Expansions: Perstorp launches new Penta plant in India; Roehm commissions new plant for PMMA in Germany

Sweden-based specialty chemicals firm Perstorp has built and commissioned an ISCC Plus-certified plant in western India to meet growing market demand for Penta chemicals. Located in Sayakha, Bharuch, in the state of Gujarat, the facility was officially inaugurated recently.

At the new site, Perstorp has the capacity to annually produce 40,000 tonnes of Pentaerythritol and 26,000 tonnes of calcium formate. The site covers nearly 115,000 sq m and will employ about 120 people.

“This is the largest investment in Asia so far, in Perstorp’s history. It will further strengthen Perstorp’s position as a sustainable and reliable partner in the region of Asia,” noted Gorm Jensen, Perstorp’s Executive Vice President Commercial & Innovation. “This plant will increase the availability and reliability of products for current, as well as new customers, reducing lead times with about 50% for Asian customers. It is strategically located close to ports, rails and roadways. This will help to ensure that Perstorp can supply products effectively throughout India and across all of Asia. At the same time, the plant is well positioned to also export products globally.”

In Sayakha Perstorp will produce a Penta product mix including Perstorp’s renewable based, ISCC Plus-certified grade, Voxtar, as well as offering Penta Mono and calcium formate.

The plant will use renewably sourced raw materials as well as a hybrid source of electricity. Voxtar is a renewable based counterpart to Penta. Based on a traceable mass balance concept, Voxtar is designed to reduce the carbon footprint throughout the value chain and to support sourcing of renewable and recycled raw materials. As Voxtar is chemically identical to Penta, it provides customers with the same quality and performance as their fossil counterpart, says the firm.

Perstorp already produces Penta in Sweden, Germany and the US, but this investment will represent a significant expansion of its global production capacity.

“This is a major investment that Perstorp has been projecting for several years and we are very excited to inaugurate this state-of-the art plant and better serve our current and future customers”, Vinod Tiwari, Managing Director and General Manager India concludes.

In other news, in expanding production capacity for Plexiglas moulding compounds at its largest global production site in Worms, Germany, methacrylate producer Röhm says it has reached yet another important milestone in the implementation of its growth strategy.

At a recent official ceremony, the plant was officially commissioned by Röhm’s COO Hans-Peter Hauck, Head of the Worms Site Robert Weber and Senior Vice President of the Molding Compounds Business Unit Siamak Djafarian. “The strategic expansion of our global PMMA capacities is an important step on our way to becoming the leading methacrylate Verbund,” explained Hauck.

“Following the expansion of the plant’s capacity in Shanghai last year, we are now further consolidating our market leadership in Europe with this substantial increase in production capacity in Worms. This is yet another example of how we are a reliable partner within easy reach of our customers.”

Röhm is the only global manufacturer of MMA and PMMA, complete with downstream compounding, in the all three important regions of Asia, North America and Europe.

The newly constructed plant will employ a newer, highly energy-efficient production process that will see a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of moulding compound production.

“Sustainability is an integral part of our business strategy,” added Siamak Djafarian, Head of Röhm’s Molding Compounds Business Unit. By increasing its production capacity, Röhm aims to respond to a steadily growing demand – especially from the automotive industry.

Röhm is the European market leader in the sector of Plexiglas moulding compounds and ranks second on a global scale.

Work on expanding production capacity for Plexiglas moulding compounds in Worms, including an additional compounding plant for coloured products, commenced in 2022 and is one of Röhm’s key strategic investments. Both the building and the infrastructure for the expansion of production capacity were already in situ.

Plexiglas, the brand polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) from Röhm, has been established on the market for 90 years and is well-suited for applications where durability, resistance to weather and UV, colour fastness, high luminosity and transparency as well as hardness and scratch-resistance are key.

Röhm says it is constantly advancing its growth strategy with numerous investments in the world’s main economic regions of Europe, China and the US.

Started as an independent company four years ago with the goal of leading in methacrylate, Röhm adds it is well on its way to achieving this target.

The central component of the strategy and the flagship project is the construction of a production plant for methyl methacrylate (MMA) in Bay City, Texas (US) where the innovative LiMA technology developed by Röhm is used.

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