Germany’s Evonik builds new specialty copolymers unit

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Germany’s Evonik is building a new specialty copolymers plant at its Witten site in Germany which is expected to start commercial operations in the first quarter of 2018, the specialty chemicals maker said on Tuesday.

The company will invest “a mid-double-digit million euro sum in the plant, which will have an annual production capacity of several thousand metric tons”, the company said in a statement.

The project is on track to reach mechanical completion by end of November 2017, it said.

Polyester based coatings are perceived as a good alternative to substitute the standard epoxy based coating systems to ensure food packaging that are free of bisphenol a, Evonik said.

“Evonik has early on anticipated this trend and decided at the end of 2015 to invest in additional capacity to be well prepared to accompany further growth in this market,” it added.