Plastics manufacturer Borealis is setting its sights on expansion in 2010 after inaugurating a global research and development facility in Austria last week.

The international innovation headquarters in Linz represents a EUR50m (£45m) investment in marketing and sales as well as new product research and development. It includes equipment for processing plastics in applications such as water pipes, packaging film and injection moulding.

Borealis chief executive Mark Garrett said the new site means the firm can offer its customers "access to plastic processing equipment, the expertise of specialists and scientists and years of experience" at one site.

He said that 2010 would be another important year for the Vienna-headquartered firm as it is inaugurating an LDPE production facility in Sweden – its biggest European investment to date.

"Moreover, we will inaugurate the second phase of our Borouge joint-venture facility in Abu-Dhabi that will triple production capacity to two million tonnes of Borstar polyethylene," said Garrett at a press conference on Friday (20 November).

The Linz investment is backed by the regional government of Upper Austria. The new facility employs some 350 staff from 30 different countries and took around 18 months to build.