Asahi Kasei's Fibers & Textiles SBU will expand capacity for Lamous™ microfiber suede in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan.
Lamous™ is a high-quality microfiber suede (artificial suede) material featuring a unique three-layered¹ microstructure. Leveraging its luxurious smooth texture and flexibility in design as well as superior environmental characteristics, Asahi Kasei has actively expanded its Lamous™ business worldwide in a wide variety of applications including automotive interiors, furniture upholstery, IT accessories, apparel, and industrial materials.
Sold in markets around the world, Lamous™ is enjoying particularly strong demand growth in automotive interiors. As such demand growth is forecasted to continue, the decision was made to expand capacity. Moving forward, Asahi Kasei will continue to expand production capacity and enhance the production infrastructure in order to strengthen the Lamous™ supply configuration in line with additional growth in the global market.
Outline of the capacity increase
Location
Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan
Product
Lamous™ microfiber suede
Additional capacity
Approximately 3 million m²/year
(current capacity approximately 6 million m²/year)
Groundbreaking
First half of fiscal 2017
Start-up
First half of fiscal 2019