With its Seawastex initiative, Formosa Taffeta Corporation has made inroads regarding the circular economy while helping to clean up the oceans. The Show Daily took a look behind the scenes and visited the Formosa Taffeta factory in Vietnam.
In the market for bicycle tires, Maxxis, Vittoria and Schwalbe are all prestigious players. And they all presented eco-friendly tires last year that rely on recycled nylon as part of their casing. Dubbed Seawastex, this material is made of recycled fishing nets that Formosa Chemical & Fibre Corporation, Formosa Taffeta’s mother company, buys from fishermen. Thus, this novel material serves a double purpose: It reduces the eco-footprint of bicycle tires by increasing the percentage of recycled materials used for their production, and it helps clean up the oceans and protect marine wildlife from drifting fishing gear. As a specialist in synthetic functional fabric, Formosa Taffeta Corporation supplies many producers of sportswear and shoes — bicycle-related business only accounts for a minor part of its turnover.
Formosa Taffeta: Branches in Taiwan, China and Vietnam
With offices in Taipei, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City and factories in Taiwan, China and Vietnam, Formosa Taffeta Corporation is a truly international supplier. Construction on its plant in Vietnam’s Southern Dong Nai province started in 2004, and at first the focus was on synthetic fabrics for sportswear. In 2011, the factory was expanded to produce tire cord made of Nylon 6 and Nylon 66, and in 2015 a second dipping line was installed, further increasing the production capacity. Conveniently Cheng Shin Rubber Industry, the parent company of Maxxis, set up a factory in Dong Nai as well, and seeing Schwalbe moving its entire tire production to Vietnam won’t hurt the bicycle-related business of Formosa Taffeta Corporation.
Its Dong Nai facility extends on both sides of a road that cuts through the industrial park, with the first plant, covering a surface of 210,000 m2, housing packing, warehousing and dipping departments that need a lot of space. The second plant is considerably smaller, measuring 65,000 m2, and is tailored for the production of various garments, including chafer fabric that is used in car and truck tires. “Basically, we can perform all the production steps we do in Taiwan in our Vietnam plants as well,” Dong Nai’s plant manager and tire department manager Chang Shun-chi explains. “Producing close to factories we supply saves time and also reduces the eco-footprint. For this reason, we operate multiple factories in Taiwan and Vietnam.”
Big future ambitions with Seawastex
For the Formosa Taffeta Corporation, the current business slowdown is an opportunity to set up processes and machines and to get everything right before scaling up production. And to get the certifications needed for the factory in Vietnam to use Seawastex material in the tire production. “We will be ready to increase our production as soon as demand picks up again,” a confident Chang Shun-chi says.
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