WILMINGTON, DEL. - DuPont Co. opened a compounding plant March 22 in Shenzhen, China, to produce Delrin acetal resin. The $10 million plant can produce as much as 22 million pounds per year. The plant, as well as DuPont's corporate facility and warehouses, are Che Gong Miao industrial district in Shenzhen - a strategic location.
The Pearl River Delta region is responsible for more than half of China's total acetal consumption, and demand is growing, said Thomas Connelly, director of DuPont Delrin resins worldwide.
The Shenzhen plant will import neat resins from DuPont plants in Europe and the United States. DuPont plans to construct a plant in Shanghai in the next couple of years to produce the neat acetal resin, said spokesman Jerry Quinn. Additional investments in engineering polymer manufacturing facilities in China are being explored, he said.
DuPont added capacity for 18 million pounds for Delrin in Parkersburg, W.Va., in 1995. By the end of 1996, an expansion under way at Dordrecht, the Netherlands, will add another 64.2 million pounds.
Delrin is used in the production of zippers, fasteners and buckles, and in automotive, appliance, electrical, hardware and sporting goods products.