Business trends

Solvay to build second glycerine-to-epichlorohydrin plant in Asia

Solvay SA announced in early June that it would build a E155M (US$194M) 100,000 tonnes/year epichlorohydrin (ECH) plant in China’s Taixing Economic Development Park, through its Thai affiliate, Vinythai.
The plant, which will use glycerine as a feedstock, is due to start operations in the second half of 2014. It will serve the growing Chinese ECH market, which is expected to grow by 8%/year and account for 35% of total world demand in 2016.
ECH is used to produce epoxy resins, which have increasing applications in the corrosion protection coatings industry, as well in the electronics, automotive, aerospace and wind turbine industries.
The plant will utilise Solvay's proprietary bio-based Epicerol technology. Vinythai’s first ECH unit, with 100,000 tonnes/year capacity, began operations in Thailand in February and is now supplying the Asian market. The new plant will make Vinythai the second largest ECH producer in Asia.
Vinythai is a vinyl, chlor-alkali and epichlorohydrin producer. Its major shareholders are the Solvay group (58.77%) and PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited, Thailand (24.98%). Solvay is an international chemical group headquartered in Brussels.

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