Celanese to expand acetyl chain capacities to strengthen high value, vinyls portfolio at Höchst, Germany and China

DALLAS, FRANKFURT and SHANGHAI – Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global chemical and specialty materials company, today announces further investments to strengthen its commitment to being the world’s foremost emulsion polymers and vinyl acetate producer through facility expansions, new unit builds and key debottlenecking projects in Europe and Asia. Today’s announced expansion plans, highlighted below, point to a growing and robust vinyls portfolio for the company’s Acetyl Chain and derivatives.

“Celanese is the global leader by volume in the production of vinyl acetate monomer. Based on our capital cost and the efficiency of production, we believe we have the most advanced manufacturing and technical capabilities of any producer,” said Florian Kohl, Vice President of Celanese’s Global Vinyl Chain businesses. “Celanese is best positioned for growth in the VAM market due to the company’s modern asset base as well as its flexible, cost-advantaged expansion options, combined with the ultra-low capital required of a project of this size and scope.”

Frankfurt, Germany and Nanjing, China Expansions: Vinyl Acetate Ethylene Emulsions

Celanese is announcing today that it plans to continue its VAE growth at the company’s Nanjing and Frankfurt facilities through the construction of two new VAE reactors, with an increase of approximately 65KT of annual capacity at the Nanjing site by 2023, and an increase of approximately 45KT of annual capacity at the Frankfurt site, also by 2023.

Today’s announcement builds upon the company’s global vinyls expansion program, initiated in January 2020 to expand the emulsion polymers business in the Europe and Asia regions, which will extend the value of its global Acetyls business. Celanese is pleased to report that it is progressing well with these previously announced investment projects (in Frankfurt, Germany and Nanjing, China), which will further strengthen the company’s emulsion polymers and VAE leadership positions.

European Site Debottlenecking: Redispersible Polymer Powders (RDP)

With the April 2020 acquisition of the Elotex business, Celanese further strengthened its derivative expansion program by adding a global redispersible polymer powders product line to help drive growth of VAE emulsions.

Celanese today is also announcing plans to expand its redispersible polymer powders growth through debottlenecking efforts currently underway at the company’s European powders facilities, resulting in an increase of approximate 20KT of annual capacity by 2023.

“As a world leader in the acetyls and derivatives space, Celanese has an exceptional, globally integrated production, distribution and sales network to maximize the Acetyl chain’s downstream optionality and capture growth in key regions and end uses,” concluded Kohl. “Building on a commitment to our global customers, Celanese is making key investments in VAM, VAE and RDP facility expansions, as well as expanding on our ‘green technology’ product development, to deliver on their global growth demands.”

Each of these planned expansions are subject to regulatory approvals in their respective countries of operation, and financial details of each project are not being disclosed at this time.