A zone-drawing and zone-annealing method was applied to poly(ethylene-2,6-naphthalate) fibres in order to improve their mechanical properties. The zone-drawing was carried out at a drawing temperature of 130 degrees C under an applied tension of 13 MPa, and the zone-annealing was carried out at an annealing temperature of 200 degrees C under 212 MPa. The zone-annealed fibre had a birefringence of 0.473 and degree of crystallinity of 40%. Wide-angle Xray diffraction photographs of the zone-drawn and zone-annealed fibres showed three reflections (010, 100, and (1) over bar 10) attributed to an oc-form crystal, but no (020) reflection attributed to a P-form was observed in the equator. The tensile modulus and tensile strength increase with processing, and the zone-annealed fibre has a modulus of 29 GPa and a tensile strength of I.1 GPa.