LANXESS Wuxi plant may raise further expansion capacity
04 May '06
3 min read
Compounding System at Lanxess
Leather chemicals manufacturer LANXESS chemical group's Semi-Crystalline Products (SCP) Business Unit has opened its first production site in Asia, located some 120 kilometers northwest of Shanghai.
A state-of-the-art compounding plant for the engineering plastics Durethan (polyamide) and Pocan (polyester) started production on April 27, 2006 on the site of LANXESS Wuxi Chemicals Ltd. Annual production of some 20,000 tons of plastic is envisaged in the first phase. The total investment is in the region of EUR 20 million.
”The new plant will help us to increase sales of our high-performance polymers Durethan and Pocan by 50 percent over the next five years,” explained Dr. Axel C. Heitmann, Chairman of the Board of Management at LANXESS AG.
The company intends to add a further line at the plant and double its capacity in the near future. Market growth for products like Pocan and Durethan, which are used in the electrical engineering and electronics, automotive and domestic sectors, is currently around eight percent in Asia, and as high as 13 percent in China.
At the heart of the plant is a compounding system that is designed for a throughput of more than 3000 kg/h. Upstream of the twin-screw compounder are feeding and unloading stations for sacks and big bags. Operations downstream of the compounding machine include pelletizing, grading, pellet cooling, and transfer of the finished pellets to silos.
LANXESS has successfully completed qualification of the products at its customers in Asia. Furthermore, all test runs of the plant have been conducted without problems. Employees from Wuxi were trained in the compounding plant at Uerdingen to ensure things ran smoothly from the outset.
marketing@alchempro.com
