26 May 2015
Hopkinsville, Kentucky - Riken Elastomers Corp. will send $22 million on an expansion that will create 27 new jobs at its Kentucky location.
The firm currently makes thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) compounds for use in the automotive industry at an 88,000-square-foot plant in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
The expansion will add 81,000 square feet to that plant, and will allow REC to add several new production lines, officials said in a May 27 news release.
“We believe that Riken Elastomers has a strong future in Hopkinsville,” President Gakuyuki Kajiyama said in the release. The expansion is scheduled to be completed by mid-2016.
State agencies will provide REC with up to $675,000 in tax incentives and up to $50,000 in tax benefits for the expansion. REC began operating in Hopkinsville in 2007.
REC is a unit of Riken Technos Corp., a compounder and film extruder based in Tokyo. RTC also owns PVC compounder Rimtec Corp. of Burlington, New Jersey. Rimtec claims to be the only US supplier of PVC used in vinyl records.
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