ExxonMobil Chemical launches $90m technology centre in China

30 March 2011 06:12  [Source: ICIS news]

By Judith Wang

SHANGHAI (ICIS)--ExxonMobil Chemical is planning to increase development of new premium products for Asia by opening a $90m (€64m) technology centre it completed over two years in fast-growing China, the company said on Wednesday.

The Shanghai Technology Center (STC), inaugurated by ExxonMobil Chemical president Stephen Pryor, aims to help deliver innovative customer solutions, the company said in a statement.

“We anticipate tremendous premium-product growth and this centre will support that growth by delivering innovative customer solutions,” Pryor said at the opening ceremony of the STC, located in Shanghai's Zizhu Science-based Industrial Park.

The 27,000sqm facility contains advanced analytical and testing laboratory equipment and commercial-scale product processing equipment, including blown and cast-film extrusion, injection moulding, compounding, and packaging. 

The facility is ExxonMobil Chemical's third-largest technology centre in the world. The company has two major technology centres in the US and Europe.

“The STC enables us to work more closely with Asian customers on premium-product applications and tailor solutions to the local market,” said William Cirioli, vice president of global technology at ExxonMobil Chemical.

ExxonMobil sees China’s petrochemical demand growth outpacing GDP expansion in the next five years.

“I expect China’s petrochemical demand growth will be above [the] GDP. As [China’s] GDP continues to grow and urbanisation continues to take place, the demand for petrochemical products increases along with that,” Cirioli told ICIS in an interview on Tuesday.

“We certainly see that [demand growth] continuing over the next five-year period and naturally for a long time in the future,” Cirioli added.

The company plans to continue to invest in the centre in Shanghai to meet future technology-growth needs in the region, Cirioli said.

Work on the STC started in May 2009.

ExxonMobil Chemical is a major petrochemical company with manufacturing, technology, and marketing operations around the world.

($1 = €0.71)

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Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections

By: Judith Wang
+65 6780 4359

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