Kureha to produce polymer in West Virginia, USA
Kureha Corp. of Tokyo announced it will invest more than $100 million to build a plant in Belle, W.Va., that will produce and sell the high-performance polymer, polyglycolic acid (PGA).
Construction of the production facility, which will be at the DuPont site, is expected to start in early 2008 with polymer production to begin in early 2010. The first phase of construction will create approximately 50 new jobs and generate more than $100 million in economic impact.
"The establishment of this PGA business is another milestone in Kureha's vision of becoming a specialty products company, radically redefining the way we approach our markets and customers," said Dr. Takao Iwasaki, President and CEO of Kureha Corp. "With the development of this breakthrough technology and the strong intellectual property surrounding our work, PGA will become a centerpiece in the company's strategy of focusing on value-added, highly differentiated products, setting us on a path of strong growth and profitability."
The targeted application for PGA is multi-layer PET bottles for carbonated soft drinks and beer. Because PGA offers a gas barrier 100 times greater than that of PET, it is possible to reduce the amount of PET used in these bottles by more than 20 percent, while maintaining the equivalent barrier against carbon dioxide loss. This bottle redesign has the potential of yielding cost reduction as well as source reduction opportunities in the marketplace.
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