Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) announced plans to expand the capacity of its global compounding assets and certain product-specific manufacturing production sites to support the significant growth in its engineered materials business.
“As the global demand for specialty materials increases in key industries such as medical, automotive, consumer goods and electronics, Celanese is partnering with our customers to deliver the innovative materials found in products that consumers around the world use every day,” said Scott Richardson, senior vice president, Celanese engineered materials business. “These planned capacity expansions at selected Celanese facilities – along with our recent acquisitions – will enable us to continue to support a growing and diverse customer base and respond to the increasing need for compounded specialty materials, long-fiber thermoplastics and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene.”
Several expansions are planned within the global Celanese compounding manufacturing network. In the Asia region, Celanese will add two production lines at its Nanjing, China facility and one production line at its recently acquired Suzhou, China facility.
In the Americas region, Celanese will add two production lines at its Florence, Kentucky facility, as well as expand compounding production capacity at its Bishop, Texas facility. Finally, in the European region, Celanese will add one new production line at its recently acquired Forli, Italy facility.
Celanese expects these new production lines and expansions will add approximately 50,000-60,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) in compounding capacity. The company also expects through the debottlenecking of existing global production lines to see an additional 10,000-15,000 m.t./yr capacity of compounded material production capability.
Furthermore, the company also announced expansion projects for the Celstran LFT product line. In the Americas region, Celanese is in the process of adding one new Celstran long-fiber thermoplastics (LFT) production line at its Winona, Minnesota facility as well as debottlenecking existing production lines at this facility.
The company expects through this expansion and the debottlenecking of existing global LFT production lines to see an additional 9,000 m.t./yr of capacity.
Finally, in the Asia region, Celanese is in the planning stages of one new GUR ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) production line at its Nanjing, China facility.
The company expects this new production line to add approximately 15,000 m.t./yr of new GUR UHMW-PE product capacity.
These projects are expected to be completed in the 2018-2019 timeframe and financial details are not being disclosed at this time.