LANXESS AII business unit completes three-year investment plan in the aromatics network

Thane: The production of aromatic intermediates is a core competency of specialty chemicals company LANXESS, as demonstrated by a recently completed, three-year investment program totaling over EUR 20 million aimed at expanding the company's aromatics network. The comprehensive modernization project focused mainly on facilities that manufacture nitrotoluenes, chlorobenzenes, and their downstream products.

Since 2013, LANXESS has modernized several production plants in the aromatics network operated by the Advanced Industrial Intermediates (AII) business unit at the German locations. Since the introduction of state-of-the-art automation systems, LANXESS also tapped into considerable capacity reserves, for example for nitrotoluene derivatives. At the same time the safety equipment was updated and significantly improved once again.

“The new automation systems, combined with the knowledge and experience of the specialists working on implementation, have not only brought the plants up to the latest standard, but also to a new level of efficiency,” emphasizes Dr. Torsten Hauschild, head of the Aromatics Network at AII.

Developed over decades, the LANXESS aromatics network is a complexly networked structure encompassing seven large production plants that manufacture over 60 synthesis components from petrochemical raw materials. Its name comes from the products themselves: aromatic compounds, mostly derivatives of benzene and toluene, of which chlorobenzenes, nitrotoluenes and their downstream products are among the most important. They are used by numerous industries to generate a wide range of final products. ,

Commenting on the investments, Mr. Neelanjan Banerjee, Senior Vice President – BU AII and Senior Executive Director, LANXESS India said, “Our AII business unit in India, is an important supplier of chemical intermediates to a variety of end application segments in the domestic as well as overseas export markets. With these new investments in the Aromatics assets in Germany, the AII business unit will continue to maintain leadership positions in markets like India for nitrotoluenes, chlorobenzenes, and their downstream products.”

Advanced Industrial Intermediates business unit

The Advanced Industrial Intermediates business unit belongs to the Advanced Intermediates segment, which achieved total sales in fiscal 2014 of EUR 1.6 billion. Its production sites in Germany are located in Leverkusen, Krefeld, Dormagen and Brunsbüttel. The business unit has a total of 1,300 employees in Germany, 650 of them in Leverkusen.