Shanghai Pret Composites announces North American TPO expansion of 20000 tons

21-Sep-15

Shanghai Pret Composites, which acquired WPR Holdings LLC (Wellman Plastics Recycling) of Johnsonville, S.C. earlier this year, announced that the new name of its US operating unit will be Wellman Advanced Materials and that it will benefit from a capacity expansion of 20,000 tons. The new capacity expansion of 44-million pounds/20,000 tonnes at the Johnsonville site in order to offer Pret's highly regarded TPO, long-glass (reinforced) polypropylene (LGPP), and other engineered polypropylene (PP) compounds to automakers and tier suppliers in North America. The first compounding extruder will be installed by the end of 2015 with a second to be installed in early 2016. Wellman also plans to expand its product development and application testing services at its R&D facility in Johnsonville with testing equipment with more in-house mechanical testing, material characterization, and color-matching resources. Moldfilling and structural analysis support will also be offered for its North American customers. “The name change is to signify that Wellman Advanced Materials' product portfolio in North America has been expanded to include TPOs [thermoplastic polyolefins] and various engineered polypropylene compounds in addition to Wellman’s traditional nylon products,” explained Xy Sun, chief-executive officer, Wellman Advanced Materials.