Linpac Packaging has opened its first plant in China, to make PVC stretch film for food packaging in Changzhou.
The facility opened this month with two extrusion lines for large-scale production of PVC stretch wrap for food manufacturers, suppliers and retailers, Linpac Group of Birmingham, England, said in a June 18 news release. The plant will employ 60.
The Changzhou plant is the first in Asia for Linpac Packaging, but Linpac's Viscount unit makes plastic pails and containers in China, Malaysia and Thailand.
The company said the PVC film market in China is growing 15-20 percent a year. It previously had shipped from Europe to its Asia-Pacific markets, but rapid development of packaging in the region prompted the investment.
About 60 percent of the Changzhou production is for mainland China, with the remainder exported to Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia and Japan.
The packaging division said it constructed the PVC film plant on a 215,000-square-foot site, with room to expand to 538,000 square feet. The company sent two teams of Chinese employees to its stretch film plant in Pontiv, France, for training, ahead of the opening.
Parent Linpac Group employs 9,000 at more than 90 factories around the world.