ENGINEERINGNET / ASIA - The new factory, which is also known as the 'Dragon Plant', comprises 150,000 square meters of space and mainly produces for the automotive industry and various consumer goods sectors.
The company says it invested more than 50 million euros in the plant and will employ about 600 people there. Annual output is forecast to reach up to 428,000 metric tons of adhesives for China and the entire Asia-Pacific region.
One of Henkel’s financial targets for the year 2016 is to increase the sales in emerging markets to 10 billion euros while aiming for total sales of 20 billion euros.
Nowadays the company is already generating 45 percent of its total sales in emerging markets and 55 percent of its employees are based in these countries.
The Dragon Plant is a model for sustainability and efficiency, claims Henkel.
Compared to a traditional production plant, it uses only half the amount of water thanks to condensed water recovery systems, while recycling has reduced the volume of packaging materials by 60 percent, and electricity usage for factory lighting has been cut by 90 percent due to special translucent roofs which let the daylight in.
There is also a system for recovering waste heat, and the factory includes innovative filling equipment designed to prevent leaks and spills of adhesives.
(Bert Belmans)
BACKGROUND
Henkel, headquartered in Germany, has some 47,000 employees worldwide. It is the world’s largest adhesives manufacturer and opened its first production facility in China back in 1990.
