Gebze, Turkey — Kimteks, a polyurethane systems house, plans to increase production capacity to 175 kT/year of polyols and rigid and flexible systems during the third quarter of 2017.
Current capacity at the site, about 70 km south east of Istanbul, is 85 kT/year.
Operations director, Murat Kuzkan said the expansion will increase capacity in footwear systems; rigid continuous and discontinuous systems; domestic and commercial refrigerator systems; viscoelastic systems; wood imitation and automotive filter systems among others.
The firm is investing over €2.5 m ($2.7m) in the new capacity, Kuzkan said. It follows €1.5 m investment in a research and development centre at the company in 2016, he added.
Kimteks was established in 1983, it exports around 30% of its business and aims to grow this to 40%, Kuzkan said. He added that the domestic polyurethane business is growing at around 7-8%/year. The company, which currently employs 137 people, is investing now to meet the demand it expects to see after 2020, Kuzkan added.
