Production of precipitated silica has commenced at the Evonik Industries plant in South Carolina, USA. The facility, set up with an investment of around US$120 million, will primarily meet demand from tyre manufacturers in North America for Evonik’s Ultrasil products. More than 40 new jobs have been created by the project.
Plans to build a precipitated silica production facility in the US state of South Carolina have been officially confirmed by Evonik Industries. The new plant will be located in the Bushy Park industrial area near Charleston, close to the factories of a number of tyre makers, including Michelin, Bridgestone, Continental, Trelleborg and (as of 2017) Giti Tire. Evonik Industries will invest approximately US$120 million in the plant, which will be completed in 2018.
Production has commenced at Evonik Industries’ new precipitated silica plant in Brazil. The facility in Americana, São Paulo state is the first to produce highly dispersible silica for the South American tyre industry, and was set up with a “mid-double-digit million euro” investment. Evonik has yet to comment on the plant’s initial or maximum production capacity, however it declares its global capacity for precipitated and fume silicas, and for matting agents, to be 600,000 tonnes a year.
Last May, Germany’s Evonik Industries reported its intention to set up a precipitated silica plant in the USA, near major tyre factories located in the country’s southeast. US newspaper The Post and Courier now reports that this facility will be built in Berkeley County, South Carolina and constructed with an investment of US$129.4 million. The publication writes that while Evonik has yet to officially confirm its choice of location, the company’s plans can be found in South Carolina state agency documents.
An “upper double-digit” euro investment will help Evonik Industries supply growing demand within the North American tyre industry for precipitated silica. The company has announced plans to set up a precipitated silica production plant in the USA. The facility, which will be built in the southeast of the country, in “close proximity to major American tyre production sites,” is scheduled to be completed in late 2017. The overall project now awaits approval from relevant bodies.
PPG Industries is increasing production capacity for precipitated silica at its manufacturing site in Delfzijl, the Netherlands by more than 15,000 tons a year. The decision to raise capacity was made in part as global demand for the company’s Agilon performance silica products is growing; this growth, PPG Industries notes, has been facilitated by the signing of a new multi-year global supply agreement with a multinational tyre manufacturer that will require “large-scale” volumes of Agilon. The company expects the extra capacity to come online in 2016.
A 20,000 tonne expansion to Evonik Corporation’s precipitated silica plant in Chester, Pennsylvania officially opened on 9 September, and has boosted the company’s global capacity for precipitated and fumed silica and matting agents to around 550,000 tonnes per annum.
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