Medical equipment and supplies manufacturer Henan Piaoan Group Co. Ltd. has sealed an agreement to purchase patented polylactic acid production technology, engineering and equipment from Japan's Hitachi Plant Technologies Ltd.

The project in Changyuan, Henan province, is expected to go on stream in March 2011, with an initial annual capacity of 10,000 metric tons (22 million pounds), according to a press release issued by Hitachi. Piaoan plans to expand the capacity to 150,000 metric tons (331 million pounds) "in the future," with a total investment of 1.83 billion yuan (US$267 million).

Piaoan plans to make medical supplies out of PLA biopolymer and become the first "high-quality, industrialized PLA production base in China," the release said.

Hitachi Plant Technologies developed PLA manufacturing technology in 2004. The company claims its patented technology produces pure, colorless and easy-to-process PLA materials.

Privately-owned Piaoan reported 1.2 billion yuan (US$176 million) in 2007 annual sales. The company didn't comment on the new project. Its corporate Web site, however, said the company invested 300 million yuan (US$44 million) to build 10,000 metric tons of PLA capacity with equipment imported from Switzerland.