Sep 15 2006
Degussa, the world’s leading specialty chemicals company, and Shanghai Chemical Industry Park Development Ltd., (SCIP) today concluded a further major cooperation agreement in Berlin. The contract was signed by Degussa Management Board Member Dr. Manfred Spindler and the President of SCIP Yanhua Ruan, in the presence of the Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel and the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao.
This new cooperation agreement consolidates and expands Degussa’s collaboration with SCIP. Two years ago the partners signed an initial cooperation agreement. The specialty chemicals company has since brought production facilities for polyester and colorants on stream at its multi-user site (MUSC). MUSC is a site where the new activities of several of Degussa's business units are established.
The signing of the agreement today was occasioned by Degussa's planned expansion of its multi-user site, which will include the construction of a large integrated production complex for PLEXIGLAS® specialties and the corresponding intermediate, methyl methacrylate (MMA).
Plans are for an MMA facility with an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes, which will practically all be processed into highly-refined methacrylate specialties and polymers. This world scale facility is scheduled to come on stream at the beginning of 2009, and will involve a total investment volume over the next few years in the region of three-digit million euros. The plans for an MMA facility in China underscore Degussa’s global growth strategy in this market, consolidating its position as one of the world's leading manufacturers of methacrylates. These are components used in a wide variety of products, such as scratch-proof paints, top-quality adhesives, modern interior trims for cars and numerous plastics applications.
Degussa regards China as one of the driving forces of the global economy, and therefore intends to increase its business in this attractive growth region to around 800 million euros within three years. Degussa's wide range of products already include carbon black, rubber silanes, amino acids, polyurethane foam additives, coating polyesters, pigment pastes, color tinting systems, high-performance plastics and initiators for plastics manufacture. These products cater for customers not only in China but in the whole of Asia as well.
In fiscal 2005, some 2,600 employees in China generated total sales of more than 320 million euros. In the first half of 2006 Degussa increased its sales in China by more than 50 percent over the same period of the previous year.