INVISTA which is a major Chinese player in Nylon 6,6 announced on Wednesday that the company was doubling its capacity for Nylon 6,6 polymer at the Shanghai chemical industry park (SCIP). The company signed a memorandum of cooperation with SCIP for the proposed capacity expansion. 

The company underwent capacity expansion of 40,000 tonnes per year earlier in 2020. Now with the investment of USD 230 million, the company is planning to double the existing production capacity to 400,000 tonnes per year in order to strengthen the company’s value chain in China and to respond more quickly to the growing demand for engineering plastics in electrical, automotive, electronics, and other application areas. 

Nylon 6,6 demand has been experiencing decent growth both globally as well as in China with a growth rate of 3% globally and 4% in China. China’s demand for Nylon products is expected to account for around half of the total production and consumption in the Asia Pacific region. 

The new production facility will be located at SCIP. The expanded production line will contain six batch autoclaves and three continuous polymerization assemblies. 

Nylon 6,6 is a high end engineering material. There are various segments of nylon market including engineering polymer, industrial, and apparel. The polymer is known for its high mechanical strength, temperature resistance, and chemical resistance. 

As per ChemAnalyst, “the growing Nylon 6,6 polymer demand in China and the Asia Pacific region has encouraged INVISTA to invest in the polymer in the past as well. The proposed investment will be catering to the growing demand in both China as well as the Asia Pacific region.”