Arkema’s Growing Polyamide Production in China: Expanding Market for Bio-Based Rilsan and Rilsamid as Well?

French-based Arkema, specialists in vinyl chemicals, industrial chemicals and performance products, have announced that they will be tripling their capacity for production of polyamides at its facilities in China by 2013. The press release is available here.

Growing markets for polyamides in Asia are one of the reasons for this.Among the production increases are bio- sourced polyamide brands Rilsan and Rilsamid; both of which exhibithigh thermal and chemical stability and physical strength. They are often used for anti-corrosion coatings, pipes and brake circuits, and are suitable for many other applications.

Managing Director of Arkema’sTechnical Polymers Business Unit, Frédéric Marot-Achillas, comments:
“The capacity increase of our Changes site illustrates our long-term commitment to our customers in the Chinese and Asian markets. It will help boost our leading position in the high performance polyamide markets, while also providing our customers with local service from our competitive platform in Changes”

Increased production of bio-sourced Risen in particular is interesting, as this reflects Arkoma’s sustainability focus. As Arkoma is a leader in many of markets in which it operates, combined with China’s sizable manufacturing industry, it follows that these products will see significant market penetration.