France’s Arkema is set to build a polyamide 11 (PA11) plant at its site in Changshu, China in order to fulfil the growing demand for advanced bio-circular materials in Asia. The plant will be starting in the first quarter of 2023.

Arkema revealed that the company will be producing Rislan polyamide 11 powders which are made from renewable castor beans. The polyamide 11 powder is used in engineering plastics which have applications in consumer goods, industrial, and aerospace industries.

The location of the plant will be between the industrial cities of Shanghai and Nanjing. The overall cost of the plant will be around euros 450 million. This investment of Arkema is aimed at expanding polyamide 11 production in Asia.

The current plant goes parallelly to another project of Arkema which includes a PA 11 plant in Singapore which will be commencing production in 2022. The proposed expansions will increase the production capacity of Arkema’s PA 11 product by 50% which is centred in France at present.

Polyamide 11 is a biodegradable plastic produced by the polymerization of 11-aminoundecanoic acid. It has application in healthcare, aerospace, automotive, electronics, and others. The major market for PA 11 is the 3D printing market as it has major application in 3D printing. The global demand for PA 11 stood at around 2 million tonnes in 2020 and is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR of around 8% in the upcoming years.

As per ChemAnalyst, “the upcoming plant of Arkema is expected to increase the supply of polyamide 11 in the Asian markets. This is expected to lower the pressure on the prices of polyamide 11 in Asia. As PA 11 is a biobased engineering plastic, its demand is poised to grow at a healthy rate during the upcoming years due to the increasing demand of sustainable chemicals solutions.”