Unitika has signed an agreement to transfer its share in Tusco, its Thai subsidiary, to TPL, Teijin Frontier’s Thai subsidiary The transfer is scheduled to be completed in January 2026.

A maker spunbond nonwovens fabrics, Tusco was established in 1997 as a joint venture between Unitika and Teijin. It currently maintains a nonwoven fabric production plant on TPL’s premises, sharing resources such as energy. The unit’s production capacity for spunbonded nonwoven fabrics is 10,000 tons per year. In addition to PET, the company also produces biodegradable spunbonded nonwoven fabrics using polylactic acid as raw material.

The exit of the joint venture is Unitika’s latest effort in a plan to exit the fiber and textiles business. Earlier this year, the company sold its 10,000-ton-per year polyester spunbond business to Seiren and its spunlace business, which is capable of producing 7000 tons of material per year, to Cotex, a subsidiary of Zuiko, a Japanese machinery manufacturer.

Unitika’s decision to exit the textiles business was attributed to growing competition from Chinese companies, which increased the company’s losses for two straight years and significantly shrunk its equity. Unitika began efforts to revamp its struggling fiber-related operations in 2014, including moving production to Thailand and cutting costs, but the efforts have been unsuccessful, especially given the recent weakness of the yen.

The company plans to focus on food packaging films and other polymer products that are experiencing growth in Southeast Asia and other markets.