Lanxess notes exchange resin boom

Leverkusen, Germany – Investments made by specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG in its ion exchange resin production facilities in Bitterfeld and Leverkusen are paying off, with a 10% increase in production volumes of its Lewatit-branded product over the last 18 months. This represented an urgently needed increase in capacity, according to Jean-Marc Vesselle, head of global product management and strategic development in Lanxess' Ion Exchange Resins business unit.

It was extremely important that customers could be supplied with the required amounts as quickly as possible without compromising quality, said Vesselle:  “Demand for high-quality ion exchange resins has risen dramatically. Our order books are full. To cope with the growth in demand, we had to add a further production line to our plant in Leverkusen.”

According to Leverkusen plant manager Dr Wolfgang Zarges, the necessary building work was completed in only eight months. “For a project of this scale, we would normally reckon with a period of 18 months between authorization being granted and the first product coming off the line. “Although the building work was carried out in a plant that has been working at full capacity for two years, it did not have any significant impact on the plant’s output.”

In addition to the Leverkusen plant and the world’s largest production facility for monodisperse ion exchange resins in Bitterfeld, a new ion exchange resin plant in India is due to be operational from 2010.

Lanxess is also constructing a site in the Jhagadia Chemical Park near the city of Baroda in Gujarat state at a cost of around Euro50 million. Among other applications, the new facility will manufacture products for industrial water treatment and the generation of ultra-pure water for the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries. The company is also to relocate production of rubber chemicals from Thane in the Indian state of Maharashtra to Jhagadia.