At an investment cost of EUR 15m, German specialty chemicals group Lanxess (Leverkusen; www.lanxess.com) has touted plans to replace both furnaces at its glass fibre plant in the docklands of Antwerp / Belgium and raise output by 6,000 t/y. Lanxess currently turns out 60,000 t/y of glass fibres at the site.

The Leverkusen-based group just recently commissioned a caprolactam capacity expansion at the same site, raising its erstwhile 200,000 t/y output by 10% – see also Plasteurope.com of 18.09.2008. The upgrade came at a EUR 35m price tag.

All in all, Lanxess says it has invested about EUR 90m into expanding its global high-tech plastics network over the past 18 months. Commenting on the changes in Antwerp, Michael Zobel, head of the group’s Semi-Crystalline Products division, said. “More than half of the caprolactam and glass fibres produced is used internally. This perfect upstream integrated value chain is a key success factor for our business. With the production of these intermediates Antwerp is really the heart of the Lanxess high-tech plastics business.” Largely used in the mobility and E&E markets, Lanxess believes that the global high-tech plastics market will grow by about 7% a year until 2020.