Johnson Matthey is a world leader in the production of autocatalysts for cars, trucks and motorcycles, with manufacturing plants in Europe, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, India and shortly China. Global demand for autocatalyst volumes is growing fast, driven by continuously tightening emission standards in particular led by regulators in Europe and the United States. Other administrations around the world are also now adopting more stringent pollution controls. These tightening standards are resulting in the use of more catalysts per vehicle resulting in strong growth in demand for more technologically sophisticated catalyst systems.

The new Royston plant, which has created around 70 new jobs and has initial capacity to produce 3.5 million units a year, is part of a major programme of investment in Johnson Matthey's global autocatalyst business where its market for higher technology product is growing significantly. New facilities are being commissioned as less advanced markets open up; and, Johnson Matthey is updating its existing plants with the advanced manufacturing technology utilised at the new Royston factory.

Chris Clark, Chief Executive of Johnson Matthey, commented:

"The new Royston facility is a major step in our strategy for the growth of our global autocatalyst business. We are committed to investment in new technology across all our business and the new facility is a prime example of this."

Neil Carson, Executive Director, Catalysts & Chemicals Division said:

"Today we have unveiled our first factory based entirely on our new autocatalyst manufacturing technology. This plant will help us to deliver a new generation of high performance and cost effective autocatalysts to meet our customers needs."

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