Tokyo, Dec 3--Mitsubishi Rayon Co. has decided to withdraw from the roll carpet and artificial turf businesses and focus all its carpet resources on self-adhesive tile carpets.
The firm's self-adhesive tile carpet measures 50cm square and is used primarily as flooring in office buildings. It comes with a special glue already adhered to its underside, making installation as simple as lining up the tiles.
Mitsubishi Rayon plans to boost production efficiency by making more tile carpet products from polypropylene it produces in-house. It also plans to switch to a newly developed acrylic-based adhesive that is more environmentally friendly.
While the general tufted-carpet market is shrinking because of a slowdown in housing starts, demand for tile carpets, particularly self-adhesive types, is growing at a 4-5 per cent annual pace because it is easy to install.
Mitsubishi Rayon has about 90 per cent of the domestic market for this type of carpet. By concentrating on this field, it hopes to move its sluggish carpet operations back into the black in two years.
