Global custom blow molder Alpla Werk Technik may build a second bottle-manufacturing plant in Russia.
``The [final] decision about establishing a new plant in Russia has not been made yet. Our investigations about the conditions are still in progress,'' a spokeswoman for the Hard-based company said.
Alpla expects to announce more detailed plans at the end of 2004. A Russian news report said Alpla plans to build a $15 million plant in Tosno, Russia, by the beginning of 2005.
Alpla, which has other plants across Europe, Asia and North and South America, already runs an extrusion blow molding and cap/preform injection molding plant in Dzerzhinsky, Russia. That site opened in 2000.
The Austrian molder is well-represented in Eastern Europe, with a stretch and extrusion blow molding and preform plant in Tatabanya, Hungary; an extrusion blow molding and PET bottle plant in Bystrice, the Czech Republic; and blow molding plants in Ostrow and Zywiec, Poland.