Lanxess and Ticona have both announced new projects in China at the Chinaplas exhibition taking place in Shanghai this week.
Lanxess’s Semi-Crystalline Products business unit, based in Wuxi, near Shanghai, is to add a second production line after starting operations only last year. The project will double the capacity for the company’s Durethan polyamides and Pocan PBT materials to more than 40,000tpa.
The company’s Technical Rubber Products unit in Qingdao, in the province of Shandong, plans to set up a rubber research centre. In another development, Lanxess is considering a Chinese location, among other international sites, for a new facility in Asia for producing ion exchange resins.
Axel Heitmann, chairman of the Lanxess board of management, said: “China continues to be our biggest growth driver in Asia.”
Ticona’s announcement at Chinaplas concerned a project to create a customer application development centre in Shanghai. The Shanghai region was chosen for the facility because many Ticona customers have their headquarters and engineering facilities nearby.
Lyndon Cole, president of Ticona, said: “The future application development centre confirms our long-term commitment to China.”
In mid-May, Ticona also held a ground-breaking ceremony in Nanjing, China for two new production plants. The company’s LFRT facility will come on stream in the first half of 2008, while its UHME-PE plant will be completed in the second half of 2008.
Ticona’s parent Celanese is owned by private equity company Blackstone, which signed a deal earlier this week in which the Chinese government will buy a 10% stake in Blackstone for $3bn.
