NASHVILLE, TN – AkzoNobel has announced a strategic investment in a new powder coating manufacturing plant in Apodaca, Mexico, a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico. The new facility will include manufacturing, warehousing, research and development labs, administrative offices, and a quality control laboratory. The site will allow the company to more than double its powder coatings business in Mexico and Central America over the next several years. The new facility is expected to be fully operational in the third quarter of 2011.