The Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (ABIT) informed that Petrobrás, Vicunha Têxtil, Polyenka and three more companies signed an understanding memo to build a complex for the manufacturing of polyester yarn in Suape, Pernambuco.
The project foresees investments of US$ 1.2 billion and will receive financing from the BNDES and the Banco do Nordeste.
The complex will have the capacity to produce 180 thousand tons of polyester yarn per year, more than doubling current Brazilian production, which is about 110 thousand tons per year.
According to Jorg Albrecht, Polyenka president, the project was presented to Chief of Staff Minister, Dilma Rousseff, last week. And the minister requested priority for the project.
The polyester fabric and yarn sector was the hardest hit by imports from Chinese and other Asian countries.
Vicunha Têxtil and Polyenka joined the Companhia Bahiana de Fibras (Cobafi) and FIT to form the venture's textile group, which will also have Petrobrás and the Italian Mossi & Ghisolfi (M&G) as partners. According to Albrecht, the idea is to have a complex with the polyester yarn production chain integrated to it.
Petrobrás will supply the paraxylene, the basic raw material to manufacture the terephthalic acid. The terephthalic acid, mixed to glycol, forms polyester through a process known as polycondensation. Petrobrás will enter in the selling of terephthalic acid, M&G will use the acid tomanufacture PET and the textiles for polyester yarn.
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