Eka Chemicals, Akzo Nobel’s Pulp and
paper chemicals business unit, has decided to build a new processing plant for production of silicate
products in the Village of Howard, Green Bay, WI, in the U.S. The plant will primarily support the growing demand for Eka Chemicals’ performance chemicals for the paper industry.
Eka Chemicals will invest USD 13 million (EUR 14.6 million) in the production unit, with start up scheduled in mid 2002.
Jan Svärd, President of Eka Chemicals, said: “Eka Chemicals continues to develop a broader range of performance chemicals for the paper industry with a special emphasis on a new program, Compozil Select,
for the retention field.
The planned unit is the latest in a series of investments which Eka is making in different markets, including Asia, to enable us to serve our strategic customers in the pulp and paper industry on a global basis.”
Byron Smith, Eka´s General Manager Paper Chemicals, said: “This plant will allow us to meet the demand from our Mid-West customers and completes our coverage of the important pulp and paper industry
regions in North America, putting colloidal silica capacity close to our customers.”
Compozil is a leading paper chemicals system for retention and drainage, based on inorganic
nanoparticles and Eka proprietary
polymers. Today, more than 300 paper machines around the world use the
system.
In addition to paper chemicals there will also be production lines for colloidal silica products for other applications, for example in the electronic and
food industries.
The plant will initially employ 10 to 15 people.
Pulp & Paper Chemicals, operating under the name Eka Chemicals, is a business unit of Akzo Nobel. It is headquartered in Bohus,
Sweden and employs 3,080 employees in thirty countries.
Eka Chemicals is a leading supplier of bleaching chemicals, paper chemicals and systems to the pulp and paper industry, as well as certain
specialty chemicals to the pharmaceutical, electronic and water
treatment industries.