M.A. Hanna Company (200 Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio 44114-2304, USA), an international specialty chemicals company, and Suzhou Plastic Factory No 1 (SPF1) announced an agreement to establish a plastics compounding joint venture in Suzhou, Jiangsu province of China. The joint venture will be called Hanna Suxing Plastics Compounding (Suzhou) Company Ltd. SPF1, a state-owned entity, is a leading independent compounder in China. Its primary product lines are polypropylene, nylon and ABS compounds for automotive and appliance markets. SPF1 is a certified supplier to Shanghai Volkswagen and other Chinese auto manufacturers.

"The joint venture establishes a strong Asian position in polypropylene and nylon compounding," stated Martin D. Walker, chairman and CEO of M.A. Hanna. "Hanna will be the majority partner in the venture with 70% of the equity. We will aggressively transfer our plastics compounding technology and know-how to serve the high growth Chinese market."

SPF1 has annual sales of over $ 10m, 40% from compounding which will become part of the joint venture. Housed in a new facility in Suzhou with 13m pounds of initial capacity, the joint venture will be operated by 65 associates including management transferred from the SPF1 compounding operation. Start-up is scheduled for December 1996. Suzhou is located 60 miles west of Shanghai in the rapidly industrializing Yangtze River Delta where the major Chinese plastics compounding market exists.

The joint venture will have exclusive rights to the existing Suxing brand in addition to manufacturing and selling plastic compounds under the M.A. Hanna tradenames of "Bergamid" nylon 6 and 6/6 compounds, "Texapol" engineering plastic materials, "Monmouth" flame retardant plastics and "Maxxam" engineered plastic compounds.