New plant in Wujiang near completion

AKRO-PLASTIC extends manufacturing capacity in China

The company AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH, Niederzissen, specialist for innovative and application-oriented plastic compounds, has been successfully represented on the Chinese Market by its own production facility since 2005. Due to the high demand and growth rates of the Chinese plastics industry, the compounder decided to establish a new plant.

The existing plant, located between Shanghai and Suzhou, was no longer large enough to keep up with the high growth of the domestic industry. Since 2005, a single compounding line has satisfied the demand. However, since the current site did not have enough room for the necessary expansion of the manufacturing facilities, it was decided to move into a new building in Wujiang, which is located in the same administrative district. "Our new plant in Wujiang, part of the province Jiangsu, is scheduled to start business in the third quarter 2010", according to Dr. Ulrich Berlage, Managing Director of Akro Engineering Plastics (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. "At first, we will expand our annual manufacturing capacity to 7.000 tons with 2 compounding lines. Further lines are planned and will be ordered, as the capacity expands to meet increasing demand", Berlage adds.

The booming domestic automotive industry was the main reason for the business in China to increase by 65 %, even during the very difficult year 2009. For 2010, the focus is set on a 50 to 70 % growth rate. "70 % of our polyamide compounds are currently being delivered to the Chinese automotive industry", according to Frank Tao, Head of Sales and Marketing at Akro Engineering Plastics (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. "However, we have also good contacts to the Japanese automotive industry and we supply the electro and electronic industry as well as other industrial sectors", Tao adds.

The product quality at the Chinese production site matches German standards. Project planning and engineering of compounding lines have been executed by FEDDEM GmbH & Co. KG, Sinzig in the same way as if it had been handled at AKRO-PLASTIC in Germany. Formulations, being developed and verified in the head office in Niederzissen guarantee a consistent product quality, not differing from the goods produced in Germany. "We are proud to use only one data sheet per material for our compounds produced in Germany and China", according to Leander Bergmann, Head of Marketing at AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH.