Rising demand for nylon has prompted Japan’s Ube Industries to raise capacity in Castellon, Spain, by 40,000 t/y.  The expansion will lift total production at subsidiary Ube Corporation Europe (UCE) to 70,000 t/y when it goes into operation in early February 2018, creating 50 new jobs.The Tokyo-headquartered chemical producer is also building a new compounding facility at the site, which will start up in August 2017. Investment costs in both plants were not revealed.

According to Ube, demand for nylon is growing as a replacement for polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) films used in packaging for food, toiletries and detergents. Ube already expanded nylon 6 capacity last year at Castellon by 10,000 t/y, as well as establishing a quick-response supply system for customers in Europe and North and South America.

The Castellon plant uses Ube’s proprietary technology to make various grades of medium- and high-viscosity nylons and copolymers for automotive applications, food packaging, manufacturing industrial monofilaments, fishing nets and engineering components, among others. Ube said it aims to grow continuously by expanding product applications and increasing high added-value products.

One of the world’s largest producers of nylon for engineering applications, Ube also makes nylon 6 resins in Japan and Thailand, where capacity is 53,000 t/y and 75,000 t/y, respectively.