Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) announced the addition of a new GUR ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) production line at its Nanjing, China manufacturing facility to support the significant growth in its engineered materials business, specifically the electric vehicle market.
“As the global demand for specialty materials increases in key industries such as medical, automotive, consumer goods and energy storage, Celanese is partnering with our customers to deliver the innovative materials found in products that consumers around the world use every day,” said Scott Sutton, Celanese Chief Operating Officer. “The GUR capacity expansion at our Nanjing integrated chemical complex will enable Celanese to continue to support a growing and diverse customer base and respond to the increasing need for specialty materials such as ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene.”
The new production line at Celanese’s Nanjing manufacturing facility is expected to add approximately 15,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of GUR UHMW-PE product capacity by 2019.
In addition to the demand for GUR in sheet, profile and filter markets, Celanese is seeing market growth for GUR in lithium ion battery separators for electric vehicle applications, resulting in 20% to 30% growth in demand per year, with most processors being located in China.