Eval Europe To Double Evoh Resin Capacity In Belgium

Kuraray affiliate Eval Europe NV, Antwerp, Belgium, has started work to double capacity for ethylene-vinyl alcohol (evoh) copolymer resins to 24,000 tonnes/yr. Completion of the expansion is scheduled for the third quarter of 2004. Kuraray, Osaka, Japan, forecasts global demand for the gas-barrier resin to grow from 64,000 tonnes in 2002 to 110,000 tonnes in 2007. Currently, demand for evoh is divided 70/30 between food packaging and non-food applications, such as plastics fuel-tank barriers.

Kuraray also operates a 10,000-tonne/yr plant in Okayama, Japan, and it has 23,000 tonnes/yr of capacity at Eval Co. of America, Pasadena, tx. Nippon Gohsei, Kuraray’s only competitor in evoh, has 10,000 tonnes/yr of capacity in Japan, and 20,000 tonnes/yr at La Porte, tx. It will complete a 15,000-tonne/yr plant at Hull, England, by this fall, and test production by year-end.