New SIMONA plants in China and Czech Republic

Green light for construction work on new facilities in Jiangmen and Litvinov – International expansion contributes to improved supply structures

SIMONA AG, Kirn, continues to pursue its strategy of international expansion, having given the go-ahead for two new production facilities abroad. Jiangmen, in the south of China, has been chosen as the location of a state-of-the-art production plant for semi-finished plastics; construction work on this new facility is to be carried out in several stages. In addition, SIMONA will modernise and expand an existing site in Litvinov, at the foot of the Ore Mountain range, transforming it into the very first multifunctional plant ever operated by the company. Production in China and the Czech Republic is to commence over the course of 2008. The rationale behind both projects is to improve SIMONA's supply structures within the Asian and Eastern European markets.

"The new production facilities in China and the Czech Republic are to be seen as important milestones for SIMONA. In choosing this route, we have taken another giant step forward towards our goal of establishing SIMONA as a global player within the area of semi-finished plastics and piping systems. The new sites form an integral part of our international logistics concept and will significantly improve our delivery capabilities within the Asian and European markets. Local production will provide a number of tangible advantages for our customers. Above all, it will allow us to improve our flexibility and respond faster to market changes. Our decision to invest in the two new facilities will not be to the detriment of our existing German plants. The latter will continue to receive targeted investments, with the aim of further enhancing local process technology and production capacity," said Wolfgang Moyses, CEO of SIMONA.

The first construction phase at the Jiangmen site, which spans an area in excess of 40,000 square metres, will be centred around a building to accommodate extrusion lines for the production of polyolefin sheets. Subsequent phases will focus on the expansion of production facilities to include PVC products. The start of production has been scheduled for the third quarter of 2008.

The Litvinov site purchased by SIMONA is to be redesigned as the company's very first multifunctional production facility. Once work on the extension has been completed, the plant will be able to produce both extruded plastic sheets and pipes, alongside pipe fittings manufactured at the on-site plastics workshop. Here, too, extruder operations are likely to commence in the third quarter of 2008. The plastics workshop has already started production in the part of the building that was ready for immediate use. Over the next three years, up to 70 members.