Expanding Business
Kolon Industries has announced on September 29 that it will invest 40 billion won (US$36.35 million) in the Gumi plant to expand its spunbond production lines. The construction is expected to begin next month and end in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Spunbond has been used to produce wall lining papers, filters in air purifiers and packaging materials and its uses are recently becoming more diverse such as industrial materials and new materials of automotive parts.
Once the new production lines start operation, the company’s annual production capacity of spunbond will increase to 22,000 tons, accounting for the second largest share in the Asian market. Kolon Industries’ polyester spunbond business currently ranks first in terms of market share in the domestic market and third in the Asian market.
The company has decided to build the additional lines as it is seeking to use spunbond for automotive carpets. Since the spunbond should accurately realize the curve shape of the lower part of cars and secure the durability at the same time, a small number of companies are dominating the market.
Kolon Industries has been developing the technology from 2007 and it was selected by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy as a national project last year. With the extension and market expansion, the company plans to boost its sales of spunbond to some 200 billion won (US$181.74 million) by 2020.