AkzoNobel recently announced it is planning to invest around €60 million (~ $83 million) to increase the production capacity of its Automotive and Aerospace Coatings business in China. This investment will reportedly provide additional momentum for the company’s accelerated growth strategy of achieving revenue of $3 billion in China by 2015 while strengthening its leadership position in the country’s automotive refinishes market.

In addition, the company reports it will build related warehousing, quality control laboratories, support facilities and offices on the new site. The project will increase capacity by around 25 million liters; the site is projected to be operational in early 2014.

“This investment builds on last year’s acquisition of Prime Automotive and is all about meeting rapidly increasing customer demand,” said Leif Darner, executive committee member responsible for Performance Coatings. “We are also seizing an ideal opportunity to further strengthen our leadership position.”

“The automotive and aerospace market in China is forecast to further increase steeply in the coming years, and this investment will allow us to capture our share of this growth,” said Jim Rees, managing director of the Automotive and Aerospace Coatings business. “Changzhou is the ideal location for this facility as there is a good infrastructure already in place and it is ideally situated in the coatings ‘center’ of China, with close access to many of our customers.”

For more information, visitwww.akzonobel.com.