Stenungsund expansion to enable broad supply of Borealis solutions for wire and cable sector

Borealis customers can count on a reliable partner for growth following Borealis’ completion of an over EUR 400 million investment at its plant in Stenungsund, Sweden. A new 350,000 t/y high pressure LDPE plant along with modernised compounding and material-handling facilities were officially inaugurated on June 2, 2010, increasing total capacity at the site from 580.000 t/y to 700.000 t/y.

The world’s leading provider of innovative, value creating plastics solutions for the wire and cable industry has expanded its Stenungsund facilities while maintaining a closed operation process to eliminate potential sources of impurities. The plant was designed and constructed with the highest wire and cable quality standards in mind.

The capacity expansion builds on Borealis’ existing technology platform and demonstrates its commitment to high quality, well-known brands such as Supercure™ and Visico™. The capacity will be focused specifically on Borealis’ newest products such as Supercure LS4201 and LC8205 and special products for extra high voltage cables LE4201EHV and LE4244EHV. Its Visico products for low and medium voltage cables LE4423, LE4421 and LE4421M will also benefit from the controlled environment in place at Stenungsund.

“Consistency, homogeneity and cleanliness are key determinants in enabling the reliable production of quality high voltage cables,” comments Borealis Chief Executive Mark Garrett. “To that end, we have focused the entire Stenungsund expansion and Borealis process to ensure we deliver the high purity, value-adding market applications of the future and consolidate our leadership in the demanding wire and cable market segments.”

The expansion makes Stenungsund a leading world-scale polyethylene facility for advanced infrastructure applications and is a continuation of a EUR 42 million cross-linkable polyethylene (XLPE) capacity upgrade already taken on stream during 2007. This new investment will in addition enable Borealis to maximise the flexible feedstock – olefin – polyolefin integration. Old polyethylene capacity of 230.000 t/y will be gradually phased out during 2010.