Wacker Chemie AG on Friday said it is spending €20 million to expand its production capacities for silicone and polymer products in China. The projects are expected to be completed in the second half of 2018. 

This includes: expanding production capacities for silicone rubber manufacturing in Zhangjiagang and vinyl acetate-ethylene (VAE) copolymer dispersions in Nanjing.

The company’s Shanghai-based technical center will be expanded as well –  new R&D labs for silicone fluids and resins, pyrogenic silica and room-temperature-curing silicone elastomers – Wacker said. 

By building a new production line at the Zhangjiagang site, Wacker said the company will be able to add several thousand metric tons of solid silicone rubber capacity in the future.

At the Nanjing polymer site, process-engineering improvements for the manufacture of VAE dispersions will boost the annual production capacity by up to 30,000 metric tons, Wacker said.

“Greater China is one of our most important business regions. With annual sales of well over one billion Euro, it is WACKER’s largest single market and stands for one fourth of Group sales”, said CEO Rudolf Staudigl. 

“In recent years, WACKER has further strengthened its R&D cooperation with Chinese customers to develop sustainable products and solutions suitable for the Chinese market,” said President Paul Lindblad.

“The expansion of our R&D facilities will boost our innovation capability in the region”, Lindblad added. “Accordingly, our R&D staff will continue to grow by a double-digit percentage in the next few years.”