German firm Lanxess to build ion exchange facility

German firm Lanxess Corporation is planning to build its new ion exchange resin plant in Gujarat. Construction on the Euro 30 million site at the new Jhagadia Chemical Park near Vadodara is set to begin in the second quarter of 2008.

In terms of investment volume this is the biggest project undertaken by Lanxess's Ion Exchange Resins business unit since the end of the 1990s.

Production is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2010, with 200 new employees being taken on.

"This represents a commitment to one of the fastest growing and most future-proof areas of industrial chemistry. The objective is to generate a profitable growth and further strengthen our leading position on the global market," said Rainier van Roessel, member of the Lanxess management board.

The new plant will manufacture products for industrial water treatment and generation of ultra-pure water for semi-conductor and pharmaceutical industries. The portfolio will comprise a selection of the ion exchanger grades in Ion Exchange Resins business unit's present product range such as anions, cations and mixed bed.

In March of this year, Lanxess launched an international competition participated by China, India and Singapore. Officials say the Jhagadia Chemical Park in Gujarat was selected because it already had a quality industrial infrastructure in place.

The Ion Exchange Resins business unit belongs to the performance chemicals segment, which achieved total sales in 2006 of Euro 1,812 million. A release issued by the company states that the Asia-Pacific region is of crucial significance for Lanxess.

With sales increasing to Euro 1.23 billion, Asia accounted for nearly 18 per cent of the group's sales in 2006.

The Leverkusen-based chemicals group has inaugurated five new plants in China as part of the "Lanxess Goes Asia" strategy launched in April 2006. The company also plans to hire up to 1,000 new employees in Asia by 2009.