The Cleveland-based company now has a 116,000-square-foot plant complex on 10 acres in Shanghai for the manufacture of liquid and powder coatings. The plant employs about 60 handling and sales personnel. In Dongguan, in South China, the division has opened a facility capable of modifying liquid coatings for color, gloss and viscosity. A staff of 40 handles sales and distribution there.

"Many of our North American customers, particularly in the residential furniture, and plastics and electronics markets, now have operations in the Asia-Pacific area, including Malaysia, China and Taiwan," says Thomas Brummett, president of Sherwin-Williams Chemical Coatings Division. "We understand our customers' global objectives for locating there, and we have responded to their needs by investing in the necessary human resources, equipment and facilities to serve them."

The company also recently acquired a majority interest in Shanghai Kinlita Chemical Co. Ltd., a Shanghai-based manufacturer of electrodeposition OEM coatings for trucks and buses. The acquired business, renamed Sherwin-Williams Kinlita Co. Ltd., will operate under the direction of Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Corp.

Shanghai Kinlita Chemical was started in 1993 and has annual sales of approximately $15 million, Sherwin-Williams says. The company will provide technical resources "to enhance Sherwin-Williams Kinlita's position in the Chinese electrodeposition coatings market," and will contribute topcoat products and technology to increase the business' product and service portfolio," says Christopher Connor, Sherwin-Williams' chairman and CEO.