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Plastic packaging producers led a round of announcements in recent weeks about facility openings and expansions. Several international companies are among those opening or upgrading packaging facilities in the United States.
- Axium Packaging is expanding its Midwest presence with a new facility in the St. Louis area. The 202,000-square-foot facility is the company’s third in Missouri. It will initially launch with extrusion blow molding capabilities and will expand into injection stretch blow molding.
- Axjo Group, a Sweden-based recycled plastic packaging specialist whose U.S. headquarters is in Conover, North Carolina, opened a new 160,600-square-foot plant in Haltom City, Texas. The company has begun production there for large reels to serve customers in the wire and cable sector. The company says it’s seeing strong demand for these products, and the new location will bring it closer to customers.
- Balcan Packaging, a Quebec-based manufacturer of plastic technical films and flexible packaging, launched a new extrusion line at its plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. The five-layer wide web line will enable the company to produce industrial sheeting up to 50 feet wide, meeting growing demand for the products that are largely used to wrap boats, scaffolding, modular homes and other construction projects. The Pleasant Prairie plant opened in 2022, marking Balcan’s entry into production in the U.S.
- Detpak, an Australia-based Detmold Group company, opened a new manufacturing site in Spartanburg, South Carolina — its first plant in North America. While the company has supplied foodservice packaging into this market for 20 years, the local plant will improve responsiveness and supply chain reliability, a spokesperson said via email. Detpak chose Spartanburg because of the area’s “strong manufacturing environment, skilled workforce, strategic logistics network and proximity to key customer markets,” according to the spokesperson.
- Graham Packaging signed a lease for a 216,000-square-foot industrial space in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, according to CoStar. The rigid plastic container manufacturer proposed to the city council in May that it would begin operations this year and that all lines would be open by 2028. The company said the project would bring 82 jobs, and it sought property tax abatement.
- Packaging Corporation of America announced during a July 23 earnings call that it had started up a new corrugated converting plant in Ohio. The 550,000-square-foot facility is “in a very strategic area for us while improving our operational efficiency over the long term,” said President Tom Hassfurther during the call.
- Quad is expanding its packaging manufacturing with a new facility in Salt Lake City. Operations are expected to launch at the 100,000-square-foot facility during the fourth quarter. The company says box-making equipment at the site will include a sheeter, die cutters, folding gluers and a Heidelberg XL 106 press with UV capabilities.
- Sonoco announced during a July 23 earnings call that it had completed a $20 million expansion at its wire and cable reels production and assembly facility in Hartselle, Alabama. The additional 15% production capacity for wood reels is intended to meet surging demand amid the data center construction boom and power grid upgrades. “We have been essentially sold out and needed this additional capacity to meet market demand,” said CEO Howard Coker during the call.
