DUPONT TO RESTART S.C. FILAMENT PLANT, ADDING 100 MILLION POUNDS OF CAPACITY
Byline: S. Gray Maycumber
NEW YORK — DuPont will substantially increase its polyester filament capacity, initially by 100 million pounds, by restarting its filament plant in Cooper River, S.C., in mid-March, the company said Thursday.
“We badly need this capacity,” said Ned Jackson, vice president and general manager of DuPont Dacron Polyester, in a telephone interview. “After this 100 million pounds of additional capacity, we see another 200 [million] to 300 million pounds coming on in the next three years. This will be in our three U.S. filament plants, Kinston, N.C., Cape Fear, N.C., and Cooper River, and will increase our filament capacity by about 400 million pounds by 2000. Also our polyester plant in Suzhou, China, will be coming on stream in ’98.”
DuPont’s current U.S. polyester filament capacity, before the Cooper River restart, is 700 million pounds annually.
“With these moves, we fully intend to maintain our leadership in the U.S. polyester market,” said Jackson, who feels the market for polyester is “coming back big time.”
“I see this as the resurrection of the polyester business, particularly the filament part. It’s an important fiber for the apparel industry, much more so now than in the recent past. The younger consumer likes polyester and does not have the problem buying it that existed a few years ago. One reason is that polyester apparel is now styled better and has a better hand and performance. The softer trend in apparel is in our favor.”
He sees polyester filament growing at a rate of 5 to 6 percent each year for several years.
“We are selling all the microdenier polyester filament we can make and need more capacity,” he said. “The same is true of our CoolMax. DuPont sees polyester as a core corporate business and is investing heavily in it — some $3 billion worldwide.
“We fully intend to maintain our leadership in the U.S. polyester market and aggressively compete around the world. In addition to expansions, acquisitions down the road are a definite possibility.”
The Cooper River plant’s polyester filament operation has been closed since late in the third quarter of 1994 for the installation of new technology. The restart will add approximately 130 jobs.
On Wednesday, DuPont said it was developing new technology that could cut the cost of making polyester fiber by 15 to 20 percent by the year 2000.
It is not yet clear how this will actually affect the price of polyester fiber at the mill level in 2000.