GERMANY'S Lanxess AG yesterday announced plans to build a 400 million euro (US$593 million) rubber plant in Singapore to meet rising demand from Asian auto tire makers led by China.
"Lanxess is responding to the significant growth in global demand for butyl rubber," chairman Axel Heitmann said at a press conference in Singapore. "The boom in Asia as an economic region is playing a particularly important role to us."
Market analyses have confirmed that the global market for butyl rubber will rise steadily in coming years. China's butyl rubber market is growing six percent annually and India's more than eight percent.
China will be the largest market for Lanxess's new Singapore site thanks to its rising car ownership, Heitmann said.
From 2011, the site on Singapore's Jurong Island will produce up to 100,000 tons of butyl rubber annually, making it the largest facility of its type in Asia. Construction is due to begin in the first quarter of 2009 and will be completed by the end of 2010. Some 200 jobs will initially be created.
Leverkusen-based Lanxess is a spin-off of chemical giant Bayer AG. The Singapore plant will complete its global production network, adding to new rubber-production facilities in Zwijndrecht, Belgium and Sarnia, Canada.
Lanxess began evaluating potential locations in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore in June 2007.
The city state won over the competition due to its excellent infrastructure, large sea port and very good raw materials supply, Heitmann said yesterday.