MUTTENZ, Switzerland – Specialty chemicals company Clariant has signed a joint venture contract with Tiangang Auxiliary Co. Ltd., a privately owned producer and leading supplier of UV light stabilizers in China. The contract will become effective subject to merger control clearance. The investment of Clariant’s Performance Additives business and Tiangang will establish a production facility in China to meet the growing local demand for process and light-stabilizer additives in various growing industries, such as textiles and automotive.

“The partnership with Tiangang is another successful step toward strengthening Clariant’s position in China. It provides us with a stronger local footprint to better position our innovative solutions in the growing Asia region, especially in China. Furthermore, by cooperating with a leading Chinese company like Tiangang, we can exchange best practices and valuable market insights in order to deliver ever-more tailored solutions to our customers,” said Christian Kohlpaintner, Clariant's Executive Committee Member residing in China.

China is one of the key markets for high-end process and light stabilizers, which include the state-of-the-art Nylostab^® S-EED^® chemistry, invented by Clariant. To support the growing demand of customers in China, Clariant and Tiangang will jointly manufacture process and light stabilizers and plan to install a new production site in the Cangzhou National Coastal-Port Economy and Technology Development Zone, Hebei Province. Production is scheduled to come on-stream in the first half of 2019. The joint venture also plans to expand its offering of solutions for the automotive industry in the future.

The joint venture with Tiangang is the latest move to expand the local footprint of Clariant’s Additives business in China. It follows the announcement in May 2017 of an investment in Zhenjiang, China, which will create a state-of-the-art production facility for AddWorks^®, synergistic additive solutions and Ceridust^®, micronized waxes serving the plastics, coatings and inks industries. It is scheduled to come on-stream in the second half of 2018.