Lower electricity prices and increased demand from customers in the southeastern US were the reasoning behind Pennsylvania-based Audia International's 2014 decision to locate its latest plastics manufacturing project in Georgia, Todd Gummersbach, director of corporate development, has told a Pennsylvania newspaper.

A new $50 million facility at LaFayette, Georgia will support Audia's three subsidiaries - Washington Penn Plastic in Pennsylvania, Uniform Color Co. in Michigan and Southern Polymer, based in Georgia - in supplying the automotive, appliance, construction, consumer products and packaging industries.

While shale gas recently has dominated headlines as a factor in locating new petrochemical businesses, especially in Pennsylvania, where the abundant output of natural gas from Marcellus Shale is lowering heating costs in the western part of the state, Gummersbach explained that natural gas costs do not have a major impact on Audia's operations.

Alongside the lower and more transparent electricity prices, he said energy and rail resources also played a role in the move south.

The plant, which is receiving funding under a Walker County, Georgia, economic development scheme, is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2015.

Audia International, a privately held company focused on plastic compounding, color solutions and distribution, was very active in 2014. In February, it announced plans to acquire the liquid masterbatch business of Germany's BASF in Clermont de l'Oise, France.

In June, the company's unit Washington Penn Plastic reached agreement with ExxonMobil Chemical to purchase and license assets of that company's North American specialty compounded polypropylene products business. ExxonMobil decided to stop producing these products in North America.