With a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony, Polyplastics (Tokyo; www.polyplastics.com) has started construction on a production facility in Leuna, Germany, for cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) to be run by local subsidiary Topas Advanced Polymers (Raunheim; www.topas.com).

The chemical site’s management company InfraLeuna said more than EUR 200 mn have been invested in the plant, which is expected to come onstream in the third quarter of 2024 with a capacity of 20,000 t/y. When originally announced in 2020, the project had been set for completion in mid-2023 (see Plasteurope.com of 29.09.2020).

The Polyplastics site in Leuna spans 30,000 m² and is said to offer enough space for further expansions. The company announced that 50 jobs would be created in the first stage of the expansion.

Polyplastics also has another COC plant in Obernhausen, Germany. Toshio Shiwaku, president and CEO of the Japanese parent company, said, “The new facility allows us to provide our customers with the volumes they need, mainly in the packaging and medical products sectors.”

COC materials have similar properties to glass and are used in products such as insulin pumps and tests for medical diagnostics. They also improve the properties of standard polyolefins in packaging.