West plans second plastics molding facility in China

The new plant will be adjacent to West's injection molding facility in the Shanghai Qingpu Industrial Zone (SQIZ) that was dedicated in September 2009. When completed, the plant will be used to compression mold parts used for pharmaceutical packaging, supplying customers primarily in China and the Asia-Pacific region. The 11,900-square-meter facility is expected to begin production in January 2013. West makes use of compression and/or injection molding at many of its facilities.

Donald Morel Jr., West's chairman and CEO, commented, "West is experiencing an exciting period of growth in the Asia-Pacific region and we are proud to begin our second manufacturing facility in China." He added that the new site will offer West "new, flexible capacity" to meet demand from new customers in the region, and also helps the company keep lead times for delivery short.

In addition to the injection molding plant in Qingpu, West's presence in the Asia-Pacific region includes a factory in Singapore and sales offices in Australia, China, India and Singapore. West is also an equity partner of Daikyo Seiko Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), which processes pharmaceutical packaging and medical device components. The West/Daikyo relationship has been in place since 1973.