Scientex starts operations of Malaysia’s largest BOPP film manufacturing plant
KUCHING: Global packaging manufacturer Scientex Berhad (Scientex) yesterday inaugurated operations of its new BOPP film manufacturing plant – the largest such facility in Malaysia in Pulau Indah, Selangor.
The new plant, boasting an annual production capacity of 60,000 metric tonnes (MT), was constructed in collaboration with Futamura Chemical Co., Ltd (Futamura), a leading plastic films manufacturer and the largest BOPP film manufacturer in Japan.
The plant was built at a cost of RM220 million, and is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery from Japan Steel Works Ltd, capable of wider-web and higherspeed film production.
The plant was officially opened by Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Ahmad Maslan in the presence of consular representative of JapaninMalaysia Kohei Nakamura, and Futamura president Yasuo Nagae together with Scientex chairman Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim, managing director Lim Peng Jin, and executive director Choo Seng Hong.
During the event, Lim said the plant inauguration marks an important milestone for Scientex, as it combines Japan’s technological prowess with Scientex’s manufacturing efficiency to produce high quality BOPP film for domestic and regional markets in Asia Pacific.
“We look forward to fulfilling anticipated strong market demand, as Malaysia presently imports most of its BOPP requirements due to a shortage in local supply.
“We also strive to capture new growth opportunities in the regional markets.
“This is certainly a pivotal moment for our consumer packaging business, as we are now one step ahead in realising our target of becoming a leading singlesource provider of internationalquality consumer packaging films in the region.”
BOPP film forms the protective outer layer of flexible consumer packaging, and is commonly used in the food and beverages industry.
Futamura holds a 10 per cent shareholding in Scientex Great Wall Sdn Bhd (SGW), the Group’s consumer packaging unit, and would purchase approximately one third of the new plant’s annual BOPP film production.
Lim said that the group is actively targeting growth in sales to local and regional players.
“We have been aggressively marketing our high-performance BOPP film to several packaging players both domestically and regionally, and have also conducted product trials with them.
“We are pleased to receive commendable feedback to date, and look forward to commence supply to them in the near term,” Lim concluded.