Santana Textil opens new denim unit
Brazilian textile firm Santana Textil has inaugurated its new denim industrial complex with a monthly production capacity of 1.5 million metres of fabric in the Chaco Province, Argentina. The spinning section was opened and, according to marketing director, Delfino Neto, the whole complex, including the weaving and finishing divisions, should be complete by March 2008. The new unit is expected to generate 350 direct jobs. The company now has five production units, the other four of which are in Brazil.
The group hopes to achieve total annual production capacity of 100 million metres of denim by 2010. According to Mr Neto, the 18 million metre capacity Argentinean unit will be expanded in 2009 to 30 million metres. He also revealed that the main reason for opening the new unit was related to the denim import quota regime imposed in Argentina on purchases from South America.
"Argentina is the main importer of indigo fabric from Brazil. The Brazilian and Argentinean Presidents agreed to adopt a quota regime to imports of this product from Brazil. The quota regime is based on limits set by Argentinean producers. Because the quotas are not sufficient to satisfy the local demand with Santana goods, we decided to open our own industrial unit there," he said.
