Not even a month after purchasing Archer Daniels Midland’s (ADM, Decatur, Illinois / USA; www.adm.com) lactic acid business (see Plasteurope.com of 20.04.2015), Corbion (Amsterdam / The Netherlands; www.corbion.com) has achieved another milestone on its path to entering the PLA market. The company on 7 May said it had signed letters of intent for one-third of the volume of a 75,000 t/y PLA polymerisation plant. The facility will most likely be located in Thailand (see Plasteurope.com of 04.11.2014). Judging by previous statements, the commitments received mean Corbion will go ahead with constructing the EUR 60m facility.

The Dutch group already began testing, validating and selling pre-marketing volumes of PLA, with CEO Tjerk de Ruiter adding that “the pre-engineering is in full progress and is expected to run till end of the year.”