of the expansions by mainland China's large synthetic fiber plants, some leading textile manufacturers in Taiwan, including Lealea Enterprise co., Chung Shing Textile Co., and Tainan Enterprise co., are actively streamlining their facilities to enhance product quality and production capacity.

Lealea, Taiwan's professional maker of polyester textured yarn and polyester chips, has recently invested NT$60 million (US$1.77 million at US$1 = NT$34) to remodel some of its facilities. The company has two production lines for polyester filament, with direct spinning taking a lion's share of 80% of the output.

Since direct spinning can only generate yarns in large volume at lower prices, Lealea has therefore decided to lower the ratio of direct spinning by boosting chip spinning to 40% from the current 20%. In contrast with plain yarns generated through direct spinning, chip spinning can fabricate high-end yarns in small volume, including cross-shape yarn, far-infrared fiber, flame-retardant fiber, and photocatalyst yarn.

Lealea's restructured facilities are expected to become operational beginning in September of this year. A ranking company official predicted that in the future the ratio of chip spinning and direct spinning is very likely to be further adjusted to 7 : 3.

Chung Shing, a traditional textile manufacturer, completed the reshape of its three small sets of idle manufacturing equipment about two years ago. The restructured equipment is focused on the production of multifunctional yarns, such as full-dull yarns, high-shrinkage yarns, flame-retardant yarns, and nano-grade yarns.

A senior official at the company disclosed that the company's 'coolplus' yarn, taking the advantage of absorbing perspiration & quick drying, has gained a good reputation among its buyers. And the second generation of 'coolplus' is to be unveiled soon with two more functions--anti-bacteria and anti-ultraviolet.

This year Chung Shing is going to pump in about NT$40 million (US$1.18 million) to convert its two production lines into chip spinning from direct spinning, and the remodeling is slated for completion in the second half of the year. In the future, the company plans to evenly balance its chip and direct spinning operations.

Tainan Enterprise, a leading textile maker in southern Taiwan, has also planned to develop more multifunctional yarns to avoid the price-cutting competition from rivals in the mainland. The company has already injected tens of million New Taiwan dollars to upgrade its two small production lines for polyester fiber. One of them is expected to start running next month, which will turn out mainly polyester chips for high-end multifunctional yarns.

Moreover, the company is also actively integrating its petrochemical units to effectively develop specific upstream petrochemical raw materials for down-stream industries.