US nylon giant Invista (Wichita, Kansas; www.invista.com) said it has expanded its capacity for polyamide 6.6 base polymer in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) by 40,000 t/y. The additional line has started operations and brings the total capacity at the site to 190,000 t/y, 30,000 of which is autoclaved while the rest is continuous production. In the past few years, the latter in particular has been expanded.

According to Invista’s regional director Angela Dou, the US company is reacting to the expected increase in domestic demand. Internal forecasts see applications such as automotive, R&D, lightweight construction and automation as the main driving forces.

Up until now, Invista has been producing the intermediate hexamethylenediamine (HMD) in Shanghai, in addition to PA 6.6. Since mid-2020, the company has also been building a plant for the intermediate product ADN (see Plasteurope.com of 25.06.2020). Production is scheduled to start in 2022 with a capacity of 400,000 t/y.