Wacker expands production capacity for dispersions in USA

Wacker Chemie AG has announced that it is expanding its existing vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions production facilities in the USA. The Munich- based chemical company will add a new reactor with a capacity of 85,000t/yr at its Calvert City site, investing an amount of around €50M in the site’s capacity and infrastructure. This makes the complex the largest of its kind in the Americas. The new reactor is scheduled to come on stream by mid-2015.

"Capacity expansion is essential if we are to meet our customers’ demand for our dispersions over the coming years,” explained Rudolf Staudigl, CEO of Wacker Chemie AG, the reason for the investment. "After extending our dispersions capacities at our sites in South Korea and China in the course of the last two years, we have now pushed ahead with expanding our production in the USA, too. Thus, we will be able to keep pace with future market growth and strengthen our leading position in VAE dispersions,” Staudigl said.

Wacker has further added an ethylene pipeline to the Calvert City facility for increasing the long-term reliability of raw material supply at the site. "This investment in our continuous raw-material supply is an important step: it not only makes a key contribution to supply security in the years to come but also to the cost-efficient production of our dispersions,” explained John Fotheringham, VP of Dispersions at Wacker Polymers.

With more than 50 years’ experience in the development and production of vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer dispersions, Wacker is a global technology and market leader in this field. Vinnapas dispersions are popular binders in the construction, paints, coatings and adhesives industries. The dispersions find application, for instance, in the formulation of low-odour and low-emission indoor paints but also in plasters, technical textiles and nonwovens, carpet adhesives and as binders in polymer materials based on renewable resources.