Scientex Packaging Film Sdn Bhd is spending $43 million to open a stretch film manufacturing plant in Lancaster County, S.C.
The facility will be the company's second U.S. stretch film plant. Scientex Berhad, the film maker's Selangor, Malaysia-based parent company, has said that U.S. manufacturing will enable the company to be more competitive globally.
The Lancaster plant is scheduled to open in 2021, and will employ 69. The facility will be about 40 miles south of Charlotte, N.C.
"Lancaster County provides an ideal location for Scientex to manufacture products for our customers in the eastern half of the United States," Scientex Senior General Manager Goh Tian Chin said in a news release.
Scientex opened a plant in Phoenix in January 2018. That plant achieved throughput of 99 million pounds of cast film in its first year, according to Scientex Berhad's annual report.
The report noted that trade tensions between the U.S. and China have made resin prices more volatile. That, and plentiful U.S. polyethylene from shale gas, have helped prompt the firm to start making film in the United States.
The Phoenix plant "is expected to see its stretch film sales increase in the coming years as ample supply of resins from the U.S.-based shale gas producers would enable the group to source for its raw materials more competitively," the company said in the 2019 annual report.
"Through its direct presence in the U.S. market, the group would be able to compete to open up more market share in the U.S. domestic market in the coming years as part of its long-term strategy to be closer to its international markets."
The company added that it is on the lookout for potential acquisition targets.
Scientex Packaging Film also operates what it calls the world's largest stretch film plant in Port Klang, Malaysia.