New Akzo Nobel factory boosts coatings coverage in Vietnam

09-Dec-2004

Paint has officially started to flow off the production line at Akzo Nobel's new decorative coatings plant in Vietnam, just seven months after construction work began. Run by the Company's Decorative Coatings International (DCI) business, the factory - located in an expanding industrial area outside Ho Chi Minh City - was commissioned after the previous operation outgrew its old facility. Building work began earlier this year on a 40,000 square meter greenfield site at the AMATA Industrial Park in Dong Nai province, with Vietnamese management hoping for a late 2004 start-up date. This swift turn-around time raised a few eyebrows in some quarters, but the deadline was met and a solid foundation for increasing the Company's distribution and market share in Vietnam has been laid. "We are making sustained efforts to not only build the geographical spread of our Coatings business, but we're also committed to establishing a significant presence in strategically important regions across the globe," explained Rudy van der Meer, Member of Akzo Nobel's Board of Management responsible for Coatings. "This new factory, which was constructed extremely quickly and efficiently, will now serve to boost our market share in Vietnam in line with our targets for the business unit's expansion in the Asia Pacific region." Added DCI General Manager Jan Andersson: "Growth was proving impossible at the old site because it was already running at full capacity, but the new facility will provide the perfect springboard for us to expand and launch our full product range which we plan to introduce to the market next year." Akzo Nobel's DCI business has been producing and selling decorative paints in Vietnam since 1992, but it is not the Company's only Coatings operation in the region. In March last year, Akzo Nobel became the first manufacturer of powder coatings in Vietnam when it opened a new factory in Ho Chi Minh City with joint venture partner Chang Cheng Securities.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/41553/new-akzo-nobel-factory-boosts-coatings-coverage-in-vietnam.html