PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2016

CAPPING / CLOSURES 38 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 10/16 www.petpla.net SPONSORS The China Road Show F.l.t.r.: Michael Chen, Managing Director of Bericap China and Alexander Büchler, PET- planet Insider in front of the Editourmobil Strengthening business relations with a second plant Production Manager Jackie Hu (left) and Kay Barton in the manufacturing area By Kay Barton August 12, 2016, Bericap (Zhuhai) Co., Ltd. We met: Mr Eric Eng, Plant Director Mr Jackie Hu, Production Manager In 2014, Bericap opened its second plant in the People’s Republic of China. Its first - and main - manufacturing plant is in Kunshan, in Jiangsu province, not far from Shanghai. The new facility, which represents a US$26.7 million invest- ment, is located in the southern coastal city Zhuhai, in the province of Guangdong, approximately 100km south of Guangzhou. Around 60% of its area of 20,000m 2 is dedi- cated to manufacturing. It supplies to the regions around southern China and Hong Kong, and exports to customers in Vietnam and the Philippines. This plant will also eventu- ally support Bericap China’s customers in South-West China until Bericap China builds a South-West China manufactur- ing plant in about 2-5 years time. The Zhuhai plant’s main custom- ers are, currently, sauce makers market leaders, namely the Lee Kum Kee Group of Hong Kong, and Hai Tian of Foshan China. The balance of production output is destined for more than ten smaller-scale PET bottlers, who primarily bottle water and other beverages. The plant is also planning for production lines for some major edible oil and sauce customers in the next two years. When I visited the new Bericap plant, I discussed the strategic factors that led to the choice of Zhuhai as the location for it, along with current and future potential opportunities. I spoke to Eric Eng, who has Malaysian roots, was appointed to the position of Plant Director in June 2016, and to Jackie Hu, Production Manager, who moved to Zhu ai in 2014 after more than ten years at Bericap’s Kunshan plant in Eastern China. “We use HDPE and LLDPE in our materials mix. We have 15 injec- tion moulding machines available for manufacturing, plus the corresponding periphery. Our sales forecast for 2016 is currently in the region of US$13.5 million. While sales of closures for PET applications tailed off a little last year, they now appear to be increas- ing again,” Eng says. Jackie Hu provided figures for output since the launch of the loca- tion. Its first year of operations, 2014, saw the production of about 100 mil- lion closures, in 2015: about 400 mil- lion closures. The 2016 forecast is for 650 million closures. “We supply the standard 38mm caps for all PET bot- tlers,” Eric Eng continues. “For liquid food, such as sauces and cooking oils, we manufacture three different types of closures in 29mm and 36mm which caters to our customers’ glass and PET bottles applications. Since Bericap does not have a production plant in Vietnam or the Philippines, Zhuhai partially supplies to those markets as well. “We want to further strengthen our business relations with our key customers,” he says. “We have the technology and products that can customise to cater for their clo- sure solutions. We have at least four new projects pending in 2017, three of which have PET relevance.” www.bericap.com Talks at Bericap with Eric Eng and Jackie Hu (f.l.t.r.)