With a sales volume of USD 2.9 bn (EUR 2.3 bn), the Advanced Engineered Materials division of Celanese (Dallas, Texas / USA; www.celanese.com) grew a whopping 45% in fiscal 2017 (USD 1.4 bn in 2016). Accordingly, adjusted EBIT climbed 18% to a record USD 567m (USD 479m in 2016). The division thus helped the Materials Solutions business unit to achieve a positive result and evened out weaknesses within the Consumer Specialties segment.

According to the company, Advanced Engineered Materials outperformed results of previous years, driven by the growth of core business branches, new acquisitions and higher revenues from subsidiaries. During the past two years, Celanese has acquired, among others, compounder SO.F.TER. (Forli / Italy; www.softergroup.com) and the compounding division of PA manufacturer Nilit (Migdal Haemeq / Israel; www.nilit.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 08.12.2016. The takeover of the latter included its entire portfolio of compound products, including the brands "Frianyl", "Nilamid" and "Ecomid" (PA 6 and 6.6, partially aromatic PA like PPA), Nilit’s customer base as well as sales locations, production and pilot plants in Germany and China.

Most recently, the company announced the completion of its takeover of Omni Plastics (Evansville, Indiana / USA; www.omniplastics.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 22.12.2017. Celanese will integrate the custom compounder's product portfolio into Celanese's Engineered Materials business. It will include "OmniLon" PA formulations, "OmniPro" PP products, "OmniCarb" PC as well as non-standard "OmniTech" products such as PBT and ABS formulations. Omni Plastics has additional offices in Mexico City.