Huafon Microfibre announces new PU leather project

Nantong, Jiangsu – Huafon Microfibre announced in August it is to build non-woven microfiber-reinforced PU leather facilities with 69m m²/year total capacity at its existing site in Nantong, Jiangsu.

Located at the coastal Lvsigang Economic Zone with 319,000 m² total area, the project has CNY1.7bn ($247m) investment earmarked and its planned capacity includes:

• 33m m² /year microfibre base fabric;
• 17 m m2/year microfibre polyurethane leather;
• 6 m m2/year suede microfibre; and
• 14 m m2/year coloured microfibre.

The site already has a 104m m²/year microfibre plant in partial operation.

In total, the company expects that the project will create 1,300 jobs when it is fully operational in December 2019. If the project proceeds as planned, trial runs should start in September 2019. The plant is scheduled to come on stream the following December. Huafon expects the plant to generate a profit of CNY 300m on CNY 2bn average annual revenue.

Microfibre-reinforced polyurethane finds its way into over 90% of high-end sneakers, and applications are expanding. Sportswear and sporting accessories such as golf gloves are popular applications, said Huafon’s announcement. The company expects microfibre PU leather to increasingly substitute for natural leather, which now accounts for 35% of the 23m pair/year golf gloves market.

Over the first half of 2018 Huafon Microfibre record a 54% year-on-year rise in revenue to CNY 1.5bn. Net profit during the period jumped 141% to CNY 208m.

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