Domotex Asia/ China Floor 2015

The 17th edition of Domotex Asia/ China Floor was held March 24-26 at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center. With more than 1,275 companies in attendance representing all flooring industries from decking to carpets and turf, this is the largest floor materials show in Asia. The Americhem team joined the more than 30,000 visitors from over 100 countries to learn about the newest trends and technological advances of the flooring industry. Our commercial team enjoyed networking and seeing what the big names in flooring had to display.

Belgian carpet company Beaulieu International Group will invest 13.5M dollars on two plants in Weihai City. They have already began the process of moving their equipment from Belgium to these new China plants. This is just one of many examples that show manufacturing being moved here to China where raw materials and many customers are located.

Shanhua Carpet, which is also located in Weihai City introduced their new line of Tylon products which is an innovative biological based fiber for carpets. These products are made of a new generation of their already eco-friendly fiber Sorona, which is a flexible, renewable fiber used in the carpet industry.

Shanhua also introduced its GY1323 series of carpets that are marine themed. These carpets are made with textures of polygonal cells with shimmering sea and oval patterns like shells on the beach. Paired with a pleasant ocean wall decor, it conveys features of environmental protection and comfort. You can see the trends changing in the industry away from the muted stock colors to more vibrant colors and patterns. There is much less beige living room carpet or self-promoting corporate designs.

The hottest products this year had to be the PE Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) co-extruded products. Sentai, Helong and New Techwood are major players in this market and are bringing the innovation to the forefront of industries such as decking. Right now, their business is going out to Europe, USA and Canada.

There was an educational seminar this year about WPC to introduce its innovation and usefulness to the flooring market. We also learned that Trex plans to enter the China market and will soon introduce their own line of PE WPC co-extruded products.

Domotex Asia/China Floor is always a great event and we are grateful that we were able to attend to see not only our customers, but to see how the industry as a whole is growing.

Contributors:
Frank Li, Commercial Manager, Americhem SUZ
Bruce Zhang, Technical Sales Manager, Americhem Suzhou
Rose Tu, Commercial Manager, Americhem SUZ

Americhem (Suzhou) Company Ltd. Grows Into the Future

2014 was a great year for Americhem in China, and 2015 is poised to be even better. Last year, we added 40,000 square feet of manufacturing space to our Suzhou, China plant, doubling its size. We’re continuing our expansion here in 2015 as our laboratories are being completely remodeled and stocked with upgraded equipment. We’ve also added new lab capabilities in physical and mechanical testing including flame retardancy, izod impact and tensile strength, among others. We expect the lab renovations will be completed by March.

New dryers have  been installed in Americhem's
 newly expanded Suzhou, China plant.

In the manufacturing arena, we’re making similar strides. We’ve added three new state-of-the-art high output extrusion lines. With these additions, our Suzhou plant’s capacity is roughly four times what it was last year. In addition, we’ve expanded our capacity to make specialty black products, including products based on carbon blacks and nigrosine blacks. We’ve also added a new manufacturing platform that will allow us to make products for our new sister company, Infinity LTL Engineered Compounds. We will make Infinity LTL compounds that go into medical applications, electrical and electronics, aerospace and many other industries.

Our raw materials warehouse is fully stocked
 and ready to meet our expanded capacity.

Bringing specialty compounds into our product mix will give the plant an additional distinction – ISO 13485 certification. This is a special medical certification for color and property modification and pelletizing of engineering thermoplastics for medical equipment. We are working to achieve this by the end of the first quarter of 2015. This will put us in the exclusive company of a very few businesses that are certified to both the ISO 9001 and the ISO 13485 standards.

With all the activity and expansion, Americhem is building a world-class organization to bolster our operations in Asia. With local technical support and assistance from our corporate R&D staff, Americhem is a technology leader in the region and a leader in the production of color and additive masterbatches for plastics and synthetic fibers, as well as specialty engineered compounds. What started as a new plant in China in 2006 has grown into a formidable technology leader in support of our customers in these industries.

Stanley Teoh

Vice President and Managing Director – Asia Pacific

Americhem (Suzhou) Company Ltd.