Axalta Coating Systems, the company behind the Cromax, Standox and Spies Hecker refinish paint brands in Ireland and a leading global supplier of liquid and powder coatings has announced that a new manufacturing plant for high-performance car, CV and industrial coatings is to be constructed in Nanjing, China.

The facility will be built on more than 170,000m2 of land located at Nanjing’s National Chemical Industrial Park and will be operational by the end of 2020.

The facility will manufacture a broad range of Axalta products, including primers, basecoats, clearcoats and resin intermediates. It will also produce Axalta’s AquaEC line of electrocoats and Voltatex family of Energy Solutions coatings. Additionally, the facility will serve as a logistics centre and distribution point for Axalta’s leading Refinish and Industrial products for customers located in southern and central parts of the country. The Nanjing plant will eventually be Axalta’s third largest global operations centre.

Axalta, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary globally, entered the China market 32 years ago. Axalta’s new Asia Pacific Technology Center (APTC), a 15,500m2 facility in Shanghai, will open in early 2017. The APTC will undertake fundamental research to develop new coating applications and support customer needs across the entire region.