Ashland Inc. has opened a new gelcoats production facility in Changzhou, Jiangsu province.
The $60 million facility, which is said to be Ashland's most advanced gelcoats plant in the world, serves customers in marine, sanitary ware, transportation, wind energy and industrial markets in China and the broader Asia Pacific region.
In addition to gelcoats — specialty resins that help to improve the appearance of fiberglass products and to protect structural layered materials from corrosion, the new facility will also produce adhesives, fire retardant resins and low-profile additives for industrial products.
With an initial annual capacity of 10,000 tons of gelcoats and 2,000 tons of adhesives products, the facility is designed for further expansion to meet increasing market demand across Asia, the company said in a news release.
The new plant currently employs 30.
Also in Changhzou, Ashland has been operating an unsaturated polyester resins and epoxy vinyl ester resins production facility for more than 10 years.