MOSCOW (MRC) -- Eastman is increasing capacity for its Naia-brand cellulosic filament yarn at its plant in Barcelona, Spain, said the company.
Eastman is increasing its capacity to produce Naia cellulosic filament yarns at its plant Barcelona, by 30% by mid-2021, and by more than 50% by the end of 2022.
Naia is responsibly sourced from sustainably managed pine and eucalyptus forests and plantations. Eastman holds FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification, and all suppliers also hold internationally recognised forestry certifications. The yarns are produced in a safe, closed-loop process in which solvents are recycled back into the system for reuse. It is OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Product Class I certified and made with no hazardous chemicals listed on the ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List.
Key benefits of fabrics based made with Naia are dimensional stability, odour management, easy stain removal and pill resistance, along with natural breathability and quick drying properties.
“The growing importance of sustainability and circularity are accelerating the adoption of sustainable fibres,” said Burt A. Capel, Eastman vice president and general manager of fibres. “As a result, Naia cellulosic filament yarn is gaining a lot of traction among our customers,". "Our vision is to make sustainable fashion accessible to all, and we have a very committed team at our Barcelona site actively working to bring this expansion onstream as soon as possible to serve our customers across the globe."
The expansion will support new brand adoptions of Naia in womenswear fashion. Details about the expansion's costs and about capacities in terms of tonnes or pounds per year were not disclosed.
As per MRC, on 1 May, cracking unit No. 3 in Longview (Longview, Texas, USA) of the American company Eastman experienced a technological failure, which led to the release of substandard products. In particular, the failure occurred due to the blockage of the feed line to the heat exchanger of this enterprise (HCC-3A) with a capacity of 280 thousand tons of ethylene per year, which caused emissions of chemicals into the atmosphere for 12 hours. The company did not say when it will be able to resume production of conditioned ethylene.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
Eastman is a multinational chemical company serving customers in approximately 100 countries. Sales in 2015 amounted to around USD9.6 Billion. The company is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. The company employs approximately 15 thousand people around the world.
MRC