Southern Lithoplate Inc. broke ground on a new production plant that will be built adjacent to its Wake Forest, N.C., manufacturing center.

The plant will enable SLP to produce an additional 75 million square feet of analog and digital printing plates, according to Clark A. Casson, president and chief operating officer of SLP.

“We already have nearly 100 percent of our new manufacturing line on site,” he said. “All we have to do now is complete the facility itself.”

The building is expected to be operational by spring 2007 and will let SLP produce more than 200 million square feet of analog and digital plates each year.