Infineum signed a letter of intent in late April with Zhangjiagang Industrial Park in Chinas Jiangsu Province, about 160 km northwest of Shanghai. We foresee that our manufacturing planned at Zhangjiagang will become one of our largest worldwide operations over the coming decade or so, said Trevor Russell, Infineums vice president of sales and marketing and chief strategy officer.

Chris Locke, China venture manager for the Milton Hill, U.K.-based additive manufacturer, noted that the company assessed numerous potential locations across China before selecting Zhangjiagang. The first phase of the investment will be focused on blending capability, allowing Infineum to meet the needs of local customers, said Locke, with future component plant investments foreseen, aligned with market growth.

Fu Limin, a Shanghai-based executive with over 20 years of experience in the international chemicals industry, has joined Infineum as managing director, China, and manager for the project.

Infineum currently operates an additive manufacturing facility on Jurong Island, Singapore, which has both component and blending capacity. It is also the site of the companys new salicylates facility, now under construction and scheduled for start-up at the end of 2013. Infineum believes that the combination of Singapore and Zhangjiagang will provide us with a very strong manufacturing and supply footprint for Asia, the company said.

Infineum is not alone in making significant investments in Asian additives markets. Afton Chemical is currently manufacturing lubricant additives in India, Singapore and China. Chevron Oronite has an additive manufacturing plant in Singapore plus an affiliated blending plant in Japan and an affiliated manufacturing operation in India. Lubrizol has blending facilities in Australia, Japan and Singapore; joint venture manufacturing facilities in India and Lanzhou, China, and jv blending in Tianjin, China; plus a wholly-owned additive manufacturing plant under construction in Zhuhai, China.