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Ten-year-old specialized TPE compounder (USP), Lawrenceville, Ga., has announced a 7-million lb/yr expansion over the next year, a testament to the company’s swift growth, particularly in North America and Mexico. The planned expansion comes after a nearly 8-million lb/yr expansion within the 2013-14 time frame. Total new capacity will be up to 25-million lb/yr.

            President and CEO Rudi Herbst, a seasoned expert in TPEs, explains that he founded the company in 2005 to produce high-quality styrenic TPE compounds for a broad range of markets. Initial annual capacity was about 10-million lb/yr using high-end European equipment and right up until 2008, less than 10% of the company’s ´óÏó´«Ã½ was on the domestic front (the company has foreign offices in Mexico City, Germany, and Malaysia), with sales of its portfolio of nearly 2000 different TPE compounds sold into 18 different countries.

            Today, at least 65% of United Soft Plastics’s ´óÏó´«Ã½ is in North America, according to Herbst. He also confirms that 1800 of the 2000 TPE compounds the company has developed are styrenic-based, along with some very specialized customized TPEs.