Dr Thomas Haeberle, Evonik Executive Board Member.
ESSEN, GERMANY: Evonik Industries will build in Shanghai, China, world-scale plants for producing isophorone and isophorone diamine. The group is investing more than €100 million in the plants, which are scheduled to go onstream in the first quarter of 2014. Construction work on the multi-user site China (MUSC), Evonik’s production site in Shanghai, will begin in early 2012.
“The investment shall further consolidate our strong market and technology positions in isophorone chemistry,” said Dr Thomas Haeberle, Evonik Executive Board Member. Evonik expects to see strong growth in demand for raw materials used in the paint, coating, and construction industries, for automotive applications and for high performance composite materials especially in Asia. This growth will also be driven particularly by the increasing demand for wind turbines.
The plants in Shanghai will be the first for isophorone and isophorone diamine in Asia. "By establishing the production platform in China we want to support the long-term growth ambitions of our customers in Asia region. This strategic positioning will allow us to plan capacities even more efficiently," explained Dr Ulrich Küsthardt, Head of the Coatings & Additives Business Unit, Evonik.
Evonik distributes the products worldwide under the trademarks of Vestamin, Vestanat, Vestagon and Vestasol.
(C) WOC News