Axion International Holdings Inc. is converting extrusion equipment at its recently acquired Zanesville, Ohio, facility — formerly Y City Recycling — to produce recycled plastic industrial building components such as rail ties and industrial mats.
The Zanesville-based company bought the assets of Y City, which was supplying it recycled plastic, in November as part of a plan to better control raw material quality and diversify its product mix by selling the excess to third parties.
Axion officials said they needed to immediately convert extrusion equipment used for reprocessing plastic waste to produce its Ecotrax rail ties and Struxure construction mats.
On Aug. 11, the company said it had received three purchase orders totaling $471,000 for composite rail ties from major Australian rail networks. The orders followed successful in-track testing, according to Cory Burdick, global manager of the Ecotrax rail division.
“We have taken considerable time and focus to develop the market and we anticipate many forthcoming purchase orders,” Burdick said in a news release.
The Zanesville factory realignment will involve modifications and upgrades to the equipment and the addition of mat fabrication capabilities. Axion sells construction mats for oil and gas drilling, access roads and work platforms in difficult terrain.
Axion says the Zanesville plant will continue to sort, grind and wash post-consumer and post-industrial plastic, including high density polyethylene, polypropylene, PVC and polystyrene, but the output will be used primarily for its products.
Axion also operates a reprocessing plant in Waco, Texas. Last year it moved its company headquarters from New Jersey to Zanesville.
For the first quarter of 2014, Axion reported sales of $4.9 million in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which also said subsequent filings would be delayed while accountants and auditors determine how to record the assets of Y City Recycling.
Axion trades as AXIH on the OTCQB, which the middle tier of three marketplaces for over-the-counter penny stocks, shell companies and small foreign issuers. The company reported sales of $6.6 million in 2013, which was up 24 percent over 2012, with shipments to 58 paying customers, including 40 new to the company.
