Healthy Growth in Greece
Biopharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim plans to expand its Koropi, Greece, facility with a $130 million investment, according to a January 2024 announcement. The nearly 50-year-old plant is in the midst of a multi-year investment Boehringer has planned since 2020, creating 110 new jobs in this phase. While the company focuses on R&D for medications that range across a multitude of disease areas, this expansion has a strategic goal of increasing manufacturing capacity for its Jardiance® product, which is used to treat type 2 diabetes, chronic heart failure and chronic kidney disease for the U.S. market.
The upgrade includes new production technologies to assist R&D capabilities.
Photo courtesy of Boehringer Ingelheim
SABIC Gets Cracking in Fujian
Saudi Arabia-based chemical manufacturing company SABIC and Fujian Fuhua Gulei Petrochemical Co. will now move forward on a $6.4 billion petrochemical complex in China’s Fujian province. Located in the Fujian Gulei Industrial Park, the complex will include a mixed feed steam cracker with a capacity of 1.8 million tons of ethylene per year, and several downstream facilities. “The final investment decision is a significant milestone for SABIC’s business expansion and development in China. The project aims to support our goal of diversifying our feedstock sources and establishing a petrochemical manufacturing presence in Asia for a wide range of products, and the final investment decision fully reflects SABIC’s commitment to provide solutions to our customers and maximize shareholder value,” said SABIC CEO Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh. The project is expected to become operational in 2026.
— Charles Michel, President, European Council, speaking at the European Parliament plenary session on increasing European competitiveness with American and Chinese industries, January 2023
SABIC’s partnership in China aids the company’s goal to expand its global footprint.
Photo courtesy of SABIC
Bharat Expands in Kochi
In India’s coastal state of Kerala, Bharat Petroleum Corporation will invest $609 million to expand its site located in the city of Kochi. A stock exchange filing showed that the project will be built out with a 65-35 debt-equity ratio. The plan is to add a polypropylene production unit to meet India’s demand for petrochemicals. The company announced that the project would take three years to complete and will produce 400,000 tons of polypropylene per year for use in packaging film, containers, bags and more.
Bharat Petroleum plans to complete its Kochi refinery expansion by 2027.
Photo courtesy of Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Google Builds UK Portfolio
Google announced that it would be investing $1 billion to deliver critical technical infrastructure that will aid innovation and tech-led growth in the United Kingdom. The company plans to construct a new data center 12 miles north of London in Waltham Cross. With a goal of having Google’s portfolio of data centers powered by carbon-free energy, this location will run on energy generated by the Moray West wind farm in Scotland. The 33-acre site is the latest investment Google has planned in the UK, following the $1 billion purchase in early 2022 of the Central Saint Giles complex in London where the company was leasing space while it constructs a new HQ in Kings Cross two miles away.
Google is expanding in the United Kingdom to support Google Cloud customers and Google users.
Photo courtesy of Google
“Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in 2023, at an estimated $1.37 trillion, showed a marginal increase (+3%) over 2022, defying expectations as recession fears early in the year receded and financial markets performed well. However, economic uncertainty and higher interest rates did affect global investment. The headline increase was due largely to higher values in a few European conduit economies; excluding these conduits, global FDI flows were 18% lower.”
— United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s 46th Global Investment Trends Monitor
Samsung Boosts Ulsan Plan
Building upon Samsung SDI’s November 2023 announcement of a new battery manufacturing plant in Ulsan, South Korea, the company recently signed a memorandum of understanding that cemented an additional $441 million toward the project. The company will now invest $750 million to construct an over 13-million-sq.-ft. battery facility. While it has not yet been disclosed what types of batteries the company plans to produce here, the plant will include facilities catering to on-site cathode production, an essential and costly part of the battery manufacturing process.
Samsung SDI will construct its second location in Ulsan, South Korea.
Photo: Getty Images
