Lenzing offering continuous filament Tencel

At an exclusive event in Paris, the Lenzing Group launched a new product: TENCEL™ Luxe. The TENCEL™ Luxe randed lyocell filament is another key milestone in the implementation of the company’s sCore TEN strategy and the first time that Lenzing enters the filament market. It will further support Lenzing’s shift to become a true speciality player in the botanic materials market derived from sustainable wood sources. TENCEL™ Luxe: The new player of eco-couture fabrics TENCEL™ Luxe branded filaments are the new player for sustainable high-end cellulose textiles by offering superior aesthetics, performance and comfort level that allow them to be the perfect partner with other noble fibers such as silk, cashmere or wool. The smooth surface of the TENCEL™ branded Luxe filament gives fabrics a silky smooth feel and liquid-like drape for the most sensual silhouettes. Moreover, TENCEL™ Luxe branded filaments are naturally breathable due to their wood-based origin and offer outstanding color fastness, enabling designers to express bold color palettes where creativity knows no boundaries. 

TENCEL™ Luxe  eco-botanic lyocell filaments are made from wood pulp, which is sourced from sustainable wood in line with Lenzing’s strict Wood and Pulp Policy. They are produced using Lenzing’s pioneering closed-loop lyocell production process, which has received the “European Award for the Environment” from the European Union. This process ensures minimal environmental impact due to low process water and energy use and raw materials consumption.

“We are committed to setting industry standards in order to enhance the protection of our environment while making filaments for fabrics that are TENCEL™ Luxe is a further sign of our ongoing commitment towards innovation and sustainability”, explains Stefan Doboczky, Chief Executive Officer of the Lenzing Group. “The expansion plan represents the next consistent step in the implementation of our sCore TEN strategy and is a commitment of Lenzing as a hub for research & development and engineering.” TENCEL™ Luxe is another proof of Lenzing’s innovation strength*. It will open new markets for the

Capacity Expansion in Heiligenkreuz

 Expansion of capacities for premium specialty fibers by 25,000 tons
 Investments of about EUR 70 mn over the next twelve months
 Project highlights strategic importance of Heiligenkreuz for TENCEL® premium fibers

Heiligenkreuz – The Lenzing Group is expanding production capacities for its specialty fiber TENCEL® at its site in Heiligenkreuz, Burgenland. After obtaining all required approvals and permits, the expansion project was initiated today, Tuesday, March 21, 2017. The ground-breaking ceremony was attended by Lenzing CEO Stefan Doboczky, along with Bernd Zauner and Dieter Eichinger, the two managing directors of Lenzing Fibers, Burgenland’s Provincial Governor Hans Niessl and Alexander Petschnig, the Regional Minister for Economic Affairs.
“We will invest about EUR 70 mn over the coming twelve-month period to expand production capacities for our high-quality botanic specialty fibers”, Doboczky says. “With this investment we are responding to strong global demand for new types of TENCEL® premium fibers such as the RefibraTM fiber, using cotton scraps from the manufacturing of cotton garments and wood as raw materials. This fiber makes a widely-recognized contribution to the circular economy in the textile industry. The fiber was very successfully launched on the market in February by our strategic partner Inditex in its Zara stores”, he adds.

Annual production capacities for fibers will be increased by about 25,000 tons as a result of the investment. The fibers will be available to customers starting at the end of the first quarter of 2018.

“We launched the production of lyocell fibers in Heiligenkreuz 20 years ago, and have expanded the site to make it to one of the largest industrial employer in Southern Burgenland. The new investments comprise a further important milestone in our success story, and will provide added impetus to growth in a structurally weak region”, states Zauner.

Lenzing put its first industrial-scale lyocell fiber production facility into operation 20 years ago. Today the fibers are sold under the TENCEL® brand name. A recent study carried out under the scientific supervision of Friedrich Schneider, Professor at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, concluded that the Lenzing plant in Heiligenkreuz generates considerable regional economic effects. In addition to the approximately 230 jobs at Lenzing Fibers itself, around 940 additional jobs are secured on a long-term basis thanks to the company’s economic activities in the region. The additional value creation equals about EUR 102 mn per year.

In its 20-year history, the Heiligenkreuz plant has sold close to 700,000 tons of fibers and exported the majority across the globe, as far away as China, Korea and Japan. The factory in Heiligenkreuz has been continuously expanded due to rapidly growing demand. Up until now, Lenzing has invested a total of roughly EUR 750 mn to build and extend production capacities for TENCEL® fibers. In addition to the Heiligenkreuz facility, these specialty fibers are also manufactured at the Lenzing site, in Mobile (USA) and Grimsby (Great Britain) (where the original Tencel process developed by Courtaulds first went into production in the 1990's. Ed.)

The lyocell technology applied in Heiligenkreuz is characterized by a very good environmental performance. The cellulose fibers are derived from the renewable raw material wood in a closed-loop process, resulting in a minimal amount of environmentally harmful emissions. Due to their outstanding properties, TENCEL® fibers boast a particularly broad range of applications, both in the world of fashion as well as technical areas and nonwovens. Lenzing is the leading producer of lyocell fibers by far, and is continually upgrading and refining this technology.

Source: Lenzing PR

Lenzing invests in new TENCEL® fiber plant in the USA

 State-of-the-art 90,000 tons TENCEL® fiber plant to be built in Mobile, Alabama
 Investment of EUR 275 mn – operations to start in the first quarter of 2019
 Strengthening of technical expertise by creating a new Management Board Role – Heiko Arnold appointed Chief Technology Officer

Lenzing - The Lenzing Group aims to increase the share of specialty fibers as a percentage of revenue to 50 percent by 2020. Following the previously announced expansion plans for Lenzing, Heiligenkreuz (Austria) and Grimsby (Great Britain), the Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG approved yesterday the investment for a TENCEL® fiber plant in the USA. Lenzing now plans to construct a state-of-the-art plant with a production capacity of 90,000 tons per year at its site in Mobile, Alabama. The new facility will be the largest TENCEL® fiber plant in the world, it will set a new milestone in the history of lyocell fibers. The investment volume will total USD 293 mn (EUR 275 mn). The new plant will utilize the latest technological standards and is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2019.

The Lenzing Group currently has a worldwide production capacity of 222,000 tons per year of TENCEL® fibers. The new plant in Mobile plus the already announced debottlenecking projects at the other TENCEL® fiber sites will increase the total TENCEL® fiber capacity by more than 50 percent by 2019. The decision to build this plant in the US was supported by the good infrastructure at our Mobile site and attractive energy costs.
“This investment represents another major milestone in the implementation of our corporate strategy sCore TEN. It will bring us a big step further to reach our target of 50 percent revenue from specialty fibers by 2020“, explained Lenzing CEO Stefan Doboczky. “This expansion also underscores our commitment to all our TENCEL® fiber customers, who continue to make their products even more sustainable using TENCEL® fiber, the world’s most sustainable botanic fiber,“ added Doboczky.

The disciplined implementation of the Lenzing’s expansion program is essential for driving the Lenzing Group’s organic growth agenda. Therefore it was decided to create a new Management Board role, pooling together the key technical, operational and engineering responsibilities. The Supervisory Board of the company appointed today Heiko Arnold as the new Chief Technology
Officer. In addition to a strong scientific and technical education, Arnold has gained many years of experience with BASF in the realization of major investment projects and continuous operational improvements as well as extensive know-how in Research & Development. He will be responsible for all technical departments in the Lenzing Group.

“We are pleased to welcome Heiko Arnold, a further expert with broad international experience, to Lenzing’s Management Board team“, commented Hanno Bästlein, Chairman of the Lenzing Supervisory Board. “Lenzing is on a successful, dynamic growth course with the development and implementation of the new sCore TEN corporate strategy, and that makes an increase in the Management Board to four persons a reasonable step. His 15 years of experience in Asia, in the realization of major investment projects and in operational excellence make Arnold a perfect match for the challenges faced by Lenzing“, explained Bästlein.

Lenzing Invests More Than EUR 100 Million in New Production Capacities for Specialty Fibers in Austria

The Lenzing Group is expanding its capacities for specialty fibers. Particularly the importance of the manufacturing facility in Heiligenkreuz, Burgenland, is underpinned. Further investments will be made as well at the production site in Lenzing. “We will invest more than 100 million Euro over the next 20 months to expand production capacities for our high-quality botanic fibers, 70% at the Heiligenkreuz site and 30% at Lenzing”, says Lenzing’s CEO Stefan Doboczky. “Given the strong market demand this expansion will help our customers in their growth plans as well as expanding our global market leadership position for speciality fibers.”

As part of its new group strategy sCore TEN, Lenzing set the target of increasing the share of specialty fibers as a proportion of its total revenue to 50% by the year 2020. Specialty fibers currently account for 41.7% of revenue. The planned capacity expansion of 35,000 tons of specialty fibers at the sites in Heiligenkreuz and Lenzing, as well as at the site in Grimsby, Great Britain, is the first step of the announced speciality fiber expansion program of Lenzing AG. Customers will be able to take advantage of some 10,000 tons of specialty fiber capacity already by the end of this year.

The major part of investments will be carried out in the years 2016 and 2017. The Lenzing Group will fully utilize its in house engineering competence, supported by local construction companies and suppliers for these projects. The investment in Heiligenkreuz will create 25 new jobs (full-time equivalents). Lenzing AG decided to start its investment program for speciality fibers at its existing sites in Austria and the UK as it allows fast capacity ramp up. The strategic role of the Heiligenkreuz site as a key location of new types of TENCEL® premium fibers developed developed by researchers and application engineers in Lenzing in cooperation with customers is strongly underpinned.

Lenzing uses post-consumer recycled cotton in blend with woodpulp to make Tencel

Lenzing is introducing a newly developed TENCEL® fiber, which combines pulp from cotton fabric waste and wood pulp cellulose in order to drive circular economy solutions in the textile industry.

Lenzing is the first manufacturer worldwide to offer man-made cellulosic fibers incorporating recycled materials on a commercial scale.

The fiber will be marketed in a unique way, sold to retailers and brands—rather than yarn or fabric manufacturers—who will then produce their garment collections in a sustainable fashion. This cooperation with leaders in retail will ensure cooperation and transparency in the textile value chain; in addition, a new type of identification is being employed to ensure that the TENCEL® fibers used in the garment are the most sustainable ones.

Robert van de Kerkhof, CCO of Lenzing, said, “For Lenzing, developing circular business models in the fashion industry ensures the decoupling of business growth from pressure on ecological resource consumption. It reduces the need to extract additional virgin resources from nature, and reduces the net impact on ecological resources.”

An additional announcement regarding the new TENCEL® fiber came from Spanish multinational clothing company Inditex. At the company’s Annual General Meeting last Tuesday, the company presented its 2016-2020 Environmental Strategy Plan, which outlined the use of the new fiber as a means of closing the loop.

The Inditex program will begin by contributing about 500 tons of post-industrial textile waste for use in the new TENCEL® fiber, with the aim of reaching 3,000 tons within a few years.

Cellulosics and Nonwovens: Update since 2000

The following update was prepared at the request of Bruce Townsend for his after-lunch speech at the Courtaulds Coventry Senior Pensioners Luncheon on 17th March.  Here's a lightly edited version:

The decline in man-made Cellulosics output during the last third of the 20^th C was reversed and since 2000 the production of viscose staple has more than doubled.  It is now between 5.5 and 6 million tonnes/year with more capacity planned. The vast majority of the growth has been in Asia.

Courtaulds had hoped that environmental considerations would mean Tencel would get the lion’s share of the growth* but this did not happen under Lenzing.  Apparently they didn’t want to lose control of their Tencel know-how and the rate of expansion required in Asia meant a rate of Tencel plant scale-up greater than Lenzing were comfortable with.  

So, viscose was the beneficiary of rapidly increasing demand for rayon and the scale of the new viscose investments proved surprising to anyone involved with the old Courtaulds plants. (3x-5x the productivity of Courtaulds Mobile).

Tencel  stagnated for 10 years after Grimsby SL3 started.  Mobile SL1 was closed down.  Then the Mobile, Grimsby and Heiligenkreuz plants were debottlenecked.  SL1 was restarted with a viscose wash belt to make wet-cut staple.  Lenzing’s first new Tencel plant – a 67,000 tonner built on the Lenzing site in 2013-14 is now fully operational although its output is apparently being sold into pre-blends with cotton and viscose.

Of the world 2016 fibre capacity of about 100,000,000 tpa, Tencel is now around 220,000 tpa, viscose around 6,000,000 tpa, cotton around 25,000,000 tpa and polyester around 60,000,000 tpa.  Further growth in polyester and cellulosics is expected, but new comfortable polyesters will probably mean the cellulosics proportion will be lower.

   

Overall, in the absence of any hard information from Lenzing, we guess about a third of the pre-2000 Tencel capacity goes into Nonwovens if A100 production is excluded.  Apparel remains the main market with Home Textiles also doing well.

The main Tencel nonwoven market is disposable wipes: Tencel/PP or PET blends are hydroentangled into baby wipes but also made flushable via the wet-laid route.  One major US supermarket chain uses 1000’s of tonnes of  100% Tencel in wet-wipes.  Electrical papers, which like the wipes, Courtaulds Research started to develop in the late 80’s, are now successful in battery separators and energy recovery systems for hybrid  and electric cars.

World nonwoven production growth since 2000 has continued as expected, reaching 10 million tonnes last year, a million tonnes of this being viscose.  Spun-laid processes remain the most important technology thanks to polypropylene’s continued dominance of the diaper component market.  Carded nonwovens – the sector where rayon predominated but was losing share last century – has been transformed by fast cards and low-cost hydroentanglement bonding machines and has grown to be comparable in size with spun-laid.  The technology continues to be a major user of viscose for wipes, viscose usage in Europe having trebled since 2000 (to 150,000 tonnes/year)

Kelheim Fibres, the sole survivor of Courtaulds Viscose operations, has been expanded to about 80,000 tpy capacity and concentrates on specialities for nonwovens (Galaxy and Viloft).  It continues to dominate the US and EU tampon fibre market and has good prospects in Latin America and (longer term) in Asia.  It recently underlined its “Speciality Fibre Producer” status by experimentally introducing a series of special viscose fibres to the market – most of which would be instantly recognised by anyone who happened to be in Courtaulds Viscose Research during the 70’s and 80’s.  (SI fibre, Hollow Viloft, PM1, PM2, alloy fibres etc.)

Lenzing will soon have a million tonne/year rayon staple capacity – up from 300,000 tonnes in 2000.

The world production of dissolving pulp is now around 6.5 million tonnes/year. SAPPI, who bought Courtaulds SAICCOR dissolving pulp business in 1989 now produces around 1.4 million tonnes of dissolving pulp, and China produces a similar amount, some of this from bamboo and some from cotton.

Calvin Woodings
March 2016

*   The growth was broadly in line with Tim Johnson’s expectations based on his 1989 Comfort Gap scenario.  This predicted that global demographic and personal wealth trends would drive an increase in demand for textiles which could only be met by rapid expansion of synthetic and man-made cellulosic fibres in unison.  (Comfortable Cotton's ability to expand would be restricted due to land/food shortages and the absence of further prospects for cotton yield increases.)

Lenzing's results for 2015

Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Revenue rose by 6% to EUR 1.98 bn
EBITDA increase of 20.7% to EUR 290.1 mn
Dividend proposal: doubling to EUR 2.00 per share
Share of specialty fibers up to 40.5%
Further earnings improvement expected in 2016

Thanks to a strong operational performance, the Lenzing Group significantly improved just about all relevant economic and balance sheet indicators in the 2015 financial year compared to its business results in 2014.

Consolidated revenue climbed by 6.0% to EUR 1.98 bn. This increase is particularly due to higher fiber selling prices, the growing share of specialty fibers in its product mix and positive exchange rate effects. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) improved by 20.7% to EUR 290.1 mn, up from the prior-year figure of EUR 240.3 mn. Lenzing’s performance in 2015 corresponded to an EBITDA margin of 14.7% (2014: 12.9%). EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) of the Lenzing Group increased to EUR 151.1 mn from EUR 21.9 mn, corresponding to an EBIT margin of 7.6% (2014: 1.2%). Earnings before tax (EBT) amounted to 149.1 mn, substantially higher than EUR 7.3 mn in 2014. The group net profit for the year totaled EUR 124 mn, compared to a loss of EUR 14.2 mn in the previous year. Earnings per share in the 2015 financial year rose to EUR 4.63, up from minus EUR 0.51 per share in 2014. On the basis of this good financial performance, the Management Board and Supervisory Board will propose that the upcoming Annual General Meeting approve the distribution of a dividend of EUR 2.00 per share for the 2015 financial year, double the dividend for 2014.

“We made substantial progress in 2015, and delivered the promised improvements to our business operations,” says Stefan Doboczky, Chief Executive Officer of Lenzing AG. “We strategically realigned the company, improved the earnings and cost structure and enhanced our financial strength. We also expect a considerable rise in earnings once again in 2016 provided that the underlying business framework does not significantly change.”

Solid balance sheet structure, clear improvement of ROCE to 8%

Lenzing boasts a solid balance sheet structure which was further optimized in the course of the 2015 financial year. Adjusted equity increased by 15% to EUR 1.23 bn (2014: EUR 1.07 bn). The adjusted equity ratio amounted to 50.6%, the highest level since the year 2006 (2014: 44.9%). Net financial debt was sharply reduced by 27.0% to EUR 327.9 mn (December 31, 2014: EUR 449.5 mn). Accordingly, the ratio of net financial debt to EBITDA declined from 1.9 at the end of 2014 to 1.1 at the end of 2015. The return on capital generated by the Lenzing Group improved thanks to the positive earnings development. As a result, the return on capital employed (ROCE) increased to 8.0%, compared to minus 0.1% in the previous year. At the same time, the return on equity (ROE) rose to 13.0% (2014: 0.7%).

Investments in intangible assets, property, plant and equipment (CAPEX) of the Lenzing Group totaled EUR 70.9 mn in the 2015 financial year, compared to the prior-year level of EUR 104.3 mn. Following completion of the TENCEL® fiber production plant at the Lenzing site in 2014, the focus of Lenzing’s capital expenditures in 2015 was on maintenance work as well as the implementation of quality and optimization measures. The excelLENZ cost optimization initiative was concluded in 2015. The new strategy sCore TEN was developed by the Lenzing team and is already in implementation.

Share of specialty fibers up to 40.5% of group revenue

Demand for high-quality Lenzing fibers was strong in 2015, encompassing all regions and product groups. For this reason, the pulp and fiber production capacities of the Lenzing Group were well utilized against the backdrop of high production output. In particular, sales of the specialty fiber TENCEL® increased significantly. The share of specialty fibers as a percentage of total group revenue was 40.5% in the 2015 financial year, compared to the 35.0% in the previous year. Expenditures for research and development were increased by 47% to EUR 29.8 mn, in line with the company’s strategy of focusing on the development, production and marketing of innovative specialty fibers.

Outlook for 2016

The volatile development prevailing on the global fiber market is expected to continue. High cotton inventories and low polyester selling prices intensify price competition on the market i.e. inter-fiber competition. However, the market segment of wood-based cellulose fibers, which is of relevance to Lenzing, is showing signs of developing more positively than the overall fiber market. Demand for cellulose fibers remains strong, and the ratio of supply to demand is favorable. Assuming unchanged conditions on the fiber market and currency exchange rates, Lenzing expects further improvements in earnings in the current 2016 financial year compared to 2015.

Lenzing: Profitable Growth Thanks to Eco-Friendly Specialty Fibers

• Share of revenue generated by specialty fibers targeted to rise to 50% by 2020.
• The nonwovens segment is expected to expand twice as fast as the textile market. 
• EBITDA growth of approx. 10% p.a. until 2020 
• Increase in ROCE to more than 10% by 2020 

The Lenzing Group is presenting its business strategy for the coming years entitled “sCore TEN”. Accordingly, Lenzing’s main priorities are strengthening the company’s core business, intensifying cooperation with customers along the value chain, increasing the share of specialty fibers to 50% of total revenue by 2020, expanding its quality and technological leadership for man-made cellulose fibers and opening up new attractive business areas.

“Our objective is to safeguard and expand Lenzing’s leadership role on the dynamic growth market for man-made cellulose fibers“, says Lenzing’s Chief Executive Officer Stefan Doboczky. “To achieve this, we will focus more intensively on the most attractive segments in the specialty fiber business. Lenzing will put value before volume in the future. We aim at achieving volume growth.”

Lenzing expects demand for man-made cellulose fibers to increase by 5 to 6% p.a. until 2020, which is nearly twice as fast as the global fiber market. The primary factors driving demand are the continuing growth of the world’s population and rising prosperity in the emerging markets. Forecasts call for a rise in per capita textile consumption in the emerging markets by all in all 50% in the period 2010 to 2020. In the industrialized countries the nonwovens industry, an important sales market for Lenzing, will profit from the increased demand for hygiene products. The nonwovens segment is expected to expand twice as fast as the textile market.

Tencel in Lenzing Annual Reports 2014

During the 2014 reporting year, Lenzing successfully initiated production at its first TENCEL® jumbo production facility featuring a nominal capacity of 67,000 tons. For the first time, such large fiber volumes can be produced on a single production line. Conventional TENCEL® production lines are only one-quarter as large on average. Thanks to the new design of the jumbo production line, investment costs could be maintained at a very competitive level of approximately EUR 150 mn (or about EUR 2,200 per ton of capacity). 

The latest generation of TENCEL® technology incorporates the experience gained from the three existing TENCEL® production plants of the Lenzing Group located in Austria, USA and Great Britain. With a construction time of 24 months, Lenzing completely adhered to both the budgeted investment costs as well as all timetables. The TENCEL® fiber production secures 140 jobs at the Lenzing site. 

The successful start of the jumbo fiber production line serves as the basis for the further competitive scaling of TENCEL® fibers as a universally deployable textile and nonwoven fiber. The new, broader product portfolio on the basis of the TENCEL® technology successfully complements Lenzing’s specialty strategy. Expansion of global market leadership for lyocell The annual nominal TENCEL® production capacity of the Lenzing Group will rise from 155,000 tons to about 220,000 tons thanks to the new plant. In this way, Lenzing will further expand upon its worldwide leadership for lyocell and offer its global customers new expansion opportunities in both the textile and nonwoven segments as well as new and innovative applications. 

Typical applications of the high-tech fiber TENCEL® include sportswear, soft

New CEO at Lenzing

Vienna, March 20, 2015 – The Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG appointed Stefan Doboczky as the new Chairman of the Management Board (CEO) of Lenzing AG. Mr. Doboczky will assume his new function on June 1st 2015. He takes over from Peter Untersperger, who will step down from his function as CEO per 31 May 2015 at his own request prematurely.

Mr. Doboczky, Austrian, brings to Lenzing a broad international management experience and extensive expertise in Asia. Since 1998 he has worked in various management positions for the Dutch Life Science & Material Science group Royal DSM in Europe and Asia. In his current role as Member of the Managing Board he has been responsible for the successful strategic repositioning of the global pharmaceutical businesses, for Corporate Operations & Responsible Care, as well as for the corporation’s growth agenda in the Asian markets. Mr. Doboczky holds a PhD in chemistry from the TU Wien and a MBA from Swiss Business School IMD .

Hanno Bästlein, Chairman of the Nomination Committee of the Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG, said about the appointment of the new CEO: “With his international industrial expertise, his close to ten years of management experience in Asia and his strong technical background, Stefan Doboczky will strengthen the Management Board team and is ideally suited to lead the Lenzing Group towards further growth.”

Source: Lenzing

The Top 10 Countries as Pageviews pass 81,000

In the last 2 months the Ukraine has been the number 1 user of this website. 

It moves up into No. 2 position ahead of the UK for all-time usage (see below)

Entry	Pageviews
United States	20011
Ukraine	12450
United Kingdom	11562
China	4878
Israel	3747
Russia	3013
Germany	2850
France	2118
Austria	1010
India	785

Jumbo Tencel plant doing well - 1997 projection was right (2014)

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.)

More Layoffs at Lenzing (2014)

The Lenzing Group is resolutely and systematically counteracting the ongoing difficult market conditions in the global fiber industry on the basis of its cost optimization program as it reported on the occasion of publishing its business results for the first three quarters of 2014. The organizational optimization measures launched one year ago at all sites and in all business areas are having a positive impact. The results achieved up until now are encouraging but by far insufficient to offset the decline in viscose fiber selling prices on the international marketplace.

Lenzing continues to anticipate good volume demand for all man-made cellulose fibers. However, fiber selling prices on the global market are not expected to recover in upcoming quarters. This development is also attributable to the substantial decline in polyester fiber prices as a result of the massive oil price decrease, and the expected longer-lasting period of low or at least volatile cotton prices as a consequence of the surplus supply of Chinese cotton.

For these reasons, the Lenzing Group will not implement any major new projects at the Lenzing site or abroad in the foreseeable future which are designed to expand its viscose fiber production capacities. The investment volume of the company will be adjusted to reflect the current market situation and will be significantly reduced in the subsequent years. This should contribute to improving the supply situation on the international viscose fiber market, which the company would like to sustainably profit from in its role as one of the world’s largest producers.

Due to the successful completion of the new TENCEL® investment volume, technical planning and production capacities cannot be maintained at current levels, especially at the Lenzing site. This necessitates a reorganization of Lenzing’s internal engineering and maintenance business areas and its subsidiary Lenzing Technik GmbH. Organizational structures in these areas have to be adjusted to future requirements. All in all, the restructuring measures will impact up to 250 jobs (including one-third temporary staff), mainly at the Lenzing site. The distribution of the job cuts among the various sites will be determined fiber plant in Lenzing and the reduced by the beginning of 2015 within the context of a project which is already under way. In this connection, Lenzing will try to avoid layoffs and strive to reach a mutually acceptable solution with the affected employees as it succeeded in doing within the context of the first cost optimization program.

During initial talks on this issue held with the Lenzing Works Council, Lenzing agreed to extend the current redundancy program (social plan) and to offer the possibility for employees newly affected by the downsizing to transfer to the Lenzing Labor Foundation.

At the same time, Lenzing is working on a strategic reorientation of its subsidiary Lenzing Technik GmbH to enable it to focus more strongly on the external market in the future.

For more information please contact:
Angelika Guldt Stephanie Kniep
Head of Corporate Communications Head of Investor Relations
Phone: +43 (0) 7672 701-2713 Phone: +43 (0) 7672 701-4032
E-mail: a.guldt@lenzing.com E-mail: s.kniep@lenzing.com

The Cuprammonium route re-evaluated (1980)

The April 1980 report on the possible adoption of the cuprammonium hydroxide solvent route to cellulosic fibres considered it's pros and cons c.f. viscose at that time.  Reconsideration of this old route was based on new patents, optimistic assessments by Russian workers and the view, expressed by Dr Hergert of ITT Rayonier during a visit to DF&VL, that it merited reinvestigation.

The disadvantages of the cupro route were mainly the result of tricky dope-making requiring a high quality pulp or cotton linters which had to be further purified by treatment with caustic soda.  Cost of the cellulose for viscose was put at £1.69/kg compared and compared with £2.75/kg for cupro and this dominated the economic comparison.  Both dopes contained 9-10% cellulose.  Cupro caustic costs were double those of viscose, but copper and ammonium costs were insignificant in the cupro total. 

Spinning into fine continuous filament yarns involved tube-spinning using a sulphuric acid spinbath. This and the need to recover copper as the sulphate produced sodium sulphate as a by-product just like viscose.  The fact that cupro had never really been produced as staple fibre was a serious disadvantage, but the vertically-downwards tube-spinning system and conveyor washing used to make filament yarns did lend itself to spunlaid nonwoven production.

Despite the patented advances in copper recovery and spinning speeds (much faster than ever achieved with viscose), the process was judged to be only suitable for speciality yarns and nonwovens and not a contender for viscose replacement.  The fact that the process, still known as Bemberg rayon after the German company that commercialised it in 1897, has remained a small-volume speciality yarn and nonwoven process (while the market demanded massive viscose and NMMO process expansion) would appear to confirm this judgement.

Jim Rowan recalls making PEEK tubes for Mobile (1993)

I was employed by Courtaulds Research in the Composites Research group and we worked in labs in 72 Lockhurst Lane.  Our manager was Charles Holleyman.  Our work was directly in support of Courtaulds Structural Composites, and was funded by Courtaulds Advanced Materials, so I reported to Charles and to Ed Trewin in CSC.  My role was in filament winding R&D, to develop materials and processes and make prototypes and one-off components.  

I helped manufacture, in Coventry, by filament winding, a tube of PEEK and glass fibre that was needed for the Alabama factory to make Tencel. We were told that the plant could not start up without this tube. I think it was to go in the flow line prior to the spinnerette and was part of a metal detector system. It had to be non-metallic yet very chemically resistant and strong. No other material could fulfil the requirements at the time, and almost nobody world-wide had the technology to make this unique structure. 

The job was something of an experiment as we had only done a limited amount of development to establish a process and some materials data because of the urgency to produce the tube.  All our previous years of R&D had been on carbon/PEEK, which processes differently from glass/PEEK, and we had never made anything remotely this big.  So it was a rather stressful 42 hour marathon requiring non-stop attention.  For example, we were winding a single 6 mm x 0.125 mm tape of glass/PEEK onto an irradiated rotating mandrel at about 300 degrees C and could not stop the process without overheating the product; the tape came on spools of limited length, so every few hours we had to weld the end of one tape onto the start of the next tape (using a soldering iron and paper clips) aided by a mechanism that accumulated enough tape to allow us just enough time to stop the spool while the winding continued. 

I have located the attached document which is a very brief summary, probably for someone like Jim Ratcliffe (who went on to greater things...)

Research Authorised and Development begins (1979)

On 4/10/79 a meeting took place in DF&VL "to decide whether to recommend that R&D work on alternative solvents for cellulose should be started".  Mike Welch (Head of DF&VL), Roger Lund (Deputy Head), Bill Brook (Head of Patent Dept), Jeff Branston, Fred Weymouth, Andy Hopkins, Dennis Woodward and Pat White were present.  If the answer was yes, then this group would decide the aims of the work and identify key areas to start.

At this meeting, the vulnerabilities of the viscose process versus a successful non-polluting solvent spinning development were listed as:

• Pollution and hazards.  Tightening environmental legislation would, if changes were made to comply, increase the costs of viscose by around 10p/kg in the USA, rather less in Europe.
• High spinning chemicals and recovery costs.
• High capital costs.  The US costs for an automated viscose plant using the latest technology would be 40% higher than a new polyester staple plant.

The combined chemical consumption, services and pollution control costs for any future viscose plant would be about 3x those of Courtaulds solvent spinning processes making acrylic and cellulose acetate fibres.

The wording of the conclusion was revealing: "if a recoverable solvent system could be found for cellulose it would be a serious threat" [to Courtaulds' viscose business]

Three potentially viable competitors for viscose were listed:

• The cuprammonium cellulose process where recent advances in ion-exchange solvent recovery had reduced energy costs and improved the viability of the technology.
• The ITT Rayonier DMF/N2O4 was too expensive by the published route due to solvent recovery difficulties.  However if Dupont's process for making anisotropic solutions with 30% cellulose content could be applied instead of ITT's 8% cellulose route, substantial reduction in costs would result.
• The AKZO amine-oxide process could be viable if a solvent recovery system could be developed, but it's costs were impossible to determine in the absence of any practical experience.  (Samples of amine-oxides had been made in the lab. and proved to be solvents for cellulose.)

The meeting agreed to undertake work on each of these systems to provide better information to decide future action:

• A range of amine-oxides would be made and screened and the most promising investigated in depth for solvent stability, potential hazards, recovery possibilities, spinning speeds, fibre properties, process costs, and capital costs.
• The solvating power of a range of known solvents would be investigated with the aim of finding anisotropic systems capable of yielding dopes with very high concentrations of cellulose.
• Because the cuprammonium system was showing no potential for growth, practical work would be avoided but contacts with the producers would be made to ascertain current pros and cons.

This work would be carried out by 2 graduates and would be reviewed after 6 months.

Lenzing report record sales now the new Tencel plant is on line (2014)

Lenzing reported very high production volumes in the first three quarters of 2014, operating all its fiber production facilities at full capacity. A new record sales volume of 706,900 tons was achieved (Q1-3 2013: approx. 660,000 tons). This is all the more remarkable given the fact that all industrial plants in the greater Nanjing area of China, including Lenzing, were forced to reduce production due to the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

The new sales record is mainly attributable to the successful ramp-up of the new TENCEL® fiber production facility at the Lenzing site in Upper Austria towards the middle of 2014. Sales of the Segment Fibers in the first three quarters of 2014 totaled EUR 1,285.4 mn, comprising a drop of 3.1% from EUR 1,326.5 mn generated in the first three quarters of 2013. Segment EBITDA in the first nine months of 2014 amounted to EUR 155.1 mn, 15.8% lower than EUR 184.1 mn in the previous year, whereas segment EBIT of EUR 64.6 mn comprised a 35.5% decline from the prior-year figure of EUR 100.1 mn. 

Specialty fibers accounted for about 39% of total sales revenue in the Segment Fibers.  Lenzing continued to generate very attractive price premiums for the specialty fiber Lenzing Modal® in contrast to viscose fibers, against the backdrop of ongoing high demand. The price premiums achieved for TENCEL® fibers remain at a very attractive level, although prices for new samples and market development projects declined somewhat in individual cases. 

The focus of Lenzing’s marketing activities in the third quarter was on further developing the market for TENCEL® fibers. The market penetration efforts to promote the use of Lenzing fibers in denim have met with success, as demonstrated by the fact that the most prominent jeans manufacturers are integrating TENCEL® fibers in their fashion collections. Demand for TENCEL® bed linen remained strong, especially on overseas markets. In the home textiles segment, Lenzing promoted the use of TENCEL® fibers in towels, opening up new application possibilities with large American retail chain stores. 

A new study in the nonwovens segment confirms that TENCEL® BIOSOFT fibers

significantly enhance wearing comfort when used as a top sheet for incontinence pads.

This extract from the Lenzing quarterly report confirms the successful start of the 67,000 tonne/year Tencel plant in Austria. (A producer-blend of Tencel and cotton is apparently taking the bulk of the new Tencel production and allowing cheaper cottons to be upgraded.  Such a blend was part of the strategy for moving the sudden surplus of Tencel when the Courtaulds Mobile plant started in 1992.  It's also nice to hear the fashion for Tencel in denim - the original launch market - is returning.)

Source: Lenzing Interim Report - 01/09/2014