The Lenzing Group announced the investment
of a TENCEL fiber plant in the US. The new state-of-the-art facility with a
production capacity of 90,000 tons per year will be the largest TENCEL fiber
plant in the world.
As announced, the new plant will be located
at the company’s site in Mobile, Alabama. It will utilize the latest
technological standards and is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2019.
The investment volume will total US$ 293 million.
The expansion plan aims to increase the
share of specialty fibers as a percentage of revenue to 50% by 2020, according
to Lenzing.
“This investment
represents another major milestone in the implementation of our corporate
strategy sCore TEN. It will bring us a big step further to reach our target of
50% revenue from specialty fibers by 2020“, explained Lenzing CEO Stefan
Doboczky.
“This expansion also underscores our
commitment to all our TENCEL fiber customers, who continue to make their products
even more sustainable using TENCEL fiber, the world’s most sustainable botanic
fiber,” added Doboczky.
New
CTO appointed to Management Board
Lenzing also decided to create a new
Management Board role, pooling together the key technical, operational and
engineering responsibilities. The Supervisory Board of the company appointed
Heiko Arnold as the new Chief Technology Officer.
In addition to a strong scientific and
technical education, Arnold has gained many years of experience with BASF in
the realization of major investment projects and continuous operational
improvements as well as extensive know-how in Research & Development. He
will be responsible for all technical departments in Lenzing.
“We are pleased
to welcome Heiko Arnold, a further expert with broad international experience,
to Lenzing’s Management Board team“, commented Hanno Bästlein, Chairman of the
Lenzing Supervisory Board.
“Lenzing is on a successful, dynamic growth
course with the development and implementation of the new sCore TEN corporate
strategy, and that makes an increase in the Management Board to four persons a
reasonable step. His 15 years of experience in Asia, in the realization of
major investment projects and in operational excellence make Arnold a perfect
match for the challenges faced by Lenzing“, explained Bästlein.
Lenzing currently has a worldwide
production capacity of 222,000 tons per year of TENCEL fibers. The new plant in
Mobile plus the already announced debottlenecking projects at the other TENCEL
fiber sites will increase the total capacity by more than 50% by 2019.