Lanxess to build Singapore Nd-PBR plant
Following a feasibility study evaluating potential locations throughout Asia, Lanxess has announced plans to erect a second synthetic rubber facility on Singapore’s Juron Island. A memorandum of understanding on the new plant is scheduled to be signed by the German company’s CEO Axel C. Heitmann and Singapore Economic Development Board chairman Leo Yip on June 2; the signing ceremony has been scheduled to coincide with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first-ever visit to Singapore.
Approximately 200 million euros are to be invested in the facility, which will be located adjacent to Lanxess’ under-construction butyl rubber plant in the Jurong Island Chemical Park and is expected to produce 140,000 tonnes of polybutadiene rubber (Nd-PBR) per annum. The plant, Lanxess notes, will be the largest of its kind in the world. Operations are expected to commence in the first half of 2015 and around 100 jobs will be created at the site. Lanxess’ other Juron Island project, the 400 million euro butyl rubber facility, will come on stream in the first quarter of 2013. “It is only one year since we broke ground for our butyl plant in Singapore. Now we are ready to move forward with the second largest investment project in our history,” Heitmann commented. “The dynamic Asia region is a key cornerstone of our mid-term growth strategy.”
Singapore became the site of choice for the new factory due to the accessibility to raw materials it offers. Central to this is a memorandum of understanding Lanxess has signed with the Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (Private) Limited (PCS). This document secures long-term supply, via pipeline, of butadiene from PCS to Lanxess and raffinate II from Lanxess to PCS. Butadiene is the raw material Lanxess needs to produce Nd-PBR and raffinate II will be a product stream from Lanxess’ future butyl rubber plant in Singapore. “We are delighted to have reached this MoU with Lanxess to supply the key feedstock for its state-of-the-art synthetic rubber plant and to purchase raffinate II from them,” said PCS managing director Akira Yonemura.
Other arguments in favour of Singapore were its excellent infrastructure, highly-skilled workforce, large sea port and close proximity to growth markets. “We are delighted with Lanxess’ intention to build its new Nd-PBR plant in Singapore,” said Leo Yip. “Lanxess’ expansion plan is a testament to Singapore’s value as a strategic location for high-value manufacturing activities.”
Output from the new plant will meet demand for high performance ‘green tyres’, a segment that is, according to Lanxess, the tyre industry’s fastest growing sector with an annual global growth rate of about nine per cent. Growth is even more pronounced in Asia at 14 per cent per year.
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