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24 Apr 2008  -  China / Switzerland

Alcan Composites opens new Chinese conversion plant

© Alcan Airex AG

On April 18 the new Conversion plant of Alcan Composites Core Materials Shanghai was officially inaugurated with the presence of local officials and the management of Alcan Composites and Alcan Engineered Products, Asia.

The plant is located in the Shanghai Tangzhen Industrial Zone and currently employs 30 employees. It is already operational and is equipped with dedicated lines for the transformation of Airex® and Baltek® core materials. The offering to our customers will include linear and cross-linked PVC foams, copolymer foam, thermoplastic polyethylene (PET), industrial urethane foams (PUR), fibre-reinforced polyurethane and high-performance PEI foams as well as balsa based cored materials. Besides this impressive range of core materials for structural sandwich applications, Alcan Composites Core Materials is now also present with a local sales & technical services organization and enables to maximise growth opportunities in the fast developing Asian Pacific market.

“The new conversion center is a clear manifestation of our global Core Materials growth strategy put into action. As part of a number of initiatives, it will enable to increase our participation in the fast developing Asian Pacific markets.” said Pierre Monéton, President Alcan Composites Core Materials. “This new facility will enable us to offer leading-edge composite core materials and will improve our lead times and services to our customers in the rapidly expanding Chinese and Asia-Pacific wind energy and mass transportation markets,” said Thibault de Kalbermatten, General Manager Alcan Composites Core Materials Shanghai. “With our product range consisting of not only plastic material but also naturally grown balsa, we think that we can contribute to the development of renewable energy in China” he added.

Airex and Baltek core materials are used by fabricators to make innovative lightweight sandwich structures for the wind energy, marine and ground transportation markets. Thanks to their light weight the final products will allow better energy efficiency over their whole life cycle.

Alcan Composites Core Materials is a global organization with over 1’500 employees in production locations in Europe, North America, Ecuador and now China. The branded products have pioneered the sandwich technology for almost 80 years. Alcan Composites Core Materials is a member of the Rio Tinto Group of companies. 

About Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminum, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

Source : Alcan Composites