Chinese firm to break ground on $300 million plant in Richland County

Richland County and fiberglass products manufacturer China Jushi will break ground Dec. 8 for a $300 million plant expected to create 400 jobs. The ceremony is set for 10:30 a.m.

The company, headquartered in Zhejiang, China, announced in May that it would establish its first U.S. fiberglass manufacturing operation in the county’s Pineview Industrial Park near I-77. The firm in 2012 established a distribution center in Columbia, at 901 Idlewilde Blvd.

The company plans an 80,000-ton production line in its new facility. The factory should be completed within two years.

Jushi Group Chairman Yang Guoming said in May that South Carolina’s business climate “offers us the best support for our investment.”

The company is a leading supplier of fiberglass reinforcements and fabrics to the reinforced plastics industry worldwide, according to the news release. As functional or structural materials, they can be used to manufacture products such as pipes, pressure vessels, chemical tanks, sanitary apparatus, electrical equipment, environmental protection equipment, wind energy equipment, boat hulls, automobile parts and sports equipment.

Pay will begin at $16 per hour and applications may be submitted to www.jushi.com.

The facility is a bit of a coup for Richland County and Columbia, which has seen neighboring Lexington County and other Midlands counties like Sumter lead in economic development announcements. Richland has been hampered by a lack of developed sites.

Pineview, at the base of Shop Road in the Lower Richland community, is the county’s main industrial park, a 900-acre site in the southeast part of the county that at one time was slated for the State Farmers Market.

This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Chinese firm to break ground on $300 million plant in Richland County."