WORLD'S LARGEST ND-PBR PLANT TO BE ESTABLISHED IN SINGAPORE

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Bernama) -- LANXESS, a German specialty chemicals
company, has selected Singapore as the site for its new neodymium polybutadiene
rubber (Nd-PBR) plant.

The company plans to invest about 200 million euros (S$350 million) in a
140,000 metric tonnes per annum facility in Jurong Island Chemical Park.

The facility, to start-up in the first-half of 2015, will be the largest of
its kind in the world and will create about 100 jobs.

A corresponding memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between LANXESS
Chief Ececutive Officer Axel C. Heitmann and Singapore Economic Development
Board Chairman Leo Yip.

The signing was held in connection with the official visit of German
Chancellor Angela Merkel to Singapore.

"It is only one year since we broke ground for our butyl plant in
Singapore. Now we are ready to move forward with the second largest investment
project in our history here.

"The dynamic Asia region is a key cornerstone of our mid-term growth
strategy," said Heitmann at the signing ceremony.

LANXESS conducted a feasibility study to evaluate potential locations for
the plant in Asia. Singapore was selected due to readily available raw material
supply.

The company and the Petrochemical Corp of Singapore (Private) Ltd (PCS) have
also signed a MoU for the long-term supply, via pipeline, of butadiene from PCS
to LANXESS and raffinate II from LANXESS to PCS.

Butadiene is the raw material LANXESS needs to produce Nd-PBR and raffinate
II will be a product stream from LANXESS’ future butyl rubber plant in the
city-state.
-- BERNAMA