Germany's Wacker Chemie is expanding its vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions production facilities by 85,000 t/y at its Calvert City, Kentucky site in the US. The additional capacity is expected to be in the market in the second half of this year.

The €50 million investment by the Munich-based chemical company, including a new reactor scheduled to come on stream in mid-2015 and infrastructure improvements, will make the complex the largest of its kind in the Americas, Wacker said.

The additional annual capacity will be used for applications in the paints and coatings, adhesives, construction, paper, carpet and nonwoven industries.

Wacker has also added an ethylene pipeline to the Calvert City facility to increase the long-term reliability of raw material supply at the site.

"This investment in our continuous raw-material supply is an important step. It not only makes a key contribution to supply security in the years to come, but also to the cost-efficient production of our dispersions," said John Fotheringham, vice president of Dispersions.

"Capacity expansion is essential if we are to meet our customers' demand for our dispersions over the coming years," said Wacker CEO Rudolf Staudigl. "After extending our dispersions capacities at our sites in South Korea and China in the course of the last two years, we have now pushed ahead with expanding our production in the US."