Circulose, the Swedish company that turns cotton-rich textile waste into dissolving pulp, has restarted industrial production at its Ortviken plant in Sundsvall. The restart was reported on 11 November by the Portuguese trade publication Portugal Têxtil, which also reported a change at the top: chief executive Jonatan Janmark is stepping down and chief financial officer Amanda Geijer becomes interim CEO while a permanent successor is chosen.
Circulose describes Ortviken as the world’s first industrial plant dedicated to chemical recycling of textiles. The company says 16 brands have made purchase commitments, with more expected, and that it now has an organisation of about 130 people. “Our focus has been to align the restart of production with confirmed demand,” chair Helena Helmersson said in the statement quoted by Portugal Têxtil.
A second life after Renewcell
The plant is the former Renewcell 1, which opened in Sundsvall in November 2022 and shipped its first pulp the following month. Renewcell went bankrupt in 2024; the Circulose business and the plant were then acquired by the Nordic private equity firm Altor, which reset the strategy around securing volume commitments from fashion brands before restarting. The new owners have not, in the material published this week, given an output figure for the restart.
Circulose sells pulp, not fibre. Fibre producers turn it into viscose, lyocell or filament, and spinners and fabric makers turn those fibres into yarn and cloth. In May the company signed an agreement with China Textile Academy Green Fibre to make lyocell from Circulose pulp, with limited commercial volumes in 2026 and more capacity through 2027. In March it joined the consortium of Finland’s Spinnova, whose own Portuguese partner is the Guimarães spinner Tearfil.
The Portuguese link
That middle of the chain is where Portugal sits. When Renewcell set up its Circulose Supplier Network in July 2023, 10 of the 47 member companies were Portuguese spinners and fabric and knit producers: Acatel, Brito Knitting, Impetus, Inovafil, Matias & Araújo, RDD, Riopele, Tearfil, Tintex and TMG. Inovafil, in Guimarães, also spun Circulose-based yarn for a showcase with Renewcell and the machinery maker Saurer at ITMA 2023.
The network was built before the bankruptcy, and its current membership is not public, so it cannot be assumed that all ten mills still work with the material. What the restart does change is supply: for two years Portuguese mills that had developed Circulose blends had no reliable source of the pulp behind them.
What it means for the corridor
For Portuguese mills, the restart reopens a commercial route into Nordic and other fashion brands that want recycled content with a traceable Swedish origin. The open questions are volume and price: how much pulp Ortviken will make in 2027, which fibre producers will convert it, and how quickly Portuguese spinners can re-qualify blends with brands. For Nordic brands, it means the Swedish-made raw material and the Portuguese yarn and fabric capacity that used it are both back on the table.
Sources: Portugal Têxtil, “Circulose retoma atividade de reciclagem” (11 November 2026), “Circulose e CTA vão produzir liocel a partir de pasta reciclada” (8 May 2026), “Circulose junta-se à Spinnova” (3 March 2026), “Empresas nacionais na rede da Circulose” (5 July 2023); Saurer, Renewcell x Inovafil x Saurer (2023).