On September 18, Clariant announced that it has laid the foundation for its catalyst production base in the Dushan Port Economic Development Zone, Pinghu, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. The construction of the project will start in the third quarter of 2020, and it is expected to start full production by 2022.
The total investment of the project is US$83.26 million, of which the total investment of the first phase is RMB597.46 million. Newly built main process production plants, warehouses, tank farms and other supporting facilities will form an annual production capacity of 4800 tons of Catofin catalyst.
This is Clariant’s third catalyst plant in China. The other two existing production bases include a joint venture plant with North Huajin Group in Panjin, and Clariant’s wholly-owned plant in Jinshan, Shanghai.
The Jiaxing plant will mainly produce CATOFIN catalysts for the propane dehydrogenation (PDH) process. Clariant currently has a CATOFIN catalyst plant with the same capacity in the United States.
CATOFIN is an efficient and stable catalyst for proprietary propylene production, which can be used to prepare propylene, isobutylene and other olefin products.
China is one of the main producers of proprietary propylene in the world, with its output accounting for about 50% of the world's total output, and is expected to continue to grow at an annual rate of 8%. Therefore, the first phase of the construction of the new plant will focus on the production of CATOFIN™ catalysts to meet the needs of the Chinese propane dehydrogenation market.
