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Fibres/​Yarns/​Fabrics

Successful start-up for jumbo Tencel production plant

A new Tencel facility is decisive to ensure the long-term viability of fibre production at the Lenzing site, said the company’s COO.

31st July 2014

Innovation in Textiles
 |  Lenzing

Sports/​Outdoor, Clothing/​Footwear, Industrial

The Lenzing Group has successfully initiated production at its new Tencel jumbo production facility at the Lenzing site in Upper Austria.

“We are more than satisfied with the progression of the start-up curve. Based on the production process in the past days and weeks, we have reasonable grounds to believe that this latest generation of Tencel technology will completely fulfil our expectations”, explained Peter Untersperger, Lenzing CEO.

Successful start-up

“The successful start-up of production operations is a technological milestone for Tencel, the fibre of the future, and for the entire Lenzing Group. We are optimistic that we will be able to achieve the planned production target of 30,000 tons by the end of 2014,” said Friedrich Weninger, Lenzing’s COO.

“This new Tencel facility is decisive to ensure the long-term viability of fibre production at the Lenzing site and the basis for future investments in all markets.” A single production line with an annual nominal capacity of 67,000 tons was installed at this factory. Previous Tencel production lines were usually only one-quarter as large.

Decisive approach

The new plant design incorporates lessons learned from the longstanding experience of three existing Lenzing Group Tencel production plants located in Austria, USA and Great Britain. As a consequence, the new Tencel plant in Lenzing represents the world’s leading generation of Tencel technology.  

The new design of the jumbo production line is said to enable investment costs to be maintained at a very competitive level of approximately EUR 150 million.

This is a result of the decisive approach to the further competitive scaling of Tencel fibres as a universally deployable textile and nonwoven fibre. The new, broader product portfolio on the basis of the Tencel technology successfully complements Lenzing’s specialty strategy, the company reports.

Technical applications

Thanks to the new plant, annual nominal Tencel production capacity of the Lenzing Group is expected to rise from 155,000 tons p.a. to about 220,000 tons.

This way Lenzing is said to further expand upon its global market leadership for Tencel fibres and offer its global customers new expansion opportunities in both the textile and nonwovens segments as well as new and innovative applications.

“The related market development activities have already been in full swing for quite a few months,” said Robert van de Kerkhof, the CCO of Lenzing responsible for the fibre business. The company believes the new technical applications will be opened up and massively expanded in the years to come.

Fibre of future

Tencel is the latest generation of man made cellulose fibres and is manufactured in a particularly environmentally compatible production process. It has been awarded the European Award for the Environment by the European Union.

Tencel fibres are used by the textile industry as well as for nonwovens. Typical applications of the high tech fibre Tencel include sportswear, soft denim applications, home textiles as well as baby wipes and cosmetic wipes. However, Tencel is also being increasingly deployed for technical applications.

www.lenzing.com

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