DSM inaugurates Akulon® PA6 polymer plant in China

Royal DSM N.V., the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, today announces the inauguration of its new polymer plant in Jiangyin (Jiangsu province, China). The plant produces high viscosity grades of Akulon® polyamide 6 (PA6) aimed at the fast growing high end food packaging market in Asia. Construction of the plant, which was announced in September 2006, involved several tens of millions of USD. Mr. Zhu Min Yang, Secretary to the Communist Party Committee of Jiangyin City, as well as other government officials and guests, attended the ceremony along with Jos Goessens, President of DSM Engineering Plastics, Jiang Wei Ming, President of DSM China, and other senior members of DSM Engineering Plastics Asia Pacific. China is very important in DSM’s strategy Vision 2010 – Building on Strengths. It is one of the key growth countries where significant investments are being made and in 2007 DSM raised its sales target for China in 2010 from USD 1.0 billion to USD 1.5 billion. This first Akulon® PA6 polymerization plant for DSM in China significantly supports the increasing demand for polyamide 6 in the region, and also contributes to the development of the fast growing food packaging industry in China and Asia-Pacific. Jiangyin has been the main production site for DSM Engineering Plastics in Asia for the past ten years. As demand from customers in both China and the rest of Asia has grown rapidly in recent years, DSM announced in November 2007 to expand the engineering plastics compounding capacity by 50%. This increase is to be operational towards the end of 2008. DSM also operates a Regional Development & Support Center at the Jiangyin site. The new plant for Akulon® PA6 uses leading technology and is equipped with best-in-class safety, health and environment compliance systems. The facility design allows for additional capacity expansion to accommodate further growth in demand in the future. This new polymer facility makes DSM the only company to produce the entire PA6 chain, including caprolactam, polymer and compounded products in China.