United States. PPG Industries announced that it is increasing precipitated silica production capacity at its Lake Charles, Louisiana, manufacturing plant by more than 10,000 tons per year, in response to growing demand.
The decongestion projects in Lake Charles are based on an increase of 22,000 tons per year of capacity that began operating in mid-2014 and the phase of decongestion projects began operating in 2012.
In February 2015, PPG announced to expand precipitated silica production at its plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands, designed in part to meet the growing demand from tire manufacturers globally for Agilon® performance silica. The expansion in Delfzijl maintains the planned schedule to become operational in mid-2016.
In addition to these expansions, PPG is also evaluating additional silica expansion projects in Europe and North America based on growing demand.
"PPG remains committed to the precipitated silica market, and this investment will enable us to meet the growing demand for our products among key strategic customers and target segments in the Americas," said Anup Jain, vice president of PPG, coatings and specialty materials. Jain said PPG would achieve the 10,000-tonne increase in capacity per year through the decongestion of projects already underway and expects to start operating in the second half of 2016.
