Arkema trebles its polyamide production capacities in China

With a view to strengthening its high performance polyamide offering in Asia, Arkema announces a threefold production increase at its Changshu plant near Shanghai by 2013. These new polyamide capacities will help Arkema meet the sharply growing demand from its Asian customers, in particular in the automotive and energy markets.

This capacity increase covers products from the Rilsan® (biosourced polyamide 11) and Rilsamid® (polyamide 12) families, and will entail the construction of a new production line with a polymerization capacity of 6,000 metric tons. The plant will start producing in the first half of 2012, reaching full capacity by summer 2013.

“The capacity increase of our Changshu site illustrates our long-term commitment to our customers in the Chinese and Asian markets. It will help boost our leading position in the high performance polyamide markets, while also providing our customers with local service from our competitive platform in Changshu”, indicates Frederic Marot-Achillas, Managing Director Technical Polymers Business Unit.

Used extensively in high added value high tech applications, Rilsan® and Rilsamid® are the only polyamides on the market to combine a range of outstanding top-of-the range qualities. They stand out in particular by their thermal and chemical stability, their mechanical strength, and countless design and processing possibilities.