Borealis AG, a leading supplier of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals, and fertilizers, recently announced the decision to build a plant in Taylorsville, Alexander County, North Carolina, dedicated to making polypropylene-based compounds for the automotive industry. This decision reportedly demonstrates the continuing commitment of Borealis to the global automotive industry. And together with Borouge, its joint venture with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., Borealis is “increasingly well positioned to serve automotive customers on a global basis." North Carolina has been selected for its strategic location and proximity to the company's customer base, as well as for the business-friendly and supporting environment of the state and county, as per the press release of Borealis. The new facility will serve automotive OEMs and their Tier partners in North America, and strengthen its leading position in Europe, Brazil and China. With this investment, Borealis will step up its capacity, capabilities and support infrastructure, ensuring that its customers in North America receive the same high level of service as in the other regions. Ken Wiecoreck, President of Borealis Compounds Inc., said, "We are very excited to be expanding our automotive business in North America and look forward to working more closely with our customers in the region to deliver our global material innovations locally." “We're aware that North America is a competitive market with established suppliers," added Nicholas Kolesch, Head of Automotive Marketing at Borealis. "However, we're convinced that our cutting-edge material solutions will continue to help our customers create value through innovation and enable us to grow with them on a global basis." The plant is scheduled to open in early 2019 and will initially produce PP compounds in the DaplenTM family of PP thermoplastic olefins (TPO) and in the FibremodTM range of PP short glass fiber (SGF) reinforced materials. The plant will complement the existing Borealis Automotive Compounding assets located in New Jersey, as well as the current production via tolling partners. The compounding plant is the second major U.S. project announced by Borealis in the last three months. In March, the firm said that it was forming a joint venture with Nova Chemicals Corp. and Total Petrochemicals that will include a new 1.35 billion pound capacity polyethylene resin unit in Bayport, Texas.