Florence, Ky.-based Ticona — the engineering polymers business of Celanese Corp., Dallas — will expand its production complex in Nanjing, China, with the addition of a 15,000-metric-ton compounding unit that will produce compounds for such Ticona engineering polymers as Fortron®, Vandar®, Riteflex®, Celanex®, Hostaform® and Vectra®. The expansion is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2009.

The Nanjing complex is also home to a 600,000 metric ton acetic acid facility, a 300,000-metric-ton vinyl acetate monomer plant, a 100,000 metric ton acetic anhydride unit, and specialty acetyl derivatives units. In addition, a new Celstran® long fiber-reinforced thermoplastic facility is set to begin production at the complex early this year, while a 20,000-metric-ton GUR® ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene plant will begin production in the last half of 2008.

“Our Nanjing compounding unit will support our recently announced [Customer] Application Development Center in Shanghai,” said Lindsey Deal, director, Asia business development, Ticona. “ This will enable us to translate applications from other regions of the world, enhancing our ability to develop and expand regional applications based on advanced engineering polymers in the Ticona portfolio.”

Set to open sometime this year, the Customer Application Development Center will offer Ticona customers support for product and mold design using computer-aided engineering, process optimization based on injection molding trials, material testing, troubleshooting and customer training.

January 15, 2008