NETHERLANDS: With more European infrastructure managers adopting synthetic wood for railway sleepers and bridge timbers, Japanese manufacturer Sekisui Chemical Co has announced plans to establish a local manufacturing facility in the Netherlands.
Fibre-reinforced foamed urethane sleepers were developed in Japan in 1974, but it was not until 2003 that Sekisui won its first export orders. Since then, FFU sleepers have been deployed in 31 countries around the world, including several European countries, the USA, Australia and China. Europe has become a key market, with the technology obtaining formal approval from Germany’s Federal Railway Office in 2017.
At present most sleepers are supplied from the company’s Shiga-Ritto Plant in Japan, although some special beams have been assembled locally from Japanese-made elements. Establishing a local manufacturing base is intended to reduce transport times as well as increasing production capacity by around 80%
The new assembly line will be located at the Sekisui Eslon plant in Roermond, which was established in 1974 to manufacture extruded and injection-moulded products from recyclable PVC, including guttering and sewer pipes.
Construction of the facility is scheduled to begin during 2021, with sleeper production commencing in the first quarter of 2023.
With a total area of 4 400 m2 the sleeper plant is expected to employ up to 50 people when running at full capacity. The production of individual orders will be co-ordinated with local partners to meet the product specifications for different customers. European sales will be managed by the group’s Düsseldorf-based subsidiary Sekisui Chemical GmbH.
‘We are very proud to have the opportunity to open such an innovative and future-oriented manufacturing site here in Roermond’, said Sekisui Eslon Managing Director Paul Koopman. ‘The new plant will enable swift delivery of premium quality FFU railway sleepers to customers in Europe, faster than ever before.’
