Ticona to nearly double Celstran® LFRT production at manufacturing unit in China

<p style="font-style:italic">Ticona, the engineering polymers business of Celanese Corporation, announced it will nearly double production at its Celstran® long fiber reinforced thermoplastic (LFRT) manufacturing unit in Nanjing, China.</p><p>The Celstran LFRT manufacturing unit, part of the Celanese Nanjing Integrated Chemical Complex that is the company's largest integrated chemical plant in China, came online in 2008 with an initial nameplate capacity of 5,000 metric tonnes per year. Ticona expects to nearly double the manufacturing unit’s annual capacity by the end of the fourth quarter this year.</p><p>“Based on the success of the first line in Nanjing, Ticona is ramping up production to meet the continued demand of this product by our global customers,” said Michael Harding, global business line director LFRT. “With Celstran LFRT plants in strategic locations in the United States, Germany and China, Ticona is the only truly global supplier with the capacity to support customers worldwide.”</p><p>Celstran LFRT is an engineering thermoplastic that can be tailored to provide application-specific combinations of mechanical properties, impact and creep resistance, and low warpage. It is the material of choice for a variety of automotive applications, such as instrument panels that require large, strong, lightweight components or assemblies.</p><p>Celstran LFRT is produced by pultrusion technology, a process in which the long fibers are fully impregnated to deliver optimal reinforcement to the base plastic resin matrix, which can include polypropylene, nylon and polyurethane.</p>