DSM Desotech Inc. is expanding its operations with a new manufacturing facility in Stanley, North Carolina. The facility is to be located in an existing building purchased by DSM Desotech. Scheduled to begin operations in January 2002, the roughly EUR 35 million investment marks the third new production facility for DSM Desotech in three years, following the 1999 opening of a plant in Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands, and the construction of a new facility in Tsukuba, Japan, in 2000. Japan Fine Coatings in Tsukuba is part of a 50/50 joint venture with JSR. The Stanley facility will absorb DSM Desotech’s present operation in Charlotte, NC, and will be expanded and equipped for the production of fibre optic coating materials and other specialty UV-curable materials including hardcoats, CD lacquers, DVD bonding adhesives and rapid prototyping resins.