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Borealis to build dedicated automotive compounding plant in North America

Borealis, a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilisers, has decided to build a dedicated automotive polypropylene (PP) compounding plant in Taylorsville, Alexander County, North Carolina.

This decision demonstrates the continuing commitment of Borealis to the global automotive industry. Together with Borouge, a joint venture between Borealis and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), we are increasingly well positioned to serve our automotive customers on a global basis. North Carolina has been selected for its strategic location and proximity to the company’s customer base, as well as for the business-friendly and supporting environment of the State and the County.

The new facility will help to secure the position of Borealis as a local supplier to automotive OEMs and their Tier partners in North America and serves to strengthen our leading position in Europe, Brazil and China. With this investment, Borealis will step up its capacity, capabilities and support infrastructure, ensuring that its customers in North America receive the same high level of service as in the other regions. "We are very excited to be expanding our automotive business in North America and look forward to working more closely with our customers in the region to deliver our global material innovations locally," says Ken Wiecoreck, president of Borealis Compounds Inc.

The North Carolina plant is scheduled to become commercially operational in early 2019 and will initially produce PP compounds in the Daplen™ family of PP thermoplastic olefins (TPO) and in the Fibremod™ range of PP short glass fibre (SGF) reinforced materials. The plant will complement the existing Borealis Automotive Compounding assets located in New Jersey, as well as the current production via tolling partners.

"We are aware that North America is a competitive market with established suppliers, however, we are convinced that our cutting-edge material solutions will continue to help our customers create value through innovation and enable us to grow with them on a global basis," adds Nicholas Kolesch, head of automotive marketing at Borealis.

Borealis and Borouge have established a broad global portfolio of high-end PP TPO and SGF materials capable of solving the automotive industry’s most pressing challenges. Some of the latest innovations include new generation materials for part light-weighting through reduced filler content, chemical and mechanical foaming or metal and engineering plastic replacement.

Furthermore, the companies have recently introduced advanced products for improved surface aesthetics and paintability, pushing the boundaries for the quality perception of polypropylene applications. At the same time, Borealis and Borouge’s material innovations continue to deliver increasingly better mechanical properties and robustness in material processing, helping customers to achieve outstanding part performance and production efficiencies.