Engineering resins maker Ticona GmbH will move its manufacturing and offices in Kelsterbach as a result of a settlement with Fraport AG, the company that operates the Frankfurt Airport. Kelsterbach is a suburb of Frankfurt.
The airport needs the Ticona property for an expansion. Fraport will pay Ticona 650 million euros ($855 million) to relocate the operation to a new site in Germany. The move is expected to take place by mid-2011.
Ticona and its predecessor firms have operated in Kelsterbach for more than 40 years. The site employs more than 1,000 and serves as Ticona's European headquarters. It's also a major production site for acetal and long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics.
``The settlement we've agreed upon ensures continuous service to our markets at the highest levels at all times,'' Ticona President Lyndon Cole said in a Nov. 29 news release.
Ticona, with U.S. headquarters in Florence, Ky., is a unit of Celanese Corp., a Dallas specialty chemicals maker. Ticona posted sales of more than $900 million in 2005, representing about 15 percent of total sales for Celanese.