Royal Group Inc. has opened a PVC pipe factory — its seventh pipe plant in North America — as officials anticipate growing demand.
The plant, located at Royal's headquarters campus in Woodbridge, Ontario, makes pipe up to 24 inches in diameter for municipal water and sewer, and industrial applications. Production began in May, said Paul Czachor, general manager of Royal Pipe Systems.
“We certainly want to address the needs of our Canadian and U.S. customers for medium- and large-diameter pipe,” Czachor said in a July 29 phone interview. “We also see PVC pipe growing faster than competitive, non-plastic pipe. Customers are growing and PVC usage is growing.”
Royal set up the 250,000-square-foot pipe plant in one of its buildings, Czachor said. He said Royal bought new extruders, but declined to give details about the number of machines or how many people work at the plant.
Royal, a subsidiary of Georgia Gulf Corp., is not releasing the dollar amount of the investment. But Czachor said the building products company has “significantly increased our capital investments over the last year.”
The company's products include siding, decking, fencing and railing, trim and moldings, pipe and fittings, and window and door profiles.
Royal is No. 2 on Plastics News' recent ranking of North American pipe, profile and tubing extruders, with estimated sales of $730 million. The largest firm on the ranking is pipe maker JM Eagle, with $1.6 billion in estimated sales.