Fabricato Moving Rionegro Plant to Bello; Notes Anti-Dumping Decision

Medellin-based textile giant Fabricato SA announced November 28 that it has begun the process of moving the entire operations of its “Riotex” factory in Rionegro to its Bello factory – both of which are nearby Medellin.

Transfer of dry production units will be completed by January 2018, while the wet production units will move to Bello by July 2018, according to the company.

“Transfer of the wet process [units] will be done at a later stage because expansion of the wastewater treatment plant at Bello is necessary,” according to Fabricato.

“This expansion has already been contracted and should be operating as of May next year. The [wastewater treatment] technology is the same with which we operate today and will allow us to treat and reuse water in our production process. Thus, the current [water] volume of 50,000 cubic meters per month will rise to 100,000 cubic meters per month,” the company added.

Total investment for expansion of wastewater treatment is US$900,000, according to the company.

“The consolidation of the productive process [at Bello] was made possible due to the investment made during the previous years and will allow us to maintain the installed production capacity using fewer resources, including space,” according to Fabricato.

“Consolidation of production will not require elimination of any business unit. Fabricato will continue to be present in the production and marketing of denim fabrics, drills (for fashion, for manning and for military forces), knitted fabric, woven interlinings and nonwoven interlinings.

“This [consolidation] process will not affect the fulfillment of the purchase orders of our clients,” the company added.

Consolidation will cut fixed production costs, improve the use of self-generated hydroelectric and thermoelectric power at the Bello plant, cut logistics costs and enable development of a real estate project at Rionegro – via leasing of the 36,000 square meters available at the old plant.

“The lease of the Riotex property is additional to the well-known ‘Ciudad Fabricato’ projects in Bello and ‘Fibratolima’ in Ibagué, thus giving full use to the available real estate assets,” the company added.

Antidumping Decision

Meanwhile, Fabricato announced November 28 that as a result of its request for an investigation into foreign denim-fabric-dumping into the Colombian market, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism on November 23 adopted a US$4.63/kilogram provisional duty on Chinese denim for at least the next six months, “renewable for three additional months or until the investigation is completed,” according to the company.