LIVE FROM INFORMEX: Asymchem invests US$20m in new plant in China
Facility will allow for new commercial projects to get started, as well as allowing for more efficient housing of large scale projects
Contract manufacturer Asymchem Laboratories has brought on stream a new large scale manufacturing facility located in Dunhua, China. The new facility, located in the Jilin province, will operate under the name Jilin Asymchem Laboratories Co. Ltd.
It was built to meet an annual demand for commercial projects in excess of 5 million tonnes and will serve to expand Asymchem's capabilities in high volume processing and back-end ingredient and intermediate production.
Asymchem has invested approximately US$20m in the construction of the Dunhua facility between 2009 and 2011. A further $12m investment is planned at the 35 acre site between over the next two years in preparation for additional downstream commercial projects.
The new facility will be able to accommodate high volume processes as a standalone service, as well as back-end integration for starting materials or intermediates that will then be further processed in the existing Tianjin and Fuxin Asymchem facilities.
Phase 1 completion of the Dunhua manufacturing facility included the addition of 5,000-20,000L vessels for the limited cGMP manufacture of raw materials to intermediates. The completion of Phase 2 in July 2012 will see the installation of a second module that will allow for a total capacity of 532m3. The facility will be completed by a Phase 3 construction, scheduled for October 2012, which will increase capability through GMP manufacturing of APIs and API intermediates.
Asymchem will continually look towards investing in world-class facilities and new technology developments as a strategy for success
The increased capacity provided by the Dunhua facility will allow new commercial projects to be undertaken, as well as allowing for more efficient housing of large scale projects. Furthermore, the new facility will create an expansion of capacity at the existing Asymchem sites as they will now be able to relocate portions of large volume projects that were previously absorbing the available resources.
“Asymchem will continually look towards investing in world-class facilities and new technology developments as a strategy for success. We believe that this is the primary path forward in maintaining competitiveness as the global market evens out across the international and domestic Chinese intermediates and API markets,” said Dr Hao Hong, ceo of Asymchem.
“Due to exceptional customer demand, we found that we had exhausted the resources at our other locations. As a result, we realised that we needed to have larger scale cGMP capabilities at this new site. Based on our plans, the facility will support both existing and new contract manufacturing business as well as working to establish Asymchem as a top tier player in the global custom development and manufacturing markets.”