Two nylon giants

Although it has a low profile in the auto motive industry, AlliedSignal Plastics dominates the nylon 6 market in automotive. It is the largest North American producer of nylon 6 resin, and is planning to increase capacity as much as 40% during 1995, primarily through changes in its existing production control systems. Future gains will result from the addition of new production lines and capital expansions at both its Chesterfield, VA, and Sparta, TN, facilities. But as this chart shows, DuPont Co. - which invented nylon - dominates the much larger nylon 6/6 market. It also is aggressively expanding capacity, announcing last February that it plans to double its North American capacity for "Zytel" nylon 6/6 engineering resins. DuPont's new capacity will be installed at its Spruance Plant in Richmond, VA, and is scheduled to come on-stream by 1998. DuPont already has invested more than $450 million in new nylon resin and fiber capacity within the past three years.