More spunbond for Toray

Toray Industries in Japan and Toray Advanced Materials in Korea plan to expand the high-performance polypropylene spunbond nonwovens production plant at their subsidiary Toray Polytech (TPN) in Nantong, China.

A new line will add an annual 20,000 tons bringing TPN’s capacity to around 78,000 tons a year when it starts operation in December 2014.

This brings the PP spunbond production capacity of the Toray Group to about 141,000 tons a year in a bid to meet China’s demand for baby diapers which is expected to grow from 14 billion pieces in 2012 to 38 billion pieces a year by 2020 in China.

The demand for disposable baby diapers throughout Asia, led by China, India and the ASEAN countries, is expected to grow from 29 billion pieces in 2012 to 65 billion pieces in 2020, and demand for PP spunbond in Asia to expand from 290,000 tons in 2012 to 750,000 tons in 2020.

Toray Group now makes PP spunbond at plants in Korea, China and now in Indonesia, where production started this June.