Plastics additives and colorants maker Milliken & Co. plans to build a new plant and technical center in Singapore.
The plant is expected to open in early 2021, officials with Spartanburg, S.C.-based Milliken said in an Aug. 27 news release. The new facility "expands Milliken's chemical manufacturing footprint to support increasing demand across Asia, including rapidly growing markets in India and China," they added.
Milliken currently operates an applications lab and technical service and sales office in Singapore. The firm has had operations in Singapore for 20 years.
"Milliken's commitment to our growing markets in Asia is unwavering," Allen Jacoby, additives senior vice president, said in the release. "With this investment, we hope to expand the positive impact innovative chemical manufacturing can contribute to the region and to the world."
The new plant will be able to make several Milliken plastic additives that officials said bring sustainability and production benefits to the global plastics industry. Primarily, the site will make Hyperform-brand nucleating agents for polypropylene and polyethylene resins.
The new facility also will make specialty colorants for a broad range of product applications, including home and laundry care, personal care, industrial and institutional cleaners, and polyurethane foams.
"Localized production capabilities and increased technical expertise will allow us to rapidly customize our solutions to meet the evolving and diverse needs of the Asia market," Zhaolin Zhou, Asia Pacific chemicals vice president, said.
The Singapore announcement continues a busy 2019 for Milliken. In March, the firm announced plans to expand its manufacturing site in Blacksburg, S.C. That expansion — to be completed in 2020 — will boost production capacity for Milliken's Millad NX 8000-brand PP clarifier by about 50 percent.
Officials said in March that the firm moved the timeline for the Blacksburg expansion up two years because of growing global demand for the material.
Also in March, Milliken announced that it was partnering with recycler PureCycle Technologies and food and beverage company Nestlé SA on a project that will use PP clarifiers.
Milliken ranks as one of the world's largest privately held chemicals and textiles makers, with more than 7,000 employees worldwide.