SHANGHAI – Henkel inaugurated the world’s largest adhesives factory in Shanghai on Sept. 18, 2013. With this new production facility, the company is expanding its production capacity in a major emerging market and will deliver its innovative adhesive technologies more quickly to the growing number of customers based in China and the Asia-Pacific region.
The new factory, which is also known as the “Dragon Plant” at Henkel, comprises 150,000 square meters of space and is now the central production site for industrial adhesives in China and the Asia-Pacific region. Customers being served by the new adhesives plant include enterprises in the automotive industry and various consumer goods sectors. Annual output is forecast to reach up to 428,000 metric tons of adhesives.
“This new adhesives factory will contribute significantly to the achievement of our strategy 2016: It will enable our adhesives business to expand and leverage its global reach, and win market share in emerging markets,” said Kasper Rorsted, chairman of the management board of the Henkel Group.
Henkel is already generating 45 percent of its total sales in emerging markets and 55 percent of its employees are based in these countries. One of Henkel’s financial targets for the year 2016 is to increase the sales generated in emerging markets to 10 billion euros while aiming for total sales of 20 billion euros.
Henkel will be concentrating its existing adhesives production operations in the greater Shanghai region at the new site in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park and thus significantly expanding its capacities for current and future technologies. This move is part of the company’s ongoing program to consolidate and optimize its global production network.
Henkel has invested more than 50 million euros in the plant and will employ about 600 people there. With this factory, Henkel – the world’s largest adhesives manufacturer – is responding to the rising demand for industrial adhesive technologies in China and the entire Asia-Pacific region.
The “Dragon Plant” is a model for sustainability and efficiency, according to Henkel. Compared to a traditional production plant, it uses only half the amount of water thanks to condensed water recovery systems, while recycling has reduced the volume of packaging materials by 60 percent, and electricity usage for factory lighting has been cut by 90 percent due to special translucent roofs which let the daylight in. There also is a system for recovering waste heat, and the factory includes innovative filling equipment designed to prevent leaks and spills of adhesives.
Henkel opened its first production facility in China in 1990, just two years after entering the market. From that first factory Henkel served industrial customers who had begun at this early stage to establish their own manufacturing operations in China. Since then, Henkel has continued to produce adhesives in this East Asian country with constantly rising sales.
