DUPONT, ALPEK AND TEIJIN TO FORM POLYESTER JOINT VENTURE
WILMINGTON, Del., April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- DuPont, Alpek S.A. de C.V., and Teijin Limited have announced their intent to form a joint venture to make and sell polyester filament yarn in the Americas. The joint venture is expected to begin operations before year-end, subject to appropriate regulatory approvals. Terms were not disclosed.
DuPont would be a 50 percent partner in the joint venture, with Alpek and Teijin owning the remaining 50 percent. The joint venture would have more than 850 million pounds of capacity and revenues of approximately $600 million. It would include all of the polyester polymer, filament, and textured yarn facilities in Monterrey, Mexico, of the Alpek and Teijin joint venture, which was announced earlier today. The DuPont Dacron(R) polyester textile filament facilities at its Cape Fear and Kinston production sites in North Carolina also would be included.
The joint venture underscores the partners' commitment to provide the Americas marketplace with innovative, high-quality products that are efficiently produced. This would be accomplished by combining their marketing, manufacturing, and product development strengths.
"This is the next step in our plan to adopt a new business model for DuPont's Polyester Enterprise based on strong joint ventures," said Eduard J. Van Wely, DuPont senior vice president. "We believe this joint venture with valued partners is in the best interests of the marketplace and our shareholders and will enable our polyester filament business to maximize the efficient use of capital."
"The alliance will have a significant presence in the NAFTA market so that we could capitalize on our production efficiencies. Also, the alliance with world-class partners, such as DuPont and Teijin, will allow us to introduce high value-added products to better serve our customers in the marketplace," said Jose de Jesus Valdez S., President of Alpek.
"This alliance with such prominent partners in the Americas will provide Teijin with an excellent opportunity to identify important new customers and serve a larger market with our innovative and high-quality products," said Teijin President and CEO Shosaku Yasui. "It will also enable us to enhance our own competitiveness and that of our customers by helping them to respond more quickly to new market demands," he said.
DuPont's polyester filament business is part of DuPont's Global Polyester Enterprise, which also includes its polyester intermediates, staple, fiberfill, films and resins businesses. DuPont and Teijin recently announced that they will form a 50/50 global joint venture to make and sell polyester films. Last week, DuPont-Akra Polyester, LLC, a newly-formed company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, began producing polyester staple fiber for markets primarily in the Americas as part of a separate joint venture between DuPont and Alpek.
Founded in 1802, DuPont is a global science and technology-based company. DuPont serves worldwide markets including food and nutrition; health care; agriculture; fashion and apparel; home and construction; electronics; and transportation. The company operates in 65 countries and has 92,000 employees.
Alpek, owned 100 percent by Alfa, is one of the largest private petrochemicals concerns in Latin America, with sales in excess of $1.3 billion. Its main areas of activities include raw materials for polyester and nylon, polyester and nylon fibers, polypropylene, polystyrene and polyurethane plastics and intermediates.
Teijin Limited is a major multinational enterprise offering fibers, chemicals and plastics, pharmaceuticals and medical products and diversified products. Teijin is using its proprietary technologies to expand into areas such as health-care products and services, advanced materials and information media.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations, estimates and projections. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the company's strategy for growth, product development, market position, expected expenditures and financial results are forward-looking statements. Some of the forward-looking statements may be identified by words like "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "intends," "projects," "indicates," and similar expressions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors, including those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in DuPont's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly its latest annual report on Form 10-K, as well as others, could cause results to differ materially from those stated. These factors include, but are not limited to changes in the laws, regulations, policies and economic conditions of countries in which the company does business; competitive pressures; successful integration of structural changes, including acquisitions, divestitures and alliances; failure of the company or related third parties to become Year 2000 capable; research and development of new products, including regulatory approval and market acceptance. SOURCE DuPont
-0- 4/14/99 /NOTE TO EDITORS: DuPont's logo is available via Wieck Photo DataBase, 972-392-0888./
/CONTACT: Bill Brown of DuPont, 302-992-2566; or Enrique Flores of Alfa, 528-152-1207; or Yoshikuni Ursunomiya of Teijin Limited, 011-81-3-3506-4407/
/Web site: http://www.dupont.com/ (DD)
CO: DuPont; Alpek S.A. de C.V.; Teijin, Limited ST: Delaware IN:
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