Johnson Matthey opens new emission control catalyst plant in Macedonia

14 April 2010

Johnson Matthey has officially opened its new £34 million ($53 million) European emission control catalyst plant in Macedonia to serve the growing demand for its products in Europe. The plant will use state-of-the-art manufacturing technology to produce automotive emission control catalysts. The plant was opened by the Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski.

The new Macedonian plant, which has created 128 new jobs and has initial capacity to produce four million units annually, has been constructed in the Bunardjick Technological and Industrial Development Zone, 15 kilometres from the Macedonian capital, Skopje. The new plant has been built to a modular design and the initial phase will incorporate automated production lines for both light-duty diesel autocatalysts and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts for heavy-duty diesel vehicles.

Commenting on the investment, Larry Pentz, Executive Director Environmental Technologies Division, Johnson Matthey, said: “I want to thank the Prime Minister and his Government, as well as Invest Macedonia and the TIDZ for all their outstanding support to us throughout this venture. We wanted this plant to be the first of a new global design for Johnson Matthey and I believe you are standing in the finest, most advanced emission control catalyst production facility that exists anywhere in the world.”

Johnson Matthey operates 15 emission control catalysts manufacturing plants in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America and Africa.

Source: Johnson Matthey