Teijin to double meta-aramid capacity

Japan’s Teijin has developed a new type of meta-aramid fibre said to offer the world’s highest level of heat resistance combined with excellent dyeablility.

It is to be manufactured at a new $45 million plant in Ayutthaya Province, Thailand which Teijin will begin building in December with scheduled production scheduled from July 2015. This will nearly double the annual capacity of Teijin’s global meta-aramid fiber production.

“We have supported the global market for protective apparel over decades with our high-performance materials, such as Teijinconex, Twaron, Technora and Pyromex and smore recently with Endumax high-performance polyethylene,” said Masaya Endo, Teijin group executive officer and general manager of Teijin’s high-performance fibres business unit. “The new type of meta-aramid fibre will strengthen our competitiveness in the emerging economies and Asia, where the demand for heat-proof and flame-retardant high-performance materials is growing due to increasing safety regulations, and in North America and Europe, where the demand is high for advanced solutions that combine comfort and manoeuvrability with high protection.”

The Teijin group will continue to strengthen capabilities in growing markets for protective apparel. Efforts will, among other initiatives, be supported by collaboration at the group’s Research Center in Osaka, Japan, Development Lab in Wuppertal, Germany, Research Center in Arnhem, the Netherlands, Technical Centre Asia in Shanghai, China as well as the Iwakuni and the Matsuyama plants in Japan, the Emmen plant in the Netherlands and in the foreseeable future the new plant in Thailand.

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