Johnson Matthey Opens Major New European Emission Control Catalyst Plant in Macedonia

SKOPJE, Macedonia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Johnson Matthey has today officially opened its new £34 million European emission control catalyst plant in Macedonia to serve the rapidly growing demand for its products in Europe. The plant will use world-class manufacturing technology to produce innovative emission control catalysts to the highest specifications required for todays and future generations of clean light and heavy duty vehicles. The plant was opened by the Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski.

Johnson Matthey is a world leader in the production of emission control catalysts for light and heavy duty diesel vehicles with 15 manufacturing plants in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America and Africa. Global demand for automotive emission control catalysts is growing rapidly, driven by continuously tightening emissions limits around the world. These standards have also resulted in strong growth in demand for more technologically sophisticated catalyst products.

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 highly automated production lines for both light duty diesel autocatalysts and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts for heavy duty diesel vehicles.

SCR utilises catalysts to reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen, commonly referred to as NO_x, from diesel vehicle exhaust. SCR systems are extensively used on heavy duty diesel vehicles in Europe to meet Euro IV and V heavy duty diesel emissions standards that came into force in the European Union in 2006 and 2009 respectively, with demand forecast to grow significantly over the next few years.

Commenting on this major 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.”