Evonik Industries AG is set to start up a new production plant for specialty copolyesters at a facility currently under construction at its Witten site in Germany.
In an Aug. 22 announcement, the German specialty materials company said the “mid-double-digit million euro” project was on track to reach mechanical completion by end of November. Following the completion, the commission phase will start and commercial operation is planned to start in first quarter 2018.
The plant, said the Essen, Germany-based company will have annual production capacity of “several thousand [metric]tons.”
As binders for paints, specialty copolyesters are used in coil coatings and, increasingly, in food can coatings.
Polyester based coatings are perceived as a good alternative to substitute the standard epoxy based coating systems to ensure a bisphenol a-free food packaging.
Evonik said it had early on anticipated this trend and decided at the end of 2015 to invest in additional capacity to be prepared to further grow in this market