LANXESS, the world's largest manufacturer of synthetic rubber, today announced the key suppliers for its new butyl rubber plant on Jurong Island in Singapore. With these suppliers in place, the project execution phase is now in full swing to set up the infrastructure for the construction of the plant. Production is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2013 and the plant represents an investment of up to EUR 400 million for LANXESS.

LANXESS has finalized contracts with Sembcorp Industries Ltd, TP Utilities Pte Ltd (a wholly-owned unit of Tuas Power Ltd), Foster Wheeler Asia Pacific Pte Ltd and Stolthaven Singapore Pte Ltd. Previously, LANXESS has signed an agreement with Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd to supply Raffinate 1 – a product created through butadiene extraction – by pipeline from neighboring Bukom Island, which is part of the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex.

“LANXESS has a global sourcing strategy, which is characterized by an extremely competitive bidding process that is both fair and open,” said Dr. Ron Commander, Global Head of LANXESS’ Butyl Rubber business unit. ”This underlines our commitment not only to best-in-class manufacturing, but also to uphold the highest level of integrity in our relationship with supply-chain partners.”

For utility services, LANXESS has selected Singaporean companies Sembcorp and TP Utilities. Sembcorp will treat process wastewater from LANXESS’ butyl rubber plant. TP Utilities will provide steam, high-grade industrial water and demineralised water to the plant.

The contract for engineering, procurement services and construction management (EPCm), was awarded to Foster Wheeler, which has operations in Singapore for more than 30 years and is headquartered in Switzerland. In addition, Stolthaven Singapore, a subsidiary of the Norwegian listed company Stolt-Nielsen Group S.A., will provide LANXESS with a pipeline as well as intermediate storage for chemicals and liquefied petroleum gasses, such as Raffinate-1, Raffinate-2 and isobutylene. The storage facility will be housed in a new storage terminal, which is expected to be ready by the third quarter of 2011.