Otsuka Chemical America, Inc. Breaks Ground on First U.S. Plant

This week executives from Otsuka Chemical America, Inc., gathered to celebrate the company’s groundbreaking in Griffin, Ga. The 50,000 s.f. Terracess manufacturing facility is Otsuka’s first plant in the United States and the company’s third manufacturing plant.

Otsuka is building the facility to manufacture titanate friction materials for automotive brake pads and will have an annual production capacity of roughly 2,000 metric tons. The company chose the U.S. in response to increasing demand for America’s “robust market for new automobiles and the presence of numerous brake pad development facilities.”

During the groundbreaking ceremony, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal pointed out that Otsuka could have located its plant anywhere in the U.S. but chose Georgia for a reason. He also indicated further economic growth moving forward.

The new U.S. Otsuka plant will create more than 30 jobs and is expected to commence commercial production in November 2015.

Otsuka selected Gray Construction to provide design-build services on its U.S. manufacturing facility. Gray will also be offloading and installing most of the process equipment that will be utilized by the facility when it becomes operational.

Otsuka Chemical Co., Ltd. is based in Osaka, Japan and has production facilities and offices in nine countries throughout the world. Founded in 1950, the company engages in the research, development, manufacture, and sale of organic, inorganic, fine and specialty chemicals.

Gray Construction, a nationally ranked engineering, architecture and construction firm, has over 54 years of experience in manufacturing, automotive, food and beverage, distribution, hospitality and retail facility construction. Currently, Gray has several large projects that are underway or recently completed including: a Michelin Earthmover tire manufacturing plant in Anderson, S.C.; a Caterpillar Inc. manufacturing facility near Athens, Ga</a>.; a Siemens gas turbine plant in Charlotte, N.C.; a Roxul, Inc. manufacturing facility in Byhalia, Miss.; and a manufacturing plant for ZF Transmissions in Gray Court, S.C.

If you have manufacturing plant construction needs, please contact Phil Seale, Executive Vice President, Manufacturing/Food & Beverage Markets at pseale@gray.com. Also, if you have Japanese plant construction needs, please connect with Hideo Ito, Executive Vice President, Japanese market at hito@gray.com</a>; or Shigeru “Shig” Masuko, Regional Manager, Tokyo, Japan at smasuko@gray.com.