ENTEK International (US/UK) and Separindo (Jawa Barat, Indonesia) have reached agreement on a joint venture arrangement for the production, sales and marketing of polyethylene (PE) battery separators for flooded lead-acid batteries in Asia. The partnership leverages the strengths of both companies and provides battery producers in the region expanded access to quality separator products for batteries in the Starting, Lighting and Ignition (SLI), traction and stationary power markets.
The joint venture agreement commits the partners to share technology and to integrate their manufacturing and sales efforts in Asia.
“This agreement fulfills the promise I made at the 2015 Asian Battery Conference that ENTEK would expand its manufacturing footprint to Asia,” stated Larry Keith, CEO of ENTEK, “ENTEK’s partnership with Separindo enables us to reach Asian customers with quality products from the Separindo and ENTEK product portfolios delivered with the short lead-times and trade-advantaged benefits of manufacturing in Asia.
ENTEK will bring its best-in-the-class manufacturing technology to the partnership and we will immediately start expanding the existing capacity in Indonesia. I am also directing the ENTEK in-house design and manufacturing group to start the design work to add 60 million square meters per year production capacity to the Indonesian facility.
Separindo has manufacturing prowess and long experience with the unique needs of Asian battery makers. ENTEK has global scale and broad expertise in continuous manufacturing. This partnership will be the leader for lead-acid separators in Asia.”
ENTEK, already the largest producer of lead-acid battery separators in the Americas and Europe, services customers on 6 continents and previously announced its intentions to expand its manufacturing to Asia, the fastest-growing geographical market of the battery industry.
“Our partnership with ENTEK will combine our individual strengths, making for a strong leader in the Asian battery market for lead-acid separators”, says Jungchan Kim, Managing Director for Separindo, “Separindo has an experienced team in place, and we will continue to produce our extensive portfolio of products for our valued customers. Partnering with ENTEK will bring state-of-the-art technology and exciting new products to the venture and we’re looking forward to serving more battery manufacturers in the Asian market.”