Sigma to grow SAFC with new China plant

US life science research supplies group Sigma-Aldrich plans to invest in a site at the Wuxi-New District Park located northwest of Shanghai, China, for its new Asia-Pacific manufacturing hub. The company has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the local authorities and the site is to be developed in three phases.

Sigma-Aldrich expects to initially invest $25.0 million to acquire land rights and construct its first-phase that includes a large-scale, non certified-Good Manufacturing Practices, multi-purpose organic manufacturing facility dedicated to supporting its SAFC fine chemicals business unit. The company plans to commence construction of the new plant by the end of the year. When fully developed, the site is expected to produce raw materials, key intermediates and final products in support of SAFC's Pharma, Hitech and Supply Solutions businesses through a manufacturing plant, and analytical, packaging and warehousing facilities. Future development phases at the site will also support the firm's Research Essentials and Research Specialties business units and include the extension of analytical, packaging and warehousing capabilities for its research business.

Commenting on the investment, Sigma-Aldrich chief executive Jai Nagarkatti, stated, "as part of our 2005 strategic plan, we announced our intent to increase assets in Canada, Asia-Pacific, Latin America regions to support the objective of achieving 25% of total revenue in CAPLA markets by 2010. This investment represents a significant step toward achieving that goal, as it will help us accelerate sales growth in the Asia-Pacific region while allowing us to better serve both our local and global customer base." SAFC president Frank Wicks added: "the addition of our facility in China will add essential capacity to service growing demand for SAFC products. In particular, the combination of products manufactured in China and at our European and USA-based sites is expected to provide us an unparalleled competitive offering to customers across all businesses."