Japanese Company Will Open Plastics Plant In Kanawha Valley

Kureha Corp. will invest more than $100 million to build a specialty plastics plant at Belle, W.Va. and create about 50 new jobs. The project will occupy some of the vacant land inside the DuPont plant.

The Japanese company, headquartered in Tokyo, is a producer of specialty chemicals and plastic products. Kureha said it will create a new subsidiary to produce a high-performance polymer, polyglycolic acid (PGA) used in beverage containers. Construction is scheduled to begin early next year with production to start in early 2010.

Kureha is the 20th Japanese company to invest in West Virginia.