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Japan's Kureha Corp. will spend more than $100 million on a plant producing polyglycolic acid (PGA), a new polyester resin targeted for use as a gas barrier layer in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Kureha will build the plant in Belle, W.Va., on the site of a DuPont facility that manufactures the resin's raw material, glycolic acid (shown). Kureha CEO Takao Iwasaki says construction will start early in 2008 and be completed early in 2010. The company says the plant will be the first in the world to make the polymer on a semicommercial scale. It anticipates initial annual sales of more than $100 million. PGA is used today only in high-end applications such as surgical sutures. According to Elizabeth Gershon, executive vice president of Kureha America, company researchers have developed a cost-effective PGA manufacturing process. Since 2002, the firm has operated a 100-ton-per-year pilot plant in Iwaki, Japan.
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