Ineos Styrolution building ABS plant in China

Ineos Styrolution has announced plans to build a world-scale ABS plant in Ningbo, China.
 
The new production site will be adjacent to the company’s polystyrene plant in Ningbo, which it acquired from Total last year.
 
The company expects to start construction on the new Greenfield plant later this year with completion set for 2021, a company news release said Jan. 9.
 
The 600,000 metric-tons-per-year plant, in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, is part of a wider strategic cooperation framework agreement between Ineos and the Ningbo local authority signed Jan. 9.
 
“China is the biggest ABS market in the world. This new investment will give us a tremendous opportunity to provide our customers in the region with locally produced ABS grades,” Steve Harrington, president Asia-Pacific said.
 
According to Ineos Styrolution CEO Kevin McQuade, Asia has been identified as “a significant growth market” by the company.
 
The move is driven by the company’s “triple shift strategy” which is aimed at creating "a resilient, less cyclical, more diversified and more profitable business by 2020."
 
Ineos Styrolution acquired two polystyrene production sites in China from French energy giant Total SA in February last year.
 
The acquisition, which included two production sites in Ningbo and Foshan marked the company’s first production move into China and increased its PS capacity by 400 kilotonnes-per-annum.
 
Both sites, in Foshan, Guangdong Province in South China and in Ningbo, in the Zhejiang Province south of Shanghai, have an annual nameplate capacity of 200 kilotonnes-per-annum.