Quaker Chemical Corp. plans to invest $19.8 million to triple production capacity at its Middletown, Ohio, plant and centralize production of its rolling oils, rust preventives, cleaners and hydraulic fluids there.
Construction is scheduled to start within a couple of months, Mark Featherstone, vice president and chief financial officer, old Lube Report; financing is in place. When the expansion is complete late next year, Quaker will transfer all production except metalworking fluids from its older plant in Detroit to Middletown.
The Middletown plant currently employs about 40; that number is expected to double when the expansion is fully implemented. Featherstone declined to identify the plants current or future capacity. Initially, there will be some employment reduction in Detroit, he noted.
Our planned expansion in Middletown is an important investment in our future manufacturing capability and also reduces capital expenditures in our Detroit, Mich., facility, said Chairman and CEO Ronald Naples. The favorable financing we have secured for this project will enhance our returns and cash flows. Once fully implemented in a coupe of years, we expect to improve our cash flow by approximately $3 million per year, due primarily to lower manufacturing costs.
The Middletown facility will become Conshohocken, Pa.-based Quaker Chemicals second largest facility. Its plant near Amsterdam, Netherlands, is its largest, where it manufactures its full product line.