Where Is Lyocell Fabric Produced?
When lyocell fabric was first created, it was only produced at the American Enka factory in Enka, North Carolina. When Enka stopped producing this substance, however, production moved entirely to the United Kingdom when Courtaulds Fibers branded this fabric as Tencel.
Eventually, Tencel production expanded to the Courtaulds plant in Mobile, Alabama, and until the late 1990s, this fabric was not made anywhere else in the world. In 1998, however, Courtalds was sold to Akzo Nobel, which is a Dutch international corporation specializing in paints. Akzo Nobel went on to sell the rights to Tencel to a private equity firm named CVC partners, which promptly sold its Tencel division to Lenzing AG, which is an international textile corporation based in Austria. While Lenzing AG has a variety of different factories in Europe, a great deal of their production has moved overseas to countries like China and Indonesia. While some Tencel is still produced in countries like Austria, the United Kingdom, and the USA, the majority of this fabric is now produced in China.
Since Lenzing now holds the Tencel patent, it remains the largest producer of this textile in the world. A variety of smaller companies may also make this fabric in minuscule quantities, but if you've worn a lyocell garment, chances are it was made by Lenzing AG in one of their Chinese factories.
