Klöckner Pentaplast invests in capacity in Asia, Americas, Europe

06-Sep-13

The Klöckner Pentaplast Group has added to its global production capacity in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The company is investing €45.6 mln as part of its 2013 and 2014 expansion plans, which include facilities in Cotia,Brazil; Suzhou, China; Newport/Crumlin, Great Britain; and Santo Tirso, Portugal. Klöckner Pentaplast is the only rigid film solutions producer with manufacturing sites located on four continents – Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. KP will add to its UK and European production capacity for polyester films. Primarily used for food and consumer packaging applications, the new capacity will be located at the company’s Newport/Crumlin, Great Britain, manufacturing facility. The start-up of the state-of-the-art extrusion line is targeted for July 2014 and will add 15 employees. The €6 mln investment will add 8,000 metric tons of capacity. KP opened its first Chinese production site in the Suzhou Industrial Park (Suzhou, China) in July 2013. The site is producing packaging films for the growing domestic Chinese and Asian markets. The first phase of operations has focused on transverse-direction oriented shrink-label films and houses state-of-the-art production equipment, high-tech production control systems, and an extensive laboratory. The site has increased Klöckner Pentaplast’s global shrink-films capacity by 6,600 metric tons to meet double-digit shrink-sleeve growth in Asia. The €22.5 Mio investment employs 76 people. In Spring 2013, KP added 8,000 metric tons of polyester film capacity to the company’s Santo Tirso, Portugal, manufacturing facility. The €5.5 mln nvestment supports KP’s growing European food and consumer packaging films markets. The expansion added 25 employees.