Solvay announces today that it has decided to build a specialty polymers compounding plant at its site in Changshu in the province of Jiangsu, China. Start-up of the plant is expected in the last quarter of 2012. The plant will satisfy the growing demand for specialty polymers in China and requires the investment of EUR 21 million.
The compounding plant will serve the fast growing markets in China for electronics, automotive, consumer and industrial applications and will initially start producing compounds of Amodel polyphthalamide (PPA), Ixef polyarylamide (PARA) and Kalix (modified PARA). The facility will be fully adaptable for future expansion for both overall capacity and for other high performance and fluorinated polymers.
"Our high-end specialty polymers are used in an increasing number of applications in this very dynamic region of the world. We are looking forward providing additional supply flexibility by compounding in closer proximity to our expanding customer base and providing them with more plastics with more performance," says George Corbin, Senior Executive Vice-President of Solvay Group and President of Solvay Advanced Polymers, one of the entities of Solvay's Specialty Polymers Strategic Business Unit.
"This investment clearly illustrates Solvay's strategy to enlarge its industrial base in fast moving markets such as China. Sales of Specialty Polymers in Asia were above 25% of total sales in the first half of this year and we see a growing trend," adds Augusto di Donfrancesco, General Manager of the Strategic Business Unit Specialty Polymers.
SOLVAY is an international industrial Group active in Chemistry. It offers a broad range of products and solutions that contribute to improving quality of life. The Group is headquartered in Brussels and employs 17,000 people in 40 countries. In 2009, its consolidated sales amounted to EUR 8.5 billion. Solvay is listed on the NYSE Euronext stock exchange in Brussels (NYSE Euronext: SOLB.BE - Bloomberg: SOLB.BB - Reuters: SOLBt.BR). Details are available at www.solvay.com.
China Chemical Weekly: http://news.chemnet.com/en/detail-1411716.html
