150,000-ton PLA plant planned for North China

A bioplastics manufacturer in North China has started building a PLA production base that claims planned annual capacity of 150,000 metric tons. More interestingly, the same company announced a same scale project three years ago, only with a different partner.

This time, Hebei Huadan Complete Biodegradable Plastic Co. Ltd. of Shijiangzhuang, Hebei province, is working with Taiwan's Wei Mon Industry Co. Ltd. to invest 400 million yuan (US$ 60 million) on the large-scale facility that will be making PLA packaging materials and consumer products.

Officials from the Hebei province attended the ground-breaking ceremony on Nov. 19.

Back in 2007, Huadan hosted an equally high-profile signing ceremony for a 150,000-ton PLA project at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The amount of investment was the same, the product line was no different, and the site was in same development zone. But the partner was a little-known investment firm - Hong Kong Tianhao Development Ltd.

It's my speculation that the 2007 project may have fallen through at some point. Huadan reported annual capacity of 50,000 tons last year, compared to 6,000 tons in 2006.

The new partner, Wei Mon Industry, is a reputable company that serves as a distributor for NatureWorks in Taiwan.

Huadan's corporate Web site is under development, but the only information there points to its, yet another, "partner" - MJ Group.

In the database of China's Ministry of Land and Resources, I found a recent record of Huadan purchasing the 50-year use rights of a 13-acre industrial-use land at the reported site with 52.5 million yuan ($7.9 million). The contract was signed on Aug. 27, and the construction of the project was expected to start on Feb. 19, 2001 and finish on Feb.19, 2013.

Hopefully, the ambitious project will complete smoothly this time.

Source: http://www.biodegradableplastics.org