DAK Americas to invest $54 million, create 75 jobs at Calhoun plant

DAK Americas LLC plans to invest in new equipment as part of a new plastic-recycling process for the company, Calhoun County Administrator John McLauchlin said following the Calhoun County Council meeting Monday.

Council gave unanimous approval to a resolution amending a fee-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with DAK Americas to extend the existing fee agreement with the company.

“This is rolling over their existing fee for another five years,” McLauchlin said. “DAK is our biggest employer in the county.”

The jobs, which are already filled, will pay an average of $23 an hour, McLauchlin said.

Attempts to reach DAK Americas Tuesday about more specific plans for the Sandy Run plant were unsuccessful.

DAK purchased Carolina Eastman’s polyethylene terephthalate-manufacturing operations in Calhoun County in February 2011. PET is a plastic used in drink bottles and other packaging. The company employs about 430, according to the Central South Carolina Alliance.

DAK Americas is an international resin producer in the Alpek Polyester Business group of companies.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company has recently increased its recycling processes at its other plants.

Last month the company invested about $32 million to expand its PET facility in Indiana in order to increase recycling processes as consumers, brand owners and government mandates for more recycled content in bottles and food packaging have spiked.

The Richmond site was Alpek Polyester’s second food-grade PET recycling facility. The first it acquired in Argentina in 2014. 

In mid-2021, DAK Americas acquired the former CarbonLite bottle-to-bottle PET recycling facility in Reading, Pennsylvania, for a reported $96 million.

DAK Americas also has a fiber-grade recycling joint venture in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with Shaw Industries, launched in 2010.

Sandy Run spec building

In addition to the expansion of DAK Americas, Calhoun County Council also unanimously approved a resolution and gave first reading by title only to fee-in-lieu-of-taxes incentives to a company currently publicly identified as Project Beach.

The project entails the construction of a speculative building at the Sandy Run Industrial Park. The building will be paid for entirely with private dollars. The name of the company was not released due to it being first reading.

“It is speculative only,” McLauchlin said. “It will be up to us to lease or sell it once it is built.”

A groundbreaking and official ceremony are scheduled to be held in April. Further details on the building will be released at that time, McLauchlin said.

The 761-acre industrial park is located off U.S. Highway 21 on Interstate 26 (Exit 119).

The park has access to all utilities, Interstate 77 and Interstate 20.

Currently, the industrial park is home to DAK Americas and Zeus Industries’ 148,000-square-foot plant. About 580 acres of the park can be developed.