Renewcell initiates early capacity expansion due to rising demand

Swedish textile recycler, Renewcell, has announced to accelerate the expansion of the company’s Renewcell 1 (Ortviken, Sundsvall) plant from 60,000 to 120,000 metric tonnes of total annual capacity due to high customer interest in Renewcell’s unique 100% recycled product Circulose®.

The decision does not affect the initial 60,000 metric tonnes’ commissioning, which is scheduled for mid-year. The company’s Board of Directors has decided to assess the company’s operational and financial goals, evaluating the ability to move the operational goal of reaching 360,000 metric tonnes of annual capacity to 2025 rather than 2030 as originally intended.

The Board of Directors will also evaluate how much to increase the long-term operational aim in order to boost Renewcell’s market leadership position. The company has retained BNP Paribas and Carnegie to investigate funding options for increasing operational goals.

Consumers, NGOs, regulators, fashion brands, manufacturers, and ESG investors all around the world are concerned about the significant and constantly expanding impact of virgin textile fiber production and fashion waste. According to new Renewcell market research, the baseline fashion industry demand for recycled man-made cellulosic fibers derived from Circulose®, Renewcell’s unique 100% recycled dissolving pulp, will be over 6 million metric tonnes per year in 2030.

With only 0.7 million metric tonnes of yearly supply capacity anticipated to come online until then, including 360,000 metric tonnes from Renewcell, the industry will need to rely on speeding up the scale of sustaintech pioneers like Renewcell to close the gap and make fashion circular.

Patrik Lundström, CEO of Renewcell, said that the global fashion industry is committed to being circular, and they are motivated to contribute as much and as quickly as possible to achieve this critical goal. With demand signals from fiber and fashion brand partners skyrocketing since their IPO, they need to press ahead in Sundsvall while also raising their long-term objective.

Mia Hemmingson, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said that the Board sees the societal move to circularity and sustainability as one of history’s greatest value-generating opportunities. Capturing this opportunity necessitates rapid-scaling innovations, such as Renewcell’s unique textile-to-textile recycling process. This announcement demonstrates the Board’s strong belief in the company’s market-leading position, both now and in the future.