Sekisui (Tokyo; www.sekisuichemical.com) has announced the opening of its plant for plastic railway sleepers in Roermond, the Netherlands.

The company said the site has an annual capacity of 100,000 units for sleepers made of glass-fibre reinforced polyurethane casting resins – fibre-reinforced foamed urethane, or FFU – on a production area of 4,400 m². 

Construction of the plant near the German border began about two years ago. Sekisui plans to not only almost double the group-wide capacity for FFU sleepers with the new plant, but also significantly shorten delivery times to European markets. Until now, the company had only manufactured the sleepers in Japan. 

According to Sekisui, FFU sleepers combine high strength and durability with the flexibility of their timber counterparts. They are manufactured in lengths of up to 8 m and are used primarily in areas subject to high loads, such as switches and bridges. So far, they have been sold in 31 countries worldwide. 

In Europe, FFU sleepers were installed for the first time in 2004 by Austria’s Wiener Linien on the Vienna River Bridge. Other major European cities followed suit during construction works on their road, city, and underground railway lines – including Hamburg and London, for example. FFU sleepers have also been used at the Chempark Leverkusen in Germany.

“Europe has become an important market and we expect demand to increase, especially from the major railway companies in Germany and the UK”, noted Koji Yamaguchi, managing director of Sekisui Chemical’s German subsidiary.