(Yicai) Feb. 11 -- Welong New Materials, a Chinese supplier of eco-friendly colored polyester filaments, unveiled a plan to invest up to CNY500 million (USD68.4 million) to build a green chemical fiber production base in Indonesia.

Located in the Kendal Industrial Park in Central Java, the new factory will have an annual production capacity of 70,000 tons of solution-dyed fibers and 30,000 tons of colored fibers recycled from waste textiles, the Zhejiang province-based company announced yesterday.

Once completed, the plant is expected to generate CNY1.2 billion (USD164.3 million) in sales revenue and CNY180 million net profit each year, Welong noted, without revealing any further details about the project.

Solution-dyed fibers, also known as colored fibers, are chemical fiber products colored by adding colorants during the production of polyester resin or chemical fiber spinning. This process avoids high energy consumption and pollution issues associated with traditional chemical fiber textile dyeing.

The textile and apparel industry is a pillar of Indonesia’s economy, Welong said, adding that the environmental friendliness of the project aligns with the country’s industrial policy directions and meets surging local and global demand for more green textile raw materials.

International apparel brands, such as Decathlon, Ikea, Nike, Adidas, and Inditex, have started showing a preference for green fabrics like solution-dyed fiber and recycled chemical fibers, indicating broad market potential for such products, Welong pointed out.

Welong is a supplier of eco-friendly colored polyester filaments that uses polyester chips and masterbatches as raw materials to complete fiber dyeing during the spinning process. The company was among the first in China to achieve large-scale production of such products.

Welong’s shares [SHE: 301057] were trading down 1 percent at CNY13.20 (USD1.81) as of 1.50 p.m. today. The Shenzhen Component Index fell 0.7 percent.

Editor: Futura Costaglione