Celanese expands production of thermoplastic co-polyesters at Ferrara, Italy

DALLAS, AMSTERDAM and FERRARA, Italy - Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE), a global chemical and specialty materials company, today announces the expansion of its Pibiflex® and Riteflex® TPC (thermoplastic co-polyester) production unit at the Donegani facility in Ferrara, Italy to support the continued growth of its global engineered materials business.

Celanese continues to exhibit its leadership position in the manufacture and compounding of highly engineered materials, such as thermoplastic co-polyesters, by adding this capacity to support growth in sophisticated, functionalized polymers. The company will continue to partner with its customers to deliver innovative solutions to meet ever-increasing consumer and industrial needs and respond to the changing complexity in high-performance polymers.

Celanese recently added one more solid-state polymerization unit at the Donegani facility, which started up successfully in September 2018. Celanese expects to expand the production capacity of the unit further by adding another polymerization line to be completed in the next 15 to 18 months.

The expansion of this thermoplastic co-polyester unit further demonstrates the company’s ability to respond to global customer demand using the knowledge and expertise of world-class engineering capabilities which enable these types of projects and expansions.

Thermoplastic co-polyester (TPCs) are block co-polymers that combine favorable characteristics of vulcanized rubber with the easy processability of thermoplastics for toughness, tear and flex fatigue resistance over a wide temperature range. Besides thermoplastic co-polyesters, Celanese also offers a broad range of other thermoplastic elastomers like thermoplastic vulcanizate (Forprene® TPV), thermoplastic olefines (Forflex® TPO), thermoplastic elastomers based on SBC (Laprene® and Sofprene® TPS), and thermoplastic elastomer solutions for special markets like artificial turf infill (Holo®, Forgrin®, Terra XPS® granules) and footwear (Sofprene® TPR, Sofpur® TPU) for a broad range of customer-oriented solutions, including functionalization and color.