DAK Americas, the main producer of polyester staple fibers (PSF) in the Americas, said it will increase its PSF capacity to 230 million pounds per year in order to meet growing demand in the Americas.
Production at the expanded facility, which will be part of the company’s Pearl River Site in Bay St. Louis, Missouri, will focus on lower denier fibers (less than 3.0 denier) but will have the capability to produce fiber products with 0.9 to 9.0 denier. The project is expected to start up in the latter half of 2016.
“DAK is proud to expand its Trade Leading Fiber offerings for low, mid, and high tenacity fibers engineered for textile and nonwoven applications,” said Mark Ruday, vice president of DAK Americas Fibers Business Unit.
The expansion will generate 86 new full time positions with operations, maintenance, technical and management roles on-site.
“DAK’s ability to utilize considerable infrastructure currently in place at its Pearl River Site, provides us with a unique opportunity to grow our fiber capacity and meet customer demand with a very competitive investment,” DAK president and CEO Jorge Young said. “The new fiber facility at the Pearl River Site geographically strengthens DAK’s ability to supply PSF across the Americas with a second U.S. fiber manufacturing location and places DAK in a good position to service the growing Mexico fiber market.”
DAK also completed a PSF expansion at its facility near Charleston, South Carolina recently, which added 27 million pounds per year of PSF capacity.
After the Pearl River Site expansion is completed, DAK’s total PSF sales capacity in North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries will reach 700 million pounds per year. The facility will continue to produce high quality Laser + PET Resins for customers nearby as well.