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Clariant continues Asian move

Clariant has announced the opening of its new regional headquarters for the South East Asia & Pacific region and the global headquarters of the Textile Chemicals business unit in Singapore

SINGAPORE-CHINA

Clariant has announced the opening both of its new regional headquarters for the South East Asia & Pacific region and of the global headquarters of the Textile Chemicals business unit, which are in the same office in Singapore. It has also inaugurated its new ethoxylation plant and application laboratory in China's Guangdong province, as Asia increasingly drives its commercial growth.

The new regional hub will be the first headquarters to be shared by Clariant and Süd-Chemie, whose acquisition has been almost completed. The process moved further in late November when a general meeting of Süd-Chemie shareholders approved the squeeze-out process for the 1.32% of the shares not yet owned by Clariant. This has now been entered into Germany's Commercial Register.

The Singapore hub will house about 200 employees. Clariant added that the acquisition of Süd-Chemie will add significantly to its own growth in the Asia-Pacific region, as Süd-Chemie had 31.5% of its sales in Asia and the Middle East in 2010 (€385 million) and had one third of its employees there, whereas Clariant itself had 22% of its sales in the Asia-Pacific region.

Clariant and its competitors in textiles are moving their operations to Singapore

The Textile Chemicals business unit, meanwhile, generated 43% of its 2010 sales of €664 million in Asia, a region which now accounts for 60% of global textile production. The entire Textile Chemicals management team is based there now that the relocation from Switzerland - a transition also made by Huntsman Textile Effects - is complete. A global textile application team, including a laboratory, is also present there.

The new ethoxylation plant covers 80,000 m² at Dayabay in the south-east of Guangdong province and has about 50,000 tonnes/year capacity for the manufacture of surfactants. It is part of the Industrial & Consumer Specialties business unit, representing the unit's largest plant in the Asia-Pacific, as well as being Clariant's first ethoxylation site in Asia. It also has an autoclave laboratory for rapid product development and customisation of products to local demands.

Symptomatic, perhaps, of the same trend, Clariant's Houston-based Oil & Mining Services has also opened a new office in Kuala Lumpur. This will serve as the headquarters of the business unit in the Asia-Pacific region and will double up as the head offices of Clariant Oil Services Malaysia.

 

From Online Issue: December 2011