Nylon Makers Seeing Biz Soar on Rising CPL Price

Taipei, Dec. 15, 2005 (CENS)--Taiwan's textile makers have recently adjusted their production lines to meet the growing demand for nylon products and to take advantage of the rising price of caprolactam (CPL). Li Peng Enterprise Co. and Zig Sheng Industrial Co. have already added new production lines to turn out nylon chips to meet the recent market boom.

The price of CPL tumbled from its previous peak of US$2,250 per metric ton to a record low of US$1,650 due to falling benzene prices and a slump in market demand. Now the price of CPL is bouncing back, which is giving a big boost to the domestic nylon industry.

To meet the growing market demand, Zig Sheng recently invested about NT$2 billion (US$58.82 million at US$1 = NT$34) to set up a new nylon chip plant to turn out bright nylon chips, which are the critical material used for industrial plastics and packing films. The new plant has two production lines and is scheduled to add two more lines early next year.

Zig Sheng's original output of nylon chips amounted to 7,000-7,200 metric tons per month, and nylon filament reached 3,600 metric tons per month. The four production lines of the new plant are expected to add a total of 5,400-6,000 metric tons of nylon chips per month to the original output, which is predicted to help boost the company's revenue to NT$15 billion (US$441.18 million) in 2006. Zig Sheng's bright nylon chips are mainly provided to the manufacturers of industrial plastics and material packing films.

Earlier this year, Li Peng opened three new production lines to generate bright nylon chips, full-dull nylon chips, and semi-dull nylon chips. Each of the lines boasts a daily output of around 100 metric tons. Since the output of the new lines was added to the pre-existing production volume of 200 metric tons, the company's production capacity has expanded to around 500 metric tons per day.

However, Li Peng is planning to transfer some of its production lines to the fabrication of semi-dull nylon chips, since those particular chips are most competitive of its products in the marketplace.