DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY (Dec. 17, 4 p.m. EST) — Another Chinese company is beefing up its wood-plastic processing production and targeting the North American market for exports of eco-friendly profiles made of blends of natural fibers and recycled plastics.
Jiangsu Lianguan Science & Technology Development Co. Ltd. announced at K 2007 in Dusseldorf, that it plans to install 18 extrusion lines totaling up to 17,636 pounds of annual capacity for wood-plastic composite products.
Lianguan itself makes extrusion machinery, recycled-plastics reprocessing equipment and mixer and feeding systems. The processing business is operated through its joint venture subsidiary, Tianye New Construction Profile Co. Ltd. The partner is Shihezi-based Xinjiang Tianye Co. Ltd., which ranks as one of China's top processors and has upstream-integrated PVC resin production.
Tianye New Construction is currently running 28 extrusion lines to make conventional plastic profiles. Annual capacity is 44.1 million pounds.
“We expect to start the new lines by the end of 2008,” deputy Managing Director Zhang Wei said at K 2007, held Oct. 24-31. He said all products will be exported and the primary destination is North America.
Lianguan, based in Zhangjiagang, China, said it has been making wood-plastic products in trial scale since 2001.
Leading the project is chief engineer Wang Dexi, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In a statement, Wang said about 150 companies in China are engaging in wood-plastic composite research and development and production, with an annual output nearing 220 million pounds. Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces house the largest number of such enterprises.
The wood-plastic products are mainly used for outdoor furniture (30 percent), indoor decor (25 percent), pallets (15 percent) and furniture (10 percent). Polyethylene and PVC each represents around 45 percent of the plastic materials used in Chinese-made wood-plastic products, Wang said.
Lianguan supplies one-step and two-step wood-plastic extrusion lines to companies that include Guangdong-based Meixin Manufacturing Co. Ltd., which claims to be the largest producer of polyolefin-based wood-plastic products in China.
The company also touted at K its machinery for making ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene pipes, which are highly resistant to abrasion and corrosion.