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By Steve Toloken
STAFF REPORTER / ASIA BUREAU CHIEF
Published: April 21, 2014 10:08 am ET
Updated: April 21, 2014 10:10 am ET
SHANGHAI - Taiwan's TSRC Corp. said April 21 it has opened a 25,000-metric-ton capacity styrene-isoprene-styrene block copolymer manufacturing facility in Nantong, China, and plans to add a further 30,000-ton SIS plant in Taiwan in 2016.
Taipei-based TSRC said the two facilities likely would make it the world's largest manufacturer of SIS block copolymers, with total capacity of 87,000 metric tons worldwide, including an existing plant in Plaquemine, La., in the United States.
The company also plans to add a further 25,000 tonnes of capacity of styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene block copolymer at its facility in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, next year, according to Christopher Mudd, president of TSRC subsidiary Dexco Polymers, which is based in Houston. He spoke at an April 21 news conference in Shanghai, held ahead of the Chinaplas trade fair.
This is something that our customers have really been asking for the last three or four years,” said Mudd, about the Nantong investment.
TSRC has been focused on expanding its global footprint and building in redundant production worldwide, near secure sources of feedstocks, when possible, he said.
The company said the Taiwan SIS investment in 2016 will be in a joint venture with Chinese Petrochemical Corp.
TSRC is one of the world's largest makers of styrenic block copolymers. In 2011, it purchased Dexco Polymers, which had been a joint venture of Dow Chemical and ExxonMobil. | |
