At its Dormagen site, Covestro has started building additional production lines for high-quality polycarbonate films.
Image: Groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of Covestro’s film production in Dormagen. Photo: courtesy of Covestro AG.
The new coextrusion lines are scheduled for completion by the end of 2020 and will cover the increasing demand. According to current planning, more than 50 new jobs will be created.
“With this capacity expansion, we are strengthening the Dormagen site as a competence center for specialty films,” said Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Covestro’s Board Member for Production and Technology, at the laying of the cornerstone. “At the same time, we are investing in promising technologies and applications.” The high-quality semi-finished products are used, among other things, in cars, in medical products and in security cards.
Michael Friede, global head of the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment at Covestro, commented: “This investment underscores our strategic focus on such growth businesses. At the same time, the worldwide capacity increases are an expression of our proximity to customers and our increased efficiency in the major regions.”
Latest technology
Covestro is equipping the production lines with the latest technology. “We want to remain the partner of choice for our customers and in the future we will be able to supply them faster and with higher quality,” explained Dr. Thorsten Dreier, global head of Covestro’s film business. “Together with other facilities at our competence center in Dormagen, they facilitate even better development work. We are currently working on many projects that are expected to be brought to market maturity even faster with the new plants.”
The new lines are designed for the production of multi-layer flat films. These products, for example, play an important role in identity documents in order to embed security features and ensure the best possible protection against counterfeiting. They are also used in car interiors.
The competence center in Dormagen, which specializes in polycarbonate flat films, houses production, a technical center for film processing, a showroom and research laboratories. The other two German competence centers are located in Leverkusen and Bomlitz and specialize in film coating and thermoplastic elastomer films.
Global capacity expansion
The investment is part of a global capacity expansion announced last year to meet the growing demand in all regions and strengthen Covestro’s position in the film market. The planned total investment of more than 100 million euros also includes an expansion of the associated infrastructure and logistics in order to shorten delivery times. A total of more than 100 new jobs are to be created worldwide.
Another new production line is currently under construction in Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, Thailand, while the conversion of the coextrusion line in Guangzhou, China, is progressing and the first products are being delivered to customers. There, too, new film capacities will be subsequently built up. Film production in South Deerfield, USA, has now been expanded and converted to around-the-clock operation. This created 30 new jobs.
Source: Company Press Release