LANXESS Expands Thionyl Chloride Capacities In India

Annual capacity lifted by 20 %

Single-digit million euro investment

Mumbai, Maharashtra - LANXESS will invest to increase production of thionyl chloride by 20 percent at its plant in Nagda, Madhya Pradesh state, India. The expansion will be completed in the second half of 2012.

LANXESS is a leading global supplier of thionyl chloride, operating manufacturing plants both in Germany and India. Thionyl chloride is an important intermediate used by industrial customers for manufacturing agrochemicals, dyestuffs, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

"LANXESS is supplying thionyl chloride to all major customers in the industries in India. Indian demand has grown significantly by eight percent in the recent years and we are expecting a continuation of consistent growth in the demand for thionyl chloride," said Hubert Fink, Head of LANXESS' business unit Advanced Industrial Intermediates.

The Nagda site is operating state-of-the-art technologies for process and people safety, environmental protection and quality. LANXESS already commissioned a new cogeneration plant fueled by biomass, which generates steam and power and hence reduces the carbon footprint of the site.

"We are proud of our sustainable growth investments at our Nagda production site", said Neelanjan Banerjee, Senior Executive Director, LANXESS India. "Continuous investments into our assets are underlying LANXESS commitment for developing business in India."

Other key products manufactured at Nagda are benzyl chloride, benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, benzo trichloride, benzyl acetate, cinnamic aldehyde, benzyl benzoate, thionyl chloride, sulphuryl chloride and sulphur dichloride. Nearly 50 percent of the production from the site is exported to customers worldwide.

The LANXESS Nagda operations are part of the business unit Advanced Industrial Intermediates, which in turn is part of the Advanced Intermediates segment of LANXESS. This segment generated sales of approximately EUR 1.3 billion in the fiscal year 2010.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.1 billion in 2010 and currently around 15,800 employees in 30 countries. The company is at present represented at 46 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.

SOURCE: LANXESS