Wacker expands capacity in USA for dispersions

Wacker Chemie AG has announced that it is expanding its existing vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions production facilities in the USA. The Munich-based company will add a new reactor with a capacity of 85,000t/yr at its Calvert City site, investing around €50M in the site’s capacity and infrastructure. This makes the complex the largest of its kind in the Americas. The new reactor is scheduled to come on stream by mid-2015.

"Capacity expansion is essential if we are to meet our customers’ demand for our dispersions over the coming years,” explained Rudolf Staudigl, CEO of Wacker Chemie AG, the reason for the investment. "After extending our dispersions capacities at our sites in South Korea and China in the course of the last two years, we have now pushed ahead with expanding our production in the USA, too.