Chemtura breaks ground on petroleum additives, urethanes facility in China
US-based specialty chemicals firm Chemtura on Tuesday held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new, multipurpose manufacturing facility in Nantong, China.
The Nantong facility in Jiangsu Province, first announced in June 2011, will be operational within the next two years with four production units supporting Chemtura’s industrial performance products segment, which includes its petroleum additives and urethanes businesses.
The first production unit expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2013.
There also are plans to manufacture additional products in future phases, the company said.
This facility will be Chemtura’s largest single investment since its formation in 2005 and the centerpiece site for manufacturing in Asia-Pacific, and specifically in China, the company said.
The investment is being made over a three-year period.
“This project is a huge step forward and a statement to our customers and investors that we are truly committed to our growth strategy in the world’s fast growing regions,” said Craig A. Rogerson, Chemtura CEO.
“We are going to make a broad array of our leading-edge products at Nantong in order to be closer to our customers, to shorten the timeframe for new product development and commercialization in the region, as well as to shorten the supply chain for these growing markets.”
The state-of-the-art Nantong facility will include production lines, administrative and maintenance buildings, utilities, a centralized control room, and quality control labs.
The petroleum additives business requires local manufacturing and storage capabilities for some of its product lines in order to meet customer demand, Chemtura said.
These include synthetic finished fluids (refrigeration lubricants, air compressor lubricants and gear oils), and calcium sulfonate grease.
Local manufacturing capacity for synthetic lubricants is required for the business to respond to the market’s demand for shorter lead times.
Installation of grease capacity in China will provide Chemtura’s customers with a more secure global supply capability, and will place capacity in the region with the highest growth rate, the company said.
Growth in the urethanes business, including its low-free (LF) prepolymer urethanes, is driven by the commercialization of Chemtura’s high-performance, greener Adiprene Duracast product line coupled with increasing global and regional demand for its LF products, according to the company.
Additional LF prepolymer manufacturing capacity in China will allow Chemtura to continue to grow its most advanced product lines and places capacity in a region with strong demand growth, while preserving existing capacity elsewhere to continue supplying customers in other regions.
In addition to the planned development of local manufacturing capacity, Chemtura said it plans to continue to build global scale through investing in sales representation, technical development centers, joint ventures and bolt-on acquisitions.
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