Chemicals giant Solvay (Brussels/ Belgium; www.solvay.com) says it has finished work on a 27,000 ft² (2,508 m²) thermoplastics composites manufacturing facility in Greenville, South Carolina / USA, where it has situated a line to manufacture unidirectional composite tape from high performance polymers such as PVDF, PPS and PEEK. At full production capacity, the line is expected to add more than 30 jobs.

The project, valued at USD 39m (EUR 33m), is said to represent Solvay’s efforts to industrialise its composites capacity to meet growing demand from energy companies, which in turn is supported by increasing aerospace and automotive demand.

The Greenville facility is part of a series of recent strategic investments in line with the group’s commitment to build the infrastructure required for the growing composites market, Solvay said. The company expanded capacity for composite tape at a US site in Anaheim, California (see Plasteurope.com of 04.10.2019) in 2019, the same year it added new product development centres in the US state of Georgia and in Belgium.