Amcor, Victoria, Australia, has opened its new manufacturing plant in Huizhou, China. With an investment of almost $100 million, the 590,000-square-foot-plant is reportedly the largest flexible packaging plant by production capacity in China.
The new facility is expected to employ more than 550 people, who will produce flexible packaging for food and personal-care products. The plant comes equipped with the first automated packaging production line in China. This, along with high-speed printing presses, laminators, and bag-making machines, can deliver double-digit reductions in manufacturing cycle times.
Amcor is also deploying a smart production and operation system, which includes smart laser scanners, light curtains, high-standard machine guarding and multiple quality-control points. All key process equipment is also CE-certified to stringent European Union health, safety and environmental requirements. Other benefits of the new facility are traceability throughout the production cycle, a climate-controlled production environment and low-carbon emission production.
The plant features three labs with testing and analytical capabilities to fully leverage the expertise from the recently opened Amcor Asia Pacific Innovation Center in Jiangyin, China.
The new Huizhou site also includes several sustainability features, including the latest regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTO) system to reduce harmful emissions, as well as a number of energy-reduction, heat-recovery, low-power consumption and rainwater harvesting systems to help reduce its carbon footprint and environmental impact.
Amcor has also completed the sale of its three factories in Russia to HS Investments, a Russian-based investor, after receiving all necessary regulatory approvals and cash proceeds, including receipt of closing cash balances. The cash and debt-free consideration value is 370 million EUR.
This follows Amcor’s previously announced decision to pursue the orderly sale of its Russian business.
The Russian business produces flexible and cartons packaging from one site in St. Petersburg and two sites in Novgorod and employs approximately 900 people. Amcor’s three sites in Russia generated approximately two percent of total Amcor sales in fiscal 2022.
