Sep 11 2006
Royal DSM N.V. has announced that it has decided to construct two new manufacturing facilities at its Chemelot site in Geleen, the Netherlands. DSM is making these investments in response to excellent market growth for two of the company’s top specialty products, Stanyl® polyamide 46 and Stamylan® UH ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, which is used among other things as a raw material for Dyneema® high strength fibers. The new Stanyl® plant and the new Stamylan® facility, which will each double existing production capacity, are scheduled to come on line in 2008. The total investment will be around EUR 100 million.
The high performance material Stanyl® is used in a variety of applications, such as automotive, cell phones, computers and personal electronics. In addition, there is rapid growth in new, innovative applications such as fine pitch connectors for LCDs, reflector packages for LEDs, and gears in all kind of applications, for example seat recliners and starter motors. Stamylan® UH is used as a high strength, wear-resistant engineering plastic in industrial, sports and other applications and in Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber™. This new investment will secure supply to DSM's growing Dyneema® fiber business and will make it possible to meet the sourcing requirements of other customers.
“These investments are another major step in the context of DSM’s strategy Vision 2010 – Building on Strengths,” says Nico Gerardu, member of DSM’s Managing Board. “They will fuel the profitable growth of our specialty performance materials Stanyl®, Stamylan® UH and Dyneema® and build on our strengths in marketing and application development of these products.”
DSM is the sole worldwide producer of polyamide 46. With the new Stanyl® plant, DSM will operate two Stanyl® plants at the Chemelot site in Geleen to supply Stanyl® base resin worldwide to DSM’s operations in Europe, USA, Japan and, most recently, China.
http://www.dsm.com