Construction of Pyrogenic silica plant enters second phrase

Wacker Chemie AG, a global chemical company headquartered in Munich, Germany and Dow Corning Corporation, a performance enhancing solutions provider, officially started the construction of the second phase of their pyrogenic silica plant in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, China. A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday (October 21) to celebrate this important investment.

The pyrogenic silica plant, together with a siloxane plant, is a key facility of an integrated silicone manufacturing site developed by both companies at Jiangsu Yangtze River Chemical Industrial Park in Zhangjiagang to produce materials used extensively in industries including construction, beauty and personal care, power and automotives. Covering an area of one million square meters, the site is China's largest facility of the kind and among the world's largest and most advanced integrated production complexes for silicones.

The overall nameplate capacity for both siloxane and pyrogenic silica, including the second phase silica plant, is expected to be approximately 210,000 metric tons per year. Investments from both partners for the new pyrogenic silica production plant will amount to a mid double-digit million euros sum.

Pyrogenic silica is a nano-structured specialty chemical. It can be used as an active filler in silicone elastomers, a viscosity-adjusting agent in coatings, printing inks, adhesives, unsaturated polyester resins and plastisols or as a flow aid, for example in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food-processing industries.

Both companies also own and manufacturing plants for finished silicone products at the Zhangjiagang site. Marketing and sales are undertaken independently by each company.