Dupont invests in surfaces
By Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-03 05:54

GUANGZHOU: Dupont Surfaces (Guangzhou) Co Ltd officially became operational yesterday in Guangzhou Development District.

Wholly-owned by the US-based science giant Dupont, a Fortune Top 500 company, Dupont Surfaces (Guangzhou) Ltd is the giant's first facility supplying solid surfaces in China, and its first investment project in Guangzhou.

Involving an investment of US$24 million, Dupont's Guangzhou facility has five automatic production lines, capable of supplying 800,000 pieces of solid surface products each year for the construction and decoration industries.

"Inauguration of the Guangzhou facility marks a new starting point in Dupont's long-term commitment to China, and to the satisfaction of our customers' demand," said Richard Olson, vice-president and general manager of Dupont Surfaces, a strategic business unit of Dupont that manufactures and markets solid surfaces. "The new facility will boost the growth of our global market share."

The Guangzhou facility will produce a broad range of products, such as the premium trademark "Corian", the medium-grade "Simplicity" trademark, and economical "Montelli" products.

Thomas G. Powell, corporate vice-president of Dupont and president of Dupont Asia Pacific, is fully confident of the Guangzhou facility's business prospects, basing his upbeat analysis on the dynamic economic development of the Pearl River Delta region, and China as a whole.

Powell said that market demand for new types of building materials is being intensified by brisk economic development, improved living conditions and the booming construction industry. He added that the broad range of products offered by Dupont should make this a profitable venture.

A year ago, Dupont Surfaces acquired the assets of Guangzhou Montelli Material Technology Corporation, a local high-tech solid surface company, purchasing the latter's manufacturing assets in the cities of Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province and Xishui in Central China's Hubei Province, as well as all of Montelli's brands.

The acquisition is said to have suited Dupont's strategy to further tap the huge market potential for solid surface products in China.

According to Powell, Dupont has been enjoying healthy business growth in China in the past two decades, and strongly expects this momentum to be maintained.

He said that Dupont expects to more than double its sales in China in the next few years through strategic investment.

Earlier this year, Dupont opened its first Asia Pacific packaging & industrial polymers ethylene copolymer business operation in Shenzhen, another Pearl River Delta city.

Its other investment projects include an integrated fluorochemical manufacturing site in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, and an integrated titanium dioxide manufacturing plant in Dongying, Shandong Province.

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