Inauguration of new Sumitomo Seika plant on the Arkema Carling site

Yusuke Ueda, Sumitomo Seika CEO, and Marc Schuller, Arkema Executive Vice President, have today inaugurated the new Sumitomo Seika superabsorbent plant on the Carling site (Moselle, France) in the presence of the local and regional authorities.

This major investment, made in partnership with Arkema, will enable Sumitomo Seika to meet increasing demand for superabsorbents in Europe. Announced jointly by Sumitomo Seika and Arkema in the spring of 2011, the investment will raise the overall superabsorbent production capacity of the Carling facility to 47,000 ton/year.

The construction of this new plant boasts the latest technological advances of Sumitomo Seika in the field of superabsorbents. Production effectively came on stream in the summer, and the plant, inaugurated today, is now fully operational.

SAPs, or superabsorbents, are manufactured from acrylic acid and are mostly used in high-growth market segments such as babies diapers, adult incontinence articles, and female sanitary products.
The operational launch of this new production plant on the Carling platform further consolidates Arkema’s position on the site, which now ranks among the world’s leading production facilities for acrylic monomers. 

Since 2008, when it took over Arkema’s superabsorbent business, Sumitomo Seika has been marketing, from the Carling site, an extensive range of superabsorbents under the tradename AQUAKEEPTM .