Thailand
Germany-based Lenzing Group, a global supplier of wood-based
specialty fibers, last week opened what it called the largest plant
of its kind in the world for the manufacture of up to 100,000 tons a
year of lyocell fibers. “The construction of the plant located at
Industrial Park 304 in Prachinburi, around 150 kilometers northeast
of Bangkok, started in the second half of 2019 and proceeded largely
according to plan,” said the company, “despite the challenges
arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.” Citing growing Asian demand for
the company’s biodegradable fibers, Robert van de Kerkhof, member of
the Managing Board, said, “With the production start of the lyocell
plant in Thailand, Lenzing reached an important milestone in its
growth journey, supporting our ambitious goal to make the textile
and nonwoven industries more sustainable.” The company is currently
in the midst of the largest capital investment program in its
history, including a growing site in Brazil. In Thailand, the site
offers space for several production lines: “The investment in the
first phase already includes general infrastructure that would
benefit future expansion. However, Lenzing will continue to look for
opportunities to expand lyocell production in other parts of the
world too.”
Finland
Bayer is building a new pharmaceutical facility and modernizing an
existing plant in Artukainen, Turku, which the company calls “the
contraceptive capital of the world.” The investment is central to
Bayer’s goal “to provide 100 million women in low- and middle-income
countries with access to family planning and modern contraception by
the end of 2030,” said Miriam Holstein, CEO of Bayer Nordic, when
the project was originally announced last summer. Expected to be
complete by 2025, the investment in a highly digitized manufacturing
site “will further promote the measures that our Turku plant has
already taken over the past 30 years, to achieve gender equality and
support women and their families,” she said. The contraceptive
hormonal coil product family developed and produced in Turku is
Bayer’s third best-selling pharmaceutical product globally, sold to
over 130 countries. “Turku is Bayer’s global center of expertise and
innovation hub for polymer-based pharmaceutical technology and
long-acting reversible contraceptives,” said Jennifer Hunt, head of
the Product Supply Center Turku, last summer. Bayer Nordic, which
maintains its HQ in Espoo, employs around 1,000 people in Finland.
|
