Proud of the successful half-year track record of the new TENCEL® fiber plant in Lenzing: TENCEL® Plant Manager Franz Bauhofer, Board Member Robert van de Kerkhof (CCO) and Head of TENCEL® Operations Andrew Ronchetti.
As of the end of 2014, total annual TENCEL® production capacity of the Lenzing Group amounts to about 220,000 tons manufactured at the Austrian sites in Lenzing and Heiligenkreuz, in Mobile, Alabama in the USA and in Grimsby, Great Britain. Thanks to the new “jumbo production line” at the Lenzing site, investment costs could be maintained at a very competitive level of approximately EUR 150 mn (or about EUR 2,200 per ton of capacity). This gives Lenzing the opportunity to achieve a further competitive scaling of TENCEL® fibers as a universally deployable textile and nonwoven fiber.
(*Andy Ronchetti, then in Courtaulds Research, was present at Courtaulds Fibres 3rd Oct 97 Strategic Review of Tencel where the projected costs of a future jumbo Tencel plant were estimated to be $2500/AT by Dave Hignell and $3000/AT by Dave Watson. Taking the mid-range $2750 figure, that just happens to be Lenzing's €2200/AT at today's exchange rates. Ed.)
