COLOMBES, France - To support growth around the world, Arkema is expanding its specialty polyamides production capacities in China and the United States.

At the company’s Zhangjiagang site in Jiangsu Province, China, which specializes in biosourced specialty polyamides, Arkema is increasing its compounding capacities and in 2017 will bring on stream two production lines to manufacture polyamide 11 in addition to polyamide 10, which is already produced on the site. Rilsan^® polyamide 11 is used in the automotive, consumer electronics and sports sectors.

With these developments and other investments made in recent years on the site, Arkema is consolidating its offering and increasing flexibility of its manufacturing plants in Asia for biosourced polyamides marketed under the Rilsan trade name.

In the United States, a new investment in the Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, site will enable the manufacture of new Pebax^® biosourced grades for the sports and electronics market. Arkema is complementing its Pebax thermoplastic elastomer range, particularly sought after for their light weight, impact resistance, sturdiness and flexibility at temperatures as low as -40 °C.

These investments are part of the development of the group’s research and growth platforms related to weight reduction of materials, design of materials, solutions for electronics, and the development of biosourced products.

Thanks to production and R&D facilities in Europe, Asia and the United States, the group’s commercial partners can be assured of top-quality technical and logistics services at a local level.