Rogers, Minn.-based CDC Enterprises Inc. is investing an undisclosed sum to renovate a 110,000-square-foot former steel plant in Omaha, Neb., where the company will relocate and expand its plastics manufacturing operations.
The new Omaha plant is being funded partly through federal stimulus money.
CDC provides extruded, injection molded and rotational molded polyethylene products to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning markets.
The company has developed a fire-retardant, above-ground PE air-duct system, and is foaming PE pipe and rotomolding fittings for underground, large-diameter systems.
CDC currently manufactures out of subleased space in Riverton, Minn. All of that capacity will be transferred to Omaha.
The new plant eventually will employ about 200. It will allow the company to bring rotomolding capacity in-house and will open up the large commercial and industrial HVAC markets to CDC, which plans to launch larger-diameter products in the new facility.
CDC currently makes products as large as 20 inches in diameter, but plans to produce 60-inch products at the new site.
“We've already done the development and engineering on all of the parts,” President Jon Jungers said in a telephone interview. “We just needed the financing.”
The benefits PE provides to the HVAC industry are similar to what is found in the natural gas and potable water markets, Jungers said.
“We're absolutely air- and water-tight,” he said. “That is something that eluded the industry up until now.”
A leak-free system could give CDC an edge in developing market share in the underground air-delivery market, said Mike Murphy, editor-in-chief of Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News, in a July 23 telephone interview.
Industry and environmental officials estimate that about 15-30 percent of air is lost during transfer in virtually every HVAC system in the United States, he said.
Jungers said he is optimistic about the market potential for CDC's products. “We're still a small company just trying to emerge,” he said. “But we're positioned to do great things.”
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