Milan, 9 October 2018 - Versalis, Eni’s chemical company, announces a mid-to-long term plan to refocus its capacity in the styrenic polymers business at its Mantua plant towards more differentiated, high added value products specifically designed to feed the automotive, furniture and durable goods industries.
In this view, continuous mass ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene resins) have been identified as one of the key products to be worth investing upon, in order to meet a rising customer demand. The investment, which will increase the capacity of the existing continuous mass ABS unit by 30 kt/y, is currently in the engineering phase, with the new capacity being planned to go onstream 2020.
Moreover, in October 2017 a pilot plant was started up to validate an innovative ABS proprietary technology, registered under the trademark One Step®, with the aim of scaling it up to a 70 thousand tons unit. The plant will enable to develop further the ABS specialty grades portfolio and access new application markets
.The Mantua site is strategically important within the Versalis production system: with the company’s most important R&D center and the phenol production cycle, it is the center of production of styrene and provides most of the wide-ranging styrenic polymers portfolio with the production of Edistir® PST (Crystal and High Impact Polystyrene resins), Sinkral® ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene resins), Kostil® SAN (Styrene Acrylonitrile resins) and Extir® EPS (Expandable Polistyrene resins), the latter by suspension and continuous mass technology.
The Versalis Styrenic polymers business finds its strategic accomplishment with Hungarian productions at Százhalombatta, where the subsidiary company Dunastyr makes sure to meet the Eastern Europe growing demand of household appliances and thermal insulation in the building sector.
