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ndonesia’s largest polyester producer, PT Asia Pacific Fibers (APF), expects business to improve slightly this year, driven by higher demand both from domestic and foreign buyers.

With the expected improvement in demand, APF president director V. Ravi Shankar estimated the country’s polyester industry would grow by 7 percent in 2013.

The industry would also benefit from the improved economy in China, he said. “As the situation improves there, we will see a reduction in the volume of imported polyester products from China. Last year, there was an influx of Chinese products because China could not absorb all of them,” he added.

APF, which manufactures staple fiber and filament yarn, claims to hold the largest shares in both staple fiber and filament yarn markets with 23 percent and 22 percent, respectively. Most of the company’s products are sold to textile factories in West Java with the remainder going to other businesses, such as packaging, footwear and healthcare.

In 2013, the publicly listed company aims to produce 1.04 million tons of polyester products, 14.9 percent higher than 2012. The growth will be supported by the new staple fiber production line, which was built at its Karawang factory last August.

The domestic market will continue to dominate sales with 65 percent, while exports will make up the remaining 35 percent. APF’s foreign markets comprise Brazil, Egypt, Europe, Mexico and South Korea.

The company planned to expand its exports to China and the US this year, according to Shankar. “For those markets, we will target new industries, whose end products are used in automotive and home furnishing businesses,” he said.

With a higher production volume target and new markets, APF is looking to reap US$625 million in revenues by year-end, a 6 percent rise from last year.

The company has $20 million in its 2013 capital expenditure budget, which is provided by Damiano Investments BV, a Dutch investment firm that is APF’s majority shareholder.

 According to Shankar, APF’s lingering debt restructuring process has prevented the company from being able to access bank loans. It was declared bankrupt by the Commercial Court in 2005 when APF was a subsidiary of the Texmaco Group. Damiano, a former unsecured creditor, then acquired majority ownership of APF when it agreed to convert its loans into shares within the company.

APF still has $1 billion of secured debts, $270 million of which are held by state-owned PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (PPA). APF corporate secretary H. Tunaryo said that a majority of secured creditors, except PPA, had agreed on its debt restructuring plan to convert about $820 million, or almost 82 percent of its secured debts, into shares to reduce its total secured debts to $180 million.