LANXESS invests in its production site in Lillo/Antwerp

LANXESS announced plans to further strengthen its integrated production complex for polyamide and precursors for plastics in Antwerp. With an investment of roughly EUR 25 million in 2017, the specialty chemicals company will primarily implement measures to further enhance efficiency.

“Our integrated production complex in Lillo is the backbone of our global business for high-tech plastics. Given the trend toward lightweight construction in the automotive industry, for example, this is a major future market. Therefore we are continuously strengthening the competitiveness of this site. In total, our company has invested more than EUR 300 million in Lillo since 2004 – a sum that shows our firm commitment to this site,” said Matthias Zachert, Chairman of the Board of Management at LANXESS.

The announcement was made on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of caprolactam production at the site. Caprolactam is a key precursor for the production of LANXESS’s high-tech plastics. Besides the automotive industry, these plastics are also used in electrical and electronics applications.

In recent years LANXESS has focused on building a balanced value chain for its high-tech plastics production operations, which absorbs the lion’s share of the intermediates produced for captive use. A milestone on that strategic path was the construction of a world-class polymerization plant with an annual capacity of 90,000 metric tons connected directly to the caprolactam production facility. Since its start in summer 2014, the polyamide is shipped from Antwerp to LANXESS’s global network of compounding facilities, where it is further processed into the high-tech plastics.