Polartech Group has completed a $20 million, 25,000 square meter metalworking fluids and additives manufacturing facility in Suzhou Industrial Park, in Suzhou, China. The company said its initial capacity will be 10,000 metric tons of additives per year, expandable to 30,000 tons.
The facility will be manufacturing finished metalworking fluids, metalworking fluid packages, and additives – including corrosion inhibitors, emulsifiers and lubricity/extreme pressure additives, all designed specifically for use in metalworking fluid formulations, Polartech spokesman Peter Richards told Lube Report. We will also be able to offer toll manufacturing for customers wishing to gain a local manufacture base within the expanding Chinese marketplace.
Richards said construction took just over two years to complete at the Suzhou site, which proved an ideal location, just an hours drive from Shanghai.
A well developed transport infrastructure, including ports and airports, and a large local customer/supplier base are two of the many benefits to being located in this area, he added. Suzhou Industrial Park also has the advantages of being a very modern and well developed area with excellent local facilities, a well educated workforce and also enough available space to allow Polartech to buy a plot of land that would allow for significant future expansion.
On June 19, the company celebrated the completion of the project. We have been trading in the Asia Pacific region for over 20 years, and this market is of great importance to us, Polartech Group Chief Executive Officer Hugh Dowding said during a press conference at the ceremony. We have already achieved tremendous success in this region, particularly in China, and the completion of this project will allow us to be a powerful partner to local lubricant manufacturers who supply, or wish to supply, into the metalworking fluid marketplace.
Roman Mikolajewic, operations manager for Manchester, United Kingdom-based Polartech Group, said the Suzhou projects technology is state of the art, with a piggable transfer infrastructure that pushes the boundaries of waste minimization to new levels.