Home / News / Ramp-up at new Tencel plant positive: Lenzing

Ramp-up at new Tencel plant positive: Lenzing

13 Dec '14

3 min read

The track record of the new Tencel fibre production plant at the Lenzing site in Austria during the initial six-month ramp-up phase has been a positive one, says Lenzing AG.

“The plant has already successfully operated at full capacity and in a trouble-free manner for the past months, and the quality of the manufactured fibres, fulfills our high expectations,” CEO Peter Untersperger informs.

He adds, “Our new second generation Tencel fibre facility is a technological milestone for lyocell technology, and proof that we are several years ahead of all our competitors.”

The new facility enables Lenzing to produce more than 67,000 tons per annum of Tencel fibres via one jumbo production line, which has significantly increased efficiency compared to the existing technology.

Lenzing is still the only company in the world with the capability of implementing the complex lyocell technology on an industrial scale and mastering safety requirements.

“Over the past few years Tencel has secured a permanent place on the market for a whole range of attractive applications”, says Lenzing chief commercial officer (CCO) Robert van de Kerkhof.

“The fibre offers good breathing properties, excellent wearing comfort, high fibre strength and above all is environmentally-friendly since it is produced from a natural raw material – wood,” he adds.

Both, the CEO and the COO emphasise that Lenzing will continue to fully concentrate on Tencel in the coming years.

Lenzing expects that its technological know-how will also help it to open up new markets and for this reason, it says, Tencel will remain a top research and development priority.

In the past five years, Lenzing has spent around €100 million on research in lyocell technology and has already been operating several pilot lyocell facilities at the Lenzing site for 25 years.

If demand for Tencel fibres continues to develop as satisfactorily as expected, Lenzing informs, it will likely construct an additional jumbo production plant based on this proven technology.

As of the end of 2014, total annual Tencel production capacity of the Lenzing Group totals to about 220,000 tons manufactured at sites in Austria, USA and UK.

Thanks to the new technology, Lenzing has been able to maintain investment costs at a very competitive level of approximately €150 million or about €2,200 per ton of capacity.

“This gives Lenzing the opportunity to achieve a further competitive scaling of Tencel fibres as a universally deployable textile and nonwoven fibre,” the fibre producer concludes by saying. (AR)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India