Project Profile
Value: US$575 million
Location: Jurong Island, Singapore
Area: 200,000m² area of land
Production: 100,000t per year
Length: 40km
Start-up Year: 1Q 2014
On 18 January 2010, LANXESS announced the plans of constructing a butyl rubber plant on Jurong Island, Singapore. The plant will have a capacity of 100,000t per year and will produce regular butyl and halobutyl rubbers. Construction of the plant commenced in June 2010 with production to begin in the first quarter of 2013. The project is expected to cost €400m (US$575m). Halobutyl rubber provides comfortable and fuel-efficient automotive transportation. Its applications include tyre inner liners and inner tubes of trucks, buses, cars and aeroplane tyres. The regular butyl is used for inner tubes of tyres and sports balls. The rubber is also used for special applications such as protective clothing, curing bladders, body mounts and sound damping, adhesives and sealants, and pharmaceutical stoppers. In addition, butyl rubber has a niche market in the chewing gum industry.
In June 2008 LANXESS awarded a contract to Jacobs Engineering for providing pre-project planning, the plant\'s design and front-end loading services to the butyl rubber manufacturing facility. The front-end loading phase was completed in 2010. In 2009 LANXESS collaborated with the University of Bonn, the Technical University of Dortmund, Bayer Technology Services and special technology equipment manufacturer Buss-SMS-Canzler to develop an advanced technology for synthetic rubber production. The technology will be developed in three years and implemented in the rubber manufacturing process at the butyl rubber facility in Singapore. The investment for the development of the technology will be funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The technology is expected to be environmentally friendly and more energy-efficient than traditional processes. It will also be used for the production of other synthetic rubbers, including polybutadiene products. Foster Wheeler is also the EPCm contractor of the project.
In 2009, LANXESS delayed the plant\'s construction until 2014 due to unpredictable customer ordering in the economic downturn. The demand, however, has stabilised and the butyl rubber market is expected to grow by about 3% annually across the world due to an increase in vehicle production and growth in the pharmaceutical industry. LANXESS had therefore decided to go ahead and started the plant construction in 2010. Halobutyl and butyl rubbers have a good market in south-east Asian regions where around 50% of the company\'s production is supplied to China, India and South Korea. The main office of the butyl rubber business unit of LANXESS will be moved to Singapore from Fribourg, Switzerland, in order to meet the demand in Asia.
Operator:
LANXESS: Operator with 100% interest
Contractors:
Foster Wheeler: EPCm contract
Jacobs Engineering: Pre-project planning, the plant\'s design and front-end loading services to the butyl rubber manufacturing facility
Buss-SMS-Canzler: Developer of an advanced technology for synthetic rubber production
Bayer Technology Services: Developer of an advanced technology for synthetic rubber production