Third DSM Desotech plant in three years.

Business Editors

HEERLEN, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--January 19, 2001

DSM Desotech Inc., a world leader in the development and supply of UV-curable materials, is expanding its operations with a new manufacturing facility in Stanley, North Carolina.

The facility is to be located in an existing building purchased by DSM Desotech. Scheduled to begin operations in January 2002, the roughly EUR 35 million investment marks the third new production facility for DSM Desotech in three years, following the 1999 opening of a plant in Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands, and the construction of a new facility in Tsukuba, Japan, in 2000. Japan Fine Coatings in Tsukuba is part of a 50/50 joint venture with JSR.

According to DSM Desotech President Jan Paul de Vries, expansion efforts come in direct response to significant growth in the optical fiber and cable industry, the primary market for Desotech's top-selling line of UV-curable coatings, inks and matrix materials. Industry reports indicate that worldwide fiber production reached nearly one hundred million kilometers in 2000, a 40% increase over the previous year, and that fiber and cable producers are already sold out of supply for 2001. `Growth in the fiber industry right now is unprecedented,' says De Vries. `The acquisition of the existing building in Stanley will enable us to quickly increase our production capacity by as much as one third. Stanley is located central to the majority of our North American fiber and cable customers.' The acquisition is also in line with DSM's recently announced overall corporate strategy to invest more heavily in performance materials and life science products.

The Stanley facility will absorb DSM Desotech's present operation in Charlotte, NC, and will be expanded and equipped for the production of fiber optic coating materials and other specialty UV-curable materials including hardcoats, CD lacquers, DVD bonding adhesives and rapid prototyping resins. In addition to the relocation of its Charlotte personnel, more than 35 new jobs will be created locally, totaling a staff of approximately 70.

DSM Desotech

DSM Desotech is headquartered in Elgin, Illinois and is a business unit of DSM, a highly integrated group of companies that is active worldwide in the field of life science products, performance materials and chemicals. DSM has annual sales of more than EUR 6.3 billion and employs approximately 22,000 people at more than 200 sites worldwide.