Russian petrochemicals supplier Sibur has launched production of styrene-butadiene thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), to be used for the road building industry and roof coatings, at its Voronezh-based facility. The production facility reached its full design capacity of 50,000 tonnes/year. The process phase of start-up and commissioning operations at the new facility completed with a 72-hour trial run of all the equipment units attended by the licensor's representatives.

The firm says polymer-modified asphalt cements represent a considerable growth opportunity in Russia. Although domestic consumption of polymer-modified asphalt cements grew by a factor of 5.6 between 2009 and 2012 and increased share in the domestic market grew by 1-3% over three years, Russia is lagging behind other European countries, the US and Canada. For example, in Germany the ratio exceeds 30%.

Sibur’s planned 85,000 tonne-TPE capacity is enough to produce more than 2 million tonnes of polymer modified asphalt cement, which in turn is equivalent to more than 200,000 km of four-lane highways, representing over 50% of Russia’s federal highway network.