Far Eastern New Century (FENC), part of the Far Eastern Group, has announced plans to ramp up investment in synthetic fibre plants in the United States and Vietnam. The company owns a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant in West Virginia, an R&D centre in Ohio, and has another PET plant under construction in Corpus Christi.
FENC also plans to expand its supply chain in Asia by expanding capacity in Vietnam to take advantage of the favourable labour market and investment climate. The company says that the increase in production capacity will make it one of the top three PET producers globally.
In 1945, Yu-Ziang Hsu founded Far Eastern Manufacturing Company (FEMC) in Shanghai to produce the skyscraper-brand knitwear. This marked the beginning of the Far Eastern Textile business. In 1949, Far Eastern relocated to Taiwan, setting up its knitting factory.
Far Eastern Textile (FETL), established in 1954, grew to establish stand-alone spinning, weaving, dyeing, and apparel factories. Year 1965 marked the complete integration of the upstream, midstream and downstream processes into one vertically-integrated production chain. In 1979, Oriental Chemical Fiber Corporation merged with Far Eastern Textile to complete the combination of fibre and textile production. In 2008, the company acquired Oriental Petrochemical (Taiwan) Corporation for increased efficiency and competitive advantage through the integration of the petrochemical, polyester, fibre, spinning, weaving, dyeing, apparel manufacturing, and retail businesses.
