Ticona, the engineering polymers business of Celanese
Corp., announced it will nearly double production at its Celstran long fiber
reinforced thermoplastic (LFRT) manufacturing unit in Nanjing, China.

The Celstran LFRT manufacturing unit, part of the Celanese Nanjing Integrated Chemical
Complex that is the company’s largest integrated chemical plant in China, came online
in 2008 with an initial nameplate capacity of 5,000 metric tons per year. Ticona
expects to nearly double the manufacturing unit’s annual capacity by the end of
the fourth quarter this year.

“Based on the
success of the first line in Nanjing,
Ticona is ramping up production to meet the continued demand of this product by
our global customers,” said Michael Harding, global business line director LFRT. “With Celstran LFRT plants in strategic locations in the United States, Germany,
and China,
Ticona is the only truly global supplier with the capacity to support customers
worldwide.”

Celstran LFRT
is an engineering thermoplastic that can be tailored to
provide application-specific combinations of mechanical properties, impact and
creep resistance, and low warpage. It is a suitable material for a variety of
automotive applications, such as instrument panels that require large, strong,
lightweight components or assemblies.

Celstran LFRT is
produced by pultrusion technology, a process in which the long
fibers are fully impregnated to deliver optimal reinforcement to the base plastic
resin matrix, which can include polypropylene, nylon, and polyurethane.

Ticona, www.ticona.com