Business

Teijin To Begin Recycled Polyester Chip Production In Thailand

Teijin Frontier Co. will start producing recycled polyester chips made from locally procured plastic bottle flakes in Thailand in January for high-quality polyester long fibre products. The Osaka-based firm under the wing of major textile maker Teijin Ltd. said it will build a manufacturing facility for the recycled products at a plant run by Teijin Polyester (Thailand) Ltd., in Pathumthani Province, north of Bangkok. Production will begin in January with a plan to have an annual output capacity of 7,000 tons in the 2025 business year. Teijin Frontier did not release how much it will invest in the new facility. The recycled polyester chips will be processed into polyester filaments for sale under the Ecopet recycled-fibre brand by Teijin Frontier group companies. Teijin Frontier had looked for efficient ways to procure recycled materials for local production without risking environmentally adverse long-haul transportation. But it faced difficulty securing a stable supply of high-quality bottle flakes in and around Thailand. That led the company to decide to equip its new facility with state-of-art repellet machinery that enables it to make high-quality recycled polyester chips for long fibre products.