AKZO NOBEL NV 
By October 27, 2011
AkzoNobel is planning to invest around ?60 million to increase the production capacity of its Automotive and Aerospace Coatings business in China. This investment will provide additional momentum for the company's accelerated growth strategy of achieving revenue of $3 billion in China by 2015, and strengthen AkzoNobel's leadership position in the country's automotive refinishes market.
As well as constructing a new production facility in Changzhou, the company will build related warehousing, quality control laboratories, support facilities and offices on the new site. The project will increase capacity by around 25 million liters and the site is projected to be operational in early 2014.
"This investment builds on last year's acquisition of Prime Automotive and is all about meeting rapidly increasing customer demand," explained Leif Darner, AkzoNobel's Executive Committee member responsible for Performance Coatings. "We are also seizing an ideal opportunity to further strengthen our leadership position."
Added Jim Rees, Managing Director of AkzoNobel's Automotive and Aerospace Coatings business: "The automotive and aerospace market in China is forecast to further increase steeply in the coming years and this investment will allow us to capture our share of this growth. Changzhou is the ideal location for this facility as there is a good infrastructure already in place and it is ideally situated in the coatings 'center' of China, with close access to many of our customers."
AkzoNobel currently employs around 6,700 people in China, with revenue for 2010 totaling ?1.3 billion, with a majority of the revenue generated from local demand. The new site in Changzhou will be the company's 29th manufacturing location in China.
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AkzoNobel is the largest global paints and coatings' company and a major producer of specialty chemicals. We supply industries and consumers worldwide with innovative products and are passionate about developing sustainable answers for our customers. Our portfolio includes well known brands such as Dulux, Sikkens, International and Eka. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, we are a Global Fortune 500 company and are consistently ranked as one of the leaders in the area of sustainability. With operations in more than 80 countries, our 55,000 people around the world are committed to excellence and delivering Tomorrow's Answers Today(TM).
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Source: Akzo Nobel NV via Thomson Reuters ONE
