The Resins and Chemicals business unit of Honeywell (Morris Township, New Jersey / USA; www.honeywell.com) on 9 June announced that it has broken ground on its 40,000 t/y PA 6 and PA 6.6 expansion at its site in Chesterfield, Virginia / USA – for previous coverage, see Plasteurope.com of 05.05.2014. The facility, due on stream in Q4 this year, will be the “first and only North American supplier of both resins,” Honeywell said. Once the expansion is commissioned, the plant will be capable of producing 200,000 t/y.

Although Honeywell’s “Aegis” polyamide 6 resins can be used across a wide range of applications – including in the automotive, consumer and industrial sectors as well as wind energy and aerospace components – the company apparently considers film as the main end market. Citing market researcher Freedonia (Cleveland, Ohio / USA; www.freedoniagroup.com), the group says North American demand for polyamide film is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 4.5%, adding that more than 4.5m t/y of food packaging film is produced in the region each year.