PPG  held a ceremony marking the completion of a new $10 million coatings center of excellence at its existing complex in Tianjin, China. The new facility will serve regional customers in the automotive plastics and decorative accessories industry.

The new coatings center, which is the first PPG facility in China dedicated to customers in this part of the automotive supply chain, offers world-class development and process capabilities to help PPG customers that manufacture automotive decorative parts achieve better color consistency and shorter lead times.

“The fast-growing automotive sector in China is an area of global focus, especially for companies such as PPG that serve vehicle manufacturers as well as Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers,” said Timothy M. Knavish, PPG senior vice president, automotive coatings. “Because PPG remains optimistic about continued growth in the Chinese automotive industry, we continue to increase our investment here.”

Vincent Robin, PPG vice president, automotive coatings, Asia Pacific, said, “Establishing this coatings center marks another important milestone in PPG’s growth and expansion in China. It will significantly improve our ability to collaborate with automotive plastics and decorative accessories customers in the region, improving the first-time capabilities and yield rates on their painting lines and reducing their total cost to paint plastic parts, which will help them achieve more competitive market positions.”

PPG built its first coatings plant in China at the Tianjin site in 1994. Through expansion, PPG’s Tianjin complex has become the company’s largest coatings production base in the world. It currently supplies automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) coatings and industrial coatings for a variety of end uses to PPG customers in China and the greater Asia Pacific region.