More than double the supply of raw materials for Toray masks April 13 18:40
Amid a continued shortage of masks, Toray, a major textile manufacturer, has decided to double its supply volume by building a new production line for nonwoven fabrics used in masks in Japan.
Until now, Toray has been producing about 30 million nonwoven fabrics, which are used as raw materials for masks, at overseas factories such as China and Indonesia in a month and supplying them to domestic mask manufacturers.
However, in order to respond to the lack of masks, next month we will increase production at overseas factories to about 60 million sheets, and from next month we will launch a new production line at a factory in Shiga Prefecture to produce about 20 million sheets of nonwoven fabric. To produce.
The production volume will be 2.6 times higher than before, and it will be possible to supply about 80 million non-woven fabrics per month to mask manufacturers in Japan.
According to the Japan Nonwovens Association, 40% of nonwovens rely on imports, and about half of them are from China, but procurement has become difficult after the spread of the new coronavirus. That is.
For this reason, other major chemical manufacturers, such as Asahi Kasei and Mitsui Chemicals, are also starting to increase nonwoven fabric production in Japan, and the movement to expand the production system is spreading.