Marc Schuller, Executive Vice President, Arkema.
COLOMBES, FRANCE: On October 6th 2012, Arkema and CJ CheilJedang broke ground for their project in Kerteh, in Terengganu state, Malaysia. After several years of studies, the construction of the first bio-methionine plant in the world and thiochemicals platform in Asia officially started, right on schedule. The plant is scheduled to come on stream by end 2013.
Total investment amount for the joint project is about $450 million, where CJ will build and operate bio-methionine plant and Arkema will build and operate thiochemical plant. When completed, the facility will be able to produce 80,000 metric tonne of bio-methionine additives for poultry and 50,000 metric tonne of sulphur derivatives for the petrochemical markets.
Arkema owns an in-house production process of methyl mercaptan, a sulphur-based intermediate that is used in production of methionine. CJ owns a new innovative and highly competitive industrial bio-fermentation process to produce L-methionine, a bio-amino acid for animal feed, from renewable raw materials. The combination of CJ & Arkema will bring innovation and latest manufacturing plant services, offering superior performance to customers.
“This significant project will consolidate our position in sulphur chemicals and allow us to meet growing needs of customers from petrochemicals, animal nutrition and oil & gas markets in Asia,” said Marc Schuller, Executive Vice President, Arkema.
“This project will put CJ as the global leader in feed amino acid industry as it will be the only company in the world to produce four major feed amino acid products in their natural form,” said Chul-Ha Kim, CEO, CJ CheilJedang.
The choice of the site went to Kerteh because of its logistical infrastructures and availability of utilities and raw materials at competitive prices.
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