ShengdaTech — a manufacturer of nano precipitated calcium carbonate and coal-based chemical products in Taian City, Shandong Province — has entered into an agreement with the local government to invest in the High-Tech Development Industrial Zone in Zibo, Shandong Province.
The local government will provide the company with sources of supply for limestone with reserves of at least 150 million metric tons, with mining rights to be transferred to the company within 12 months. In addition, the company will receive land use rights for the construction of a new NPCC facility and future developments.
The initial investment in this new location will be approximately $56 million for the purchase of 58 acres of land, the construction of a plant with a capacity of 120,000 tonnes, and the equipment for the initial 60,000 tonnes of NPCC production. The first customer shipments are expected by July 2009. The new facility will utilize ShengdaTech's advanced membrane dispersion technology, which measurably the lowers the production cost of NPCC particles compared to the traditional ultra-gravity method. The state of the art plant will be built with stainless steel equipment to ensure a higher quality of the NPCC products.
"This investment is the fulfillment of our stated plan to invest a portion of the proceeds from our recent financing to build a new NPCC production facility to meet the growing demand for NPCC from new and existing customers," said Xiangzhi Chen, president and CEO of ShengdaTech. "We have selected the location for the facility based on its close proximity to a high-quality limestone mine, to our current and prospective customers, and to a shipping port that will serve our growing international customer base more efficiently. We expect to begin construction in August 2008. Our plan is to expand the Company's total annual production capacity of NPCC to 310,000 tonnes by the end of 2009."