Chinese woolskin tanners, Henan Prosper, are already looking to expand capacity at their new tannery located in Henan, China. The existing tannery only went on stream last year but has already reached full capacity of 10,000 woolskins per day. Henan Prosper are currently building a 3,000 sq m extension to the tannery which will be completed by August. The cost of the new extension is estimated to be around US$5 million.
The current 35,000 sq m site located in Mengchou was only completed at the end of 2002 and production commenced in early 2003. The new tannery was born out of a merger of three smaller tanneries also located in the Western Henan province of China.
‘We are looking to process 15,000 skins a day, seven days a week in the future. We need the extra capacity to achieve our aims’, Michael Lu, managing director, told Leather International. ‘We have purchased a large number of European-made equipment, especially from Italy, to be used in the tannery extension’, he added.
Henan Prosper produce woolskin leathers for a wide range of applications including footwear, footwear lining, rugs, paint rollers and medical applications. They supply a large number of brands such as Adidas, Timberland, Ugg Boots and Wolverine. They source a large number of Australian shorn lambskins and have a subsidiary in Australia under the name of Dynasty Australia International Pty Ltd, as well as a woolskin tannery in Belgium.
