WACKER starts production at China´s largest dispersible polymer powder plant in Nanjing

Munich / Nanjing, Today, WACKER, the Munich-based chemical group, officially opened its new dispersible powder and vinyl acetate ethylene dispersion plant in Nanjing, China. With an annual capacity of 30,000 metric tons of dispersible powder, the Nanjing plant is the largest of its kind in China. The aim of this investment project is to secure sufficient long-term VINNAPAS® polymer-powder capacity and to guarantee Asia-Pacific customers consistently high delivery reliability and product quality in the future, too. WACKER ranks among the world’s largest producers of dispersible polymer powders for the construction industry.

Located in the Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park, the new WACKER Nanjing site covers an area of 100,000 square meters. First phase investment of this fully integrated world-class production complex which serves the entire product line from vinyl acetate ethylene dispersions to dispersible powders is over 50 million euros. WACKER already has a staff of nearly 100 employees at its Nanjing facility. Along with WACKER’s dryer plant in Burghausen, Germany, the Nanjing plant is the largest of its kind in the world.
WACKER has been producing polymer powders and dispersions for the construction industry for more than 50 years. VINNAPAS® polymer powders are thermoplastic, plasticizer-free polymers derived primarily from vinyl acetate and ethylene. It was in 1957 that WACKER chemists first succeeded in industrially manufacturing the first powder binder as an additive for dry-mortar mixes. Today, WACKER POLYMERS is a global market and technology leader in the field of vinyl acetate-based copolymers and terpolymers.

China’s growing demand for VINNAPAS® dispersible polymer powders is chiefly due to the need for dependable, lightweight and energy-efficient building materials. Increasingly, Chinese houses are being lined with exterior insulation and finish systems (EIFS). VINNAPAS® is a major component of the specialty mortars used in these systems. The dispersible polymer powder ensures that the individual layers which make up such systems are bonded together permanently.

“A secure and high quality supply of polymer powders is essential for the further development of China’s fast growing construction industry and for China’s tremendous efforts to save energy”, explained Auguste Willems, Member of Wacker Chemie AG’s Executive Board. “This new site will not only provide a reliable supply chain backbone for WACKER POLYMERS in China over the next years with an increasingly competitive cost position and flexibility to better meet the local market demands. It will also enable us to provide our customers with first-class locally manufactured products and solutions, helping them to address the needs of their respective customers even better than in the past”, Willems said.

In addition to EIFS, the dispersible polymer powders can be used in diverse building applications such as tile adhesives, self-leveling flooring compounds, plasters, repair mortars, water-proofing cementitious sealing slurries. They enhance important properties in the end product, such as adhesion, cohesion, flexibility and flexural strength. Water retention, processing properties and weatherability also benefit from VINNAPAS®. In China, from the Disney Land in Hong Kong to Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou, from the National Stadium in Beijing to Yincheng Dong Yuan Residential building in Nanjing, VINNAPAS® dispersible polymer powders are widely used in modern architectures.