Polyester supplier Selenis claims it is now Europe’s only producer of speciality copolyester after acquiring the production assets of Greece-based Polisan Hellas for installation at its Portuguese plant.
The deal will enable the Italian polyester producer to expand specialty copolyester production to more than 200,000 metric tonnes by 2028, across production sites in Portugal, Italy, Tunisia and the US.
The latest investment aims to support the company’s growth in four priority markets: shrink sleeves, film and sheet, healthcare, 3D printing and textile-to-textile recycling and will reportedly provide supply resilience, scale, and operational flexibility.
Flexibility
Selenis said it intends to work with customers to qualify selected grades at more than one manufacturing site, so a converter can hold the same specification from two plants, with no dependency on a single line or region and with the flexibility to move volume between sites as demand and logistics change.
European converters will be supplied from Europe and American converters from the US, with shorter lead times and lower safety stocks than imported resin requires, the company added.
“We believe Europe needs a strong specialty materials manufacturing base, and we are investing to build it,” said Duarte Matos Gil, chief executive of Selenis.
“When customers qualify our materials, they make a long-term commitment. Our responsibility is to invest ahead of their needs, to put more than one plant behind every grade and to give them a cost base that lets them compete. This acquisition puts industrial capacity behind that commitment, and further steps will follow.”
‘New investments’
The IMG Group, which owns Selenis, also confirmed it is assessing its next investments.
“We are evaluating new investments in Germany in the bio-based field and in Tunisia, where we are exploring textile-to-textile opportunities through DMT technology,” explained Eduardo Santos, strategy and integration director at IMG Group.
“Each investment adds a capability to one manufacturing platform, and each is chosen for the markets where our customers see the strongest long-term growth.”
The news comes after Selenis announced in March that it planned to double production capacity at its headquarters in Portalegre, Portugal, raising output from 62,500 tonnes per year by the third quarter of 2027.
