FIBER MAKERS IN JAPAN SOLDIER ON

Abstract

WHY ARE TORAY INDUSTRIES and Teijin still in the fiber business? In high-cost Japan, fiber manufacturing should have followed shipbuilding or aluminum smelting and vanished from the manufacturing landscape. Yet, somehow, Toray and Teijin, Japan's largest fiber makers, are still going strong. Vitality in the world's fiber market nowadays is more apparent in India and China, fast-growing economies with major clothing industries serving both home consumers and the international markets. India's Reliance Industries has emerged as a formidable polyester manufacturer and petrochemical producer. In China, Yizheng Chemical Fiber operates highly efficient world-scale plants. Conditions, however, have been harsh for polyester manufacturers in Taiwan and South Korea over the past three years. Taiwan's Tuntex group is coping with the excessive debt load it accumulated by investing too aggressively in capacity expansion. This has forced Tuntex to postpone construction of a petrochemical complex in Taiwan. A similar si...