DuPont Asahi Kasei sign agreement to build resin plant in China

The joint venture will have an initial production capacity of 20,000 tons per year, and it is planned to have successive increases up to 60,000 tons per year. The facility will be located in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province in China, and is scheduled to start-up by spring 2004.

The new facility will help meet the growing demand for POM in China. The current market size is estimated at over 100,000 tons per year. China will remain the world's fastest-growing POM market and this capacity is critical for both DuPont Engineering Polymers' and Asahi Kasei performance plastics' continued success.

This 50/50 partnership between DuPont and Asahi Kasei combines the technological and marketing expertise of the two partners. The cooperation will supply products to meet the needs of the growing market. The joint venture will handle product marketing and distribution within China. However, the two partners will continue to use their own established networks to compound the polymer and market products outside China.

DuPont, a major global supplier of POM homopolymer resins with superior physical properties and high "value in use" in many applications, will continue its focus in all existing market segments. The addition of acetal copolymer resins from this joint venture will complement the DuPont POM homopolymer resins offering.