Lanxess building largest EPDM plant

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Shanghai/Leverkusen - Lanxess is building the world’s largest plant for ethylene propylene diene monomer in China. The German specialty chemicals company is investing EUR 235 million in the plant in Changzhou (Jiangsu Province). This is the largest investment the company has made in China to date. The plant will have a capacity of 160,000 metric tons per year and the investment will create up to 200 new jobs. The plant is expected to start up 2015. All necessary permits have been obtained from the local authorities. Lanxess is the world’s leading supplier of EPDM following the successful acquisition and integration of DSM Elastomers in 2011. It markets its products under the brand name Keltan. Global demand for EPDM is expected to increase by more than four percent per annum in the coming years, while demand in China is expected to grow by around eight percent, driven above all by automotive and construction industries. China will also continue to be the largest net importer of EPDM in the coming years. “This plant also represents our company’s third major rubber investment in Asia and strengthens our credentials as the world’s leading provider of synthetic rubber,” said Lanxess CEO Axel C. Heitmann. Lanxess will start up a world-scale butyl rubber plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island in the first quarter of 2013 and will break ground for a neighboring neodymium-based performance butadiene rubber plant on September 11 this year.

(Source: Rubber World)