“Performance Fibers faces a double impact with offshore competitors offering similar reinforcement products at lower prices imported into the North American market. These same market forces are also at play in Europe.”
To remain competitive in the face of this double impact, Performance Fibers said it will invest $25 million over the next 21 months to rationalize its footprint in North America, modernize equipment in North American and Europe, make step-change improvements in product quality and create “a product development center of excellence.”
“We believe that our associates in North American can compete effectively in a global marketplace, but they have been handicapped by low utilizations at multiple plant sites making cost efficiency difficult and investments all but impossible,” Mr. Tawfik said.
“Our goal in this transformation is to combine our key learnings from all of our global yarn operations with the best polymer and spinning platform and with state of the art winding capability into a single site in North America to ensure that PF is among the very best in the global terms of cost, quality and service.”
“Our decision to concentrate our yarn production into Salisbury gives us the ability to make our investment dollars and process changes much more powerful,” he added. “With these investments and other changes in place, Performance Fibers will be able to compete effectively with any producer anywhere in the world.”