AkzoNobel is expanding its Songjiang research site near Shanghai with a facility devoted to the company’s Performance Coatings businesses. The focus of the center will be on finding innovative solutions aimed at packaging, coil, specialty finishes, and powder coatings markets. The company invested more than €6.5 million in the center and plans to have it finished by June 2015.
With the expanded research center AkzoNobel will increase its capability and capacity to serve the growing Asian demand and fulfill the company’s desire to grow. Currently the Chinese region generates around €1.6 billion revenues for the company. The new facility enables the company to innovate closer to its Chinese customer base and accelerate the development of products adapted specifically to the Asian market.
The Songjiang site near Shanghai was already recently expanded to create one of AkzoNobel’s largtest resin plants for performance coatings in the world. The new facility will double the number of people working in R&D at Songjiang and will be the company’s second largest research base in the world, behind Felling in the UK.
By Annemieke Zuurman
Source: AkzoNobel