News
Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President Hitoshi Kawahara) hereby announces its decision to withdraw from the dry-laid nonwoven fabrics business and to reduce production capacity for meltblown nonwoven fabrics.
Purpose and Background
Kuraray has manufactured and sold dry-laid nonwoven fabric since 1972 and meltblown nonwoven fabric since 1989. In recent years, however, the business environment has become increasingly severe due to oversupply resulting from the expansion of facilities by other companies in Asia and declining domestic demand. Having examined our future business policy, we have determined that restructuring through a reduction in production capacity is imperative.
We will restructure our nonwoven fabric business by focusing our management resources on the meltblown nonwoven fabric business.
Facilities to be shut down or downsized
| Dry-laid nonwoven fabric | Kuraray Kuraflex Co., Ltd. Okayama Plant — Production will cease at the end of December 2024, and sales will cease at the end of March 2025. |
|---|---|
| Meltblown nonwoven fabric | Kuraray Kuraflex Co., Ltd. Okayama Plant — Production lines halted at the end of June 2024, and production was consolidated at Kuraray Co., Ltd. Saijo Plant. |
The Kuraray Group has positioned the upgrading of its business portfolio as a key measure in its medium-term management plan, PASSION 2026, and is proceeding with the focused allocation of resources to core businesses and identification of businesses to be downsized or divested. We will continue to reconfigure our business and product mix while giving due consideration to social and environmental value and economic value, thereby building a more sophisticated portfolio.
