Blue Diamond investing $18M in expansion to South Carolina

Pipe extruder Blue Diamond Industries has announced the location of its first East Coast plant: Clinton, S.C. The company had said in November it was planning a plant in the Southeast.

The 190,000-square-foot leased facility represents an $18 million investment. The plant is expected to create 90 jobs eventually, starting with 30-45 when it opens in July, Sales and Marketing Manager Jaime Shouldis said Feb. 9 in a phone interview.

BDI already employs 215 workers and operates 21 extrusion lines at its plants, in Aubrey, Texas, and Middlesboro, Ky. There are 16 additional employees at its headquarters in Lexington, Ky. BDI's parent, Hexatronic Group AB of Gothenburg, Sweden, also has its U.S. headquarters in Lexington.

The Clinton plant will produce high density polyethylene conduit materials, including microducts. BDI's products protect cables for optical fiber, data and power collection from wind and solar energy and for highway and street lighting.

BDI was founded in 2004 and acquired by Hexatronic in 2018. Hexatronic, a public company, consists of more than 25 international companies employing more than 1,000. The parent provided an estimated 2021 sales figure for BDI of $106 million, which will probably place it among the top 50 pipe, profile and tube manufacturers in North America in Plastics News' ranking.

Shouldis said the expansion reflects the confidence Blue Diamond and Hexatronic have in the booming fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) market in the United States, as well as the potential offered by anticipated federal infrastructure upgrades.

BDI CEO Will Jensen said the new plant is needed to meet demand from "the rapidly transforming and growing U.S. network infrastructure."

"Our investment … will provide us a platform where we can grow and, through additional investments, ensure the scalability of our HDPE protection conduit and the U.S. expansion of Hexatronic's FTTH network solutions," Jensen said in a news release.