(ICIS) -- Lanxess is planning to build the world's largest neodymium polybutadiene rubber plant in Singapore, the German specialty chemicals maker said on Wednesday. The 140 KTa plant will be built at a cost of EUR 200m (USD 290m) on Jurong Island, next to Lanxess' new 100 KTa butyl rubber plant, which is currently under construction and is scheduled to come on stream in the first quarter of 2013, the firm said in a statement.
Neodymium polybutadiene rubber is part of a tyre's compound and reduces energy consumption more efficiently than many other tyre rubbers, according to the statement.
Construction of the 100 KTa butyl rubber plant is progressing according to schedule, it said. The new neodymium polybutadiene rubber plant is expected to start up in the first half of 2015, the statement added.
Lanxess has signed an agreement with the Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) on the long-term supply of butadiene feedstock via pipeline. Butadiene is the key raw material for the production of neodymium polybutadiene rubber.