A little more than a year after it first commissioned its fluorinated polymers plant in Changshu / China (see Plasteurope.com of 12.01.2011), French specialty chemicals producer Arkema (Colombes; www.arkema.com) in late July brought on stream a 50% capacity increase at the site, several weeks earlier than initially scheduled. While the group does not provide exact output figures, Plasteurope.com estimates that the site now can turn out 9,000 t/y of “Kynar” PVDF.

The French group operates three PVDF plants across the globe – in Changshu, Calvert City, Kentucky / USA and Pierre-Bénite / France. The group only recently announced that it would go ahead with plans to raise output at the latter site by 50% by early 2014 – see Plasteurope.com of 02.07.2012.