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Smurfit Kappa, a paper-based packaging provider based in Dublin, has announced it will invest $23 million to upgrade its sheet plant in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to become a fully integrated corrugated plant, which includes installing a state-of-the-art corrugator and extending the existing building.
According to Smurfit Kappa, the corrugator, which began operating in early June, will have the two-pronged benefits of reducing CO2 emissions by up to 40 percent while doubling production capacity.
"This investment reinforces our commitment to being an important player in the growth of the Mexican market," Smurfit Kappa the Americas CEO Laurent Sellier says. "It will also strengthen our partnerships within the sectors that drive the local economy in the Nuevo Laredo region."
The Nuevo Laredo plant is located in the Tamaulipas region in northeastern Mexico where Smurfit Kappa says it has strong partnerships in the industrial, electrical appliances and electronics sectors. The region represents 3.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and is home to more than 200 companies that manufacture products for the United States.
Smurfit Kappa says the increased production capacity will streamline its operations in San Antonio, where "a fast-growing appetite for sustainable packaging is demanding larger production volumes." The investment also makes what the company calls significant inroads in the Nuevo Laredo plant's sustainability targets, as there will be less transportation between Nuevo Laredo and San Antonio.
"The enhanced production capacity we now have because of this investment has strengthened our ability to meet the needs of current and indeed potential customers in the region," Smurfit Kappa North America CEO Eduardo Rubio says. "Smurfit Kappa is a reliable source of high-performance, sustainable packaging, no matter how complex the product or supply-chain requirements are."
This latest investment follows a $22 million expansion of Smurfit Kappa's Culiacan corrugated plant in northwest Mexico last year, which modernized and expanded the facility via the installation of what the company called "high-tech, state-of-the-art machinery" and the construction of a new 117,000-square-foot building which included a new corrugator and automated rotary die cutter.