LANXESS Antwerp caprolactam expansion will go ahead

20 January 2010 18:12  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--LANXESS is to go-ahead with a €35.0m ($49.4m) 10% expansion of its Antwerp, Belgium caprolactam capacity after the economic downturn put the project on hold, a source at the company said on Thursday.

The Germany-based engineering plastics producer intends to increase the capacity of the plant to around 220,000 tonnes/year of caprolactam, (which is needed mainly for the manufacture of thermoplastic polyester polyamide (PA) 6) and also increase KA oil (a mixture of cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol) capacity 25% to 150,000 tonnes/year by the summer of 2011.

LANXESS announced the initial expansion plans in September 2008 with the view of completion this year. However the company said in December that year that it would postpone several projects including the investment at Antwerp due to a decline in demand for its products.

The expansion would improve the competitiveness of the site as well as consolidate LANXESS's position in the global plastics business, the source said.

The company’s Antwerp complex consists of five plants, with the caprolactam unit positioned at the end of a chain which yields cyclohexanone and oleum - highly concentrated sulphuric acid - and their pre-products for caprolactam production, the source added.

($1 = €0.70)

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By: Franco Capaldo
+44 (0)20 8652 3214

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