Specialty chemicals company LANXESS is investing EUR 17 million in the expansion of its production capacities for polychloroprene solid rubber. The expansion at the Dormagen site is scheduled for completion by the end of 2012 and will increase production by 10 percent to 63,000 metric tons per year.

LANXESS produces and markets polychloroprene solid rubber under the brand name Baypren. Uses for this product range include the production of cable sheathing, hoses, belts, seals and air springs.

The expansion work will also see the implementation of a new production technology that will enable LANXESS to operate more energy and resource efficiently and thus more ecologically.

“This innovation allows us to further strengthen our position in the market for polychloroprene solid rubber,” said Günther Weymans, head of the Technical Rubber Products (TRP) business unit at LANXESS.

The demand for this type of rubber is currently growing globally at an annual rate of roughly three percent. Availability of the elastomer has been limited in the face of this growing demand.

The Technical Rubber Products business unit, to whose product portfolio Baypren belongs, is part of the Performance Polymers segment, which generated sales of EUR 3.78 billion in 2010.