LANXESS, one of the world’s foremost specialty chemicals companies, is making € 15 million investment to expand its glass fiber facility in the Antwerp docklands, Belgium. The plant expansion will increase the annual production capacity of 60,000 t by 10%. Glass fibers are the major raw materials for the company to produce high-tech plastics.
Earlier, the company had finalized an investment of € 35 million to increase the production of caprolactam, a plastic intermediate, in the Antwerp docklands site. The annual capacity of 200,000 t will be improved by another 10%. Over half of the glass fibers and caprolactam produced by LANXESS are used for internal purposes.
Werner Breuers, board member of the company, stated that LANXESS’s growth is significantly driven by the high-tech plastics business. The worldwide demand for high-tech plastics is anticipated to rise by approximately 7% through 2020.
Recently, LANXESS has made major investments to expand its global high-tech plastic production network and the total investment accounts to € 90 million. Semi-Crystalline Products (SCP) business of LANXESS supplies superior high-tech plastics and the automotive industry is its principal customer. The company also invests to build new compounding facilities in the U.S. and Asia, as well as to increase capacity of the existing compounding plants.
Source: http://www.lanxess.com/