In the same string, fashion and heavy load
Valor Econômico - 04/14/2008
After operating for 15 years apart from each other, Rhodia's divisions of textile yarns used for clothing and industrial wires were integrated in January in one single business platform, which is now called Rhodia Poliamida Fibras (Rhodia Polyamide Fibers). While unifying the textile yarns and the industrial wires into one area, the company intends to develop products that can be sold, at the same time, to the markets of fashion and high performance, such as fireman and mailman clothing. The first product developed by the new area takes the name of Nitya. It is a string which is highly resistant to tearing, wearing and holes. But the great news of this polyamide material, according to the company, is its capacity to homogeneously absorb dyes. "We were able to develop a product in which the paint is entirely absorbed. The color becomes homogeneous and without flaws. Today, the consumer doesn't merely want an efficient product; the product also needs to have a cool look", says Rhodia Poliamida Fibras' marketing manager Elizabeth Namour Haidar. Nitya has demanded one year of researches and investments of R$ 1.2 million (US$ 685.7 thousand). Rhodia's expectation is to produce 100 to 150 tons of Nitya a month until the end of this year. "We believe it is possible to have sales from R$ 15 million (US$ 8.6 million) to R$ 20 million (US$ 11.4 million) a year", says the officer. She explains that Nitya allows the production of different items such as clothes for action sports, footwear and accessories, clothes with "fashion" appeal, uniforms for Military Police, Army, Postal Workers, and upholstering. Currently, the production of Nitya takes place in the plant of the municipality of Santo André, in the São Paulo Metropoliltan Area, where all other wires and yarns from Rhodia are produced. Invista imports Cordura from the United States and Argentina. The total production of the Rhodia fibre unit in 2007 was 25 thousand tons, 10% of which was exported to Argentina and Colombia. The Santo André unit has strategic role for Rhodia, once it is the only textile unit of the French company in the world. Brazil was chosen to host the unit because all the stages of production of the polyamide are integrated into the very country. Last year, Rhodia Brasil sold US$ 1.2 billion, and the fibre area represented 10% of this amount.