INTERVIEW: Ticona set on China for new products

22 May 2007 16:57  [Source: ICIS news]

by Florence Tan

 

GUANGZHOU, China (ICIS news)--US polymers maker Ticona is mulling a location in China to build an application centre after breaking ground on two projects, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

 

The polymers arm of Celanese was also considering new investments in polymers such as liquid crystal polymer and polyoxymethylene (POM) in China, Ticona president Lyndon Cole told ICIS news on the sidelines of the Chinaplas conference in Guangzhou.

 

“We’re in the very, very early phases of looking at polymers like such as crystal polymer and polyacetals [POM]… but we won’t build those until the market really needs it,” he said, adding that Ticona’s current global capacity was more than 200,000 tonnes/year.

 

These projects could be located in Nanjing Chemical Industry Park where Celanese has started on-spec production at its acetic acid plant and broke ground on vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) and acetic anhydride projects, Cole said.

 

China’s typical POM growth rate last year has been 8-12%, double that in the rest of the world, Cole said.

 

“When we build a plant, it’s minimum 60,000 tonnes/year in output, but the [current] supply and demand picture is pretty balanced,” he added.

 

Demand for POM was growing rapidly in the automotive segment in fuel systems, connectors and gears as well as in the medical industry.

 

“It tends to be a lot of small highly functional type of applications,” Cole said.

 

Besides adding new production in China, Ticona plans to build an applications centre either in Shanghai or Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in 2008.

 

The company is looking for people with the right qualifications and proximity to its customers when considering the centre’s location, he added.

 

Ticona broke ground on Monday in Nanjing to build units producing ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) and long fibre-reinforced thermoplastic.

 

The demand for UHMW-PE, used in water filtration membranes, battery separators and joint transplants, is growing by 10-20% each year.

 

“[This is] quite an established market here in China,” Cole said, adding that the country’s water issues will increase the use of the material.

 

The PE plant will start up in mid-2008, boosting its total capacity to more than 90,000 tonnes/year worldwide, while the long fibre-reinforced thermoplastic unit, due on stream early next year, will raise its overall output to more than 35,000 tonnes/year.

 

The fibre, based on polypropylene (PP), is mainly used in the electrical and electronics sector as well as in automotives, where there is a push to reduce weight and consolidate parts. It is already used by European car makers such as Volkswagen, Jaguar and Audi.

 

Demand in China was expected to grow more than 15% each year, and the same applications in Europe will be translated for emerging Chinese car makers and Ticona's European customers, Cole said.

 

China contributed to only 10% of its total revenue last year, but Cole is predicting double-digit growth in the near term, he added.

 

“These two new plants will give us a step up on growth on local production, sales and marketing and create a lot of new applications locally. We look forward to growing sizeably in China and in Asia,” he said.

 

By: Florence Tan
+65 6780 4359

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