The Taipei based textile maker, Far Eastern New Century Corp a subsidiary of Far Eastern Group to boost production by one million dozen garment per year, its new garment plant in Vietnam might start operations in the first half of this year.

The ongoing capacity expansion plans are parts of the company’s investment project in Vietnam, which has a budget of US$760 million to develop a supply chain for fabrics and garments over three years.

The company has an annual production capacity of 2.3 million dozen garments at its Vietnam plant. Next year, the capacity [of the new plant] is likely to reach 2 million dozen if they are able to hire enough workers, a company official said.

The company provides a wide range of petrochemical and textile products, such as polyester-related materials, knitted fabric and apparels. The official, who declined to be named, said that another plant in Vietnam, which would produce knitted fabrics, is set to begin production in the second quarter of this year. The new plant is expected to manufacture 6,000 tonnes of knitted fabrics this year.

As for upstream products, the company said that several new factories for making polyester garments are set to start production next year, considering higher construction costs.

The company gave a positive business outlook for this year, saying that it is likely to take advantage of global price increases in ethylene glycol, which would help increase prices of polyester fibers.

The price of ethylene glycol is expected to hover at relatively high levels in the near term, as supply shortage problems in China are not yet completely resolved, the official said.

The company is also in talks with several global brands for its eco-friendly products, and is expecting higher revenue contributions from recycled fiber and textiles for this year.

The polyester and textiles businesses amounted for more than 50 percent of the company’s total sales, company data showed.

For the whole of last year, the company’s consolidated revenue slid 0.92 percent year-on-year to NT$215.87 billion (US$7.07 billion), primarily due to weak sentiment in garment markets around the world.