Lanxess to invest €400m in Singapore plant

26 February 2008 02:07  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Germany-based Lanxess said on Tuesday that it has selected Singapore as the site of its largest investment – a €400m ($592m) butyl rubber plant.

From 2011, the site in Singapore will produce up to 100,000 tonnes/year of butyl. Construction is due to begin in the first quarter of 2009 with 150 engineers and 1,500 workmen who will be employed on the building sites, and will be completed by the end of 2010.

Some 10-15% of construction expenditure is expected to to go into installing pioneering environmental technology. Around 200 new jobs will initially be created, it said.

“By setting up this new location in Singapore, Lanxess is responding to the significant growth in global demand for butyl rubber,” the chemical maker’s chairman, Axel Heitmann, said.

The company said growth is most pronounced in China where it corresponds to 6% annually, and in India, where it is more than 8% annually.

The new chemical facility will produce butyl and halobutyl, synthetic rubbers that are used in the production of tyres.

Lanxess' butyl rubber unit has annual sales of over €500m. JTC Corp has offered the company attractive terms for the site on Jurong Island that covers about 20,000 sq m.

($1= €0.67)

By: Florence Tan
+65 6780 4359

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