US Celanese to expand compounding, resin capacity

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US-based compounder and resin producer Celanese plans to expand capacity at several sites throughout the world, it said on Monday.

For compounding, the new lines and expansions will add 50,000-60,000 tonnes/year of compounding capacity, the company said. Debottlenecking existing plants will add another 10,000-15,000 tonnes/year of capacity.

For Celstran long-fiber thermoplastics (LFT), a new line and debottlenecking will add 9,000 tonnes/year of capacity.

For GUR ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE), the new line will add 15,000 tonnes/year of capacity.

The table below lists the new projects.

Product	Site	Project type
Compounding	Nanjing, China	2 lines
Compounding	Suzhou, China	1 line
Compounding	Florence, Kentucky	2 lines
Compounding	Bishop, Texas	expansion
Compounding	Forli, Italy	1 line
Celstran LFT	Winona, Minnesota	1 line
Celstran LFT	Winona, Minnesota	debottleneck
GUR UHMW-PE	Nanjing, China	1 line

Celanese expects to complete the projects in 2018-2019, it said. The company did not say how much the projects would cost.

Celanese is building the plants to meet growing demand for specialty materials from the medical, automotive, consumer-goods and electronics industry, said Scott Richardson, senior vice president, Celanese engineered materials business.