Sirmax to Construct Recycled Polypropylene Production Plant in Anderson

Sirmax North America, the U.S. division of the Italy-based Sirmax Group, has invested $35 million in Anderson, Indiana, to construct a new plant to make Recycled Polypropylene. The new plant is said to be operational by 2025.

As a producer of Polypropylene compounds, bio-compounds, engineering polymers, and postconsumer compounds for numerous applications, the company built its first U.S. manufacturing facility at Anderson in 2015. The company built its second facility in the same location in 2020, which began its full-scale operations this year. The entire production area of these two plants is 268,000 sq. ft., and these plants mainly produce polyolefins from base materials.

The country manager of Sirmax North America, Lorenzo Ferro, said that the company drafts to put money into its existing production facilities in Anderson, lengthen its existing buildings, and construct a third plant. He also stated that the new investment would welcome the making of engineering plastics and thermoplastic elastomers to the U.S.

The properties of Sirmax in Anderson are approximately 3.23 million sq. ft. in size, and its third plant, which is to be built on an area of around 12,000 sq. mts., would be used for engineering plastics. The company's first plant will be expanded to accommodate a brand-new warehouse and thermoplastic elastomer production, bringing the production area to roughly 398,300 sq. ft. from 140,000 sq. ft. In the company's second plant, the production of recycled compounds would be expanded and modernized, with the manufacturing area increasing to approximately 291,000 sq. ft. in 2025.

Currently, Sirmax Group has 13 manufacturing facilities globally: two in the U.S. and India, seven in Italy, one in Brazil, and two in Poland. The group also has a trade office in Milan and other branches in Spain, France, and Germany. The company's clients include Honeywell, Whirlpool, Philips, and automobile companies like Audi and BMW. In 2021, the group engaged 800 people globally and had a turnover of about $481 million.

The North American plastic recycling market was estimated to be around $2.9 billion in 2020 and is calculated to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.1% from 2021 to 2028. Changing buyers' behavior towards sustainability is driving the market in North America. Expanding concerns connected with plastic contamination, destructive outflows from petrochemicals utilization, and fluctuating crude oil costs have been driving the interest in plastic reusing. Expanding utilization of recycled plastics in a few enterprises like materials, cars, bundling, electrical and gadgets, and construction and development is expected to fuel the interest in plastic recycling in the U.S. and Canada.