Rhodia inaugurates a new state-of-the-art engineering plastics plant in Onsan

Paris, Seoul, April 23, 2003 -- Rhodia, a world leader in polyamide, inaugurated today a new Engineering Plastics unit in its Onsan site (South Korea) in presence of major customers. This investment falls in line with Rhodia’s strategy to focus on key markets and permits Rhodia Engineering Plastics to reinforce its already strong commitment to the Korean and Asian markets.

Strategically located close to Busan on the eastern coast of South Korea, this new plant enables Rhodia Engineering Plastics to better serve the Korean market and creates an ideal base to further penetrate the Japanese market. The state-of-the-art Engineering Plastics plant is housed in the Rhodia Polyamide Asian upstream site, the largest adipic acid plant in Asia. Onsan thus becomes an integrated platform for Rhodia’s polyamide activities, allowing Rhodia Engineering Plastics Korea to secure its own raw materials source and optimize its logistics.

The capital expenditure of approximately 20 billion Won (US$ 16 million) will lead to a 20% capacity increase. The new Engineering Plastics plant is reflecting the latest technological advances such as new Mega compounding processes, a completely automated feeding system, a new automated packaging system, which will benefit Korean and Asian customers with improved product quality, services and competitiveness.

Jean-Claude Steinmetz, President of Rhodia Engineering Plastics, commented: “This investment will allow Rhodia Engineering Plastics to substantially increase its product offering in the Asian market. By combining state-of-the art technologies and increased production capabilities, we will be able to provide customers with a greater range of engineering plastics”. This state-of-the art plant will have the expertise to produce products based on PA6, PA6.6, Technyl Star™, and all major themoplastics.

Jean-Claude Steinmetz adds: “This new plant is a strong illustration of our logic to fulfil our customer major needs concerning best in class processes, product quality, innovation and globalisation which allow us to build strong partnerships on a long haul.”

Light and ideal for making complex and high-performance parts, polyamide engineering plastics are increasingly replacing steel and aluminium, offering greater opportunities for the future. They are highly valuable particularly for parts that must stand high temperatures, corrosive environment, strong mechanical constraints or meet aesthetic requirements. They are used in specific segments such as under-the-hood applications and body components in the automotive sector; low or high voltage distribution, domestic appliances or connectors in the electric and electronics fields; machine components, power tools or sports equipment in the consumer and industrial goods.

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