Lanxess to build Euro 400 million butyl facility in Asia

Leverkusen/Singapore - Chemical group Lanxess AG has announced it will build a Euro 400 million butyl rubber plant in Asia, which it hopes to have on-stream by 2010.

The location of the facility, which will produce both butyl and halobutyl rubber, is yet to be released, but the company has said it will be either in Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand.

According to the company's 27 June statement, the investment “is designed to serve tyre production, which is increasingly shifting from the US and Western Europe to Asia.”

“This would be the largest investment in the history of our company,” said Axel Heitmann, Lanxess management board chairman, in the statement.

This facility will add to Lanxess' existing butyl capacity of 265 kilotonnes per-annum, which is divided between its two plants in Sarnia, Canda and Zwijndrecht, Belgium.

When asked why the company did not choose China as the location, a company spokesman said, “We believe that we can find the best conditions to produce our product.

“Also China is not far away, so we can still supply our clients there,” he added, in a telephone conversation with ERJ.

The plant will belong to the Lanxess Performance Rubber segment, which achieved total sales of Euro 1776 million in 2006.

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Press release
from Lanxess