Establishing its first foothold in China, German films producer Klöckner Pentaplast (KP, Montabaur; www.kpfilms.com) in mid-January 2012 broke ground on its first production plant in the People’s Republic.The EUR 22.5m facility is located in Suzhou Industrial Park, about 80 km west of Shanghai, and scheduled for completion in Q1 2013. Production at the 12,000 m² site will focus on packaging films, specifically KP’s proprietary “Pentalabel” transverse-direction oriented shrink-label films, for the growing Chinese market, with an overall nameplate capacity for 6,000 t/y. Aside from the production unit, the site will also include an R&D laboratory, KP said.

Commenting on the group’s first foray into the People’s Republic, KP chief executive Christian Holtmann said, “this new site enables us to continue to support our customers’ growing global demand for high-quality packaging films, especially in the dynamic Chinese market.”

KP employs more than 3,000 workers at its 17 production sites, located in 11 different countries. The group last posted sales of more than EUR 1 bn.