Plant Additions: Arkema to produce bio-polyamides in Singapore;

French chemical firm Arkema says it has chosen the location of Jurong Island in Singapore to build its new world-scale plant dedicated to the manufacture of the amino 11 monomer and its flagship Rilsan polyamide 11 resins. With this 50% increase in its global capacities announced in July 2017, it says it supports strong demand from its customers in Asia for high-performance bio-sourced solutions addressing the major opportunity of material lightweighting in particular.

Arkema has chosen the Jurong Island site in Singapore to set up its new bio-sourced polyamide production site. This location, Arkema says, offers many advantages in terms of infrastructure, logistics, industrial integration, as well as optimisation of the activity’s carbon footprint.

Rilsan polyamide 11 is derived from castor oil and so is the only 100% bio-sourced polyamide approved for many applications, in particular in the electronics, 3D printing, oil and gas extraction, and automotive markets, as a substitute to metal.