Delay to major Spinnova fibre factory project
Fibre developer Spinnova has announced a delay in a plan to establish a major production facility for its for cellulose fibres for textiles from renewable materials.
In March this year, it announced that it was preparing to deliver its technology, based on fibre suspension flows, to Brazilian partner Suzano. As part of the agreement between them, Suzano said it would develop, own and operate a new production facility for the Spinnova fibres, with capacity to make 20,000 tonnes per year.
On announcing the delay, the Finnish company said it had successfully met most of the targets that the agreement sets.
It has delivered a “process design package” for the new facility and it says it has also met targets for the quality of the fibres it is producing. Further to this, it has said spinning tests, conducted with agreed brand and supply partners in November 2024 have proved successful.
But in a statement on November 19, Spinnova said: “Validating process efficiency metrics at targeted capital and operating expenditure levels for the entire process from pulp to fibre will not be met during 2024.” This is the reason for the delay.
It added that it will now pursue alternative plans with Suzano “for the fastest way to validate end-to-end process efficiency metrics” and move to the next phase of the project.
