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Ticona targets Asia for growth
Ticona growth The engineering
plastics
targets business
of Celanese
plans to restructure
has announced
Asia. for AG,Ticona,
and expand
its opera-
tions in a number of deals in the Far East.The company sees a number of significant opportunities for growth over the next few years. Plastics Additives
Ticona Japan Ltd has recently been established to grow the company’s GUR’ ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (PE-UHMW) business. The new company will be headquartered in Tokyo and will strengthen new application development and provide support to local converters in the Asia-Pacific region. Ticona says that the market for PEUHMW is not as developed to the same extent as it is in North America and Europe. The company is the world leader for the material in a 74,000 tonnes/year market. Ticona’s current Asian business in this area is 2,000 tonnes/year, which represents 40% of the regional demand. This is currently mainly for porous applications for filtration and water purification, linings, machine building industry and battery separators. However, although Asia only currently represents around 12% of global demand, growth is expected to be around 12% per year, while growth in Europe and the Americas is anticipated to be 5-6% per year. The properties of GUR ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene include high abrasion resistance, low coefftcients of friction and good impact strength. Other applications include pump housings and in filtration technology in the chemical industry, skis and snowboards and the medical industry.
Liquid crystal
& Compounding
Chemicals Industries and Ticona, is to increase its capacity for Vectra@ liquid crys-
polymer
In a further move Polyplastics Co. Ltd of Tokyo, a joint venture between Daicel Plastics Additives
& Compounding
reports.
March 2000
tal polymer by 2,000 tonnes per year. The new plant will come on stream in the
Compounder fourth quarter of 2000. Together with Polyplastics’ existing capacity, Ticona will have an annual global capacity of 8,000 tonnes. The drive behind this capacity increase is the strong demand for Vectra in the AsiaPacific region as PC manufacturing shifts to the region. Connector demand - one of Vectra’s largest applications - is expected to increase by 25% per year over the next 2-3 years. In addition to the growth in the connectors business, Polyplastics and Ticona are developing new applications for advanced PC connectors/sockets and for devices for use in Audio Video systems, such as lensholders, pick-up units and connector blocks. Polyplastics predicts that volume increase in Japan for such new applications to be 20% per year. New polymerization technology has been developed by Polyplastics that will extend the Vectra LCP product range to include grades with higher heat deflection temperatures and higher melt viscosities. This will allow higher quality high temperature LCP compounds to be manufactured. Ticona and Polyplastics are also extending their existing licence agreements in LCP compounding technology. Liquid crystal polymers are high performance plastics that are semi-crystalline resins with long, rigid, rod-like molecules that are ordered even in the melt phase. The unique melting behaviour affects the properties and processing characteristics, and they can be processed through conventional thermoplastic techniques such as injection moulding, extrusion, coextrusion and blow moulding. The company says that LCPs offer a good balance of properties, including good flow in thin walls, dimensional precision and stability at high temperature and inherent flame retardancy. This makes them a good choice for connectors and in telecommunication applications. Chemical resistance and the ability to withstand sterilization means that they may also be used in surgical instruments. More than 80% of Vectra is used in the electrical and electronic sectors, mainly for connectors, sockets and other telecommunication devices. Other applications being developed include
automotive and minimally invasive surgical equipment in the medical field. Global demand for the compound in 1999 reached 12,000 tonnes. Demand in the Asia-Pacific region has grown significantly since 1996 and is now estimated to be 7,000 tonnes. Global demand is anticipated to reach 16,000 tonnes by 2001.
Polyacetal
compounds
Ticona and Polyplastics have also concluded a licence agreement for operating a new 30,000 tonnes/year polyacetal plant in Kuantan in Malaysia, which comes on stream in the first quarter of 2000. Polyplastics has production facilities in Fuji City, Japan and a new 12,000 tonnes/year compounding plant in Malaysia for polyacetal, polyester, polyphenylene-sulphide (PPS) and LCPs. The company distributes most of Ticona’s brands in the Far East.
profile
Ticona has just increased its capacity for polyacetal compounds at its Kelsterbach site in Germany from 60,000 tonnes/year to 77,000 tonnes/year. The company nou’ has a global polyacetal capacity of 163,000 tonnes and markets these products as Hostaform@ and Celcon@. There is also increased capacity for long-fibre reinforced thermoplastics (Celstran@, Compel@ and Fiberod@) at Kelsterbach up to 6,000 tonnes/year. In addition, construction is underway for the first commercial plant for Topas, the cycle-olefin copolymer produced using metallocene catalysts, for which Ticona is building a 30,000 tonnes/year plant in Oberhausen in Germany, which will be completed by mid-2000. n
Contact: Ticona GmbH D-60528 Frank&rt am Main Germany TeL:+49 69 305 3737 Fax: +49 69 305 83194
Plastics Additives
& Compounding
March
2000
plastics
targets business
of Celanese
plans to restructure
has announced
Asia. for AG,Ticona,
and expand
its opera-
tions in a number of deals in the Far East.The company sees a number of significant opportunities for growth over the next few years. Plastics Additives
Ticona Japan Ltd has recently been established to grow the company’s GUR’ ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (PE-UHMW) business. The new company will be headquartered in Tokyo and will strengthen new application development and provide support to local converters in the Asia-Pacific region. Ticona says that the market for PEUHMW is not as developed to the same extent as it is in North America and Europe. The company is the world leader for the material in a 74,000 tonnes/year market. Ticona’s current Asian business in this area is 2,000 tonnes/year, which represents 40% of the regional demand. This is currently mainly for porous applications for filtration and water purification, linings, machine building industry and battery separators. However, although Asia only currently represents around 12% of global demand, growth is expected to be around 12% per year, while growth in Europe and the Americas is anticipated to be 5-6% per year. The properties of GUR ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene include high abrasion resistance, low coefftcients of friction and good impact strength. Other applications include pump housings and in filtration technology in the chemical industry, skis and snowboards and the medical industry.
Liquid crystal
& Compounding
Chemicals Industries and Ticona, is to increase its capacity for Vectra@ liquid crys-
polymer
In a further move Polyplastics Co. Ltd of Tokyo, a joint venture between Daicel Plastics Additives
& Compounding
reports.
March 2000
tal polymer by 2,000 tonnes per year. The new plant will come on stream in the
Compounder fourth quarter of 2000. Together with Polyplastics’ existing capacity, Ticona will have an annual global capacity of 8,000 tonnes. The drive behind this capacity increase is the strong demand for Vectra in the AsiaPacific region as PC manufacturing shifts to the region. Connector demand - one of Vectra’s largest applications - is expected to increase by 25% per year over the next 2-3 years. In addition to the growth in the connectors business, Polyplastics and Ticona are developing new applications for advanced PC connectors/sockets and for devices for use in Audio Video systems, such as lensholders, pick-up units and connector blocks. Polyplastics predicts that volume increase in Japan for such new applications to be 20% per year. New polymerization technology has been developed by Polyplastics that will extend the Vectra LCP product range to include grades with higher heat deflection temperatures and higher melt viscosities. This will allow higher quality high temperature LCP compounds to be manufactured. Ticona and Polyplastics are also extending their existing licence agreements in LCP compounding technology. Liquid crystal polymers are high performance plastics that are semi-crystalline resins with long, rigid, rod-like molecules that are ordered even in the melt phase. The unique melting behaviour affects the properties and processing characteristics, and they can be processed through conventional thermoplastic techniques such as injection moulding, extrusion, coextrusion and blow moulding. The company says that LCPs offer a good balance of properties, including good flow in thin walls, dimensional precision and stability at high temperature and inherent flame retardancy. This makes them a good choice for connectors and in telecommunication applications. Chemical resistance and the ability to withstand sterilization means that they may also be used in surgical instruments. More than 80% of Vectra is used in the electrical and electronic sectors, mainly for connectors, sockets and other telecommunication devices. Other applications being developed include
automotive and minimally invasive surgical equipment in the medical field. Global demand for the compound in 1999 reached 12,000 tonnes. Demand in the Asia-Pacific region has grown significantly since 1996 and is now estimated to be 7,000 tonnes. Global demand is anticipated to reach 16,000 tonnes by 2001.
Polyacetal
compounds
Ticona and Polyplastics have also concluded a licence agreement for operating a new 30,000 tonnes/year polyacetal plant in Kuantan in Malaysia, which comes on stream in the first quarter of 2000. Polyplastics has production facilities in Fuji City, Japan and a new 12,000 tonnes/year compounding plant in Malaysia for polyacetal, polyester, polyphenylene-sulphide (PPS) and LCPs. The company distributes most of Ticona’s brands in the Far East.
profile
Ticona has just increased its capacity for polyacetal compounds at its Kelsterbach site in Germany from 60,000 tonnes/year to 77,000 tonnes/year. The company nou’ has a global polyacetal capacity of 163,000 tonnes and markets these products as Hostaform@ and Celcon@. There is also increased capacity for long-fibre reinforced thermoplastics (Celstran@, Compel@ and Fiberod@) at Kelsterbach up to 6,000 tonnes/year. In addition, construction is underway for the first commercial plant for Topas, the cycle-olefin copolymer produced using metallocene catalysts, for which Ticona is building a 30,000 tonnes/year plant in Oberhausen in Germany, which will be completed by mid-2000. n
Contact: Ticona GmbH D-60528 Frank&rt am Main Germany TeL:+49 69 305 3737 Fax: +49 69 305 83194
Plastics Additives
& Compounding
March
2000