Chemical manufacturer Oxea today announced that it has once again expanded its production capacity for carboxylic acids within only a very short period of time. The company successfully increased the production performance of the carboxylic acid plant in Marl, Germany, beyond target by 20 percent. Already the market leader with the most comprehensive portfolio worldwide, Oxea now serves the continuously rising global demand for carboxylic acids with this increased capacity. Carboxylic acids can be used for manufacturing energy-efficient lubricant esters for environmentally friendly refrigeration units such as air conditioners and refrigerators or specialty plasticizers, among others. Oxea currently operates four production plants for carboxylic acids world-wide and additionally plans to bring on-stream another new, state-of-the-art carboxylic acid plant in Oberhausen, Germany, at the end of 2012.
“At Oxea, we have firmly anchored the Six Sigma methodology in our corporate strategy. Together with additional continuous improvement processes within the company, this enabled us to raise capacity in Marl by 20 percent. That is twice as much as we originally planned. However, this expansion is just one of many steps that will ultimately result in a significant increase of Oxea’s global carboxylic acid capacities by the end of 2012,” said Dr. Martina Flöel, spokesperson for the Oxea Executive Board, who is also responsible for production and technology. “We are currently building a new, state-of-the-art carboxylic acid plant in Oberhausen, which is scheduled to go on-stream at the end of 2012. In addition, we are upgrading our existing Carboxylic Acid Plant 2 and Carboxylic Acid Plant 1 accordingly. This work will be completed even before the new third plant in Oberhausen is commissioned. These comprehensive investments reflect the speedy and reliable implementation of our strategy to expand into oxo derivatives and attractive growth markets,” Flöel continued.
“With this capacity expansion at the Marl site, we are once again increasing our capabilities as the global market leader for carboxylic acids,” said Miguel Mantas, responsible for marketing and sales on Oxea’s Executive Board. “Carboxylic acids offer great development potential for Oxea. Due to a large number of new applications in various branches of industry, global demand is rising significantly.” As the leading manufacturer with the most comprehensive portfolio of carboxylic acids, we will further increase our supply capacity, improve our flexibility and enhance our ability to support the growth of our customers with this expansion,” Mantas added.
Oxea is a global manufacturer of oxo intermediates and oxo derivatives, such as alcohols, polyols, carboxylic acids, specialty esters, and amines. These products are used for the production of high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, flavorings and fragrances, printing inks and plastics. In 2011, Oxea generated revenue of about EUR 1.5 billion with its 1,365 employees in Europe, the Americas and Asia. For more information visit www.oxea-chemicals.com.