Solvay plans facility, partnership in Mexico

Düsseldorf, Germany — Solvay Group is venturing into Mexico with a nylon compounding unit aimed at the automotive market.

The plant in San Luis Potosí will be co-located with Chunil Engineering Co. Ltd., a South Korean Tier 1 supplier and a major Solvay customer. The unit will have annual production capacity of around 22 million pounds and will create 30 new jobs.

“This is being driven by the auto value chain moving to Mexico,” engineering plastics General Manager Peter Browning said in an Oct. 21 interview at K 2016. He added that the unit is a turnkey operation acquired from supplier Coperion.

The model of co-locating with a customer could be used by Brussels-based Solvay in other parts of the world, such as Russia or Southeast Asia, Browning said. The Mexico plant is set to be operational in July.

Solvay (Hall 6/C61) also intends to increase its sulfone polymer production capacity by 35 percent over the next five years at sites in Ohio and India. The need for new capacity is being driven by demand from medical and plumbing markets, where the materials are used for filtration, Senior Executive Vice President Jens Hoeltje said at K 2016.

Recently, Solvay has had success with high-heat grades of Technyl-brand nylon for under-hood engine parts such as air induction hoods, according to Browning. Grades that offer improved heat performance now are commercially available.

In Poland, Browning said that Solvay has introduced a closed loop production system by recycling airbag off cuts into various engineering applications. Foams based on Solvay's PPSU and PVDF materials also are being injection molded into 3-D parts for aerospace applications, Hoeltje added.

The Polimotor 2 all-plastic engine includes 10 parts made with Solvay materials, according to specialty polymers Executive Vice President Tom Wood. Solvay's Ixef-brand PARA resins also are being increasingly used in surgical instruments, where they're replacing metal, he added.

A new generation of very high heat grades of Solvay's Amodel-brand PPA resins — with improved processing ability and surface finish — should be available by early 2017, according to Wood. Solvay also has made improvements to the Ryton-brand PPS plants it acquired in 2014 from Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., he added, and can now make linear grades of the material on a more consistent basis.

Solvay's plastics-related businesses are benefiting from its $5.5 billion deal for U.S. composites supplier Cytec last year. “We've co-operated heavily with Cytec on lightweight solutions,” Hoeltje said. “They've helped us tremendously in aerospace.”

These projects and others in the pipeline are pointing the way ahead. “There are a lot of good things going on at Solvay,” Wood said.

Solvay employs 30,000 worldwide and posted sales of $13.5 billion in 2015.