SYNTHOMER, Europe’s largest producer of carboxylated SBR (XSBR) latex, is investing in its first XSBR facility in Asia. The 70,000 tonnes/year plant will be located at the company’s Pasir Gudang facility in Johore, Malaysia, and is planned to be operational by the end of 2012.
This latest investment follows the recently announced major expansion of the 100,000 tonnes/year acrylonitrile butadiene latex (XNBR) facility, also in Pasir Gudang, to support increasing customer demand from the fast expanding synthetic latex glove market.
With market leading product technology supported by R&D laboratories in Germany, Synthomer has built up over many years a leading supply position in Europe to the coated paper and board industry.
Synthomer Asia MD Brendan Catlow said: “We have set ourselves the goal of achieving more than 50% of our sales from emerging markets by 2015, with a major focus on Asia. This latest announcement takes Synthomer’s investment in Malaysian capacity expansion, in both XNBR and XSBR latices, to over EUR50 million in 2012 alone and marks a very important step towards achieving our goal. The Asian coated paper industry is growing rapidly, particularly in China, Indonesia and India, and our choice of Pasir Gudang for this investment reflects its ideal location for raw material supply and outbound logistics allowing Synthomer to effectively serve its customers throughout the region.” (PRA)
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