Rhodia's new subsidiary to oversee Chinese silica facility

ERJ staff report (SS)

Lyon, France -- Rhodia has formed a new company -- RSQC (Rhodia Silica Qingdao Chengyang-- to manage the construction and subsequent operation of its planned silica facility in China.

The company, which will have an initial share capital of approximately Euro 16 million, will be based in the city of Qingdao - where the group already operates a silica plant - and will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Rhodia.

“With this announcement, I am pleased to be able to confirm the start of the construction of this major addition to our global production network,” said Eric Noyrez, president of Rhodia Silcea, in a 20 Feb statement. Noyrez said the plant is expected to be the second-largest silica plant in the world on start-up and will be the largest after the first scheduled expansion.

The world-scale plant in China, will focus on producing highly dispersible silica for the rapidly growing energy-efficient tyre market and will be built using a modular design to enable its easy expansion, is due to start-up in July 2009