SIGs second state-of-the-art production plant for aseptic carton packaging in China is now up and running. Despite challenges posed by the pandemic, the large-scale project has been successfully implemented, once again demonstrating SIGs ongoing commitment to engineering excellence and sustainability leadership.

The new plant is located close to SIGs existing production facility at the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), which allows for shared resources in both production and operations. The new facility is also close to SIGs Asia Pacific Tech Center, with industry-leading innovation capabilities that bring a flow of new concepts and solutions to SIG customers. Having the Tech Centre nearby ensures SIG can keep pace with, and anticipate, new trends.

Samuel Sigrist, chief executive officer of SIG, said: "The Asia Pacific region continues to be one of the major growth engines for aseptic carton packaging. The expansion of our production network will enable us to further strengthen our position in the growing Chinese market. It also means we can respond more quickly to the needs of our customers to provide holistic solutions to the food and beverage industry."

By building a second production plant in China, SIG is committed to serving the Chinese market by providing high-quality products and services to customers across the Asia Pacific region. The entire production process in the new plant is managed intelligently, which significantly improves operational and production efficiency. The smart manufacturing system covers extrusion, printing, creasing, cutting and sealing.

Sigrist, continued: "SIG has built up a strong customer base across the Asia Pacific region, providing outstanding innovation capability and end-to-end solutions for differentiated products, smarter factories and connected packs. Our close partnership with the two largest Chinese dairies, and other food and beverage companies, will continue to grow and develop."

By 2024, the new plant will cover an area of 120,000 square metres and is expected to have an annual production capacity of eight billion carton packs. It has been designed and built to have the lowest possible carbon emissions, with an artistic combination of classical Chinese garden and modern elements. Photovoltaic panels on the roofs can provide 1.5m kWh of solar energy and collected rainwater is also reused after treatment to save around 28,000 tonnes of tap water per annum. In addition to energy-saving lighting devices, special lighting systems are installed to significantly reduce electricity consumption.

The new plants best-in-class environmental, safety and operation performance has already been recognised with a prestigious international industry certification: LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification for building design and construction. LEED is a green building certification programme created by the US Green Building Council which is used worldwide. SIGs new packaging plant was the first plant in Chinas aseptic packaging industry to be built in strict accordance with the LEED gold certification standard.