Hansae will bring its new Guatemala factory into full operation in the second half of this year, completing a vertically integrated production model that controls every stage of apparel manufacturing. The move is designed to transform the company's earnings structure — long centered on original equipment manufacturing — and establish it as a global fashion solutions company.
According to industry sources Thursday, Hansae will begin trial operations at its Color & Touch fabric manufacturing and dyeing facility in Michatoya, Guatemala, in October, followed by the launch of its EcoSpin yarn manufacturing plant in December. EcoSpin will have a spinning capacity of 624,000 kilograms per month, while Color & Touch will handle 1.3 million kilograms of dyeing per month. The company plans to integrate the entire production chain — from large-scale spinning through to final sewing — to overhaul its cost structure.
With the Guatemala project, Hansae will complete what it calls a "global triangular production network" linking Asia, the United States and Central America. Its three factories in Vietnam produce 3.75 million kilograms of fabric and 2.6 million finished garments per month. Texollini, a US-based functional fabric company Hansae acquired in 2024, produces 300,000 kilograms of synthetic fiber per month.
Hansae plans to use the expanded production capacity to plug margin leakage and capitalize on nearshoring advantages in Central America. The synergy between the Guatemala facility and Texollini in the US will allow the company to offer Americas-based buyers significantly faster lead times. Additional competitive advantages include logistics cost savings from in-house production and Guatemala's low reciprocal tariff rate of 10 percent under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.
Hansae's Americas business accounts for 80 to 90 percent of its total sales. The company currently supplies products to Gap, Old Navy, Target's apparel division, Walmart's apparel division and Carhartt, among others.
The new Guatemala factory also incorporates advanced technology to raise both production efficiency and quality. Unlike the low-gauge spinning equipment common in Central America, the facility has introduced premium high-gauge knitting machinery operating at 26 to 28 gauge.
An AI camera-based fabric quality inspection system will also be deployed. As fabric flows off the vertically integrated production line in units of tens of thousands of meters, the AI system will detect defects in real time. The measure moves away from reliance on visual inspection, aiming to bring the defect rate to near zero and minimize manufacturing losses.
The factory will also function as an ESG smart factory. State-of-the-art eco-friendly dyeing machines, already proven at Hansae's Vietnam facilities, will be installed to sharply reduce chemical usage, while a biological wastewater treatment system will recycle process water.
"The large-scale infrastructure and vertical integration at the Guatemala factory will serve as the core driver for maximizing nearshoring and tariff benefits," a Hansae official said. "Building on this, we will take another leap forward as a global fashion solutions company."
soho0902@heraldcorp.com
