Crown Asia expands PVC compound line

Crown Asia Chemicals Corp. is expanding its compounding capacity in a bid to grow its customer base.

“By enhancing our production capacity in these new product applications, we are looking at growing our local customer base, which is expected to translate into a notable boost in our top line sales revenues,” said Crown Asia president Eugene Villanueva.

Crown Asia acquired a new PVC compounding line from Germany, with a shear-gap feature that allows the compounding line to produce a wide range of PVC compounds for various applications, most notable of which are clear rigid compounds used in bottles, IC tube packaging, shrink films, and labels.

With the new line, Crown Asia’s existing compounding capacity will increase to 16,500 metric tons per year from the existing 15,000 MTPY.

Crown Asia started PVC compounding production in 1990 with only 1,500 MTPY.

At present, revenues from this specialized application for bottles, IC tube packaging and shrink films constitute only 14 percent of the total revenue of the compounds division, with 86 percent of production capacity dedicated to the production of PVC compounds for wires and cables for export and local markets.

Funding for the new line came from proceeds of the company’s initial public offering in April 27, 2015.

Villanueva is confident the company will sustain its growth given its continuous expansion.

The company manufactures PVC compounds for applications in wires and cables, IC tubings, bottles and films.

Its market capitalization has reached more than P1.5 billion.