Kuraray enforces the spinning facility at its Ehime plant by investing about JY 600,000,000. The project is to cope with the demand from India, where the environmental countermeasure has been introduced and the fiber should need less water for its processing. Kuraray is planning to increase the share of high-performance fiber from 30 % to 50 % of the fiber/textile business in the total sales by 2020. “MINTVAL” is a fiber blended with cotton for texturizing and then dissolved in hot water after weaving. “MINTVAL” is characterized by its easy dissolution in hot water in comparison with vinylon fiber conventionally used for subsidiary materials. Kuraray expects the expansion of the demand for “MINTVAL”, and decided to increase its production capacity.

JCFA News Letter (No.12) May, 2016/Japan Chemical Fibers Association