An independent Mexican company has opened a $4.5 million high density polyethylene pipe plant in Mexicali, Mexico — the only such plant in the country for hundreds of miles.
Doing business as Condutec, the company opened a 54,000-square-foot facility that extrudes corrugated pipe ranging from 4-10 inches in diameter and smooth pipe ranging from 0.5-10 inches.
The owner, Manufacturas Globales SA de CV of Irapuato, Mexico, said the plant will supply home builders, cable and tele-communications firms, and local governments in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora, Chihuahua, Baja California and Baja California Sur.
The company also is developing distribution contracts with U.S. dealers in California and Arizona, plant manager Ricardo Fuentes Domínguez said in a recent interview.
“We want to cover the national market first,” he said, referring to Mexico's northwest region.
The nearest similar pipe extruding facility in Mexico is in Monterrey, 1,240 miles to the southeast of Mexicali, Fuentes said.
The Condutec plant employs 25. Its three production lines — which process HDPE resin bought in Texas — will require 15 million pounds of resin per year once they are running at full capacity, Fuentes said. Currently the lines are running at 60 percent capacity.
“We plan to put in another three lines to produce products with larger diameters. We can go up to 42 inches in diameter,” he said.
Fuentes said Manufacturas Globales purchased the Condutec plant's new, fully computerized machinery in China.
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