Back LANXESS company's high-performance plastic products business investment history.
In a downturn, there are certainly some goals to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a seemingly saturated market to expand production capacity, and LANXESS invested 300 million euros in its flagship plant in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2004. The reason What can be glimpsed at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the LANXESS plant in the Schelde district of Cologne ...
Antwerp, Belgium, full of container ships and tugboats, has the second-largest cargo port in Europe and is also the largest chemical industrial park in the region. According to the port company, 70% of the well-known chemical companies transport equipment and materials are finished here. The perfect harbor, highways, railways and inland shipping networks in the Ruhr area make Antwerp the main chemical transshipment center, with around 10% of the global production of chemicals being transhipped in Antwerp. More than 1,000 kilometers of pipeline Chemical companies and trading companies connect to become a huge network.
Here is the specialty chemicals company LANXESS, which employs 1,200 people and the Antwerp Chemical Plant is their second largest production base, starting 50 years ago on April 24, 1967, at Bayer AG With the support of the first production of caprolactam using equipment in the port area, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the plant, the head of the company once again announced an additional investment of 25 million euros in the production of polyamide and plastic primary products.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of all investment: In the past 10 years, LANXESS invested more than 300 million euros in Antwerp.The core of this pioneering project is to build an annual output of 90,000 tons, with the existing lactam production facilities Of polymer production equipment in the world, Antwerp's hybrid process equipment has delivered polyamides for high-performance plastic products around the world since its commissioning in the summer of 2014. These investments have brought significant economic benefits: In 2004, LANXESS from Bayer AG When the company spun off, its production capacity is 160,000 tons of caprolactam per year, and its production capacity has been raised to 220,000 tons per year. Since the plant was put into operation 50 years ago, a total of 6,252,000 tons of caprolactam has been produced. 'Our integrated manufacturing facility is the backbone of the world's high performance plastics primary business so we are constantly enhancing the competitiveness of this base,' said Mattias Zachert, general manager of LANXESS.
In the past 10 years, LANXESS in Antwerp invested more than 300 million euros, built a new polymer production line
Important decision
Many in the industry are puzzled by the decision to invest 300 million euros in Europe, after all, the market has been very difficult, especially after China has a huge production capacity.
To understand this decision, it is necessary to review the history of the early 21st century is the golden age of lactam, especially in Asia, has brought huge profits to the growing demand for high-performance plastic, inspired a huge investor enthusiasm However, around the year 2010, China 's large polymer production plants have been operating one after another, meanwhile, the high - performance plastic market brought by the global economic crisis started to collapse, causing serious overcapacity and a sharp drop in profit margin.
For LANXESS, the past few years have been very difficult, and the synthetic plastics business has seriously affected the future of the company under the pressure of high debt and low profits. Now these crises have been lifted, and the oil giant Aramco The production of caprolactam has been integrated into the Arlanxeo joint venture and the takeover of Chemtura brought a sign of business taking off once again, emphasizing Dr. Michael Zobel, head of the high performance plastics industry: 'We had the toughest times, Now, we're back!
The caprolactam plant in Antwerp is an important member of the company's Engineering Materials business segment and LANXESS is one of the world's top five producers of high-performance plastic raw materials (polyamide ranked second in the world). Zobel estimates that he Of the business unit's sales revenue accounted for 15% to 20% of the Group's total sales revenue, the future prospects can be expected in the next 10 years, the key markets of plastic will be about 5% growth rate will increase.
Opportunity for lightweight car era
LANXESS plans to step up efforts in the future to further growth in this area with the development trend of light-weight automobiles, which will make Durethan, Pocan and Tepex high-performance plastic brands have a better market position. With Hi-Ant technology solutions, LANXESS Expertise and experience in process technology, material formulation research and manufacturing are passed on to our customers.
According to Mr. Zobel, most of the lactam products in Antwerp are digested directly inside the company and are also used by the plants in Schelde, Cologne, Germany. The headquarters of the LANXESS invested in the state-of-the-art polyamide 6 production plant in Antwerp 7 It is also the fourth largest single investment of the company, and recalling that in 1967 it also belonged to Bayer, Bayer had invested 200 million marks in order to produce caprolactam.
Antwerp, Lilo and Kallo are the two major production plants LANXESS company an important high-performance plastic raw materials production base
Stephan Deutsch, Ph.D., head of Global Activities Center at HPM Business Unit at LANXESS, said 'forward integration' is the key word here, so the team is constantly shipping polyamide from Antwerp to Uerdingen in Niederrheim. The energy and thermal energy utilization is also very efficient, high equipment utilization provides a reliable guarantee for the polyamide production line, bringing economies of scale, to ensure the stability of product quality, so that the company ranked first in terms of investment returns Unlike decentralized global production methods, the company has completed research and production of new material formulations at its German manufacturing facility.
Looking to the future
Mr. Zobel, head of the HPM division, emphasized that this involves the entire value supply chain, and from a sales figure, the utilization of high-performance plastic materials increased from 6.1% in 2013 to 15% in 2016, with intermediates and high performance Plastic raw materials accounted for 63% of sales, and today the proportion fell to less than 20%, in other words, plastic products and composite materials become the main force of making money .Zobel, said the fact that the integration of the entire production process so that the company Profitable, it is no wonder LANXESS plans to build an advanced fiberglass factory yet.
In Antwerp, LANXESS also produces chopped glass fibers made of fine glass melt, a composite plastic raw material
Almost half of today's vehicles are made of plastic materials and this trend will continue in the future.Zobel hopes that the global demand for engineering plastics will increase by 50% more than in 2015 by 2020, Be prepared for this.