Asahi Kasei Plastics invests $5 million in new compounding line, projects

Asahi Kasei Plastics North America, Inc. announces they are proceeding with a US$5 million investment in a new compounding line and plant improvements to accommodate increased business in all markets.

A $3 million investment in a large compounding extruder and peripheral equipment is in process and a $2 million investment in new projects including plant upgrades is planned for 2013. The new equipment is expected to be operational by the end of 2013 providing a 30% capacity increase for their advanced line of Thermylene? brand specialty polypropylene products and a 10% capacity increase over all product lines.

"This $5 million investment is in addition to the $15 million invested in the last 5 years for new equipment and continuous improvement," said Prasad Puttagunta, vice president operations, Asahi Kasei Plastics.  

"We are very excited about the growth our company is experiencing – we are ahead of the market recovery growth rate and many of the product development investments we have made over the years are now paying dividends with increased business in new areas," said Puttagunta.  

"The additional capacity will ensure that we have a robust supply chain to support the growth of our customers."

"This is a very exciting time for us," said John Moyer, president of Asahi Kasei Plastics.  

"We are continuing to increase capacity in our plant to support business demand and we are receiving very strong support to pursue expanding our business and production capabilities in other regions in North America," said Moyer.

"In 2012 we added staff in our manufacturing facility to be able to run 7 days a week, and the operations team worked on several projects to improve utilization of the plant," said Puttagunta.  

"We also opened new sales offices in Mexico and China and established distributorships in Brazil and Germany in 2012," said Ramesh Iyer, vice president commercial operations, Asahi Kasei Plastics.  

In 2011, Asahi Kasei Plastics invested $5.5 million in a new compounding line to increase capacity for their Leona? and Xyron? engineering products and an additional line for expanded R & D services.

"Much of this growth is due to advancing our Thermylene? line  and Leona?  line of products for cost-effective light weighting applications, for high performance in automotive under-the-hood and structural and impact resistance applications," added Iyer.  

"Interest in our new Thermylene? I Long Glass Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene for impact performance is driving growth and so is our new and advanced Leona? resin (unique polyamide with 60% glass) to provide a Class "A" surface without paint," said Iyer.