German PVC profiles manufacturer Aluplast GmbH (D-76275 Ettlingen; www.aluplast.de) intends to breach the 100,000 t/y threshold for PVC for window and door profiles this year. As a result, the company expects to consolidate its position as number five among European extruders of plastic systems for windows and doors. The amount of PVC processed will yield around 7m window units. Aluplast, which employs 1,000 – including 600 in Germany – achieved sales of EUR 225m in 2003. This represents a doubling of sales in three years. The trend is continuing: In the first two months of 2004, sales rose by more than 30% against the comparable period of 2003.

To prevent capacity bottlenecks, the family-run company this year will invest some EUR 20m in production facilities, half of it at the home base in Karlsruhe, Germany, where the number of machines is to be doubled to 24 by mid-year. By the end of 2004, a total of 125 extrusion lines is planned to be in operation at seven European sites. To meet mounting demand for decorative profiles, five additional laminating machines for profiles were to be purchased during the first quarter of this year. Altogether, Aluplast currently operates 17 such machines. By summer of this year, the company also intends to build a three-storey administration building, and there are also plans to build a new PVC mixing facility with a capacity of 50,000 t/y.