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.

The Importance of Giving and Community Service

Americhem has been dedicated since its inception to being a good corporate citizen. Our founders believed in the caring for the community and giving to worthwhile causes, and that tradition has been carried down through several generations of Americhem employees over the 73 years we’ve been in business.

Our belief in altruism helps improve the quality of life for the residents of the communities that we do business in. According to Truist, a web-based corporate philanthropy platform, “By getting involved in causes that directly impact members of the local community…the company can actually improve the quality of life of those who make up the bulk of their consumer base and their workforce, both current and future. (Source)

At Americhem, we take this philosophy to heart. Some of our community service and giving programs include:

· Our Mansfield, Texas plant, which adopts a needy family every year around Christmas. Funds raised by the plant have gone to help pay a portion of the family’s mortgage, purchase the family’s childrens clothing and Christmas gifts, food, and other funds for the adults to use as they see fit.

· Our Concord, North Carolina plant raises money every year for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, participating in the annual Walk for the Cure and other fundraisers. The goal is always to exceed the previous year’s giving.

· Our Suzhou, China plant has helped raise money for recent earthquake victims as well as supporting a variety of orphanages including Suzhou City, Xiangcheng, and Wuzhong District.

· Our Dalton, Georgia plant participates in a number of charitable events throughout the course of the year, including Feed-A-Family, food drives, blood drives, and blanket drives for homeless citizens. They even received the employee participation award for having the highest percentage of employees participating in planned giving to the United Way.

· Our Manchester, England facility has conducted a number of fundraising campaigns to benefit Springwood Primary School in Manchester. The school provides special education for students 2- to 11-years-old that have profound, complex and challenging needs.

· Our Liberty, North Carolina plant participates annually in the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program, and the plant holds nonperishable food drives at Christmastime.

· Our two facilities in our headquarters town of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio have raised money and gifts for a wide variety of projects, including a current holiday toy drive to benefit Summit County Children’s Services, book drives for needy students, and an annual fundraising event to benefit Akron Children’s Hospital.

And for the second year in a row, Americhem is donating the money it would have spent on holiday cards and postage to a worthy charity. This year, it’s Heifer International, a global organization committed to ending world hunger and poverty.

Even more compellingly, our plants always take care of fellow employees in need, whether victims of house fires, natural disasters, cancer or other severe illnesses. It’s always refreshing to see the outpouring of support when a co-worker needs it the most.

So beyond making our communities better places to live, Americhem people believe in helping others in our workplace, communities, and the world. We are true believers in the words of American clergyman and social reformer Henry Ward Beecher, who once said, “In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give, that makes us rich.”