Within two consecutive days in China, Swiss speciality chemicals producer Clariant (Muttenz; www.clariant.com) officially opened two new wholly-owned additives plants at Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, and broke ground for a new stabilisers and textiles chemicals plant in Cangzhou – the latter as part of a joint venture with local partner Beijing Tiangang Auxiliary (Beijing / China; www.bjtiangang.com). The company said the new facilities mark further steps in its regional growth strategy for Asia.

On 20 June, Clariant dedicated plants for its “Ceridust” micronized waxes and “AddWorks” synergistic additive solutions at Zhenjiang. The multi-million Swiss franc investment announced last year – see Plasteurope.com of 22.05.2017 – puts the company’s additives business in China on track to further expand its offering of customised, high-end solutions for the plastics, coatings and inks industries, said Stephen Lynen, head of the Additives business unit. The additional local production capacity will allow Clariant to provide more tailored solutions at shortened lead times, he said.

A day later, on 21 June, the Swiss player held groundbreaking for the Cangzhou project. The jv will produce process and light stabilisers from the first half of 2019 – see Plasteurope.com of 14.09.2017. China is a key market for Clariant’s products in this field and the Chinese partner is an important regional producer of light stabilisers and UV absorbers, with two plants in China back-integrated into key intermediates.