Toray Industries, Inc. and Toray Advanced Materials Korea Inc. announced that the companies made a decision to expand the high-performance polypropylene spunbond production facility in China at their subsidiary Toray Polytech (Nantong) Co., Ltd. 

The new facility will have a production capacity of about 20,000 tons a year, increasing TPN’s capacity to about 78,000 tons a year. The additional facility is expected to start operation in December 2014, bringing PP spunbond production capacity of Toray Group to about 141,000 tons a year.

Demand for disposable baby diapers is forecast to rapidly grow from 14 billion pieces in 2012 to 38 billion pieces a year in 2020 in China due to the improvement in the people’s lifestyle, prompting major hygiene product manufacturers to expand their existing production facilities and leading medium-sized manufacturers to enter the market.

The move by Toray and TAK to extend TPN’s production capacity is in response to the strong demand for PP spunbond in China as well as the requirements for high-performance materials for disposable diapers and to strengthen the cost competitiveness.

The demand for disposable baby diapers throughout Asia, led by China, India and ASEAN countries, is estimated to grow from 29 billion pieces in 2012 to 65 billion pieces a year in 2020, and demand for PP spunbond in Asia is expected to expand from 290,000 tons annually in 2012 to 750,000 tons in 2020. Toray Group markets its PP spunbond, produced at its production facilities in Korea, China and Indonesia, where the production started earlier this month, widely in Asia including Japan, Korea, China, India and ASEAN countries.

The group aims to expand its business in the fast-growing Asian market by offering products that address such needs for high-performance disposable diaper materials, while responding to increasing demand for PP spunbond in various countries in Asia.

Under the medium-term management program “Project AP-G 2013” to be completed in the current fiscal year, Toray Group has been driving forward the group-wide Asia and Emerging Country Business Expansion (AE) Project, which is aimed at tapping the burgeoning economies of Asian and other emerging countries. To become a corporate group that continually expands revenues and profits, the group will continue to proactively pursue business expansion in growing Asian and other emerging markets.