Gray Design-Build Customer Celebrates Groundbreaking of New Manufacturing Facility

Kuraray America, Inc. recently broke ground on a new chemical plant in La Porte, Texas. Kuraray America, Inc., which is based in Houston, is the U.S. branch of Kuraray Co. Ltd., a Japanese company that produces specialty chemicals and materials.

The 140,000 s.f. manufacturing facility will produce polyvinyl alcohol, and is expected to be complete in the fall of 2014. In its first production phase, the plant is expected to produce more than 40,000 tons of polyvinyl alcohol, which is used to produce other polymers.

The new facility is expected to create 107 new jobs in the next two years in the La Porte area.

Gray, ranked 2nd among the U.S. Top Green Contractors in Manufacturing Plant Construction, will provide design-build services for the new facility. Currently, Gray has several large projects, mostly located across the South, that are underway or recently completed including: a Michelin Earthmover tire manufacturing plant in Starr, S.C.; a Caterpillar Inc. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, N.C.; a Caterpillar Inc. manufacturing facility near Athens, Ga.; a Siemens gas turbine plant in Charlotte, N.C.; and a Whirlpool plant in Cleveland, Tenn.

If you have manufacturing plant construction needs, please contact Phil Seale, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing Market at [email protected].