Aug 12 2008
Almatis announced today that it is establishing a full-scale calcines production facility in China, bringing the total investment into the production and processing of calcined specialty alumina products in the region to USD 50 million.
The new plant will be integrated with the existing Huangdao (Qingdao) tabular operation. The first phase of the project, a batch mill, will start production by the end of 2008. The kiln and other downstream processing equipment are scheduled to come on-stream by mid-2010.
This investment positions Almatis strategically to continue meeting the rising demand of customers in South East Asia for premium alumina products. China remains the world’s largest steel producing nation and there is significant growth potential in the Asian markets in ceramic applications such as flat panel displays, spark plugs and electronic substrates.
“This decision represents a major commitment to supporting our customers’ future growth. We are investing our resources in this large project at a time when the global economic outlook is uncertain and our industry has to cope with massive increases of key input factor cost such as feedstock, energy and transportation. We see however the need for further investment to ensure sufficient availability of premium specialty alumina as enablers of growth in a range of industries”, comments Martin Laudenbach, Almatis’ CEO. “Our customers can furthermore expect increased flexibility and shorter delivery times as a result of the greater market proximity of the new facility and reduced dependency on long distance shipping.”
The new Asian calcines production facility complements Almatis’ existing calcines operations in North America and Europe. The project will incorporate state-of-the-art energy efficient technology for stable and efficient production.
For more information on calcines, click here.