Meeting rising demand for its product portfolio in the US, Germany’s Kraiburg TPE (Waldkraiburg; www.kraiburg-tpe.com) on 19 November held a ground-breaking ceremony for a new production and administration complex, located in Buford, Georgia / USA. The company is investing USD 15m in the 6,400 m² facility, located just 30 km north of its current US headquarters in Duluth.

Once the works are completed in 2016, production capacity will rise by 4,000 t/y to 10,000 t/y. The US workforce will also increase to a total of 75, and Kraiburg said it plans to create 20 more jobs in the next five years. The new site itself also offers room for additional expansion, with the potential of housing another five production lines.

Kraiburg TPE specialises in the production of thermoplastic elastomers based on hydrogenated styrene block copolymers (HSBC). Aside from the US and Germany, the company also has production sites in Malaysia as well as sales offices in France, Italy, Poland, Spain, China, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Mexico, and is represented by a network of distributors in many other countries.