An increasingly competitive polyester films market is prompting Teijin DuPont Films Japan Ltd. to close its Gifu, Japan, manufacturing facility, Tokyo-based Teijin announced Jan. 15.
In a filing to Tokyo Stock Exchange, the company said Gifu would stop commercial production in September 2016 and its business would shift to the company's Utsunomiya, Japan, factory or overseas locations. It's the latest of a series of restructuring plans first unveiled by Teijin in November.
“To date, TDFJ has implemented numerous measures to reduce costs, including discontinuing production at its Ibaraki factory, to make its polyester films business more competitive,” it said in a statement.
“Despite these efforts, increasingly intense rivalry in global markets persuaded the company of the need to further integrate its production facilities to enhance production efficiency and ensure profitability going forward,” Teijin said.
Gifu, which has annual production capacity of 30,000 metric tons, will continue as a research and development center.
Teijin said 240 employees work in the manufacturing department there and that “as much as possible” it will try to find other jobs for them within Teijin.
In its November announcement, the company said it would scale back some operations in more commodity plastics, such as closing its polycarbonate manufacturing plant in Singapore later this year because the plant has high feedstock costs.
At the same time, it said it would increase investment in other materials, including carbon-fiber reinforced thermoplastics and blends of PC and polyphenylene sulfide plastic, and study establishing a CFRP production facility in the United States.
Teijin, which has 16,000 employees, posted sales of $7.7 billion in its fiscal year end March 31.