Swedish compounder Polykemi (Ystad; www.polykemi.se) is opening another plant in China, this time in Chongqing, Sichuan, about 1,600 km away from its facility in Kunshan, Jiangsu. The new 9,300 m² plant will produce compounds from virgin and recycled raw materials from the first quarter of 2022. Polykemi expects to achieve high production volumes in Chongqing, where a sales office has been operating over the past decade.

The Kunshan facility started in 2005 and underwent its third expansion in 2019. Polykemi Compounds and subsidiaries Scanfill and Rondo Plast are now producing plastic compounds in Kunshan, both from virgin raw material and high-quality recycled raw materials (see Plasteurope.com of 26.06.2020).

The Chongqing facility is expected to start right before the production start of a US facility in Q2 2022, currently being built in North Carolina, enabling Polykemi to have a manufacturing footprint in all three continents (see Plasteurope.com of 04.06.2021). “The goal is to be able to offer material concepts of the same quality worldwide,” says Magnus Lindahl, CEO of Polykemi Compounds Kunshan.

With the investments in Chongqing and North Carolina, total capacity is expected to significantly exceed the 120,000 t/y mark. The main plant in Ystad alone has a capacity of about 70,000 t/y, plus about 15,000 t/y to 20,000 t/y of recycled compounds from Rondo Plast. The Kunshan plant had a capacity of just under 20,000 t/y at the last expansion in 2015, and the 2019 expansion added another 5,000 t/y. The two new plants are each expected to receive machines for at least 10,000 t/y, which would bring the total capacity to a good 130,000 t/y.