Arkema speeds up its development in Asia

22 Apr '08

3 min read

At a press conference organized to coincide with the Chinaplas tradeshow in Shanghai, Arkema reaffirmed its commitment to developing in Asia its Technical Polymers activity, one of its key sectors that accounts for sales of 800 million Euros, i.e. 14% of its overall sales.

Thanks to its R&D's dynamism and capacity for innovation, its leading commercial positions, and its strong brands, Arkema has the necessary assets to speed up the growth of this activity on the Asian continent.

With fast-growing markets such as automobile, construction, textile and sports equipment, Asia, and in particular China, represent a key development area for Arkema's technical polymers.

To achieve its objective, Arkema has solid commercial bases in China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and India, as well as three research centers specializing in technical polymers around the world, including one at Kyoto in Japan.

Alongside its two polyamide industrial sites near Shanghai, where production capacities were doubled in 2007, a Kynar (PVDF) fluorinated polymer production plant will shortly be established on the Changshu industrial platform, scheduled to come on stream mid-2010.

The force of innovation:
Arkema's Technical Polymers Business Unit can also count on its significant capacity for innovation, with R&D investments representing between 5 and 8% of its sales depending on the product lines.

In recent years these research efforts have led to a large number of innovative products fulfilling customer expectations, including high performance polymers produced from renewable raw materials (Pebax Rnew, Platamid Rnew), transparent thermoplastics (Rilsan Clear, Pebax Clear ), opening up the way for new applications in sports and leisure.

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