Plastic Film Manufacturing Takes Leading Role in U.S. Plastics Capital Spending

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Plastic film investment in the U.S. is on the rise. Industrial Info is tracking 23 active plastic film-manufacturing projects worth more than $649 million. Four states in particular are seeing a significant jump in spending: Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky and Alabama.

Georgia has the highest single investment with a $100 million grassroot facility for transparent-barrier film manufacturing. Toppan Printing Company America Incorporated (New York, New York) is constructing its first transparent-barrier film plant outside of Japan in Griffin. The 127,000-square-foot building will produce film for food, medical and electronic products, and will allow the company to supply packaging manufacturers in North America and Europe. Kajima Building and Design Group Incorporated (Atlanta, Georgia) is performing construction services, with completion set for March 2016.

The second state with the second-highest investment is Indiana, with a grassroot, three-phase construction project from Monosol LLC (Merrillville, Indiana), a manufacturer of polyvinyl film. The 300,000-square-foot "Duneland" building will be the Monosol's second manufacturing factory in the city of Portage, and the company's third in the state. The Ross Group (Portage) is performing construction for the first phase of the 85,000-square-foot building, with a $35 million cost and completion scheduled for first-quarter 2016. Subsequent phases are estimated at $30 million each, bringing the total investment to $95 million. The plant is expected to be fully operational by 2020.

Kentucky is in third place with Uflex Limited's (Noida, Uttar Pradesh) planned expansion of its new, bi-axially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) film-manufacturing plant in Elizabethtown. Construction of the 180,000-square-foot expansion is not expected to begin before late 2015. It has a total estimated investment value of $90 million.

In Alabama, Polyplex Americas Incorporated plans to expand production at its new, grassroot thin-film polyester (PET) film-manufacturing plant and headquarters in Decatur. The company will add a second PET production line as part of the $75 million investment. Construction is expected to begin before the end of 2015.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.