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USA - Solutia mulls sale of nylon 66 business [ 01 Jul, 2008]
Solutia is to consider the sale of its nylon 66 business among a number of strategic alternatives it is to review. The company, a fully integrated supplier of the material, sold under the Vydyne brand, has appointed HSBC Securities to explore options for the business, it announced yesterday.
Solutia, one of only two worldwide businesses that own the complete range of technology to make nylon 66, it says, runs a global business based on manufacturing assets at Pensacola, in Florida, where it has more than 1,000 employees.
Last year the business turned over $1.9bn or approximately half of the group’s total revenues. From sales of $468m in the first quarter of 2008, Solutia generated an EBITDAR loss of $7m, a reverse of $35m on the same period of last year, largely because of feedstock costs.
“We have transformed our nylon business from a North American focused fibre business into the world’s second largest producer of nylon 66 plastics,” said Jeffry Quinn, Solutia’s chairman, president and ceo in a statement from St Louis HQ.
“The nylon business is on a path for further growth and improvement in financial performance and we believe strongly in the strategic course we have set for the business. However given the strength of our high margin specialty chemical and performance materials businesses and the current industry dynamic in the nylon segment, it is an appropriate time to explore strategic alternatives available with respect to the nylon business that would better position both the nylon business and the rest of Solutia for reaching their ultimate potential,” Quinn said.
Solutia’s portfolio also includes Saflex PVB polymer interlayer material, window films, rubber industry chemicals through its Flexsys arm, and hydraulic fluids.
The group emerged from Chapter 11 protection in the US in February, following a $2.05bn exit financing deal funded by three major investment banks.
USA - Unifi to launch recycled nylon yarns [ 18 Jun, 2008]
Unifi Inc. will launch a new range of recycled nylon 6,6 yarns at the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City as part of new expansion plans for its ‘Repreve’ recycled yarns portfolio.
To develop these new yarns, the North Carolina-based company has partnered with the International Textile Group (ITG) for producing recycled nylon 6,6 woven fabrics and United Knitting for the production of recycled knits.
“These nylon yarns will be launched under our ‘Repreve’ recycled product umbrella and will complement our existing recycled polyester yarns in this range,” Unifi’s Bett Anderson confirmed to Ecotextile News. “Like other yarns in the ‘Repreve’ range the new nylon products will be certified as 100% recycled content by Scientific Certification Systems, Inc. which is a third-party certifier – I believe we are the only supplier to have this third party accreditation,” she said.
The new nylon 6,6 version of Repreve will be made from 100% pre-consumer content from Unifi’s own manufacturing waste – largely because there is no reliable source of reclaimed nylon. “The new yarns are recycled from our own waste to ensure we can meet first quality standards. At the moment we feel there is no reliable infrastructure to provide the volumes of recycled raw nylon material that we need, ” said Anderson.
Currently, Unifi’s Repreve polyester yarns are made from 80% pre-consumer waste and 20% post-consumer waste from PET bottles, “because we can still ensure first quality product as there is an established [and transparent] source of recycled polyester raw material,” she said.
Unifi says the emphasis on its ‘Repreve’ range is very much one of 100% recycled content and that means even if customers want a full dull range. Full dull yarns generally use titanium dioxide to give this effect.
Anderson concluded, “We will make an official announcement in early July and the product range will be commercially available by early August when we will reveal what count range the new recycled nylon yarns will be available in.”
The company says that initially it is looking to supplying these yarns to the outdoor performance clothing sector and especially into socks and high performance knit and woven merchandise.
Source: Ecotextile.com
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