AkzoNobel plans extra investment in Chinese factories

AkzoNobel intends to invest an extra 65 million euros (84.1 million U.S. dollars) at its Chinese factories in Boxing and Ningbo, the Dutch paints, coatings and chemicals company said on Tuesday.The new investment will be used to boost the capacity and improve the performance of the surface chemistry manufacturing sites.According to AkzoNobel, half of the money will be spend on the company's facility in Shandong province, which was taken over as part of the acquisition of Boxing Oleochemicals in January 2012. In Ningbo, a new alkoxylation unit will be built, bringing the total investment at the site on 400 million euros.There is increasing demand for our specialty surfactant products across Asia and investing in Shandong province will ensure that we provide a strong local manufacturing operation in order to support our customers as they themselves continue to grow," said Werner Fuhrmann, AkzoNobel's Executive Committee member for specialty chemicals."Ningbo also remains fundamental to our growth ambitions in the region and has a crucial role to play as we continue to expand," Fuhrmann added.AkzoNobel currently employs more than 7,000 people in China, contributing to a total revenue in 2013 of 1.7 billion euros, mostly generated from local demand. (1 euro = 1.29 U.S. dollars)