One group’s virgin polyester capacity is more than the global rPET total
Chemical fibre information resource CCF Group said China’s capacity for producing polyester fibre and key chemical feedstocks for production of the fibres experienced “robust expansion” in 2023. “There was double-digit growth across polyester industry in 2023,” CCF said.
It said new factories, especially in the Pearl River Delta, in 2023 had taken China’s production capacity of key raw material paraxylene to more than 40 million tonnes a year. It added that manufacturers’ capacity for producing polyester fibre increased by ten million tonnes last year.
At the end of last year, non-profit group Textile Exchange calculated global polyester fibre production to be 61 million tonnes; this figure was based on its analysis of 2022 figures.
China’s polyester production is for bottles, films and other applications, as well as for textiles, but Hangzhou-based Tongkun Group was one of a number of manufacturers to achieve “intensive growth” in polyester yarn capacity last year.
It completed new yarn projects at facilities in Suqian, Nantong, Jiaxing, Alar and other parts of China last year and took the polyester yarn production capacity of this one group to 10 million tonnes per year.
In contrast, Textile Exchange put global recycled polyester fibre production at 8.6 million tonnes in 2022.
