LANXESS selects Gujarat for its new ion exchange facility

Attracted by India's pharma growth story, European majors in allied industries are choosing to base their manufacturing facilities in India. Viveka Roychowdhury details the strategy of one player, the Germany-based LANXESS.

Dr. Joerg Strassburger, Managing Director and Country Speaker, LANXESS India

Generation of ultra-pure water is of utmost importance to the pharma industry and as the industry grows, so will the need for systems which deliver ultra-pure water. Many European suppliers in the allied industry are therefore strategizing to tap this market. The latest to announce sizable investments in India is the Germany-based LANXESS, which is building a new ion exchange facility in Gujarat.

Construction work on the EUR 30 million site at the new Jhagadia Chemical Park near Vadodara, Gujarat is set to begin in the second quarter of 2008. Production is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2010, with 200 new employees being taken on.

In terms of investment volume, this is the biggest project undertaken by LANXESS's Ion Exchange Resins business unit since the end of the 1990s. "This represents a commitment to one of the fastest growing and most future-proof areas of industrial chemistry. The aim of this move is to generate profitable growth and further strengthen our leading position on the global market," explains Rainier van Roessel, the member of the LANXESS Management Board responsible. The Ion Exchange Resins business unit belongs to the Performance Chemicals segment, which achieved total sales in 2006 of EUR 1,812 million.

Asia focus

The Asia-Pacific region is of crucial significance for LANXESS. With sales increasing to EUR 1.23 billion, Asia accounted for nearly 18 percent of the Group's sales in 2006. Driving this growth are the Chinese and Indian markets, where double-digit increases in sales were recorded. The Leverkusen-based chemicals group has also inaugurated five new plants in China as part of the "LANXESS goes Asia" strategy launched in April 2006. The company also plans to hire up to 1,000 new employees in Asia by 2009, according to a company release.

The new plant at Vadodara will manufacture products for industrial water treatment and the generation of ultra-pure water for the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries.

The portfolio will comprise a selection of the ion exchanger grades in Ion Exchange Resins business unit's current product range such as anions, cations and mixed bed.

Why did LANXESS decide on Gujarat as the base of this operation? The Jhagadia Chemical Park in India was selected because it already has an excellent industrial infrastructure in place. What makes the choice even more noteworthy is the fact that it won the project in an international competition launched by LANXESS in March this year, in which sites in China and Singapore were also considered.

Dr. Joerg Strassburger, Managing Director and Country Speaker, LANXESS India states, "It is a matter of deep pride to us that India has been chosen as the location for this important project which will serve as a landmark for further investments in India."

“Ion Exchange Resins in general can be used in processes like de-mineralized water, softening of water, condensate polishing for generation of pure water in various industries like power, nuclear, fertilizers, refineries, heavy chemical industries, beverage, textiles, semi-conductor, potable water and invariably in all segments that require water,” informs Dr Strassburger.

“In effluent treatment, it can be used to remove heavy metals and specific ion removal like copper, nickel, zinc, arsenic, chromium and so on from effluents / process streams,” he adds.

Specific applications of ion exchange resins to the pharma industry include, “recovery of vitamin B 12, peptide purification, enzyme carrier, colour removal and cephalosphorin separation,” according to Dr Strassburger.

viveka.r@expressindia.com