Through the company’s global effort to increase the availability of nylon 6,6 engineering polymers, INVISTA signed an exclusive, long-term agreement with Petrochemical Conversion Company Ltd. (PCC) to purchase and market nylon 6,6 engineering resin for export from PCC’s new world-scale nylon 6,6 plant in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The new facility—expected to start up in late 2013 or early 2014—will produce up to 50,000 metric tons per year of nylon 6,6 polymer through a continuous polymerization process. Other than PCC sales in Saudi Arabia, the product will be sold and marketed under INVISTA’s TORZEN® engineering polymers brand.
“As the automotive, electrical and other industries continue to discover the benefits of nylon 6,6 engineering polymers, we expect demand will continue to grow,” said Kurt Burmeister, executive vice president, INVISTA Engineering Polymers. “Compounders and consumers all over the world—including China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Turkey—rely on high quality nylon 6,6 polymers to produce innovative end products. This deal with PCC will help provide compounders the necessary polymer to keep their businesses growing and thriving.”
The PCC agreement is INVISTA’s second recent announcement that reiterates and extends its commitment to supplying nylon 6,6 polymer to markets in Asia, Europe and around the world.
On May 15, INVISTA announced that it signed a Land Reservation Agreement for a nylon 6,6 polymer site at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP), in Shanghai, China. The SCIP agreement is for additional land adjacent to INVISTA’s planned hexamethylene diamine (HMD) and adiponitrile (ADN) plants, and marks INVISTA’s next step as it continues to make progress on plans for an integrated nylon 6,6 polymer facility in China.
INVISTA's nylon 6,6 products are used in fiber applications such as apparel and industrial textiles, as well as in engineering polymer applications in automotive, electrical, industrial and consumer markets. Known for its strength at high temperature, impact, chemical and abrasion resistance, nylon 6,6 offers significant advantages in many applications over other materials.